By Will McGuirk
Saleen and Chelsea Nolan are Equal. The two sisters have been playing together for most of their lives and they have now released the video for their debut single, “Deserve This”. Known for their harmonic acoustic sets around their home town of Oshawa, ON., this song sees them change direction, taking a turn into bedroom synth pop. The song echoes some of their favourite singers including Taylor Swift and the Stella sisters, Lennon and Maisy. The video is both charmingly cute and intriguingly complex, much like Equal. We had to know more. . .
Slowcity.ca: Tell me about the song, where was it recorded and who produced it, do you have any guests on the track?
Chelsea Nolan, Equal: “We actually recorded this during quarantine with our good friend Brian Gosling. Saleen and I sent vocals, a demo and some reference tracks and he took it to the next level. Produced, mixed and mastered- he absolutely nailed it. It was really interesting to work from my bedroom and send files back and forth and fine tuning it.”
SC: When did you move from acoustic to this stylish synth pop?
CN: “There was never a particular moment, I tend to just picture the production as I am writing the song. Sometimes I write more acoustic songs (which you will definitely hear in the future) and other times it changes to alternative or synthpop. I try not to box myself in a genre, especially because I'm a fan of so many genres of music and take inspiration from each one.”
SC: Where did the idea for the video come from and how was it executed?
CN: “I actually thought of the lyric video idea at 6am when I couldn’t sleep. It actually ties in with the official music video set to be released tomorrow at 12PM EST. I wanted the lyric video to be different then most and took a lot of inspiration from Taylor Swift's lyric video for "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together." It took a day or so to write all of the sticky notes and I arranged them in a way I thought it would flow well. Since this was during quarantine, I filmed it myself. It was actually super funny because I was jumping on and off my bed, doing squats trying to get the best shots. It was quite the workout!”