Fall in Purple Love with Chay$e

Earlier this year, a song called "Purple Love" from a singer named Chay$e picked up steam across the Internet, attracting attention from sources that included MissInfo and The New York Times. The song, a slow, swirling ode to lean and love, is instantly radio-ready, its tense synth buildup leading to a screwed down interlude that feels both fully rooted in Houston tradition and in step with the trends of post-Drake experimental R&B. The singer, though, was more of an unknown quantity: Where did a piece of music this polished and fully formed come from?

Chay$e is 24-year-old Lauren Monet Seymour, a pop songwriter from Houston who has split her time between Houston and New York over the last five years. She told me that the bulk of her songwriting work has actually come from overseas acts in Denmark and Korea—where they take her melodies and lyrics and then adapt the lyrics into Korean. Oh, and she also was asked to write a few songs for Beyoncé's last album, although they didn't make the cut for the final project. The Purple Love EP, which Noisey is premiering below, is Chay$e's effective debut—"I put out one record a while ago, but I really hadn't found myself as an artist because I started off as a writer," she explained, calling this project the "first complete body of work that I feel like was a direct representation of who I am." But that songwriting experience shows, and the appeal to someone like Beyoncé should be relatively clear.

Purple Love finds Chay$e floating through the type of washed out synth territory and slowed-down instrumentals, courtesy of go-to producer Cameron Wallace, that have defined a lot of hip-hop and R&B over the past few years. But where some acts might mask their vocals, she backs it all up with a strong, expressive voice and accessible songwriting that's both emotive and instantly accessible. Check out the screwed down, percussive drops on "24K" or the murky stereo panning paired with soaring vocals on "Invincible," and it's clear that this is someone who has a unique sense of how to put a song together.

I got a few more thoughts from Chay$e on some of the individual songs on Purple Love. Check out the EP and read on to find out more about her process below:

How did you end up with your sound?
The producer I work with and I were just experimenting with different sounds. We were like 'okay I'm from Houton, and we really, really want to make this an influence.' So what we did was sat in the studio, and we really just experimented with different sounds. We would take screwed up records, or just anything that I could sing with over a beat, mix it up, and then somehow the sound just came out. But another thing about me is I'm really really really into house music. So we listened to all of this music and thought 'we really need to figure out a way to fuse all of this music together because I feel like all of this music is just so powerful.' So it really just came from sitting in the studio, just experimenting.

What's your favorite song on the project?
My favorite record is probably “Burning it Up.” Me and the producer that I worked with had a conversation about 'if it was your last day living on earth, would you feel like you'd fulfilled your purpose?' So, in that, we were kind of like 'well, that's a dope song idea.' He started creating a track, and I was like 'why don't we make it a little more worldly, make it a love story.' So I just kind of ended up thinking about the person I was with at the time, thinking about our experiences and the stuff we shared and everything I felt about our relationship and how I would want to spend my last days with him, and I put it to a record. So I think the reason that it means a lot to me is it's such a free record, and it's just about living your life. It's 'light one, and enjoy it, and go out with a bang.' The person I'm with, it always reminds me of him and always excites me a little.

You got this huge reaction to the song “Purple Love,” but no one seemed to know anything about you.
It actually just ended up happening that way. The record had been completed for like a year. What it was, literally, is I would just go in and hear tracks—my process as a writer is I write down the titles of the songs, and then I create the record. So when I hear a track that relates to it or I think would bring it to life, I can go back to the title. So with “Purple Love,” I wanted to do something that had a lot of Houston influence, that sounded like what we like to hear, but also kind of share a personal experience that I had. So that's the inspiration behind “Purple Love.” Every record on the EP is so random. It's just me finding my sound and finding myself as an artist. I just would go in, hear a record [like] 'I love that. Let's do this.' And I would find one of the titles off my listing, and I would do the record.

There's some records, like “Foolish”—that one was I had a horrible situation with the guy I was dating, and I went in the booth, and it was one take. I just talked about everything that I said. So we set it up like it was a voicemail, and I just said what I would say to him.

Were you at all surprised by the response that first track got?
I was ecstatic because I knew it wasn't really what was playing on the radio. I was like 'maybe I went a little too left. Maybe I need to stay in the zone of what's going on.” But I don't know, I really just released it and hoped people would have an open mind. So when I did release it, I was like 'wow, New York Times! People really like this record.' So I was definitely a little surprised.

Kyle Kramer loves the color purple, too. He's on Twitter - @KyleKramer

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