Project Description

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Interview with
LIMINA

(31st March 2022)

Interview by Dave Bruce

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LIMINA writes music that makes you want to dance or cry. Occasionally both at the same time, in a good way.

Infusing ingredients of R&B, funk and electronica into phosphorescent pop, LIMINA’s music moves between thresholds of joyous expression and inner contemplation, referencing the rich heritage of 80’s and 90’s pop while shining a reflective lens on the experience of life in the 2020s. A new project from producer, singer-songwriter, composer and video director Ian Chia, it draws upon his experiences as an interactive media producer at MTV creating futuristic experiences with artists including Björk and Moby.

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Your single ‘Snakes and Ladders’ is out today! What’s it about? What inspired you to write the song?
The genesis of ‘Snakes and Ladders’ came from a deep, all consuming love affair that was sadly like a game of Snakes and Ladders. Intimacy could be ‘one step forward / ten steps back’ depending on the randomness of her mood. It was wickedly intense, and there was a carelessness between the lines of love and lust. I was besotted and feeling trapped, wanting to move on but at the same time, stuck hopelessly in love. The emotional rawness of the relationship was dreadful and beautiful and ultimately burnt itself up.
I’m super excited to be finally releasing this song and music video after a year of off-and-on work on it. It’s been a long journey from rough demo to the final epic result, with both a dark R&B version and a full on orchestral arrangement, plus creating a stop motion music video.

The music video for Snakes and Ladders is mesmerizing! What is the concept behind it and did you come up with this? What was the process of making the video like?
The song is very cinematic – it could be a theme song for a mystery TV show, so I wanted to created a music video that show it off in that setting. I came up with the idea of animated photographs of a couple, similar to the moving photographs in a Harry Potter film but depicted by a contemporary dance duo. I worked with noted choreographer Rikki Mace, and two fabulous dancers – Benjamin Allen and Sammie Jade Lester – both whom also contributed to the choreography.
I directed and shot the dance film, then printed out all 2,500 frames of it onto 6×4″ photographs. Then I built some mini sets around my home to give the vignettes additional context and shot the stop motion. I was a bit ambitious with the stop motion, and it took much longer than I had planned. It starts with a golden dawn on the couple’s bed, then some Netflix and chill on the couch moving to an intimate dinner for two, and finally a flame-licked finale in the kitchen over the gas cooktop stove. The final sequence was a lot of fun and quite tricky to do. I’d set up the shot, then light the photo on fire over the cooktop, take a photo in the first few second and then dunk the flaming paper in a pot of water outside of the camera’s view. Then repeat for a few hundred photographs. Haha! It also had to be done during all nighter shoots in that part of the clip because the gas flame from a cooktop isn’t super bright, and I needed to maximize the darkness at night to get the final effect.

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Snakes and Ladders is a such a dark, moody song and you have two different versions for release. How would you describe the song, or the genre it might fit into?
The original release is a stark noir R&B track, in a more experimental vein along the lines of FKA Twigs with the snakey cello line that underpins the first half of the song and the lo-fi, crunchy percussion. After I produced that version, I also felt the potential for a more filmic and epic version so I wrote and recorded the full orchestral arrangement. That second version is more along the lines of Billie Eilish’s ‘No Die To Die’, with a spine-tingling noir feel as well as the rise-and-fall snake-charmer-esque melody of the chorus.

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How do you hope people will react to the single? What do you hope they might take away from listening to it?
I hope people who’ve being through a similar heartbreak experience find a strong resonance with the song and that other people will find it an intense and haunting song they can’t get out of their heads. My aim is to communicate that complex journey of vulnerability and surliness in heartbreak.

Where did you write/record it and who did you work with in the studio?
I wrote and produced it all in my studio in Launceston. It’s a pure solo effort in the vocal and instrumental performances. For the orchestral arrangement, I used an extensive range of high-end virtual instruments and took my time tweaking my performances for all the orchestral instruments. It was all done “in-the-box” but comes off in a rich, authentic way. There are also two instrumental versions of the song to be released later that feature Emily Sheppard on the viola. She’s an absolutely exquisite player and imparts a lot of soul to those tracks. The mixing was done by my good friend Laurence Maddy. He’s won AFI awards for his engineering, and the mastering was done by guru Don Bartley.

Have you got any other new music you are working on or ready to release at the moment? What can we expect next from LIMINA?
“Too Much For Me To Handle” is slated to arrive around the middle of May. It’s a fun, funky banger filled with double entendres that’ll get your blood pumping and hips shaking.

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Who are 3 or so artists that influence your songwriting and your sound?
Finneas O’Connell and FKA Twigs would be two in the contemporary camp. A whole lot of 70s/80s artists are in the retro camp. My own sound is influenced by both sides of the divide since that’s such a rich heritage to be inspired by.

How has COVID affected you to date?
The lack of gigs due to COVID was actually quite beneficial to this project. I took advantage of the downtime to focus on writing/recording the orchestral version of the song, and then the many months it took to finish the stop motion animation. Because Tasmania has been less locked down than other states, I’ve had the odd gig here and there. I wrote and performed music that was featured at Mona Foma 2021 and another small festival later in the year in Launceston, TAS.

If you could perform with any music artist, Alive or Dead, who would you choose?
I’d love to spend time with David Bowie’s chameleon genius. It would be such a interesting challenge to keep up the man’s creative process.

Finally, a few questions for some quick answers –
FAVOURITE:
Album – Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue
Artist – The O’Connell siblings, Finneas and Billie
Movie – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Place to visit – NYC
Food – a decent seafood laksa in Singapore
Drink – a rich botrytis wine after a swanky meal
Person in History –  J.S. Bach
Tattoo – a freeform dots and lines geometric sleeve

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Follow LIMINA
Facebook – Spotify – Instagram – YouTube

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AMNPLIFY – DB

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Press Release 31st March 2022 (below)

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AMNPLIFY – DB