New To 4AD: LUCINDA CHUA
Antidotes 2 EP Released On 7 May 2021
Single ‘Until I Fall’ + Video Out Today
Lucinda Chua is a singer, songwriter, composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist based in South London. Primarily using her voice, a cello, and an array of effects units, Chua writes ambient pop songs that are intimate, atmospheric, and totally enchanting.
Newly signed to 4AD, she will release a second EP of solo work, Antidotes 2, on 7 May 2021. Today, Chua launches the EP’s opening track ‘Until I Fall’ with an accompanying video directed by William Kennedy. She says, “for me, this song is about rebirth and finding the inner strength to rise.”
Watch the video for ‘Until I Fall’ here: lucindachua.ffm.to/untilifall
Born in London and raised in Milton Keynes, Chua has English, Malaysian and ancestral Chinese roots. As an outsider to a new town, and a mixed-race kid in an overwhelmingly white area, Chua felt a huge culture shock after moving to Milton Keynes, but found solace in art, photography, and her local music community. Having learned music by ear from the age of three using the Suzuki method (whereby young children are taught music in the same way they would a native language), Chua regards music as a natural form of non-verbal self-expression.
Whilst studying photography at university in Nottingham, Chua took an elective course in music production and the resulting experimental tracks she created and uploaded online caught the attention of US label kranky. Before long she was touring with Stars of the Lid as a cellist and string arranger and went on to release two albums with her first band Felix – all while barely into her 20s. After Felix broke up, Chua spent a few years in London exploring the city’s creative scene and began experimenting with the cello. Those explorations became her 2019 debut EP Antidotes 1 which flitted between hushed songwriting and expansive textural soundscapes and was released shortly before she joined FKA twigs’ live band for her Magdalene tour. Earning praise from Pitchfork, The Guardian, Dazed and gal-dem, Antidotes 1 led to Chua participating in NTS Radio’s Work In Progress scheme as well as performing one-person shows across the UK and Europe including Red Bull Music Festival London, MUTEK Barcelona, Tate Modern and Somerset House.
A sister release to Antidotes I, Antidotes 2 expands Chua’s unique sonic vocabulary, with subliminal textures that bleed into each other before fading away. If Antidotes 1 was Chua building the landscape and scenery for her music, then Antidotes 2 is her living within it Some of the songs were written during the same period whilst others, like EP opener ‘Until I Fall’, are brand new.
Antidotes 2 is out digitally on 7 May. A special vinyl edition of Antidotes will include both EPs and will be released on [date TBC]. To pre-order, head to lucindachua.ffm.to/antidotes
Lucinda Chua – Antidotes 2
7 May – Digital
Tracklisting:
- Until I Fall
- An Avalanche
- Torch Song
- Before
Lucinda Chua – Antidotes
Antidotes 1 and Antidotes 2
[date TBC] – Vinyl edition
Tracklisting:
Feel Something
Whatever It Takes
Semitones
Somebody Who
Until I Fall
An Avalanche
Torch Song
Before
LUCINDA CHUA ONLINE:
lucindachua.com
Instagram, Soundcloud + Twitter @LucindaChua
