Two years ago, Christine Chung was playing open mics and ready for a change—so she made a minor alteration to her name. Performing as Kind of Christine gave her license to “dive into the parts of myself I don’t understand,” Chung says. The 35-year-old songwriter is out Dec. 9 with Under the Earth, her first EP, a five-song collection of what she labels “sad indie rock girl music.” But though there are certainly notes of melancholy among the tracks, the music is much more commanding than it is crestfallen. Chung teamed up with producers Donovan Duvall (“Clouds,” “Rain,” “Windows”) and Ivakota founder Ben Green (“System of Ocean” and “Under the Earth”) for the record and will play it live at Pie Shop on release day, joined by guitarist Sujay Utkarsh (Bye Forever), bassist Fred Nesfield, and drummer Alyx Guevara. Chung’s vocals are chameleonic on the recording, gently gracing the gossamer lullaby “Clouds” and sounding downright threatening on the righteous banger “System of Ocean” (try listening to this one at full volume and not getting goosebumps). The vocalist leans in to her lyrics a la Willow, Elizabeth Fraser, or Tori Amos, taking her time to explore each word till she’s found what she’s looking for. Her lyrics are those of someone who’s done taking other people’s shit: On “Windows,” she sings, “Call me, curse me, cancel me/ Yeah do whatever you want/ I’ll be choosing exactly what I want.” The music is proggy at times; on “Rain,” Chung takes us on a journey down passageways of varied sonic wallpaper (ethereal wave, neopsychedelic) until we wind up seemingly back where we started. Kind of Christine has vision, power, and builds a lush, layered world—a world you want to live in for a few hours, or at least the length of an EP. Comes out Dec. 9. linktr.ee/kindofchristine. Kind of Christine play their EP release party on Dec. 9 at Pie Shop. —Eliza Tebo
