“Being open-minded doesn’t mean not being critical about things” – In conversation with Caro<3 about her album 'Heartbeats/Heartbreaks'

London-based artist Caro has released her self-produced debut album Heartbeats/Heartbreaks via PC Music today. Musically, the album is a fusion of innocent pop and bolder electronic sounds, topped with Caro’s smooth, yet piercing vocals. The artist herself has described the album as an aggregation of her childhood, which she spent at the French Riviera.

KALTBLUT caught up with Caro<3 ahead of her album release via zoom to discuss her album, her childhood and the current meaning of pop music. Read the q&a below.

Photo by Aidan Zamiri

KALTBLUT: Are you excited to release your album soon?

Caro: Yeah, it’s very soon now! I finished it like last summer. I’m looking forward to releasing it now.

KALTBLUT: Were you holding back the release because of the pandemic?

Caro: I think it was a bit of everything. I sent the album to AG and PC last summer, but summer is always a tricky time to get people together etc. Then in September, I was starting to meet people to do the visuals and things like that. The preparation around the release of the album took a bit longer because of the pandemic, but I’m excited nonetheless. And I feel more ready now than I did a few months ago.

KALTBLUT: Did you keep working on the album until now? 

Caro: No, not at all. I sent it to AG and I remember telling him that I’ll probably change some things, add some vocals and re-record some bits, but I did none of it. It was a bit like it’s finished, now move on. I could have worked on it forever. I feel it’s what I did for years, there are so many tracks I never brought to the point of release, so I kinda forced myself to not look at it anymore and to focus on what’s to come instead.

KALTBLUT: Were you able to test out some of the songs before, or have you never performed them?

Caro: No. I’ve never played them before. I’m playing at the Pitchfork Music Festival in London in November. I’m excited, but I think it’s gonna be a lot of work because I don’t want to play the songs exactly as they are recorded. I want to try to do something else with the songs like adapting them or maybe doing some remixes. 

KALTBLUT: Your album Heartbeats/Heartbreaks is inspired by your childhood at the French Riviera. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

Caro: I heard a lot of people saying that your first album takes your entire life to make, and I feel like it’s reminiscent of my childhood/teenage years in some ways. A lot of the sounds make me think of the sceneries I grew up in, like the waves for example; me using that palette of sound was pretty natural but then I guess I intentionally indulged in it at some point cause I thought it was a nice colour for the whole thing.

I started working on some of these songs three years ago, so I was in London already. I produced the whole album in London, and even though I like being in a big city, I always imagine some natural sceneries when I’m working, I’m into escapism for sure. The sea is something that will always be there as a backdrop in my mind, it’s a dreamy place for me. 

KALTBLUT: Would you say that the album is therefore a chapter of your life? As in the first album is about your childhood, the second about being a young adult, etc.

Caro: I don’t know, but that’s a good idea! I think you’re right, what I’m working on now definitely feels more confident. The album is a bit more childish in a way because it’s less frontal, the meanings of the songs are a bit more blurred and some of the sounds are like childish dreams to me. The stuff I’m working on now is a bit more straightforward and less concealed, I think it has to do with maturity and different things I am going through at the present moment which is making me grow and have more acceptance for who I am.

Photo by Aidan Zamiri

KALTBLUT: When it comes to your sound, I wouldn’t know what genre to put you in. Is that something you do on purpose, or does it come naturally and unintentionally?

Caro: Yeah, I think it’s definitely what happened, it came naturally. I like the concept of outsider art. I like the idea of not being trained, even though I classically trained for the piano and vocals when I was a kid/teen, I was never really interested in that, I just don’t have that sort of patience and diligence, I like to be spontaneous, I like to be surprised so written music has its limits when it comes to that. I like interpreting stuff sometimes but it does leave me quite frustrated. The only thing I ever really enjoy on the piano is improvising. My album is a random mix of genres, and I didn’t try to intellectualise things. I don’t have this vision of things, it comes organically and I’m excited by that. Also, I grew up in a remote place, culturally, so I feel like I wasn’t ever drawn to any particular genre of music, I didn’t have friends who were music nerds or something, I just listened to many different things pretty much on my own, and I was oblivious to how you were supposed to get into music, like integrate a scene and all, it just took me years to realise that’s how a lot of artists go into music. My relationship to music-making was always just an experiment of blending whatever came to my mind, I never thought “oh I’m gonna make a pop, or shoegaze or garage record, I’m gonna do it like this person did” or something. I want to preserve the naivety with which I make music. When I make beats, for example, I don’t think about it, it’s like another level of focus, and then I’m surprised by what I’ve done, I can see that the brain records so many more things than what we can rationally grasp, and I like that.

KALTBLUT: Who would you say are your musical influences? 

Caro: There are so many! Jean Dubuffet is a huge influence for me, his way of thinking about art. And musically, there is a lot. But if I had to pick some, I’d say Kate Bush. I used to listen to her a lot when I was younger. I remember when I started producing the album, I listened to her albums many times over – her vocal melodies and the way she sings and is super weird and authentic is a huge influence. Same for Elizabeth Fraser from Cocteau Twins. There are just so many, there’s also this Canadian artist d’Eon, whom I love very much. Then I listen to Nine Inch Nails a lot. And some French stuff too, I love Daft Punk and also My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive – all that shoegaze stuff.  

KALTBLUT: So, you listen to a pretty diverse pool of music.

Caro: Yes, I listen to a lot of hip hop too. I adore Drake. (laughs) He has a great sense of melodies, he is an influence on me. As you were saying, a mix of genres is representative of our’s and the new generation. People listen to so many different things, we have a syncretism in music, which I find interesting. 

…there aren’t a lot of women in the tech side of things still, so I believe it’s good to be open-minded but also it’s important to be vocal about inequalities and aware of the need to not accept certain things and try to power through them so no one feels like they have to conform to be accepted or battle to justify their artistry and all.

KALTBLUT: You’re right! I’ve noticed that nowadays it’s a lot more “acceptable” to listen to more commercial pop music. When I was a teenager, I remember pop, or electronic music for that matter, wasn’t cool, whereas Indie, Hip Hop and Alternative was considered cool and acceptable. 

Caro: Yes, that’s true! I remember when I was a kid, everyone talked about Britney and all, but I could not ever admit to liking stuff like that because I always felt I had to be opposed to the mainstream as an act of personal duty you know. I still feel that way tbh. It was a bit close-minded maybe, also I was surrounded by boys and I wanted to be taken seriously. Maybe teenagers nowadays are a bit more open to mainstream stuff. But also I think society has changed because with Britney for example, at least in France, I remember there was a lot of sexism around the perception of these female 00s pop singers. Like I was ashamed of saying I was a singer because, in the eyes of people that meant you were stupid or something, you couldn’t be a young female singer and be considered a talented musician, so I would always feel like I had to say ‘yeah I sing but I play this and that etc’, which is ridiculous, singing is a magical thing and most people can’t do it and touch people through it so it’s pretty special. But it was just a very sexist time I think. And to be fair there was a lot of sexism in the music industry, the way they portrayed/exploited some of these young women and all, which I think is still very much the case today, and there aren’t a lot of women in the tech side of things still, so I believe it’s good to be open-minded but also it’s important to be vocal about inequalities and aware of the need to not accept certain things and try to power through them so no one feels like they have to conform to be accepted or battle to justify their artistry and all. I was reading an article about toxic positivity the other day, and I think it applies here, being open-minded doesn’t mean not being critical about things. 

KALTBLUT: I think the internet has also made a big difference. I listened to music by watching MTV and now, you can just download Spotify and pretty much everything is there. 

Caro: That’s true. The Internet saved my life as a teen, I didn’t have the cash to buy all the music I wanted to listen to, radio in France is very generic and there wasn’t any music venue around me so I don’t think I would have been able to properly educate myself or satisfy my curiosity without it. Today it’s even easier to access everything and that’s great, you just have to find the right trails.

KALTBLUT: I also wanted to ask you about the artwork and the visuals that are accompanying the album and the already released singles. I liked the aesthetic and there’s like a thread going through all of the visuals. Was that on purpose and did you come up with the concept or was it the artist?

Caro: When I started sending the music around, I made loads of mood boards. It was important to me to put all the visual influences I had in mind to kind of give a general direction for colours to artists I wanted to work with. Then pretty early on, I found Camille Soulat’s work and I connected to what she was doing. 

She’s based in Marseille, which is the city I was born in. I love her stuff and I thought it matched the music perfectly. It has that kind of shyness to it while being romantic, as well as that element of childishness and water. Water was an important direction from the start, we followed that thread with everyone that I worked with on the visuals. The mood boards and ideas were all linked to each other.

I wanted to do something with Aidan Zamiri because he’s full of ideas and energy. He’s one of the most positive people I’ve ever met. He’s super sensitive, too, and easy to talk to and exchange ideas with. I’m really happy with how everything turned out.

KALTBLUT: You should be, the visuals are great! I noticed that your album is quite long, there are 14 tracks, which is rare nowadays, as so many EPs only have around four to five tracks.

Caro: Yes, and they’re only 20 minutes long! I didn’t think about it, because at first, I wanted to make an album with just vocal tracks, and another album with just instrumentals. After a while, as I was working on everything at the same time, I came to realise that the songs were answering each other and the instrumentals in the middle created a narrative. 

When I was talking about Kate Bush, I like this long format that you can get into. Maybe, it’s not so common nowadays; a bit anachronistic.

I’m working on a second album, and I think it’s gonna belong as well. Though I like short albums, and sometimes I get conscious of that and think if it’s 40/50 minutes long, are people gonna stick to it? So sometimes I just wonder about all this, like should I accept some constraints cause they can be a positive challenge, or should I just ignore every rule, let myself loose and see what comes out? I think it’s a bit of both, but in the end, I’ll always put spontaneity at the forefront of it all. 

Buy/Stream Caro<3’s album Heartbeats/Heartbreaks here.

Cover photo by Aidan Zamiri

Caro<3’s socials:
Instagram: @ultra_caro
Facebook: @caroheartemoji
Twitter: @caroheartemoji