[中篇采访翻译] Caroline Polachek的魔法王国
采访原文地址：https://vmagazine.com/article/caroline-polachek-magic-kingdom/
Exploring the unusual inspirations behind Caroline Polachek’s fantastical new pop album.
October 21, 2019
摄影: Karolis Kaminskas
文字: Erica Russell
Caroline Polachek is like her own surreal species of Disney princess. We can imagine the raven-haired singer perched in a worn, ivy-covered tower in the center of an otherwise sleek metropolis, her ethereal trill beckoning otherworldly creatures and conjuring portals to other dimensions amid the urban bustle. Her spellbinding voice holds that sort of power. It’s a magic that can be witnessed on the Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter’s enchanting new solo album, PANG (out October 18 via The Orchard, under the artist’s imprint Perpetual Novice). Polachek’s voice is like a wizard’s wand, casting hypnotic incantations as she ruminates on anxiety, existential suspension, and the delicious agony of love on mesmerizing tracks like “Door” and “Parachute.”
Caroline Polachek就像是一位梦幻却独一无二的迪士尼公主。即使在光秃秃的大都市中，我们仍可以想象这位有着乌黑秀发的歌手倚靠在一座藤蔓丛生的古塔顶上。在城市的喧嚣中，她优雅的声音仿佛一种咒语，召唤了异世界的生物同行，去往一座通往另一次元的大门。这位来自布鲁克林的唱作人迷人的嗓音有着一种魔力——而这种魔力我们在她令人沉醉的全新个人专辑《Pang》中可以见证。Polachek在“Door”、“Parachute”等歌曲中认真探讨了焦虑、存在主义的延期以及爱的苦甜。她的声音就像巫师的魔杖，释放出催眠人心的符文。
The album is also a far departure from the eccentric synth-pop and indie rock of Chairlift, Polachek’s former band who split amicably in 2016 and marked their dissolution with a farewell tour the following year. Musically, Pang is a Fantasyland of hypnotic, hyper-emotive gloss-pop that, securely anchored by Polachek’s elastic vocal style, draws confidently from a diverse archive of sonic influences, from wavy Baroque pop (“Hey Big Eyes,” which was “written during a manic, ecstatic moment”) to honky-tonk (the slide guitar-featuring “New Normal,” which Polachek describes as a “cartoonish, extreme” song that “begins and ends in LA”). Polachek’s spell book also contains a chapter on immersive visual worldbuilding, a skill she adeptly deploys in the video for “So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings,” her synthy, ‘80s-evoking latest single which finds the artist quite literally trapped in her own private hell, complete with electric blue fire and watercolor red brimstone.
这张专辑与Polachek之前所在的乐队Chairlift的风格截然不同。Chairlift是一支兼具古怪合成器流行与独立摇滚风格的乐队，在2016年和平解散，并以接下来一年的告别巡演纪念了乐队的解体。而《Pang》从音乐上说，就像一个由高度情绪化的、散发光泽的流行音乐构成的催眠的幻想世界。基于Polachek具有弹性的嗓音和五花八门的音效影响，她自信的描绘着这一切：从波浪般起伏的巴洛克流行（比如“Her Big Eyes”，据她所说是在极度兴奋、热情高涨的时候写下的）到小酒馆乡村音乐（比如“New Normal”背景中出现的吉他，Polachek说这首歌是一首非常卡通化的歌，在LA开始，在LA结束）。
而Polachek的魔法书里也有这样一章——她魔幻又现实的视觉风格。
她在“So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings”（她最新的单曲，有着80年代合成器音乐的感觉）的音乐视频中熟练的运用了这种视觉风格。视频中她一个人在她自己的地狱，在水彩一样的红色硫磺气体与电光般的蓝色火焰中舞动。
“I wanted to set something in hell for a long time,” she shares. “I choreographed the whole video myself and it was so hot in the studio. I was drenched in sweat the whole time, but you’re not supposed to be comfortable in hell. We had to do it on a pretty limited budget, which made for a lot of fun challenges. Like, how do you build hell on a budget? It’s a very modern question, isn’t it?”
“我很久之前就想做一个背景是地狱的东西了，”她和我们分享道。“我自己设计了整首歌的编舞。当时摄影棚里特别热，弄得我一直汗流浃背，但是地狱里本来就不会很舒服。拍摄这个视频时我们的预算特别小，这给我们造成了许多有趣的挑战。举例说，你在预算有限的情况下怎么搭起一个地狱的场景？这是一个很现代化的问题，是吧？”
The video also features a wonderfully peculiar nod to The Little Mermaid, evoking the sequence in which the sea witch Ursula captures Ariel’s voice by siphoning it into a Nautilus shell necklace. In “So Hot…,” the physical manifestation of Polachek’s own voice billows out in glowing green swirls during an electrifying guitar-style vocal solo.
这支音乐视频也用一种特别的方式致敬了《小美人鱼》，让人联想到章鱼巫婆乌苏拉是怎样夺走爱丽儿的声音，并将其转移存放到鹦鹉贝壳项链里的一组镜头。在“So Hot You‘re Hurting My Feelings“的音乐视频中，随着一段电吉他独奏，Polachek的声音以物理的形式呈现，她的吟唱像绿色的气体一样从口中涌出，并在空中旋转、升腾。
“The scene in The Little Mermaid where Ursula pulls Ariel's voice out of her throat was terrifying to me as a child, and feels kind of related to how Jim Henson imagined the ‘essence extraction' in The Dark Crystal,” Polachek muses. “I love these magical tactile visualizations of things that are otherwise invisible, like a voice or someone's essence.”
“《小美人鱼》里乌苏拉从爱丽儿的喉咙里抽走她的声音的场景对小时候的我来说真的很恐怖。我也想到在Jim Henson导演的电影《夜魔水晶》中他是如何想象出吸取精神的场景。“卡洛琳说道。”我喜欢这些用有形的方式将看不到的东西，比如声音、精神……等实体化的做法。”
Below, Caroline Polachek reveals the unexpected Disney influences behind her new album, how working with Danny L Harle stretched her sound to glistening sonic frontiers and the prolific artists who inspire her most.
在下面的采访中，Caroline Polachek透露了她全新专辑里令人意想不到的迪士尼因素，介绍了和Danny L Harle一起工作是如何让她的嗓音延展到了那闪闪发亮的声音边界的，还告诉了我们对她影响最大的许多艺术家。
What was itlike working with Danny L Harle and branching more into that PC Music space forthis record?
和Danny L Harle工作，并在这张唱片里大量使用PC Music元素的感觉是怎样的？
It was so natural,actually. The first time Dan and I worked together was for a single called‘Ashes of Love,’ for his catalogue. Working with Dan was a revelation. It wasthe first time I had worked with someone who I felt was working at my speed. Wecared about the same things, and we didn’t care about the same things. We couldaccelerate and slow down. Our brains were totally in sync with how we wanted towork. We really pushed each other.
-其实这一切发生的很自然。我第一次和Dan一起工作是为了一首叫做“Ashes of Love“的单曲。和他一起工作给了我很多启示。我第一次感觉到和别人一起工作时我也可以保持我自己的速度。我们对相同的事情感到在意，对相同的事情也不执着。我们可以随时加速工作，也可以随时放慢速度。我们的大脑在想要工作的方式上是完全同步的，这真的给了我们很多动力。
He pushed me to bemaximally expressive, vocally. We actually got into a big fight working on asong on the album called ‘Insomnia.’ We were writing the vocal melody and I wasimprovising—that’s the way we did a lot of writing together—and then we’d gothrough it together, see which bits we liked, try stringing them together, andthen fill in the gaps. But he kept pushing me, saying, ‘Make it more fraught.More intense.’ At a certain point, I left the room, I was so angry. I think hewas trying to push me to an emotional place. When I came back into the room hesaid, ‘I’m sorry, I listened back to everything and it’s all completelyamazing.’
他让我在声音的运用上变得最大限度的有表达力。其实我们在做专辑里那首“Insomnia“的时候甚至吵到要打一架。当时我们在写人声的旋律，我于是即兴演唱——我们以前一起写的很多歌都是这么完成的——然后我们一起聆听这些即兴的旋律，找到我们都喜欢的部分，然后将它们串联起来，最后将整个旋律填充完整。但写这首歌时他一直紧逼着我，要我”把这段旋律做的更焦虑、更尖锐强烈“。一时，我离开了房间，无比愤怒。我觉得他可能是在想把我逼向一个情绪上的顶点。当我回到房间的时候，他和我说了抱歉。他告诉我，”我重新听了所有的片段，他们都完美得令人惊叹。“
So you pushedeach other into spaces you may not have ventured otherwise?
除了这次之外，你们还有没有把对方推向你们没有体验过的境界过？
I pushed himreally hard as a producer. My standards are quite high. Very often he lovesworking quickly and making broad strokes, that’s part of his genius. But I likegetting into the details and finessing things. I definitely pushed him in thatregard.
-当他是我的制作人时，我对他非常严格。我的个人标准是相当高的。通常，他喜欢快速地工作，粗线条地描绘音乐。这也是他天才性的一部分。但是我喜欢寻找细节并且构造巧思。在这一点上我确实对他要求了很多。
We were bothexperimenting with each other. He was trying to experiment as a producer, bothpsychologically and fluxing into a new kind of pop. With his previous stuff, hewas always working with electronic pop. With me, he was getting the bass outand actually playing—for which he went to college, by the way, nobody knowsthat! He’s a classically trained bassist! It was about him branching into amuch more organic palette and me branching into a much more virtual one.
我们在对方身上做了不少实验。他以制作人的身份尝试着从技术上和心理上融合出一种新流派的流行音乐。以前他做的音乐基本上都是电子流行音乐。但是和我工作时，他拿掉了那些电子的低音部分，而是真的在演奏贝斯——那是他在大学学到的。他系统性地、传统地受过贝斯乐器训练，这一点还没人知道呢！这对于他来说是一次更接近真实乐器的体验，而相反地，对于我来说是一次更数字的体验。
Is there atrack from this album that was particularly challenging for you?
对于你来说，这次的专辑里面有没有哪一首歌是特别的挑战？
I almost gave upon ‘Door’ so many times. I couldn’t crack it. It started out as a simple songwith just a chorus-verse-chorus. I felt like it needed to transform more. I’dwritten the structure with Dan Nigro, but I wanted to combine it with the worldthat ‘Parachute’ and ‘Hey Big Eyes’ exist in. It’s more dreamscape. Making theproduction work was so difficult, the original vibe sat more on an indie rockpalette. I was trying so hard to push it into something that felt more magical,and it felt like it was switching palettes too much, or the dynamic was toojumpy, or it didn’t have a solid enough core. The production of that song tookabout a year from start to finish.
很多次我差点放弃继续做“Door“这首歌。我没办法找到解决方案。这首歌一开始很简单，就是副歌-主歌-副歌。我感觉它需要更多修改。事先，我已经和Dan Nigro写好了整首歌的框架，但我想把这首歌和“Parachute”和“Her Big Eyes“里存在的世界联系起来。那是一种幻想中的场景。音乐制作的工作实在太困难了，因为这首歌原本的氛围更接近独立摇滚。我非常努力的想要把它做得更加魔幻，但要不就是感觉整首歌的气氛改变了太多，要不就是动态太跳跃，要不就是它的核心部分不够稳定。这首歌的制作从开始到完成一共花了一整年时间。
I remember havingto step out of the studio at one point, sobbing. I was like, ‘I don’t know if Ican do this. The idea in my head isn’t possible. I’m trying so hard to makethis work, I can feel what I’m going for, but it’s not working!’ The twocollaborators on that one were also mystified as to what exactly I was going for,but when it finally clicked, we all had this moment of, ‘What did we fuckingdo?’
我还记得我不得不走出录音室去哭的时候。我当时在想，“我不知道我还能不能做好。我脑中有很多想法，却没有实现它们的可能性。为了完成这首歌，我这么努力的去做了这么多，甚至感觉得到接下来该如何进展，但就是没用！”和我合作的两个音乐人也很迷惑我想要的究竟是什么。但是当我们豁然开朗时，我们都觉得，“我们之前到底TM在干嘛？”
Would you saythat track is the one you're most proud of on this album?
这张专辑里有没有哪首歌是你觉得非常自豪的？
In some ways, yes,just because it was the biggest challenge. In other ways though, ‘Parachute’ isactually my favorite, because I think as a writer, I crossed over into anotherlevel of writing. It all felt so honest and organic the way it came together.It’s about trust.
-从某些角度来说，有的，但是是因为那首歌对于我来说也是最大的挑战。从另外的角度来说，我的最爱其实是“Parachute”。我认为作为一个写作者来说，我在这首歌里跨越到了写作的另一个高度。它的一切如此真诚而本质。这是一首关于信念的歌。
The track ‘I GiveUp’ is a sad, truthful look at the things we don’t often admit to ourselveswhen a relationship begins to break down. Why do you think people cling sodesperately to relationships that aren’t working?
“I Give Up”这首歌是对一些事情伤感而真实的看法。我们经常很难向自己承认一段关系开始崩塌。你认为人们为什么总是拼命的想要坚持一段无法继续下去的关系呢？
I’ve definitelybeen in that situation many times—staying in a relationship longer than Ishould. I think there’s so much of your identity that comes from arelationship. Your social identity, your personal identity… even how your timegets structured. A lot of people don’t realize that relationships form a hugepart of their logic and how they manage and make sense of time. Separatingyourself from all those structures is really difficult. It’s delicate andpainful. I think a lot of people hang onto the structure, beyond the person,and at a certain point don’t want to give up that part of their lives.
我确实经历过很多次这种情况——我本不该将一段关系维持得那么久。我认为你的身份特征有很大一部分都来自于你身边的人。这包括你的社会身份、个人性格……甚至你的时间安排、组成。很多人没有意识到人际关系很大部分上决定了你的思维方式和利用时间的方式。把自己从已经形成的关系中脱离出来是非常难的，很脆弱，很痛苦。我认为很多人还坚持一段关系，并不是还在需要那个人，而是需要那种两人已经形成的一种“关系的结构”。正因为这样，他们不想放弃的其实是自己生活中的这一部分。
That song waswritten about a breakup from 2012. I had written that song in a notebook and Ifound it and went, ‘Oh, these lyrics really cut.’ There was a piece of musicthat was being born around the same time I found those lyrics and it reallyfit. But that song is also about apathy, which is another emotion we’re notreally supposed to have.
这首歌写的是2012年的一次分手。我在笔记本里写下了这首歌的歌词，而当我再次看到它时，我想，“噢，这些歌词好深刻。”又刚好那时我有一些音乐和这些歌词刚好相配。不过这首歌也有关于冷漠的部分，而实际上冷漠也是我们不应该有的感情。
We often viewbreakups as tragic or deathlike. Do you think it’s possible to reframe abreakup as a moment of opportunity or rebirth?
我们经常把分别看得很悲惨、甚至像死一样。你认为如果有时机的话，一段关系可能重归如好，或者重新开始吗？
Definitely. Ithink that’s a big trope in pop music: the blaze-of-glory breakup. It’s not onethat I particularly identify with, but it’s definitely possible. We’ve gotten alot of good songs out of that, like Taylor Swift’s ‘We Are Never Getting BackTogether.’ That’s an amazing song.
-当然。我认为在流行音乐中伟大爱情的复燃是一个用的非常多的题材。虽然重修旧好不是我特别支持的东西，但它确实是可能的。而且我们也有很多相反题材的好歌曲，比如，Taylor Swift的“We Are Never Ever Getting BackTogether”。那是一首很棒的歌。
‘Ocean ofTears’ is about an agonizing long-distance relationship. Do you think it’spossible to survive a long-distance romance? Or are they inevitably doomed?
“Ocean ofTears”这首歌是关于一段令人痛苦无比的异地关系。你觉得异地的两方之间的浪漫可能一直存在吗？还是说这段关系最终还是会结束呢？
I think it’s theworst of both worlds, because you’re either in pain because you love someoneyou can’t be with, or you’re wasting your time. I think there has to be anatural end to it. I don’t think I could be in one perpetually. I always thinkabout wartime relationships and how that worked.
我认为异地对两边来说都是最坏的，因为你要不就会很痛苦你爱上了一个不能朝夕相处的人，要不就会觉得你浪费了自己的时间。我认为总会有一个自然发生的事情来终止这段关系。我总是想到战争时代的关系，想知道那是怎么回事。
What inspiredthe pirate theme behind the ‘Ocean of Tears’ video?
是什么让给了你在“Oceanof Tears“的视频中用海盗做主题的灵感？
I had a colorpalette and temperature in mind for that video. I wanted it to feel icy andbleached out. I felt that it needed to live in a craggy, icy world. I went toDisneyland for the first time this spring with Matt [Copson], who co-directedthe video. He took me on the Pirates of the Carribbean ride, which is his favoriteartwork in the world because it tells a story of greed in reverse. It startswith the skeletons, the dead, and it works its way back to the pirates—seeingthem looting and pillaging. The set design of the ride is so amazing. I turnedto him and said, ‘How has a rapper not done a pirate video?’ Because rappersand pirates want the same thing!
-我在拍摄前就想好了视频的主色调和温度感。我想让它看上去冷酷，有漂白过的质感。我感觉这个视频需要展现一个崎岖而冰冷的世界。今年春天，在Matt Copson的陪伴下，我第一次去迪士尼乐园。Matt是这个视频的共同导演。他带我一起坐加勒比海盗的游乐项目——那是他最爱的艺术作品，用倒叙的方式讲述贪婪。它从骷髅、尸体开始，然后倒回海盗们的故事——让我看着他们抢夺一切。整个过程中装置的设置令人惊叹。我对Matt说，“为什么没有说唱歌手做一个海盗视频？“因为他们和海盗想要的东西是一样的呀！
Matt was like,‘You should just do it instead.’ ‘Ocean in Tears’ had the same kind of tenacitythat exists in both the song and the ride. It’s relentless, which fit thepirate imagery. Also, we just found it so fun and funny to go there. It’s verytongue in cheek, but also very beautiful.
Matt于是说，“那你怎么不做一个呢？”“Ocean of Tears”这首歌中有一种相似的坚强，而这种不放弃的特质正适合海盗的形象。我们觉得这个视频的拍摄的过程非常有趣，虽然它看上去不是特别真实，但拍出来特别漂亮。
What did yourmood board for this album look like?
你这张专辑的整体风格看起来是怎样的？
At the beginning,I approached the mood board conceptually, but then it evolved into ‘Shit ILike,’ which is where you want to be, anyway. But I was looking at a lot ofearly Disney animatics—the concept designs and early sketches for theenvironments. Sleeping Beauty in particular is one of the images that poppedinto my head—the medieval, angular landscapes.
-一开始我比较想做偏概念的。但是最后它变成了“只有我喜欢的乱七八糟的东西”，只是我个人想做的东西。不过那时我看了迪士尼早期的很多动画，还研究了它们概念的设计以及动画场景最开始的素描。《睡美人》中中世纪风格的有棱角的场景尤其给我留下了深刻的印象。
I ask myself whyI’m so attracted to that stuff right now and I think a lot of it is because howit parallels my personal life at the time I was making this album. All thesethemes of guilt, passion, fear—they’re all so beautifully represented visually,like a wall of thorns or an impossible tower. Ruins, but done in an angular‘60s way. It started to feel like psychology, actually. These are psychologicallandscapes. I think that’s how I approach music and production.
我问自己，为什么当时的我对那些东西那么着迷？我认为很大一部分原因是因为它就像专辑制作过程中我个人生活的平行世界。那些关于罪恶、热情、眼泪的主题——它们都以很优美的方式呈现在你眼前，比如荆棘做成的护墙，还有那些不可能真实存在的塔。就算有废墟，也是以60年代的有棱有角的形式出现的。这其实开始有一点心理学的感觉了，它们其实是心理上的景观。我认为这种现象和我接触音乐和音乐制作的方式也有相似之处。
You recentlyrevealed that you approach singing like drawing and that you studied drawing incollege. Do you still draw today?
最近你透露你学会唱歌的方式是像绘画一样的，而你在大学学的就是画画。那你现在还画画吗？
I don’t anymoreand it kills me that I don’t. I used to obsessively draw. I was really good atit. There’s a weird intersection—as you get older where your standards go up, butthe amount of time you give to practice goes down because you’re so busy. So youend up at this weird point where you’re displeased with your art because you’renot giving it enough time because your standards are so high. And that’s whyteenagers have an amazing window. That’s when you can really find your footingas an artist because you’re giving it that time and your standards are lower,so you’re really pleased by what you do in a way that can push you forward in avery real way.
-我不再画画了，其实这让我很心痛。我曾经非常喜欢画画，也很擅长。这是一种奇怪的现象——当你基础不断提升、变得老练的时候，你练习的时间却因为年龄增长带来的忙碌而变少了。所以很奇怪地，在某一刻你会对自己的艺术作品很不满意，因为你对自己的标准非常高，但是你没有在这幅作品上工作到足够的时间。我认为这就是为什么青少年的前景是非常大的。青少年时期你确实能看到你作为画家的可能，因为你有充足的时间可以投入，而且你的标准没有那么高，所以你对你做的事情感到喜悦，充满信心，而且是以一种积极的、能够使人进步很大的方式。
What kind ofthings would you draw?
你画什么样的东西？
It was people andthings, it wasn’t abstract. I loved calligraphy pens. That was my medium. Iloved the articulation you could get making the lines feel gooey and dynamic. Ialso got off on the precision of it, because if you fuck up and smudge the inkwith your hand, you ruin your drawing.
-大部分都是人和物体，不是抽象的那种。我喜欢能写出艺术字的笔。那是我最喜欢用的工具。我喜欢那种能够让线条从暧昧到强烈的转换。我也因为它对准确性的要求而放弃过。如果一不小心用手把墨水擦得到处都是，你就会毁了你的作品。
If your albumwere a painting, what would it look like?
如果你的专辑是一幅画，它看上去会是怎样的？
It would probablylook like one of those landscapes we were just talking about, from SleepingBeauty. Vast, but with bits of broken architecture—maybe some wind turbines,solar panels, and burned crops. There would be a glowing line through it, torepresent the singing.
我觉得它可能看上去和我们刚刚说到的《睡美人》里面的景色差不多。辽阔无比，但里面的建筑都有些许破碎——可能有扭曲的风车、中世纪房间里的墙砖，还有烧毁的作物。画里可能会有一条发光的道路贯通整个画面，来指代我的歌声。
Did you grow upwatching animated Disney films?
你成长的过程中是不是看了很多迪士尼动画电影？
I watched Disneyfilms on loop ‘cause we didn't have a TV in the house, but like most kids, Iwas totally spellbound by them. While I'm not particularly nostalgic, I have ahuge admiration for the richness and beauty of those ‘60s-to-‘90s films, andthe passion that Disney's teams had, both in the animation and the music. And becauseso many people grew up watching the same films, it's this amazing shared experiencewe all have that's so deeply ingrained in our subconscious.
-我用录像带看的迪士尼的电影，因为我们房子里没有电视。就算这样，我也和其他的小朋友一样深深陷入其中。虽然我不是那么恋旧，我还是很崇拜那些60-90年代电影里面的美丽和丰富性，还有迪士尼团队在动画和音乐上倾注的热情。有那么多人看着同样的动画电影长大，这是我们刻在潜意识里的、一种令人惊叹的共同体验。
People often saymy music reminds them of something and yet they can't figure out what it is. Ithink I've always been interested in that weird connective tissue of collectivenostalgia, but not for the sake of doing anything retro - only to find ashortcut to somewhere deep inside.
人们经常说我的音乐让他们想起什么东西，但又找不到具体是什么。我认为我一直对这种共有的怀旧情结是怎么奇怪地在人与人之间连接起来的原因很感兴趣，但这不是为了做一些令人怀旧的事情，只是想找到一些去往更深层次境界的捷径。
Which vocalistsdo you admire most?
哪些人在声乐上是你最尊敬的？
One of my all-timefavorite vocalists is Paddy McAloon, from the band Prefab Sprout. They wereknown in the UK in the eighties, but not so much so in the US. He’s my favoritelyricist. But what I really love is his sense of vulnerability and giving. He’sjust so generous as a vocalist. He doesn’t have a virtuosically amazing voice,but he’s always giving. I also love this Japanese pop/jazz fusion singer fromthe ‘80s—she’s one of my biggest influences, actually—named Mishio Ogawa. I’vereally sought to imitate, in some ways, how she stretches her notes. It feelslike liquid. Her songs are on another level.
-有一个我一直很喜欢的声乐演唱者是Prefab Sprout乐队的Paddy McAloon。他们八十年代在英国很有名，但是在美国就还好。他写的歌词是我最喜欢的。但我真正最爱的是他对于自己的弱点和传达事物的感觉。声乐上他有着非常丰富的能力。虽然他没有很具有个人特色的惊人声线，但还是有很多表达出来的东西。我也很喜欢日本的Mishio Ogawa，八十年代的一位流行和爵士的混合风格歌手。其实她是影响我最大的人之一，我曾经很努力的在一些方面去模仿她，比如她是如何把每一个音符伸展开来的。她的歌声就像液体一样，而她的歌也是在另一个境界。
I think anotherreally big one is Indian composer A.R. Rahman. He’s the biggest musician in theworld, we just don’t know who he is over here [in the US]. His catalogue ismassive. He’s got hundreds and hundreds of albums from the biggest Bollywoodfilms. He writes vocal melodies that have completely changed the way I writeand sing. They’re so spontaneous and so generous. And also, one of my favoritecurrent singers is Kim Petras. I think she’s got the most insane rhythm. Like,her voice carries the beat so hard.
还有一个对我影响很大的是印度的作曲家A.R. Rahman。他也是世界上很厉害的音乐人，只不过我们在美国对他的了解很少。他的作品非常的多，为很多有名的宝莱坞电影制作了成百上千张的专辑。他写的歌声旋律完全改变了我写作和歌唱的方法。那是那么浑然天成，一切尽在其中。对了，还有我喜欢的现在的歌手，比如Kim Petras。我觉得她在律动上非常疯狂，她的歌声把节奏、鼓点驾驭的非常厉害。
Why did it feelright to release this album under your full name, and not one of your previousnom de plumes?
是什么让你决定用本名发行这张专辑，而不是之前的几个项目的名字呢？
It was tempting todo that, but Ramona Lisa felt like such a sealed vault. That was a one yearproject that was very intentionally supposed to exist for one year. Iapproached that the way a director would approach a short film. It was a littleparcel and that parcel was sealed and closed. I definitely took a lot from thatproject, but I wanted this to feel bigger, more raw, and more essentially me,not in costume. That was a costume project.
-虽然那么做很有意思，但是Ramona Lisa感觉是一个已经封印的东西。那是一个一年的项目，本应该只存在一年就消失。我这样做就像一个导演制作的微电影一样。它就像一个小包裹，已经被合上、封好了。从那个项目中我得到了很多，但是这次我想要感觉更原始、更本我，而不是像一个演员。Ramona Lisa只是我穿上一层特殊装扮的项目。
I also felt likeI, as Caroline Polachek, had dipped my feet into so many different culturalzones that all were interestingly far apart. Whether it was working withBeyonce or Charli XCX, or coming on as a curator in a classical space in New York,I’ve laid out a bread crumb trail that’s delightfully confusing for people. Iwanted the satisfaction of this project answering all those questions veryeffortlessly.
我还感觉，作为CarolinePolachek的我涉足了到处的不同文化领域的有趣的事情。不管是和Beyonce还是Charli XCX一起工作，还是在纽约的古典建筑当负责人，我给人们留下了许多令人兴奋、也令人困惑的线索。我想让这个以我本名的项目来好好回答人们对我的那些疑问。
Are there anyother artists, bands, or composers on your collaboration bucket list?
还有没有哪些歌手、乐队或者作曲家是你想一起合作的？
I’d love to make avideo with Post Malone. God, I love him so much! I would love to score afeature with him one day. Not right now, but soon. I have a big music crush onBryan Ferry from Roxy Music. I’d love to do a duet with him at some point.There’s Young Thug as well... I’m just listing guys. I’ve got the girl boxchecked off all by myself! I love male voices. I feel like there aren’t enoughof them.
-我想和Post Malone一起拍一个视频。天啊，我太爱他了！我希望有一天我能做他的献唱歌手。不过不是现在，是不久后。我在音乐上特别喜欢Roxy Music的Bryan Ferry，希望有机会能和他做一首二人对唱。还有Young Thug我也很喜欢……我好像只在说男人们。女歌手们就放在我心中不说出来吧！我喜欢男人的声音，感觉乐坛里男人的声音不够多。
What is yourrelationship with Chairlift today? Did you share the album with Patrick whenyou were working on it?
你现在和Chairlift的关系是怎样的？你在制作这张专辑时有和Patrick分享吗？
I showed him thealbum in a much earlier state. Half the songs I played for him didn’t even makethe cut, but generally, I was very secretive about this album. I didn’t play itfor very many people while I was working on it. I’m really proud of everythingPatrick’s done since Chairlift. I’m really rooting for him. Chairlift wasrewarding but in a weird way, it was also holding us back from doing what we’rebest at. Since we broke up, we’re both doing our thing better than we were ableto before.
-在专辑初期的时候我给他听过专辑。给他放的一半歌曲甚至连雏形都未完成，但其实，这张专辑对我来说十分私密。我在制作的过程中没有给太多的人播放过。其实从Chairlift时期开始我就很为Patrick做的一切感到自豪，我一直很支持他。乐队带给了我们很多，但奇怪的是，它也局限了我们，让我们两人无法完成自己最擅长的部分。从我们解散开始，我们做的东西都比我们以前可以做到的更好了。
‘Pang’ issuch a visceral, rarely used word, yet it’s so encompassing of a very specificset of feelings. In what way did it feel representative for this body of work?
“Pang”是一个很少被使用的人体内脏的词语，但是它包括了很确切的一部分感受。为何用它作为主题来代表这张专辑呢？
I was havingadrenaline surges right around the time I was starting to work on this music. Iwas traveling constantly and my personal life was about to become totallyuprooted. One morning in England, I was lying awake at 6 AM, watching the suncome up, and had an adrenaline surge for no reason. My heart started beatingreally fast—that fight or flight adrenaline response you can feel between yourribs. It’s like you’re being pricked from the inside. I thought, ‘How do Idescribe this feeling? It’s a... pang.’ Then I started thinking about thatword. It’s only really used to describe a feeling of lack. We use it todescribe hunger, envy, desire, nostalgia and jealousy — all those things thatare forms of hunger.
-我开始做这张专辑时经常感到肾上腺素飙升。那时候我一直在各地飞来飞去，个人生活完全被打乱了。有一天在英国，早上六点我就从床上醒来，看着太阳升起时我突然无缘无故的感觉肾上腺素飙升。我的心跳加速——肋骨间的感觉就像打架时或者坐飞机时一样反应。我感觉到了身体内部的刺痛。我当时就在想，“我应该用什么词来描述这种感觉？这是一种突然的刺痛（Pang）。”从那时起我就一直在想这个词。它过去其实是描述一种缺失的感觉：我们用这个词描述饥饿、嫉妒、欲望、怀旧和忌恨——这些都是对一些事物的渴望。
Then I startedthinking of pang as a sound. Not as an onomatopoeia, but what ‘panging’ soundslike. I realized that all of my favorite music since I was a kid, has a pang toit. It’s not the stuff that’s super happy or celebratory or bombastic. And it’snot the stuff that’s reveling in its own angst, either. It’s something in themiddle—lunar, private, and internal. Even the way the word looks, it all justfelt right. And a lot of people have never heard the word before, which I justlove. So, I start thinking as ‘pang music’ as a genre and I dedicated myself tothat idea. I cut quite a few songs because they just didn’t ‘pang’ for me.
然后我就在想这个词语应该怎么样用声音表现。我不是想去拟声，而是想表现“pang”听上去应该是什么样子的。我意识到我从小时候喜欢的音乐，都有一种pang的感觉。它们不是那种特别开心的东西、不是庆祝什么、不是华丽堂皇。它们也不是疯狂的焦虑。它是处于两者中间的一种东西——很内在的、私人的东西。虽然这个词看上去并不如此，但确实是这样。很多人从来没有听过这个单词，但是我真的很喜欢。因为这样，我还觉得应该有一种叫做“pang music”的流派，而且我确实为之努力。做这张专辑的时候，我去掉了不少的歌，就是因为它们对我来说还不够“pang”。
翻译来自@ClaireBoucher
原翻译地址：https://weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404470098621497791
