A Chat With Clara Quilichini About “Tiny Girl, Big Feelings”
Q: Hi! That moment when you’re sitting right next to someone you love, but mentally you are on two completely different planets—what is going through your head when that silence hits?
A: Hi there! Absolute panic haha. When I wrote this song four years ago, any disagreement with the person I loved felt insurmountable; my world collapsed really easily. Ever since I was a child, I could never understand why other people didn’t seem as affected by a situation as I was, it often made me feel very lonely.
Today I understand that we all feel things at different levels, and that it doesn’t necessarily mean we don’t care.
Q: Writing a heavy, emotional song while literally sitting on the edge of your bed feels so personal. How do you go from that raw, solitary moment to deciding, “Okay, I’m going to put this out for everyone to hear”?
A: When I’m writing a song, I almost never think about other people hearing it. In the moment, I’m writing for myself, because it helps me process. With this particular song, it was only later, when I started thinking about making an album, that I came back to it and felt like it had a good balance between being personal and relatable. And to me, that’s when a song is worth releasing.
Q: You hit on this idea of needing words when a physical hug just isn’t cutting it. Is it hard to translate that specific frustration into melody without it getting overwhelming?
A: It was definitely overwhelming in the moment I wrote the song, but I think that’s part of the songwriting process. There’s a big cathartic dimension to it.
Q: The contrast in the production between warm folk-pop tones and pretty heavy dread is really cool. How did you balance making it sound inviting while keeping that emotional weight intact?
A: I didn’t want this song to feel too sad or heavy, because it’s as much about feeling disconnected from someone else as it is about feeling connected to yourself. I wanted the music to reflect that, and to feel like a hug for anyone who’s ever felt overwhelmed. That’s where the contrast came from.
Q: Overthinking often gets framed as this purely negative trait, but you turn it into a bit of an anthem here. Has leaning into “feeling too much” actually changed how you process your own anxiety day-to-day?
A: Yes, because it helped me realize that feeling things intensely also means we care a lot and are deeply alive. I’ve learned to accept emotions as they come, because I found that when we resist them, they tend to build up inside and end up coming out anyway – often causing more damage.
I think giving ourselves space to feel is a superpower, and I think it should be celebrated.
Q: Without spoiling that ending twist in the track, how did you decide to close out such an intense emotional narrative on that particular note?
A: I think the twist came to me as an afterthought, once the song was written. I’ve always loved a good twist, whether in a song, a book, or a movie. When a twist is done well, it makes you want to go back to the beginning and listen, read, or watch again with this new perspective in mind. Hopefully, the twist in this song achieves that 🙂
Q: Outside of this single, you also have a background in voice acting and theater. How much does stepping into other characters influence the way you tell your own personal stories in your music?
A: Stepping into other characters gives me an enriching perspective on how different humans can be, but also on how similar our emotions are. We may have different ways of dealing with them, but they are all intrinsically the same. That encourages me to write about my own feelings, because I know that someone has felt the same way at some point and might relate, or feel less alone.
Q: When you’re not writing music or performing, what’s something completely unrelated that helps you ground yourself when your thoughts start spiraling?
A: Putting my attention on my body helps a lot, whether through meditation, yoga or dance.
Q: Looking back at earlier releases like Cardiogram versus the stuff you’re creating now, where do you feel your writing voice has shifted the most?
A: My upcoming album goes more in depth than my first EP. It explores bitterness, grief, self-deprecation, and anxiety. Back when I was working on Cardiogram, I was afraid to feel — let alone write about — negative emotions, especially ones that might make me look like a villain in any way. With this album, I embrace all parts of myself, even the ones I’m less proud of.
Q: When you share something this vulnerable, do you ever get nervous about how the people in your personal life will react when they hear themselves in the lyrics?
A: I try not to think too much about that hahaha. But yes, of course, it’s always nerve-wracking to imagine the people I wrote about hearing the songs. Although a part of me hopes it’ll somehow help them understand me, or themselves, better.
Q: What’s one piece of advice or comfort you wish someone had given you back when you first started feeling like your emotions were taking over?
A: Not trying to resist them. I think embracing our emotions and sitting with them is way more helpful than trying to shut them down. Emotions are our body’s way of trying to tell us something, so it’s better to listen.
Q: With the full debut album coming up on October 23rd, what else is on the horizon for you throughout the rest of this year?
A: Once the album is out, I’ve got a couple of collaborations featuring songs coming out with other artists, will of course keep on writing songs, and hopefully there’ll be more live performances too!
