Five Fun Facts with Chaz Cardigan
Chaz Cardigan
“Cracking codes to emotion” with his new EP, Holograma.
Everything is right; everything is so right when it comes to Chaz Cardigan's new eight-track EP, Holograma. We had a great time listening to it from start to finish. What a lovely, lovely experience indeed. And yes, we are being corny and using lyrics from the track "Everything's Wrong" to write this introduction. We've had the song stuck in our heads- can you blame us?!
The Nashville-based 25-year-old made waves with his smash single "Not Ok!" which peaked at #18 on the Billboard Alternative Airplay Chart. His song "As I'll Ever Be" was featured in the Netflix film To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You. So yeah, Chaz is most certainly on his way to big things and is taking us all along for the ride. He's been able to turn his deepest insecurities into wildly cathartic pop songs. In his latest work, Chaz makes a new leap in what he calls "cracking codes to emotion." What an interesting and spot-on way of describing it. The batch of songs that he shared in Holograma shows remarkable growth in his life and music. You can listen for yourself below!
"All of the songs are about looking back on old memories and re-contextualizing them, seeing everything in a new light now that I know myself better, and I'm way more secure in who I am," shared Chaz. "The songs came from the shifting of ideas and shifting of perceptions, and I saw them as these iridescent, shimmering colors, like a hologram.”
The music video for "Losing Touch," the final in a quadrilogy of videos Chaz made with Haoyan of America, showcases that as a holographic Chaz performs in the virtual surroundings.
The Elizabethtown, Kentucky native may not know how to whistle or blow bubbles with bubblegum, but he is a classically trained pianist who taught himself to play guitar, bass, and drums. By the age of 11, he was gigging with punk bands- we wonder if that's where he learned to hone such electric, high energy, and distinct sounds. What we do know is that Chaz is someone you'll want to keep both eyes on. What better time to get acquainted with this talented young man than the present. He kindly shared some facts about himself below.
I can't whistle or blow bubbles with bubblegum — actually incredibly annoying. If I get "Pumped Up Kicks" stuck in my head, there's absolutely nothing I can do about it.
The last concert I saw before the pandemic was an artist named Bonavega at Harvard & Stone in LA. Absolutely bonkers show; about a month later, he showed up on America's Got Talent.
My Star Wars ranking is Empire Strikes Back, Last Jedi, Force Awakens, A New Hope, Rise of Skywalker, Revenge of the Sith, Return of the Jedi, Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones.
My favorite album of 2020 (so far) is Phoebe Bridgers' Punisher.
The first song I learned to play on guitar was Green Day's "Holiday".
- Chaz Cardigan
Photos by Joelle Grace
Written by Piera Lolandes