Canadian pop duo EQUAL are entering an exciting new era. With the release of their latest single, “stupid,” sisters Chelsea and Saleen Nolan are at their most vulnerable and honest as they prepare to release their sophomore EP Parallel, this February. An incredibly charming and cathartic track, “stupid” was written about how we constantly overanalyze ourselves, our actions and our relationships. Through their brutally honest songwriting and mellifluous harmonies, listeners will feel less alone with one listen of EQUAL’s latest single.
Written in collaboration with Grammy-nominated producer Jesse Blum (Twenty One Pilots), J. Glaze and MisterWives guitarist Marc Campbell and produced by Kajun Waters, “stupid” represents a significant milestone in the sisters’ careers. Not only have they been able to work with their favorite artists, but the single itself symbolizes how far the two have come in their career. Inspired by their late father’s advice that, “Doors are meant to be opened,” it was this anecdote that inspired Chelsea and Saleen to initially approach Blum.
Known for their incredibly relatable themes and harmonious compositions to be found within their music, Chelsea and Saleen used “stupid” to write about their roots and upbringing. After being born into poverty, the sisters had to work that much harder to pursue music, something they say ultimately couldn’t have been done without the encouragement and support of their father. While “stupid” was written about how we face our insecurities, it is also an anthemic celebration of how far we are able to rise above them.
The single also represents a new sonic era for the band, as they take a turn more towards the indie alternative route rather than their signature indie pop sound. Directly following their previous album single “SF (whataboutit?),” EQUAL’s latest released portray the sisters continuing to grow into their limitless sonic potential. Both singles arrive ahead of the duo’s sophomore EP, Parallel.
Thank you guys so much for taking the time today! Of course I did want to ask about the single “Stupid” that just came out January 9. It represents such a big milestone for you guys, and I was wondering what was on your guys’ minds as you were putting the song together?
Chelsea: Well, we wrote it in New York when we went to go write with Jesse Blum, Marc Campbell, J Glaze and Kajun Waters. When we were all sitting in the room, we didn’t have anything pre-chosen. We got these lyrics for the chorus and then I was like, “Okay, but what is this about? What is the message?” And it kept coming back to us coming from, financially, not the best place growing up. We grew up with our dad on disability, we had a Habitat for Humanity home and we’re self-taught on our instruments because we couldn’t afford music lessons. Everything that we have had is because we have worked for it. And then to go through all of that and then end up on Broadway in New York writing with the trumpet player of Twenty One Pilots…It was just really surreal. Sometimes it’s frustrating when you’re like, “If we only had the money to invest, we could be so much further.” But what comes with that is maybe taking it for granted, maybe thinking it’s easy and not appreciating it. To actually put work in and struggle to make something and then get results feels a lot more rewarding. So it was an interesting session, but overall I think we found what we were looking for.
How does it feel to look at how it was when you first started compared to now where you’re working on your sophomore EP?
Chelsea: Growing up our dad would bring us to three open mics a week. And he would ask us at a very young age, probably 10 or 12, “You want to do music? Is something you want to do? You can do it. You’re fully capable. But it’s work.” I remember in high school when I didn’t want to go to an open mic night and he would tell us we need to put the work in. Or we wouldn’t practice and he’d be like, “Why aren’t you practicing? You have a gig next week.” But I think having that upbringing of someone who fully believes in you and fully supports but then also holds you accountable…I’ve always had the feeling that this stuff is attainable. It’s just about having the drive. The reason why it doesn’t work out for a lot of people is because they give up and because they don’t have the drive. The key is be good at what you do, put the work in to get good and then have the audacity to believe that you’re capable of doing that stuff.
A big part of why you got to be where you are now is because of the support and encouragement from your dad, and the band name and your morals are also inspired by your father as well. He had given you advice that doors were meant to be opened, what do you think are maybe some doors that are maybe opening up in your life right now?
Chelsea: Well, I would say even something as simple as the reason why we have these interviews booked in line. I have a hard time wearing all the hats, but we got to divide the hats between us. It is hard to do everything all the time effectively. But what I’ve noticed is the more product we come out with, the more people come to us and our music. The reason why we have our music video for “SF (whataboutit?)” is because a film crew came to us being like, “We loved your stuff. We need to film a music video for our portfolio and we need a big budget music video. Want to do it?”
Saleen: I think it’s a lot of connections too, because now we have a connection with them and we’re going to probably do something with them in the future again. Our dad always said with stuff like that it’s not what you know it’s who you know. There are a million great artists who really deserve fame and they work hard for that. Then there’s some people who didn’t have to work as hard, or maybe they just suck or they’re not that good. It’s literally not about if you’re a genius. You could not know anything or you could know it all, but it’s literally about who you know. That’s why nepo babies exist. It’s important to have connections and I think building that is the most important thing.
For sure. Switching gears a little bit, you two have your sophomore EP coming out, which is very exciting and also another milestone in your careers. How is this EP different from your previous one?
Chelsea: Before it was super indie pop. We still are, but we were huge listers of Valley at the time. They’re from Toronto as well. The actual album cover was taken by their same photographer, which is Becca Hamel. I loved her vision and I was like, “Please, let’s book a shoot.” And it was so much fun. But indie pop was the realm before. And now I think I had a heavy hand in the creative process. Not only just in writing, but in the visuals. I wanted us to have a certain brand image, certain clothes. This time we’re going way more in Saleen’s realm. I was just saying this recently, but she is secretly, not so secretly a lot cooler than I. She found Billie Eilish when she had like 127,000 followers. She finds these initial artists and then they end up blowing up because she gets it. She gets a vision before anyone else does, I think.
Saleen: She’s never this nice to me. [Laughter]
Chelsea: Maybe not to your face. But yeah, we leaned more into her aesthetic and definitely went more of an alt-rock route. She’s always listened to Dominic Fike, but because of her I’ve been listening to Dominic Fike and Peter McPoland, especially when he went more shoegazey. There’s a lot of different influences that are on this new EP that have inspired that more rock, live session band type of feel. But it still has the same familiarity in terms of overall message and authenticity. I’m still going to have catchy pop melodies. I need to be stimulated somehow.
I have to ask Saleen, who are some smaller artists that you’re listening to right now? Then we can see if they’ll end up getting really huge.
Saleen: My music taste is like slightly changed. It used to be like, I only like this, this and this and nothing else is cool. But now I think I kind of just like everything. It’s opened up a lot more. I feel like before I missed out on so much good music. This one’s not super small, but for the last year I was listening to a lot of Royel Otis. They did the “Linger” cover and then they blew up because of that. I got super into them. I got a lot into folky country, I feel like we used to like a lot of folk stuff. I’d say Royel Otis was a was a big one that I started listening to. I haven’t been on my discovering thing though, because I don’t really go on social media as much lately.
Chelsea: You know who’s good right now? She just started getting big because SZA shared her reel. She’s called DellaXOZ and she has a song called “Unhinged” and the guitar part goes crazy. Very Midwest emo. She’s cool. We’ve always been huge Jon Bellion stans, and he always talks about how he doesn’t want to blow up. Very much in the alternative stuff, but I’m also a big Claire Rosinkranz fan. I love her. I am surprised she’s not bigger than she is, especially after “Backyard Boy” when she released that and then went mega viral on TikTok in like 2020. Fun fact, on one of the songs on our EP, the drum part actually came from her drummer Rob. We followed each other and then he made a drum part for one of our songs, which is super, super cool to have him on the project.
You’ve both been doing music together for probably 10 years now, ever since you were little kids. Over the years, when it comes to how you’ve written together or how you make music together, how has that changed over time? How’s your relationship changed after making music for so many years together?
Chelsea: We don’t fight as much as we used to. We can be in the same room without one person yelling. We used to fight so much. When you’re 10 and 12 you’re going to fight (laughs).
Saleen: But I also feel like it’s changed where it used to be a lot of Chelsea writing. I would try to write something and then it would just sound too much like a copy of what I wanted it to sound like. Or it’s like a Walmart version. I felt like I was having to write a song a certain way, and it had to be first verse, first chorus. But with this EP I feel like if it has no structure, then that’s okay. It doesn’t have to be a certain way. I feel like it used to just be a lot of me hopping on her songs and now we’ll do a song where it’s just me.
Chelsea: And it’s still a collaborative thing, even if one of us is to write one song. Because she’ll come to me with a song, and then I just hop on a harmony or vice versa. And we have different arrangements of who’s singing the chorus. Because that’s a thing we do too. We’ll be singing for the whole verse, she’s the melody, I’m the chorus. And then comes the chorus and it flips. Even mid-note we’ll do a little switch.
When it comes to the new EP, the new single, or your music in general, what do you ultimately want to provide for listeners? What do you want your music to express or be for people?
Chelsea: The reason why we gravitate towards this is because it makes us feel something. Maybe it says something lyrically. Maybe this song sounds just like that one summer when I was driving down to Toronto. Maybe it’s a feeling of nostalgia or a feeling you’ve never experienced before, but it’s something that resonates with you. I’m always trying to have that come across in music. I always write by vibes. I hit record and then I sing whatever comes off the top of my head. And there will come a point where something comes out and I’m like, “That’s how I feel.” But then sometimes I’ll have the melody and a lyric will come out and I’ll be like, “I don’t get that lyric” and I’ll want to change it but my gut tells me to keep it. And then maybe a year later, I’m like, “That’s what I meant.” So I try to lean heavily into that where I hope that with that process, the people who do listen have that sense of, “Oh my gosh, this sounds exactly like what I’ve been trying to get through in my own mind.” Because a lot of people don’t ask themselves, “What am I feeling? Why am I feeling what I’m feeling?” I’m an over-analyzer. I like being so in tune with that side to me. I hope it leads other people to be in tune with themselves.
Saleen: I feel like it’s similar for me. As a listener of other music, I’m not writing it to be like, “I hope somebody feels this,” but it’s validating. Even if it’s a bad feeling. If you’re upset about something, it’s validating to be like, “This singer that I’m listening to is saying the exact thing that I feel.” It’s a little comforting because then that’s the whole thing of knowing you’re not alone in feeling that way. I feel like when I’m writing, even if it’s weirdly specific, if one person said that that was relatable, that would make me feel validated. It’s like sometimes I feel like I want to write a song about something that’s oddly specific and if that was released and one person was like, “I feel that,” that would be validating for me.
Did you have any final thoughts or anything else you wanted to add?
Chelsea: The EP should be out February 15. We had a lot more of a hand in this EP in terms of the recording and even the mixing. For the mixing for “SF (whataboutit?)” I sent it off to other people. They sent it back to me and then I was like, “It’s not the vision.” So I did it. I’ve never mixed and released a song in my life and I was like, “I’m going to figure it out.” And I think that’s probably the closest we could have got to the vision. But that being said, the electric guitars were recorded by me and the bass was recorded by me and Saleen did so much of the writing and had such a heavy hand in it. So I think this new EP will be great for people to see who we are and not just what we wanted to be seen as. I feel like with the last EP we wanted to be perceived a certain way, to be seen as professional and to be taken seriously. And now I’m just like, “Let’s find our little niche of doing whatever we want.” And it might be a little bit weird to the outside, but that’s what we want. Because weird is different. Different is expanding our palate on what music is, and I would love to do that for someone else.
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