Tanis X FAULT Magazine

Photography: Jemima Marriot
Styling: Krishan Parmar
HMU: Gabbie Lee
Words: Adam Davidson
Production & Photography Assistant: Lee Furnival
Special Thanks: Chloe Hadded @ Weller Media Agency

When Tanis initially told her parents that she wanted a career in music, they discouraged her because she was too shy and reserved. Undeterred, the Paris-born, London-based artist embarked on a long journey which saw her study in New York to compose classical music and produce film scores.

Despite an award-winning screen composition career, Tanis had a burning ambition to become a singer-songwriter, but it wasn’t until COVID struck and the film industry was largely shut down that she had time to reflect and work on developing her skills as a songwriter and expressing herself through her music.

With her new EP, Just Some Stories, out today, Tanis shows her growth as a songwriter as she draws upon life experiences and stories to share with her audience.

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FAULT: What did you want to express with Just Some Stories?

Tanis: My two occupations within music are songwriter and singer and in parallel, film scoring. I’ve always found that the reason I fell in love with film scoring is that we are scoring music to movies and stories, and through music, we are helping tell stories.

I think the reverse exercise came for me when I didn’t have film scoring projects. I still wanted to tell stories through music but didn’t have those visuals and that’s how Just Some Stories came about. From friends, or from personal experiences, I had ideas and stories that came to mind and I wanted to make songs about them and see if people can relate to them.

With your background, you were more proficient with scoring and composition before you developed a talent for songwriting. Which usually comes first, the melody or the lyrics?

It’s not always the same, it really depends. Sometimes a word or a sentence will really strike a chord with me and then I’ll want to develop a melody around that wording. Sometimes I’m just singing random words and I’m like, “That stays with the melody.” I try to let it be as natural as possible to make sure that not all of my songs sound the same, so I try to find an organic way of writing and composing every time.

I love the song ‘Priority’… What inspired this song?

That one is a culmination of a personal experience which I had in the past, where only retrospectively I was like, “Why didn’t that work out?” And you realised that you were pushed to the side all of the time and in the moment, I was highly unaware. I was gaslighting myself into thinking it was fine that they’re not interested in what I have to say and I thought maybe I’m not being very interesting. Then you realised, they genuinely weren’t interested in anything I wanted if it didn’t align with what they wanted. Putting someone as a priority isn’t always about yourself and the idea formed from that. It was also from stories that other friends have told me about and from hearing other people that I realised that it’s an experience that a lot of people go through.

Do you usually look at things retrospectively when writing songs? What I mean is, are you someone who writes notes as soon as something happens or do you need time to sit and digest that feeling before writing?

I like to digest things because as far as writing lyrics, when something is too fresh, I can’t really put words to the feelings and it’s all a bit of a mess in my head. I usually try to digest it and sometimes it can be quite a few years and other times it can be weeks, it really depends. It’s usually more of a retrospective analysis of something.

How does your film composition background help when you’re writing your own music, especially with this album?

At the end of the day, it’s all music composition so they definitely feed into each other. Obviously, as you can hear, I don’t put orchestral music on my songs and I don’t try to force the film scoring aspect onto my songs but I do constantly learn so much from scoring, as far as music production and mixing and arrangement. Being that I produce or co-produce most of my tracks, it does help me think about arrangements and look at the mix and help me develop a base mix that actually sounds good when I share it with other people.

You moved to New York to study film scoring, is that right?

My degree was in classical music and theory so I’m classically trained. In my final year, I did a concentration in film scoring because that’s been an interest of mine since I was a teenager but I knew that if I wanted a career in film scoring then I needed to know how to arrange and do the technical side of things and not just do little things on the piano.

I read that you’re quite introverted as a performer… How did you work on this as an artist with the music you’re currently doing? Film scoring is an isolating process but it’s different as an artist...

Absolutely. For the film scoring part, it’s easy because I don’t have to ever be in front of people so it seems like the perfect job for me. As far as being an artist, it’s still a work in progress. When I was only six years old, my mother sent me to acting school because I was so shy. She sent me there so I would learn how to act like I wanted to ask a question in school. When you’re six years old, you get grades for effort. I was always doing well academically but I was always getting really bad academic grades because teachers thought I was not interested because I wasn’t talking but I was just very shy.

The first time I did a performance, I might have been 16 or 17, and I got such bad stage fright that my chest was so tight that I couldn’t project anything because I felt like no air was coming out so I could barely sing. My first radio performance was a disaster. I hate thinking about it because, again, I couldn’t hit a note because my heart was beating so fast. It’s definitely a constant battle for me but I love writing songs and sharing music so it’s a bit of a payoff that is worth fighting for but it’s definitely not a natural thing for me.

What has helped you to feel more at ease?

I think just doing it. Going out there and being shy and then you sink into it and realise that it’s not that bad. Even within a performance itself, my heart rate would spike in the beginning but I would eventually calm down a bit. Just do it. It’s not the best feeling but just do it. Also, rehearse in quiet spaces and more intimate settings and get really familiar with your own song and how you’re going to play it so it just becomes thoughtless. The more prepared I feel, the calmer I feel too. A lot of practice goes on behind the scenes to make me feel at ease.

Do you feel that with this EP, you have the clearest idea with what you want to say and how to express yourself as a songwriter?

I don’t know! Probably? When I was a teenager, I was a reserved and obedient kid so I didn’t have many experiences which I’ve lived through or stories to tell. I had nothing to write about. I’ve thrown away all of these songs but I used to try and write from my imagination. People could tell very quickly that the lyrics didn’t have much depth to them because they didn’t come from a real place of experience. I’m happy with where the songs are now because they come from a much more real place – and hopefully a more relatable place.

A lot of songwriters go back and revisit songs which they wrote when they first started and then develop them when they’re older… Have you done something like this as well?

Yeah, absolutely. The last song [on the EP] is actually one of the early songs that I wrote that I have kept to this day. I love the composition and the concept but I’ve actually refined the lyrics so many times. I’ve also reproduced it six or seven times because I’m just not happy with it. It’s a song that I’ve also had to adapt over the years because some lyrics that made sense when I first wrote it eight years ago don’t apply anymore today. There’s also older songs which I keep in a library for me to listen to but they’re really not good.

What’s that process like to adapt a song you wrote years before? As you mentioned, you captured these emotions that you felt eight years ago but these don’t necessarily apply anymore.

It’s an interesting process because the instinct is to try and change it but when you listen back you’re like, “It was good the way it was before.” You have to be careful with that because it’s very easy to keep on changing things constantly and sometimes the end result isn’t necessarily better. Sometimes, the original has something about it. I’ve been trying to balance and listen back to the original to make sure I’m not damaging it either.

When did you feel that you had become comfortable with songwriting and able to express yourself in this way?

Very recently, I would say in the last two to three years. I think though the pandemic period had lots of bad things, as far as film scoring, most productions stopped so I didn’t have much work so it gave me time to reopen my libraries and compose and sit with ideas for a long time. Also, it gave me time to learn more about music production and how to make my songs sound better and improve my musicianship. That time spent alone was actually really important for me developing this EP because previously I had written songs that I was not entirely proud of. So yeah, this would probably be the first time that I release songs and I’m happy with the EP.

How have you been feeling in the build-up to the EP release?

It’s always nerve-wracking releasing songs but generally the response from my close circle has been very positive and my close circle are the harshest and most honest people with me. They’re very quick to say when they don’t like something so it’s been nice for once that they have given me a compliment. It’s a good sign and I hope I can keep improving with where I am now and developing my project further beyond this EP as well.

After Just Some Stories, what’s next for Tanis?

Ultimately, it comes to the name of the EP: Just Some Stories. As life goes on we all have stories which we live through and all have experiences. A lot of these experiences are similar but they’re not always necessarily put into song-form. I do have a lot more songs to share, I would love to put out a full-length album at some point in 2026, hopefully. I also want to do some collaborations with great producers and other artists, that’d be fantastic.

Tanis, what is your FAULT?

If only this answer was a singular one! My list of faults is by no means a short one. Ultimately though, I just try my best to be aware of them and see how I can manage them so they don’t come a hindrance to me or progress. As I’ve previously mentioned, I am extremely shy and that doesn’t really match with the life of an artist that requires a certain degree of exposure. But I am aware that it is something I have to combat, so I actively try and overcome it in a way that suits me.

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