“It’s so personal and it got very intimate. I was 20 minutes late and broke down crying because I was fighting with my boyfriend all night. She shared: “ Blue was written the first day I was in a writing session. She then wrote those heavier emotions into songs, and came up with Part 1: Outta my Head and Part 2: Blue. She pulled poems, stories, pictures, and songs, moodboarding them to try to describe how she felt.
PHOTO CREDIT: TEO JIA WEIīefore she first began writing her three-part EP, Narelle festered for a long time, trying to understand exactly how she was feeling at that point in her life. Part 1 focuses on indulgence and anger, Part 2 delves into themes of sadness, and Part 3 wraps it up with growth and progress. After going through Part 1 and then Part 2 about facing your deepest darkest pains and troubles, Complicated Love Song is the feeling of coming out in the morning and (knowing that) it’s a brand new day.” “ Outta my Head started with me being obsessed with this relationship that is obviously quite bad, and Complicated Love Song is the end to this. The newest EP, simply titled Part 3, consists of the previously released single Just Shut Up, and Complicated Love Song - the last song to end the entire project that started with Outta my Head released in 2019. It was only after I finished writing everything that I realised there’s this part of me that is still fighting on… that made me feel like I was going to get through all of this,” she reflected. “At that point of time, I was so angry and sad. Narelle feels a hundred per cent for everything she puts out, even if there are imperfections in the recordings. With artistic tapestries hanging on the walls, houseplants decorating each nook and cranny, and a keyboard propped upright beside a desk where her computer lay, Narelle cozied herself up in a chair overlooking the street from her window and continued to share earnestly. “All these songs were written when I was kind of going through this depressive and dissociative phase, and I was trying to figure out what was going on for myself,” Narelle said, as she sat down with Youthopia at her shared shophouse apartment. But perfection wasn’t something she was aiming for in the first place. And as the song title says, not everything has been smooth sailing for the singer. She recently released her latest single, Complicated Love Song, on Mar 26, the last track to wrap up her three-part EP. Originally rising to fame as the bassist and singer for well-known Singaporean pop band, The Sam Willows, Narelle has also been releasing her own music since 2016. I have had this problem all my whole life… maybe it’s self sabotage,” she laughed while explaining that she enjoys hearing cracks, fuzz and dirt on her recordings. “I really love making mistakes! If anything is too clean, I have to mark it up and scratch it. While most singers and musicians strive to hear perfect vocals and audio in their songs, 27-year-old Narelle Kheng believes perfection is unrealistic.