“Don’t doubt, see the ideas through, and when it’s right, you’ll know,” Chance Peña lists his personal takeaways from working on his sophomore album, ‘When I Change My Mind I Don’t Mean It.’ The indie-folk artist catches up with Noctis on his day off in Washington, D.C., after his first show of the tour supporting The Lumineers.
What was a random collection of songs recorded at different times, of various sounds and themes, is now a 14-track palette of Chance Peña’s observations, catapulted with creative freedom backed by comprehensive poetic storytelling, which makes the listening experience a moment of surrender to midnight thoughts and question marks.
The record’s highlights, such as ‘Song From Yesterday,’ ‘Spinning,’ and ‘Collapse,’ are the result of Chance Peña’s ability to compartmentalize his own feelings, elevated by a slightly dramatic imagination. Inspired by the surrounding snow and wind, half of ‘When I Change My Mind I Don’t Mean It’ is an insistent response to having to sit with thoughts and process them in the isolation and serene silence of the Californian mountains.
Chance Peña talks to Noctis Magazine and opens the gates to the inner workings of his poetic perspectives responsible for his new album, ‘When I Change My Mind I Don’t Mean It,’ a project capable of contesting with the stars for night’s attention.
I’m listening to your new album at 9:47pm and it’s slowly shattering my heart. There is something extra melancholic about listening to new music, when the house is quite and the lyrics can acquire meanings for the first time. First of all, could you share more about the sentiment behind the title ‘When I Change My Mind I Don’t Mean It’?
When I change my mind I don’t mean it, it was something I said to myself under my breath once. On a musical level, it came from me not knowing which songs to release or how to release them. At the beginning of this year I had a lot of songs that I loved and was waiting to do something with. But they were recorded at different time or in different ways and I was like “oh but the vibes are too different for them to go together”. At first I was going to do a few different EP’s throughout the year and had my mind set on that until one night I was driving home late and it just hit me that these were all supposed to be together. I had remembered what I uttered under my breath earlier that night, “I guess when I change my mind I don’t mean it” and I was like that’s the title and I know what photo I’m gonna use.
Right off the bat, ‘Song From Yesterday’ is a ballsy calling-out ballad. “If you’re in love with someone else, won’t you just let me go” is carrying quite the vulnerable message, could you elaborate on what experience inspired this track?
To be honest, it came from pure imagination. I started with the chorus melody and the lyric “you know I lie to keep you safe” and it turned into this song about begging for the truth. I think a bit of it was hiding a personal experience behind a fake one that’s “louder”. But the original idea stemmed from hiding a hard truth as not to hurt someone you love.
One of my favourite ‘Spinning’ is a perfect crash out song, does songwriting help you with unresolved emotions and uncertainty that naturally goes hand in hand with falling in love?
I think writing helps me compartmentalize a bit, and makes me feel like it’s okay to feel what I’m feeling. The real processing comes from sitting down and consciously sorting through those thoughts and feelings. But writing definitely is a cathartic first step.
On your Instagram, you posted a video from a recording session, when you were playing around with a harmonica, with a caption ‘sad harmonica blues.’ How did the harmonica aid to encapsulate the essence of ‘Home Is Where Your Heart Is’?
Honestly I was just learning how to play it at the time and I thought it sounded cool. That instrument always feels lonesome to me, like a lone wanderer on a journey, and for some reason I felt drawn to it. I think I’m a lot better at it now. It feels ancient in a modern way if that makes any sense at all. When I hear it in a song, when it’s done right, it makes me feel everything I want to feel.
On ‘Collapse’, you talk about going through changes and having to learn some lessons. What were the main takeaways from the album making, after you wrote all this brilliant lyrical poetry?
The main take away was, and it’s a lesson I’m always continuing to learn, to trust myself. Don’t doubt, see the ideas through, and when it’s right you’ll know. When it’s wrong you’ll know it too. So I guess I’d say just trusting my intuition. And being on the other side of this album, I’m proud and happy to have worked on it with people I trust and who trust me. It’s a beautiful thing to make something like this with beautiful people.
On the last tack ‘Heavenly,’ you sing, “I won’t forget the way that you loved me”; a beautifully poignant closing lyric of the whole album. Does it summarise and close this chapter, or is it a book still in progress?
We wrote that song almost two years ago, so in my mind that song is apart of a chapter long since closed but I thought it was a great bookend to this album. I think in spirit it was always the closing of a chapter, and it finally found its home closing this album.
You recorded half o the new album in a Californian mountain cabin. What did that surrounding tranquil environment bring into the overall mood of the record?
Well a snow storm locked us inside so we had nothing to do other than to write and record. It was beautiful and anxiety inducing at times but I think we channeled that all into the music, and to do it with two of my close friends was so fun. There was a lot of music and Mario kart that got us through those days. Not to mention being surrounded by nothing other than trees and wind. No distractions. My favorite song we wrote, and most inspired by the mountains is “my mind drifts to you”. We were just stuck there and I was looking out at the snow through the window and thinking about someone special.
You were raised by dreamers, could you paint us a picture of what that looked like? What was the best advice your parents gave you?
My parents are real deal entrepreneurs, have always paved their own path in life and taught me and my siblings to do the same. They always believed and poured into me growing. They taught me how to dream big and believe in myself. If it weren’t for them seeing in me what I didn’t see in my self I wouldn’t be here. To this day, my parents are my rock.
How did the beginning of your professional journey look like?
Well it started with to playing 3 hour gigs in bars and restaurants every weekend when I was about 15. That went into a brief stint in the voice then to writing songs for a publishing company called secret road. There’s a through line that connects it all and it’s called consistency. One of the things my parents taught me, do that one thing you love everyday, and always push yourself to get better at it, and one day you’ll look up and be where you once thought it impossible to stand.
There is probably nothing like being able to connect with a fellow artist, who understands all the intricacies of being a musician. You’re set to embark on two huge tours supporting The Lumineers and Tom Odell, what would we, the outsiders, be surprised by that musicians like to talk and ponder about?
Honestly my favorite thing is meeting your musical idols or heroes and them being just wonderful normal people. I think it’s easy to see someone on stage or on a screen and turn them into a larger than life figure in your head but at the end of the day we’re all just people who are blessed to get to do what we love for a living. Tour is funny too cause when I was younger I always thought it was party and rock and roll, but the truth is we’re playing shows, cooking food in the air fryer on the bus and watching a movie before we go to bed. Trying our best to have our normal routine amidst the ever shifting changing cities.
What are your main intentions for the next season and the upcoming tour dates?
To have fun, share music I’m proud of and feel will resonate with people, and to enjoy the present moment everyday.
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Words: Karolina Kramplova