uncomfortable with. Because that’s how I
think you know that you’re doing some-
thing new.
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very lucky. I’d studied opera as a 14- or 15-
year old, but not because I was interested
in opera, but because I was auditioning for
these choirs. And counter-intuitively, part
of the audition process was singing opera
arias, which is so stupid because choral
singing has no vibrato; it’s not about that
kind of performance. I wanted to get into
these choirs, so I was taking these opera
lessons just for the auditions. And I still
had my opera teacher’s phone number
from when I was a teenager. So I just called
her up, 12 years later, and I was like, “I’m
sure you don’t remember me, my name’s
Caroline Polachek, and you taught me 12
years ago.” And she said, “Honey! How
are you? Get back over here — let’s work!”
And since then, she’s become kind of my
mentor, beyond just singing, but in life.
Her name is Pamela Kuhn, and she has
revolutionized the way I’ve sounded since
2012.
IE: What did she teach musically, and
spiritually?
CP: Well, musically, we kind of push each
other a lot. Like I was saying, I don’t like a
lot of the traditional opera repertoire, so
I’m picky about what I’ll sing. But I also
don’t bring any of my own music to her —
that’s a very clear-cut boundary. I never
work on my own stuff with her — I strict-
ly do opera, and in a very traditional style,
as well. So it really functions as cross-train-
ing for me. But on a more spiritual level, it
requires such a tight connection with your
body, a kind of connection that I had
brushed off and had not maintained. And
you just can’t lie when you’re singing that
kind of music — you can’t fake it. It’s
either there, and you hear it, or it’s not, and
you can’t hear it. So she taught me about
bringing my honesty and bravery into
singing because that’s what it really
requires.
IE: So how did that affect Pang?
CP: Well, on a really formal level, I knew
that I wanted it to be the most extreme
music that I had ever done before. I put my
own name to it, but that felt like a very
obvious decision at this point after leaving
a band. But on a songwriting level, I really
wanted to push myself and get away from
abstraction and make the most direct songs
that I could. And the most personal songs
as well, but not in a cheesy ‘This about me
and my life.’ I wanted it to be about expos-
ing something that I was potentially
26 illinoisentertainer.com february 2020
IE: You went through a divorce, too. So I
guess there was a lot of emotion ready to
be tapped, songwriting-wise.
CP: Yeah. That’s correct.
IE: Was it difficult revealing more person-
al things?
CP: Well, it was all intentional. Definitely.
IE: And you weren’t afraid to use
Autotune. Or was it a vocoder?
CP: There’s a little bit of vocoder in the
song “You’re So Hot You’re Hurting My
Feelings.” But there’s no real Autotune on
the record. There’s one song that has pitch
correction, which I did very intentionally,
and that’s the song “Go As a Dream.” And
I did it because I wanted that song to feel
very inhuman and crystalline. But I think a
lot of writers mistake the way I sing for
Autotune, which I am endlessly amused
by. I’m not perfect — if you were to bring
my vocals into a pitch analyzer, you would
see that I’m very often out of tune. It’s just
that my note transitions are really quick, so
it just makes it sound like it’s Autotune.
IE: And the best thing about all this,
you’ve kept it all fun. Intelligence with-
out a sense of humor to ground it is just
wasted.
CP: I totally agree.
IE: Was this the ASMR tour you were
Tweeting about?
CP: That’s a funny one. I was on this tour
last week in Poland; I was getting a tour of
these salt mines that were extremely deep
underground. And because they’re so deep
underground, the reverb is crazy down
there, and you very often can’t see your
guide. So they have you put on these ear-
buds, and the tour guide speaks to you
through the headset. So you hear this per-
son’s voice in your ear, as you’re walking
around, and I was thinking, “This is such a
cool format — I could be a tour guide
around New York, which is the place I
know best in the world.” I think it would
be a really interesting exercise.
IE: Since your interest spans so many
mediums, what are some of your favorite
books, movies, and painting?
CP: Well, I think the first movie that ever
bowled me over, that really put a hold on
my brain, was Mulholland Drive by David
Lynch. I rented it randomly; I had no idea
what it was — I was just bored with the
video store, and I’d seen everything else.
So I thought, “Hmm…what’s this?” And I
had no framework for how to watch it, but
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