quinnie on Intuition, Vulnerability, and Her Meteoric Rise
quinnie’s brilliant masterpiece, “touch tank,” took the digital world by storm in the summer of 2022. The brazen, candid, and tender track, as sweet as it is blunt, is a perennial tale of infatuation that enchantingly wove its way onto the playlists of millions around the globe. But quinnie is uneasy – if not completely reluctant – to consider that her magnum opus. In fact, that’s only the beginning.
KP: I first remember hearing “touch tank” very early on, even before it was officially released. I’m not really a TikTok person at all, but I came across it and immediately realized that I was hearing something incredibly special that so many people would key into. I think it had maybe 20,000 plays then and now you're up to almost 50,000,000 on Spotify alone, which is just mind-blowing. It’s truly such a touching, relatable song. Can you walk us through the inspiration behind it as well as the process of writing it?
Q: Thank you so much! Really glad you like it. I think I was inspired by infatuation alone which is such a rich and pure essence for so many good songs. It might be a bummer for some to hear, but it wasn’t one of those songs that I took super seriously. I wrote the chorus first and I was just being silly, but I was nineteen at the time and hadn't really grasped that it was okay for me to say things like that in a legit song. My producer, Jake, validated that one chorus though, and the rest of the song kinda just fell out of me. That's how the best songs are made, in my opinion – not necessarily inspired by any one thing, but it almost just appears within you one day.
KP: Right! I came across an interview where you said that you initially wrote “touch tank” as kind of a joke and that you didn’t anticipate any of the massive success that came with it. What has been the most surprising aspect of releasing music on such a wide scale thus far?
Q: It is strange to see a piece you made be put out into the world and grow legs and become this living, breathing thing. You feel like God over your art until you realize that it can truly alter other people’s lives and your own life in a way that is uncontrollable. To that point, the song doesn’t really feel like my own anymore, which is a surprising feeling. It’s been the center of some discussion (and sometimes arguments) online and I try to keep my head down to that hubbub. But I also liken it to the penguin that got pushed off of the cliff in the name of the other penguins (my other songs, lol), and I’m okay with “touch tank” getting beat up if it directs people to the rest of my music. I definitely don't see that song as my magnum opus and sometimes I’m frustrated that it’s my biggest song, but then I remember how good french fries taste even if you meditate every day… like there's room for different types of feelings and I know in my heart that it still satisfies the soul in a way that many of my other “smarter” songs couldn't.
KP: You dropped out of college, where you were studying music, to pursue it full-time on your own. It’s quite funny because I became an entrepreneur (very unintentionally) at the age of fourteen and ended up going to college for entrepreneurship. I’m constantly asked if I felt that going to school for what I already succeeded in firsthand helped me any, and the truth is that it really didn’t. Most of what I learned in school I had already picked up from five years of running my own businesses at that point – I often feel that the best knowledge you can gain is simply from experience. Ultimately, it’s a very personal decision, of course, and both sides have their pros and cons.
What would you say is something that firsthand experience in the music industry as both a singer and songwriter has taught you?
Q: The biggest thing I’ve learned is how important it is to be so attuned to your intuition. There is no secret. You think that everyone you look up to, everyone who is richer or more powerful or more influential than you, has some secret to success, but it just doesn't exist. All you can do is trust your gut, keep trying, and have so much blind faith in yourself.
“When you are honest with yourself and the world, there is nothing to lose, nothing to hide from. So portray yourself in a way that feels true.”
KP: You illustrate all of your album covers with colored pencil, pen, and ink, which is super unique, and I think it’s become a bit of a trademark for you, too, now as well. Did that come about organically? Are you inspired by any fine artists?
Q: Visual art was a really big part of my upbringing and family tradition. I wanted to do visual art as a career for a while throughout my teenage years, but I decided that it wasn't something I wanted to monetize. I believe it’s healthy to have some sort of creative outlet that is a hobby and not a job. My album covers were all very explicitly inspired by Alphonse Mucha, as I went through a big Art Nouveau phase. But I love a lot of very fantastical art… I love art from the Middle Ages, and artists evocative of that style like Errol Le Cain and Kay Nielsen… I have prints from 1905 Grimm’s Fairytales by Heinrich Lefler and Joseph Urban that I so enjoy looking at… I love transcendental painters like Agnes Pelton and Florence Miller Pierce. My favorite book I own is called A Box of Sun by Joseph Pintauro and it’s full of very special illustrations and collages by Norman Laliberte. I'm also very inspired by the sculpture artist JB Blunk, who worked with discarded red wood from logging companies. I'm obsessed with the house he built in Inverness, CA. I also love the work of Roger Somers. He was a woodworker and designed all of the whimsical houses in Druid Heights. Whimsy is very big in my life.
KP: Given that much of your music blew up via TikTok, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that you don’t think much about social media at all. Neither do I, which is something that I’ve taken a lot of heat for throughout my career. How do you balance the fact that your music takes off via social media with you not wanting to overindulge in it yourself? I imagine that it's a delicate line to walk, but as someone who is always trying to keep myself on social media as infrequently as possible, I’m intrigued by you having such a healthy relationship with it.
Q: Anxiety surrounding comments and seeing my song talked about on the FYP made me so nervous and dysregulated that I started going on social media less and less as my music took off. I know that's a very unconventional way to break the pattern, but it's the only thing that worked for me haha. I obviously use social media to market my music, but I try to limit my usage to just posting, especially on TikTok. I just find that I am too sensitive for a rapid-fire bombardment of topics and emotions… it almost brings me to tears at this point. In a way though, I think I am better at sharing in an authentic way when I am not hip to the trends, etc. There's something nice about posting without external influence.
KP: You write all of your own music, something that is sadly becoming more and more infrequent among singers today. Who do you draw compositional inspiration from? Who are some of your favorite artists?
Q: My favorite songwriters are probably The Innocence Mission, Joni Mitchell, Tracy Chapman, and Sufjan Stevens? Like any recovering indie kid, I'm steeped in Alex G, Beach House, Andy Shauf, Grouper… and I’m very inspired by all of them in terms of arrangements. Ambient music inspires me the most to write, though. It fully soundtracks my life. Brian Eno, Gigi Masin, and Dylan Henner are some of my absolute favorites.
KP: You also self-direct your own music videos with your collaborator, Jake. Overall, you have a huge hand in everything that you produce. What is your favorite aspect of visual production? What is the process like?
Q: Making music videos is so unbelievably stressful and also overwhelmingly fun. It's like illustrating for me in that it’s a break from the usual creative endeavors. I've always especially been attracted to moments in art where you are so consumed by the thing at hand that you neglect everything else in your life. Making videos can be like that, especially on low-budget projects. That's how “touch tank” was for Jake and I. We were posted in a backyard for two weeks building and painting and not thinking of much else. I probably skipped so many showers. In the midst of a creative phase like that, you are frequently hitting yourself like “why am I doing this?” Your brain goes to some strange Sisyphean place. In hindsight though I always miss it terribly. It’s equally meditative as it is manic.
KP: Surely, releasing your work so publicly online can be a daunting experience, and one that is also very revealing. It takes an incredible amount of confidence and resilience. What advice would you lend to women who may be intimidated by that process? Is there anything that you’ve learned along the way?
Q: When you are honest with yourself and the world, there is nothing to lose, nothing to hide from. So portray yourself in a way that feels true.
And either grow a thick skin to what people think of you, or don't pay attention to what they say at all. If you know who you are on the inside, then nothing anyone says can dent that truth.
KP: Your songs are incredibly personal, in a way that I think all meaningful music should be. Do you have any memories tied to music, either through others’ or your own?
Q: Almost every song I’ve put out is a collage of real life moments that I’ve felt. It’s much harder than people realize to write about what you don’t know, so I, like most, write what I know. For me though, my greatest moments of inspiration don’t look like much. To me, my first album feels like a compilation of quiet moments of clarity, tears of gratitude at a stoplight on a beautiful day, subtle reminders of beauty when you find a smooth stone on the ground, or even dark days when you sit in the shower for a very long time. There are so many memories in there, but most of them are memories of myself and my internal world.
KP: What do you feel makes a provocative woman?
Q: I think complete and utter honesty is very provocative. Baring your flaws and being brave enough to portray yourself as a person, not just a woman.
