Spill Tab, the Franco-Korean who transcends the borders of pop | EUROtoday

On May 17, 2025

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JEudi morning. Claire Chicha, alias Spill Tab, arrives on the editorial workers of the Point in transit passenger. Camouflage jacket on the again, Matated membership bottle by hand, zero stress. “I have a plane in two hours,” she broadcasts. But hey, we’ve got time.

The day earlier than the exit ofAngieher first album, she gives the look of levitating, someplace between Paris and Los Angeles, punctuating her English sentences with out fascinated by it, like her music: a patchwork of identities that are brushed in opposition to with out ever dissolving.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwexf2Gyxzy

Family chapter in Bangkok

Born in 1997 in Bangkok, a South Korean mom and a Franco-Algerian father, raised to Los Angeles, handed by Évry and Burbank, Spill Tab alone embodies a motion in movement. “Los Angeles is where I feel at home. But I grew up by moving all the time. A year in Bangkok, another in Paris, then back every time, was like starting again. At twelve, you don’t want to do tourism. You just want to stay with your friends. »»

Read too Bad Bunny, the incredible course of a cashier who became king of popThis incessant journey is not an adventure that she chose, but a question of survival. In 2008, the financial crisis caused the registration studio of its parents to Burbank. The fall is brutal. “It was like in movies. The bank came to us, they took the car, the microphones, the mixing tables. I was a kid, but I understood that day what meant losing everything. “Founding trauma, this scene sheds light on the almost obsessive rigor with which she has been piloting her career:” Since then, I need to watch over everything. On tour, in the studio, I need to be everywhere. »»

“Part to work in the shadows”

Before everything rocks, sounds, instruments and melodies were already part of his daily life. His father, a composer, was blowing in a saxophone or a flute; His mother played the piano and the harp. But the idea of making it a job? Out of reach. “I loved it, but I didn’t think I would become a singer. At the start, I left to work in the shade. I started as an intern in music boxes, I was looking for artists. After a tour with Gus Dapperton where she came out t-shirts at the Merchandising stand, she tells herself that she could try her luck too.

With David Marinelli, former drummer of Billie Eilish, she sets up an unpretentious pair. They draw their names, “Spill Tab”, in the jargon of the barmen. This is the line that we add to the addition to count the offered or overturned glasses. Given his talent, Marinelli quickly breathed the idea of standing on her own two feet.

A first single balanced on SoundCloud in 2019 makes it switch to light. “It was for fun. And then it was put on Spotify playlists. There, I said to myself: ok, Maybe i can do this. But recognizing yourself as an artist takes time. “I had impostor syndrome for a long time. I thought I was there by accident. With the covid, I stopped all my jobs and I only made music. It ended up walking, but it took a long time to assume. “She laughs, dramatizes:” We always hope that people will recognize themselves in what we do. But it’s already huge to be honest with yourself. »»

A tour with Sabrina Carpenter

Signed on a major, she continued three EPs – “Oatmilk” in 2020, “Bonnie” in 2021 and “Klepto” in 2023 -, combining millions of listening. The tour with Sabrina Carpenter, in 2023, marked a turning point: “I think it was she or her team that contacted us. We did the tour with her just before she comes out of espresso. But she was in full ascent. »»

Despite the intensity of the rhythm, a few moments of breathing: “We did laser tag, that allowed us to decompress. “But Carpenter never gets her foot:” Music, tours, films … it’s a bomb. But while the interpreter of “Espresso” rushes, she doubts. “I thought it was necessary to appeal to everyone. I wanted more bizarre, more rough sounds … but that was corner. »»

For Angieher first album, she decides to regain control. She shapes him alone, from A to Z, then presents it to Becaus Music once finished. They accept without touching anything. “I really wanted to conceive it alone, without external influence. And what is cool is that they liked it as is. They did not try to modify it. This was important to me. »»

Globalized pop

A record that looks like him: a mosaic of influences gleaned from around the world. Indie pop, grunge guitars, bossa nova rhythm, vintage synths, sometimes sweet refrains, sometimes abrasive: all cohabit without hierarchy, without trying to smooth the angles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAZHWTHFL9A

“I wanted to show that you couldn’t stick to a label. I’m not just an Indie Pop or Hyperpop singer. I like it when it hangs, when it grates a little. The clip of his “war” piece, turned with a snatch with surveillance cameras, is raw proof: rough, dirty, alive.

In this industry which tends to reduce artists to boxes, it claims its complexity as a manifesto. Not a response to K-POP or an export product, but a moving, intimate and political identity. “As a child, I was ashamed of being Korean. My mother encouraged me to say that I was French. Today is the opposite. The “Korean cultural wave” swept by the world. Korea has labored fifty years to get there. I’m happy with it now. »»

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Answer

His relation to success is lucid. “I could not be a Sabrina Carpenter popstar. At this degree, your picture doesn’t belong to you anymore, your telephone turns into an itinerant bomb with all of the messages you obtain. You should go away from the web as a result of folks turn out to be too nasty, too intrusive. Claire Chicha prefers to remain free, at her personal tempo. “Maybe I’ll make the subsequent album with three folks, three devices, and that is it. »»

For the time being, there may be this aircraft to take. Claire Chicha returns to Los Angeles, her anchor level. Her voice will proceed to sail between languages, genres and borders.

https://www.lepoint.fr/pop-culture/spill-tab-la-franco-coreenne-qui-transcende-les-frontieres-de-la-pop-17-05-2025-2589791_2920.php