With Dear Tash’s debut EP FATAL, she dives deep into themes of heartbreak, identity, and vulnerability, balancing theatricality with raw emotion. We sat down with Dear Tash to talk about how her early musical roots shaped her sound, the power of embracing creative “failures,” and how navigating chaos – in both life and art – has become central to her voice.
Interview by Josephine Best | July 31, 2025.
I thought we could start at the beginning. You started out in classical music and were in choirs as a kid, do you feel any of that early training or experiences with music has influenced you as an artist today or how you write music?
I definitely feel like it laid a foundation for the music industry write now. I feel like there are a lot of dark themes in classical music, a lot of dark harmony, a lot of epic or theatrical moments and I feel like I’ve really been influenced by that kind of style. I love dynamics, the soft, the heavy and I feel like you can hear that throughout the EP. I feel like I definitely picked some of that up from being in a choir, where things start of quite and then go into these massive moments. Absolutely, I definitely think you can hear those influences when you listen to it.
It’s so interesting because you get a lot of artists that either don’t have that beginning or maybe they did and they don’t use it. I don’t necessarily want to say I think it’s a good discipline to have because not all musicians can read music for example, but I think it is so interesting to see artists like yourself who did have that more theoretical upbringing in music then go on to do a complete 180 in the kind of music they make.
I actually grew up playing the violin! Being in an orchestra I really learnt a lot about harmonies and how to really listen when so much is going on around you. Having that as a base I feel really helped me evolve as I’ve gotten older and matured as a musician.
Fast forward to now, you’re super rooted into the London music scene. You’ve described London life as being super chaotic but in a good way. Has living in London shaped your song-writing, particularly lyrically in any way?
Yes but I wouldn’t say directly though. It’s more the experiences I’ve had with the chaotic energy. For example on a Tuesday your friend could ring you up and take you to this amazing party in the middle of nowhere and you meet all these new and amazing people and make all these connections. It’s things like that and saying yes to embracing the chaos and just letting it happen is what’s fed into my perspective on life. I’m constantly trying to find the balance of embracing the chaos but then also trying to keep my shit together haha. I definitely think that comes across in my music in the sense that its heavy and crazy but then its soft and sad, there’s the two dynamics fighting each other and I sometimes feel like that’s me living in London. I’m trying to get my head down and work but also want to experience everything that gets thrown at me. I think when you’re in London you’ve just got to go out and do it all.
I can relate to that, I grew up in South London, moved away to the coast to go to uni and when I came back I just couldn’t stop thinking about how much I missed London. I’ve met so many people that hate it here or are scared of the city and it’s just crazy to me as someone who thrives in the chaos. Don’t get me wrong it can be overwhelming, but I can’t imagine not living here.
It’s not for everyone for sure, to the find the balance is the hardest part. I mean I’ve been here 8 years now and it took me a long time to settle and learn to work with and love the chaos and I’ve really just embraced it especially in the last couple of years. I absolutely love it here and I just can’t imagine being anywhere else there’s just nowhere else like it.
Your visual style and identity as Dear Tash is very bold, distinctive and unapologetically you. Over the last 5 years with this project you’ve built a clear creative identity, was there ever at any moment you felt pressure to conform or compromise your vision, and if so how did you navigate this?
Oh wow that’s such a good question, but honestly I very fortunately don’t feel like I have had that pressure! I love creating the visuals and I love to experiment with them. When I listen to anything I’ve created, I can see that it looks like before it’s taken any sort of physical form. I get so inspired by hearing the track and I straight away I know what colours I want it to be, what the vibe is going to be, and over the last 5 years I’ve put it all under trial and error. I’ve made mental notes of what I like or don’t like and gradually built upon something that feels authentically me.
I’m really enjoying the process of evolving and I think it’s just as important to work at what you don’t like as what you do. If something hasn’t worked for me, say I wear an outfit on stage and I look back at the photos like oh dear that wasn’t a very good choice, I don’t let it get to me anymore because I’ve learnt something and its only feeds into the evolution of things that do work for me. I think that’s how my personal aesthetic has come about. My look is the fight between the chaos and the calm we’ve spoken about with the bright colours with the dark elements here and there. It reflects my music where it’s darker but there’s still a hopeful element.
It’s so interesting to hear you talk about the importance of working out what you don’t like or what doesn’t work for you. I think more often than not any creative individual no matter what the discipline, craves perfection and wants it straight away, I speak from experience haha. But I agree that you do, to put it bluntly, need to fuck up to reach your own version of perfection, and putting yourself in sometimes uncomfortable situations is the way to learn that.
There’s been so many times I thought something might not work and then I end up loving it and would never of known if I’d not taken the risk. I think embracing the things that don’t work is such an important part about being an artist, and to be frank most of the time, people don’t care as much as you think they will, so really it’s just up to you. If you’re able to let that fear go the as cliche as it sounds you can just do anything and be your most authentic self.
Right… now let’s get down to the nitty gritty. It’s no secret that your music covers some emotional topics, particularly with your EP FATAL. You explore a lot of deep themes, heartbreak and vulnerability to name a few. For you personally, do you find writing music or performing, more of a cathartic experience?
It’s a really tough question… because I’ve always been a performer, it’s the one thing that truly sets my soul on fire. If I haven’t performed for a while I get really angsty and annoyed. Having said that, writing this EP, I really fell in love with the process of creating it. I really learnt so much about myself, and I learnt to just let things go and let the music write itself. For so long I didn’t let that natural process happen but working with Jess Cake, he’s been very patient with me. When it came to writing the EP we did like 10 days here in the studio and wrote and recorded it all. It was such an incredible process, it was so cathartic.
I know it’s cheating but I honestly feel I have to say both, because when I perform the tracks I get to experience it all over again. To be able to let out how I’m feeling in the studio like this and then to be able to let it out again on stage feels one and the same I just get to share it with the crowd as well when performing live and feel that energy coming back at me.
Is there a lyric that you’ve written that still hits just as hard or harder when you sing it live, and would you be open to sharing the story behind it?
Ahhhhhh yes haha… My favourite lyric of the whole EP, that when I sing it live it just sends shivers over my whole body, like honestly I kind of just want to cry haha, is in Fatal. The lyric is “Wanting to leave but I’m waiting to hate you more”. I wrote it because in a past relationship, I felt like I had to stay with him until I hated him so that I would have enough courage to break up with them. The funny thing is as the song was being released I was going through another break up, so the song has very mixed feelings and emotions for me.
Even though I wrote it about a previous relationship it felt very relevant to the current situation I was going through. I’d be sing the lyric at shows and even though it inspired by an old wound, it was also very much a new one, but I still love the lyric and it means so much to me. I think the fact that it still feels relevant to me despite something that happens a few years ago, makes it all the more relatable to anyone that is going something similar. It could be family problems, it could be friendship or romantic breakups, it has so many meanings. As humans we like to see the best in people and we want to stick around in the hope that things will get better or that there is still a future. It’s heartbreaking that you feel you have to hate someone in order to move on. When I sing it live it’s a proper moment for not just me but I think the audience as well.
GOD that is so relatable. For me and I’m sure so many others it feels so much easier to hate someone than to still love them and come to terms with what you’ve lost. I’ve found myself desperately looking for reasons in a recent breakup of my own to hate the person because the alternative was just so overwhelming. BUT ENOUGH ABOUT BOYS, or anyone that breaks your heart… looking ahead, you’ve said in a previous interview that FATAL feels like the end of this chapter but also the beginning of the next. What does that next chapter have in store creatively for you?
I’ve been making music for a really long time, since I was 12 I’ve always been in bands and it’s been amazing but it’s only now do I feel like I’ve met my true calling in music. It’s so cheesy, but when you’re an artist it takes a long time to develop. Something I hate about the modern world is that everything is so quick, when that development time is so crucial. I’ve been navigating music and myself for the last 12-14 years, writing FATAL really opened my eyes to the possibilities of where I could take my sound and what I was capable of.
Now that the first EP is done and out into the world and I’m already working on the next, it’s going to be rawer, it’s going to be sadder but also happier. There’s a lot of heartbreak but a lot of hope for the people listening. I’m stripping it back but keeping it heavy and I honestly cannot wait to finish it! I feel more relaxed and grounded than ever and I’m in a complete state of creative flow for the first time in a really long time and I think that will come through in my music that’s yet to come. It’ll take some time but I already can’t wait for people to hear it.
As our conversation wrapped, it was clear that Dear Tash is an artist not just unafraid of vulnerability, but one who actively seeks it out. With a fierce creative vision and a deep emotional intelligence, she’s crafting something that feels honest, cinematic, and entirely her own. As she steps into this next chapter, one thing’s for sure: Dear Tash isn’t just embracing the chaos, she’s turning it into art.
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