Indie pop singer-songwriter Cha Wilde has released her latest album, Love & Freedom. The 8 track album, featuring previously released single “Rose Gold”. Her latest work introduces an element of Hip Hop in its percussion, blended with Wilde’s signature soft, emotional vocals, with a touch of world influence. Going into this winter, it’s an album of reflection.
In this interview, I chat with Cha Wilde about how this new project compares with the previous one, what audiences should take away, and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Congrats on the new album! What do you want audiences to take away from this?
I can’t control anyone’s reaction to my music. I have no idea what each person will receive when they listen to it. That’s the beauty of creating music for myself, for the purest pleasure. Honestly, I don’t really give too much thought to what the audience will take away from it all. I’m giving it purely to give it. I know some people will listen to my music and something precious will spark alive for them. I know some people will listen and they won’t understand it at all, they’ll even say it’s shit, poor technique, or too out there. I know some people will study it deeply, analyzing my every word and chord, analyzing it more intensely than I ever intended. Between the billions of us, these songs will find lovers and haters all around the world. Each song is like a little person, an individual energy, and it’s so happy to meet you. How will the two of you get along? What will you learn from each other? On this album, I’m singing about love and freedom. If you need guidance, listen to these songs in the wind. Walk with them on the beach, roll the windows of the car down and stick your hand out on the breeze, sit in front of a fan with your legs criss-crossed. Listen when you swim in the pool or float in the bath. Lay on your back in the grass and stare at the sky when you click play on this album. Be with the elements when you listen to me sing. This is how I created the music. This is where I find my answers. This is the path back to who we are. Listen to my album and let it take you back to what really matters to you. What really matters to me is being free to love all the elements of this earth, to feel them alive inside me and around me. We are all connected, liberated and alive because of these elements. Love the earth and love all the humans on it, including yourself. When we love unconditionally, we are free.
How does this EP compare with your last, Wilde & Browne?
This album is solo project and the previous release was a collaboration with my husband. Wilde and Browne was predominately guitar and vocals, very simple songs. Love and Freedom is a fun playground of electronic sounds. The previous release, the songs I wrote with my husband was more externally focused, exploring sexuality and romance, singing to each other and to other people. This new collection of songs I created on my own is exploring my inner experience of love and freedom. Of course, it’s all connected. What we’re experiencing on the inside is reflected on the outside and visa versa. I’m looking inward at the subtle shifts in sensation in my body as I move through different relationships.
You also practice yoga. Do you incorporate yoga into your music making, and if so, how?
Yoga touches everything. My yoga practice is the foundation of my wellbeing, sanity, clear mind, ability to feel deeply and live in power. Yoga is the state I’m in when I’m totally present and able to hear the songs singing in my heart. Without yoga, I am easily caught up in busy stressful thinking that cuts me off from my creativity and sensuality. I practice yoga, I study it, I live it and this keeps my deep spirit river flowing so the songs can float in effortlessly.
What is your favorite place you have traveled to? How does traveling inform your music?
Traveling is space. I get to be in my own energy, exploring how I feel in new environments. I love the sensation of being somewhere totally new. My senses are awake and alert. My mind starts speaking in poetry that I type on my phone as I walk down old streets and dig my feet into the sand. I take slow breaths in the warm tropical air and I can feel a rhythm in me that is bigger than just my heart. When I stay in one place for too long, I feel stagnant. Since I was a child, I’ve rearranged furniture regularly and enjoyed moving to new places. I’m hyper-sensitive to the environment around me and I feed off of it. I’m more comfortable moving to new places than staying in one place. This feeling of being on my toes, flowing around the world in new currents, makes me feel cutting edge on my musical explorations. I’m hearing new sounds, new instruments, seeing new artists performing at night markets. I walk by young boys playing guitar on the steps outside of a restaurant and I feel very grounded. When I’m traveling, I’m far away from the illusions of the American music industry that has often stressed me out and burdened me with expectations and striving energy. Out here, traveling with my heavy bags of painting supplies and my guitar in my hand, I feel much close to the earth and the simple life that humans are born into. As I’m traveling, I feel my heart song growing louder. I’m not creating to keep up with the industry or to impress people anymore. I’m remembering how to create for pure love of vibration in my chest. I’m learning how to play and improvise with my voice, speaking in made up languages and strumming simple strings. I’m meeting people who are using music as a tool in healing work, sound baths and meditations. I’m so curious now to venture to more hidden jungles and learn to play the ancient songs from indigenious people. I’m seeing visions of leading Kirtans on the beaches at sunset. I’m excited to integrate the music of the worlds I’m walking through into my own sounds and hear something new emerge from me to be shared with the people I love. I’m just curious now, very curious. I’m a sponge for sound. Each night before bed, I sit in the shower (no water running) with my little Asian guitar and I light a candle. I let any sounds that feel good pour out of me. Sometimes I hear new lyrics. Sometimes I’m chanting. Sometimes both. I’m dropping my consciousness deep into my torso all the way down to my bottom chakras, into my womb space. I’m imagining the energy of life, birth and creation flowing through my body until I’m in a trance and the sound is just coming through me and I’ve forgotten myself. This is when the music is just beautiful life and the medicine I need right now. If this is all I ever do, it is enough. If I perform again in the future and get to share this with other people that will be a beautiful blessing too.
