Chaos principle: Calgary's Terez stares down the chaos with new EP

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On the video for Terez’s LUV2H8, there may be an unsettling scene of campy horror that appears a nod to Stephen King’s Carrie with a touch of Barbie aesthetics thrown in.

Terez, the Calgary-born singer-songwriter, spends a lot of the video being terrorized by classmates, which climaxes together with her being slimed with a pail of hot-pink goop.

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Whereas it performs out like a surreal neon-coloured nightmare,  it’s really based mostly on an actual incident at Calgary’s Cowboys when Terez was 18.

“It was in all probability the primary time I used to be at a bar,” says Terez, in an interview with Postmedia. “This lady got here as much as me and poured a drink over my head. I type of knew her, however I didn’t have any downside together with her. I didn’t know why that was occurring. I’m going to the toilet and I’m drying off and having just a little cry and I seemed down at my cellphone and I noticed some texts and missed calls from individuals who weren’t there. And I checked out one of many texts and it mentioned, ‘I noticed what occurred on-line, are you OK?’ I spotted that someone deliberately set that up for someone to take a video and put it on-line. That was actually brutal. On the time, it felt just like the yuckiest factor ever.”

This distressing second could not appear the likeliest fodder for LUV2H8, a tune that was initially launched as a comparatively straight-ahead pop single again in the summertime however has since been given a barely angrier pop-punk overhaul for her new EP, Chaos Period. Terez produced each tracks, however admits the EP model appears extra genuine to her.

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The tune appears to be about bullying usually, however the sliming scene within the video is a direct reference to the Cowboys incident and a method of “taking possession of it.”

“It’s like ‘Dude, you can’t cease me. I’m a shifting prepare and I’m going to reside an unimaginable life,” says Terez. “‘That’s actually crummy, what you probably did, however I’m nonetheless going.’”

It’s maybe not shocking that the tune was given an empowerment increase for the EP, which is filled with songs Terez says had been largely fuelled by a post-pandemic interval of chaos and tumult that required “numerous remedy.” Now in her mid-20s, the artist has change into a seasoned author and producer. She sharpened her abilities in the course of the pandemic by learning music manufacturing and, as all the time, writing a prodigious variety of tunes. However the tracks chosen for the Chaos Period signify what the artist describes as probably the most chaotic time in her life. Terez doesn’t go into particulars concerning the circumstances that made the 2 years since she launched her 2021 EP, Unhappy Lady Summer time, nevertheless it concerned the loss of life of associates. Whereas Love2h8 is about bullying, there are additionally songs that counsel poisonous relationships. A few of them, such because the playful Destroy My Life, which appears to be about how turning into overly enamoured with a possible companion can result in less-than-sound judgement, or the charging grunge-lite anthem All of My Exes are Lifeless, appears to have a tongue-in-cheek really feel. The catchy opener Ugh Boy — really, the unique title includes an  F-bomb rather than the phrase Ugh, however Terez launched a cleaned-up model for radio — got here from a Nashville songwriting session and he or she had hoped to offer it to a different artist. She determined to maintain it for herself when she discovered no takers.

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“It’s supposed to be very sexually liberating for ladies, of not all the time going the connection route,” Terez says. “It’s OK to only date and be younger and see what you want and see what you do and set boundaries.”

Writing the R&B-leaning title monitor, which additionally appears to cope with empowerment, was cathartic.

“I wrote that tune not considering it was going to exit on the earth, nevertheless it was simply what I wanted at that second to pump myself up,” she says. “It was like ‘It’s OK, you’re just a little chaotic proper now. You’re having this second, however this second will move and all the things will probably be OK.’”

The songs had been additionally recorded in a comparatively haphazard method. Terez has spent the final couple of years travelling, however would typically take moveable recording gear wherever she went. So, the songs had been written and, in some circumstances, recorded in Amsterdam, Mexico, Nashville and all through Canada.

Terez continues to jot down songs for different artists — she has co-written with Phil Barton, Edmonton’s Alee and 100 gecs’s Dylan Brady — and is dabbling in writing for Ok-pop performers. After fast-tracking by means of highschool and graduating a yr early, she bought her begin on the age of 18 as a rustic singer-songwriter performing beneath her full identify Terez Goulet. She reckons, over time, she has written greater than 500 songs.

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Terez, who’s of Metis heritage, lately participated within the 2023 Indigenous Track Camp, which was placed on by The SOCAN Basis and the Canadian Songwriters Corridor of Fame in Toronto. She can also be collaborating within the Music Publishers Canada’s Ladies within the Studio Nationwide Accelerator 2023, which focuses on growing the careers of ladies, gender fluid, non-binary and gender non-conforming members.

As Chaos Period but once more proves, songwriting has been a dependable method for Terez to course of no matter goes by means of her life.

“I bought into music once I was a child and I didn’t even know that’s what I used to be doing on the time,” Terez says.  “I don’t even assume I knew I used to be writing songs. I used to be simply making issues up and being artistic. Being a child, I used to be utilizing music to be an outlet to work by means of no matter was happening by means of my life and that also rings true at this time, I feel. I really feel most snug working by means of feelings whereas writing songs. I write songs on a regular basis, in all probability each day. Perhaps it’s not a full tune, however I’m continually writing. It’s humorous; typically associates will see me go off right into a nook and pull my cellphone out and I’ll be singing into my cellphone or writing down lyric concepts. It’s actually fixed.”

Chaos Period is offered Nov. 24 on all streaming companies. 

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