Chrissi talks taking time out, signing to Black Butter, and returning with new single 'HEARTLESS DARLIN' !' • Interview • DIY Magazine

For East London songwriter Chrissi, the last few years have been something of a rollercoaster. After first breaking through with her debut EP ‘Back In The Day’ in 2021, the then-21 year old quickly garnered a reputation for her evocative, reflective brand of R&B. Two years later, with the release of her gorgeously frank ‘Love Me In Chapters’ (as lifted from 2023 EP ‘No Love Unrequited’), she was introduced to a whole new audience when the track went viral, before going on to be nominated for the Ivor Novello Rising Star Award that following summer. From the outside, momentum was clearly growing, but - much like the stories of too many singers and songwriters right now - other forces were at play, too.

“I had a label and they just wanted me to do a bunch of EPs and it was really hard to get things released,” the singer says today, reflecting on her previous - relatively quiet - eighteen months. “I had a third EP lined up, and after six months, I asked, ‘What’s going on? I’m not actually working - what’s happening?!’”

It was at that point that Chrissi found herself taking “a few months to get out of that deal” before embarking on a series of trips to the States - both to Los Angeles and Nashville - to work on expanding that EP into something bigger. “There were two songs that were going to be on the EP that are now on the album. I feel like the EP was one staple sound - quite similar to ‘Love Me In Chapters’ - and I wanted some of that in it, but I just felt like there was so much more that I could offer. I wanted to make a long-form piece that people can really get into the world of. I’m really excited about it.”

“As I got further through the process, life started happening to me.”

Newly signed to Black Butter, Chrissi returned with her first solo music in two years last October, when she released the emotionally-charged ‘ONE IN FIVE !’, a fearless track touching on the fear and shame that surrounds sexual assault and negative relationship experiences. A track written back in 2020 (it originally came to life as “something to make me feel better”), she was “never gonna have that on the album. It’s a bit intense!” she laughs today. “I really wanted the first album to be softer, and I thought: ‘Maybe it’s too soon to talk about sexual assault’, you know?! Then I realised it made sense; the fact that people resonated with it is the reason that I’m able to release this whole album. It’s been such a blessing.”

Instead of her original plan to explore something with softer edges, her debut full-length has grown into something that embodies the expansiveness of her human experience so far. “I remember, three years ago, I said: ‘Okay, I’m making an album, no matter what’ and my first idea was to have a really positive album with songs about love, happiness and friendship, which is insane right now!” she chuckles again. “I think there is a sprinkling of it on there, but as I got further through the process, life started happening to me; some good and some really bad. I realised [that] I think what I want to do with my music - which I’d never really had a clear vision of before - is to document my individual human experience.”

The result - which she’s set to release later this Summer - is an album that feels to embody her talents for creating a refreshing but timeless take on soul-pop, which doesn’t sugar the truth or round off life’s edges but still manages - at its heart - to feel human and hopeful; something that feels quintessentially Chrissi in every way.

Chrissi’s new single ‘HEARTLESS DARLIN’ !’ is out now via Black Butter Records.

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