With her Too Young To Be Sad EP dropping today, Tate McRae takes us through the whole sonic journey, track by track.
We don’t know about you, but there’s been a Tate McRae sized whole in our hearts for a good few weeks now. We want that sad-pop kick to get us in our feels and emotional bags, but fear not. Having teased two soul-baring singles already this year – one of which being the totally earworm infested “rubberband” – McRae is finally ready to unleash her newest EP into the world – and it’s here right now!
The 17-year-old breakout star joins us today as she breaks down the bones of each hit that made the final cut on her latest EP – “Too Young To Be Sad”. There are sassy songs about lost love, sombre takes on addictive personalities and society’s warped approach to romance, even the most mundane of office objects gets a shout-out. The six-track release follows McRae’s monumental 2020 debut – “all the things i never said” – which snagged a co-write from Billie Eilish – aiming to show a wholly different side to her artistry that, at its heart, proves pop can be anything you make it.
Shall we begin?
TRACK 1 – “BAD ONES”
I was in LA at the time when I wrote the song. It was this producer and I in the room, and for the first hour – I had nothing. I then remember literally turning my computer away into a corner and writing the entire song in my head super quickly. About a year and a half later, I re-recorded it, got Blake Harnage to produce it, and fell in love with it again.
TRACK 2 – “RUBBERBAND”
I wrote “rubberband” in quarantine over 3 different zoom calls. First zoom call – we wrote the chorus, second zoom call – we wrote the verse/pre-chorus, and third zoom call – we rewrote the majority of the song again. It was a process, but one of my favourites. Rubberband is a song about addiction and how snapping one on your wrist can be a way to cope. In this particular song it was about being addicted to a person.
TRACK 3 – “SLOWER”
I wrote this song when I was 15 in New York. It was honestly about a guy who was being super flakey with me and I was fed up with always having to guess with him. It talks about how if he wasn’t going to make up his mind, I was going to move on with my life.
TRACK 4 – “R U OK”
“r u ok” is probably one of the sassiest songs I’ve ever written. I also wrote this song during quarantine, on my bed actually. It’s about being in a relationship with a really toxic person, and then afterwards them begging to be back in your life again. It’s a weird mix of light-heartedness and intense emotion, because the lyrics are super deep but the ukulele makes it almost feel like a joke.
TRACK 5 – “YOU BROKE ME FIRST”
“you broke me first” was my last recording session in person before the pandemic hit. It was a super chill session with Victoria Zaro and Blake Harnage and was only about an hour and a half long. I remember these haunting piano chords were playing the entire time while Victoria and I shaped this whole story about empowerment and strength.
TRACK 6 – “WISH I LOVED YOU IN THE 90S”
I wrote this song over zoom during the pandemic. I remember having a discussion with the producer in the room about how superficial love can be nowadays. Sometimes I feel like I’m a bit of a hopeless romantic, and it seemed like people put in so much more effort in relationships back then — in my opinion social media has really wrecked society’s perception of love.
