Teens In My Twenties, the debut EP from multi-hyphenate composer-performer-singer-songwriter ERIKA POH, springs to life from a vivid musical palette influenced by Broadway melodies, R&B and symphonic masterworks. With lyrics leaping from irreverent to contemplative, her latest collection of songs explores the doubts of young adulthood with intricate harmonies woven from a large cast of collaborators and friends. I recently sat down with ERIKA to discuss her artistic journey that led to creating Teens In My Twenties, and what uncharted emotions and new sounds she has yet to explore.
Describe some themes on Teens In My Twenties. What motivated you to write about these things at this point in your career?
ERIKA: “Teens In My Twenties is about a coming of age. It’s about unrequited love, daddy issues, social anxieties, failed dates and the fear of growing up. While the music seeks to mask these anxieties with humor, it is this very disguise that exposes its vulnerabilities and sensibilities. It’s a body of work that questions societal expectations of growing up. It questions the need to feel like growing up is a point of arrival or even a process in which the individual emerges from it having everything figured out. I think all these thoughts/phases are what I’m currently going through right now in my career which is what compelled me to write this. These thoughts are always something I struggle with, and this body of work validates these feelings—it tells me that it’s ok to live life right now.”
I’m curious, how do your methods for composition inform or contribute to your pop songwriting?
ERIKA: “I think my music theory knowledge definitely affects the choices for voicing and counterpoint that I make in my music. Sometimes I notate BGV (background vocal) voicings or even keyboard voicings that I later track in the DAW, just to make sure that the dissonances make harmonic sense. I think another direct influence from my compositional training is my ability to write string arrangements! I love writing, arranging, and recording string arrangements—and I love doing this with my long-time collaborator and violinist Olena Kaspersky. You can hear her playing in my arrangement on ‘it’s too much.’ Other than this, I don’t think I often intentionally think about how my classical background affects my writing, it just probably exists and affects it in subtle ways!”
April 26th, 2023: ERIKA POH performs at SONIC ACTIVATION, a collaborative concert between dublab and the USC Thornton School of Music. (Photo by LZ)
Tell us about your collaborators on Teens In My Twenties. What roles did they play in the songwriting process & production?
ERIKA: “All the collaborators on this project are my good friends. Many I play with in my band, including Jacob E, Manny Martinez, Julia Levin, Terako and Hailey Wild. Mostly, they follow the charts/MIDI demos that I give them and record their parts over these demos in their own style. Charlie Hallock also helped me record and produce vocals on some of my sessions. In addition to these friends who collaborated with me as session musicians, I also co-produced with several others who contributed to the songwriting and the sound of the EP. JC Chiam, Samvel Krajian and Grace Miedziak co-wrote ‘Teens In My Twenties’ with Yafeu Tyhimba. JC was pivotal in helping me conceive of and record this first EP of mine. I learned a lot from JC—I learned about recording musicians and how to be in sessions. He also produced vocals and did initial production mixes on some of the songs.”
Photo by Ally Wei.
Pick a distinctive sound from one of your songs—something that you feel makes it unique. How did you achieve this in the studio?
ERIKA: “I believe that the unique sounds I have on this EP are always a result of collaboration. ‘Imaginary Man’ is a song I co-produced with my precious friend Samvel Krajian. There are so many sounds that Samvel contributed that made it really unique—the metallic drums, synth warbles…it’s difficult to describe, I think you just have to listen to it! I have no idea how he does it so I couldn’t tell you how these sounds were made. I also want to know…”
Describe a key collaborative moment in the making of your debut EP.
ERIKA: “On ‘like u,’ I collaborated with Frank Wendelin and David Hernandez. They both played classical guitar on the track which is the backbone of the entire song. I knew I wanted a soft, gentle guitar sound and both Frank and David were so open to improvising and devising the guitar voicing, harmonies and melodies with only a basic guideline/chart from me. This is what really transformed the sound and made it the track that it is today.”
ERIKA POH performs at CASA. (Photo by Vincent Leo)
What challenges did you overcome making Teens In My Twenties? What did you learn about yourself in the process?
ERIKA: “I think this EP helped me overcome my fear of producing. For a long time, I’ve only worked in acoustic mediums or in notation. Before writing this piece of work, I had limited experience in recording or making electronic music…or even working in DAWs. Making this EP was a process, and it gave me more experience in processing raw audio, but also conceiving music in MIDI and samples instead of notation.”
How have these songs developed the more you've played them live?
ERIKA: “I think I’m trying to find new ways of presenting the pieces, trying to find new arrangements to play. I’m playing with new people all the time, so that always changes the sound.”
What are you looking forward to in your evolution as a composer & songwriter?
ERIKA: “I’m looking forward to a more direct, bold sound in my next few works. It’s such a vague idea—while Teens In My Twenties is more of a coming-of-age album, the next body of work will be an emergence, a kind of coming-of-self. I also look forward to exploring more classical music techniques in pop music writing: notating synth line/notating electronic samples, creating orchestral textures and playing them all together within a song.”
ERIKA POH. (Photo by Sean David Christensen)
Teens In My Twenties was released on May 12th, 2023 and is now available across all major digital streaming platforms. For all upcoming shows & releases, stay connected with ERIKA POH on Instagram at @pohsterika