"I feel like there were personal events that happened right off the bat at the beginning of the year that put me in this sad, dark place. But also I was feeling a really big existential darkness". That was the state that Colombian-Canadian singer-songwriter and producer Tei Shi was in when she wrote the five songs on her new EP, "Die 4 Ur Love", during a week-long visit to Sonic Ranch outside of El Paso, Texas, back in January.
"I really feel like the essence of the EP came together during that week where I wrote the songs, and then the personality, sonically, came together during quarantine", explains the artist, who recorded much of Die 4 Ur Love from her home studio in Los Angeles. "I wanted the EP to sound really intense and in your face and intimate, but also chaotic and fun and more upbeat than my music has been in the past," she says. "I wanted people to dance around to it, so I think [the songs] were what I needed during these months of isolation. I wanted to throw something on really loud and dance and thrash around but also wallow in my own misery".
"Over time with everything that’s unfolded and how this year has turned out to be, [the EP] took on a whole new meaning for me and resonates in a different way,” explains Tei Shi. “The production was really shaped around the emotions that I was experiencing in quarantine and isolation with the loss of all these things—a tour that I had been planning for and was really excited about. Any expectations of what our reality was going to be this year were just pulled out from under us".