As gigs are on pause, Home is the new Backstage. Get behind the scenes with spill tab this week.

Celebrating the release of her debut EP, Oatmilk, we caught up with emerging Los Angeles-based, French-Korean artist spill tab (the moniker of Claire Chicha) to chat about the process of personal growth, the challenging parts of lockdown, and her hopes and dreams for 2021. Pulled from Claire’s camera roll across the year, the accompanying photo gallery portrays her and her producer/main collaborator marinelli writing and recording music together.

What advice would you give to your pre-lockdown self?

Foster a cat ASAP.

How, if at all, did lockdown impact your music making and producing process?

I definitely learned to be more independent, which is such a good thing. I’ve gotten so much better at production, especially tracking, comping, and tuning vocals and that’s made life so much easier.

What has been the most unexpected/challenging part of lockdown, whether pleasant or unpleasant?

Cabin fever is so ridiculously real, I didn’t think I believed in it before. Cause I’m usually quite low maintenance and not much sets me off, but holy shit being locked in a house really does a number on your brain. There were days when I would stare at a wall, dissociate to Love Island for 14 hours, but then wake up the next day ready to fight someone. Very weird vibes all around.

How would you sum up your 2020 in one sentence?

I am eating so much BBQ sauce and cereal, and these sweatpants are deadass ironed onto my body, but also oh wow these very cool things in my career are happening here.

If you had a quarantine character, what was it like?

A giant slice of bacon with BBQ sauce on it.

Name 5 things that got you through lockdown.

BBQ Sauce, my housemates, music, my mom, plant propagation.

What’s the most interesting thing you discovered over lockdown (could be a revelation about yourself, a new TV show, a new hobby)?

So I now know how to propagate plants, which is huge for me as I historically have not been good at taking care of living things. I have a lil nursery on our balcony that I’m pretty proud of.

What lockdown trend do you think we should take into the future, and which ones should we ditch?

100% not everyone needs to be in the office all the time to get things done. I really hope that after Covid, corporations and companies see the value of not having all their employees commute back and forth every day for work that can be done remotely. I think we can ditch full days of zoom calls. I’ve only done like 3-4 a day max, idk how some people are doing back to back zoom meetings all day, god bless em.

What are your hopes and dreams for 2021?

Drink more water, eat more fruits, make more music, tour, and see my family abroad cause I miss them so fucking much.