IAMEVE’s Tiff Randol on Songwriting, Mamas in Music, and Legacy
There’s a deep, emotional undercurrent to the forthcoming IAMEVE album Legacy, an immersive, cinematic electro-pop record created in fits and spurts by the artist, composer, and vocalist Tiff Randol. Yet if its first few singles are any indication, the record will leave listeners feeling hopeful, even beyond its dystopian moments.
Cue to the IAMEVE’s latest single, “Stardust Apocalypse,” co-produced with Rabbit in the Moon’s David Christophere. It starts off with a barren synth beat and Randol’s airy, Kate Bush-esque vocals in isolation, carefully building momentum to a chorus buoyed by layered, celestial effects. It feels big and inspiring, like it was written in the lunar orbit. The perfect soundtrack to a video of Artemis II orbiting the moon.
“I just woke up in the middle of the night, it was, like, 4 a.m., and it was like, ‘get a paper,” says Randol, who is also the founder of the nonprofit Mamas in Music. “And I just wrote it down really quick and then I went back to sleep. And I maybe tweaked a couple little elements of the verses, but it really is what it was when I woke up and wrote it … I kind of worked on different iterations of it, but it never felt right and it never felt like the right timing. And then so when I began working on putting this Legacy album together, it just really made sense with the whole theme of the album, which is taking a look at the legacy that we’re leaving our like our kids with and the planet with and like what’s going on right now with all of our struggles.”
We caught up with Randol from her LA home studio to learn more about the record, out next month, her advocacy for moms in all genres of music, and and how parenting an 8-year-old is interjecting new challenges (and new energy) into her creative workflow.
[SEE RELATED: Tiff Randol, aka IAMEVE, on the ‘Unnerving’ Emotions of Pregnancy and Creating a Musical Motherhood Community]
Rockmommy: Hi Tiff! Let’s get right into it. I was listening to your song, ‘Stardust Apocalypse’ – and imagining the TikTok I’d use with this music and the moon footage from the Artemis II moon mission. I’m guessing space is more likely a metaphor in your storytelling?
Tiff Randol (IAMEVE): I’ve been working on elements of it for years, just really taking my time with all of the pieces of it. Stardust Apocalypse is an interesting one, because I actually [started writing] that song a decade ago! I just woke up in the middle of the night, it was, like, 4 a.m., and it was like, ‘get a paper!’ And I just wrote it down really quick and then I went back to sleep.
I maybe tweaked a couple little elements of the verses, but it really is what it was when I woke up and wrote it. And then I kind of worked on different iterations of it, but it never felt right and it never felt like the right timing. And then so when I began working on putting this Legacy album together, it just really made sense with the whole theme of the album, which is really taking a look at the legacy that we’re leaving our kids with and the planet with and what’s going on right now with all of our struggles.
Rockmommy: It sounds like what you’re suggesting is that becoming a mother sort of sped up that greater question of legacy, interwoven with the normal thinking process of how our world is becoming more like a dystopian science fiction novel.
Tiff Randol: It really is. And it’s yeah, it’s a tender time … There’s a lot of toxic material going out there into the world that I think we’re all kind of grappling with, you know, who we are in this moment and how to be with all of the stuff that’s surrounding us. It feels like it feels important to talk about those things and to look at also just who we are in our own spaces. It’s so complicated and it’s such a weird moment.
Rockmommy: Insomnia is a gift. I get so much writing done! Do you have a studio in your home or go to one near your vicinity? Where are you located?
Tiff Randol: I split my time between the Los Angeles area and Woodstock, New York. So yeah, so right now I’m in LA and you can see my studio room here.
Rockmommy: Yeah, it’s gorgeous. Is this your art? it’s just a real immersive, beautiful space. Wow.
Tiff Randol: it’s a really nice room. I’m gonna be honest, since having a kid, it’s a little tricky working in here because it takes me time to get into like a flow state with music or anything really. It’s like my brain is like ADHD. So if I’m getting interrupted, it just takes me out. I am getting, ‘mom, mom, mom’ … So that part of it is a little challenging. Whereas on the East Coast, there is actually a separate studio space. And that has been a game changer for me.
Rockmommy: Your internal rhythms don’t always align with what your kids need, right?
Tiff Randol: Yeah, absolutely. I talk to a lot of different, because I am with Mamas in Music, I talk to a lot of women who are like, ‘how do we get tracks done when it’s like, everybody’s knocking on the door, we’re trying to do vocal overdubs in the closet!’
Rockmommy: How did you become a musician and an artist? Like who were your earliest influences?
Tiff Randol: Growing up, I was all completely Motown and like 50s music, you know, was my earliest passions. And then I also sang classical music and then I discovered Bjork and that was like, blew my brain. But it’s like from Bjork to Tracy Chapman to Motown to… It’s kind of all over the map. I did fall in love with Tori Amos early on as well. then when I discovered Kate Bush…I love Tori Amos. She’s so phenomenal and her own thing. I love Peter Gabriel. He’s a huge influence. then I love, I listen to a lot of jazz. I listen to lot of jazz. I listen to a lot of soul music … So it’s very all over the place. Like I’m kind of a music nerd.
Rockmommy: Did you sing first or did you play instruments first? Were you a composer or did you sing and collaborate?
Tiff Randol: My parents got me playing piano early. I was playing a lot of classical music when I was like really, really little. And then I just, but I was always singing and I was always writing. I was like writing stories. I was writing, you know, lyrics, but I didn’t. I didn’t come from a musical family and I grew up in, you know, upstate New York and, you know, just wasn’t really exposed to like studio culture and band culture and music culture. I did a lot of musical theater and didn’t really recognize even the art of songwriting until I was a little bit older. I was always singing songs and writing them, but I wasn’t sitting there thinking, ‘you could do this as a career.’ It didn’t occur to me until later. But I was doing musical theater, was doing classical voice, and then I quit piano early on. And then when I moved to New York when I was l7, I started interning in Philip Glass’s studio.
Rockmommy: So I do want to talk about Mamas in Music and why you felt the urge to start it with your friend. I think you said Mary Leay?
Tiff Randol: Mary Leay, she’s in the UK. I met her because I had postpartum. My husband was working on set during the birth and a lot of those early days because he was on a movie project. so, I felt very isolated in LA, away from family. I felt strange and really looking for connection, just dealing with all the stuff that you deal with after you have a baby. The highs and the lows … I didn’t know what to do with myself. Like I’m six weeks in, crying every day like of yeah happiness and sadness and all the stuff in between.
But I’m an action-oriented person so I started putting out SOS’s to women’s music business groups and asking if there was an organization for mothers and I found that there was not. So a publisher at Reservoir, who’s now on our advisory board, in London, circulated my email to Mary and connected us, because Mary had just had a baby and was going through a lot of the same things. She’s a great songwriter.
And we just started talking, and we were like, ‘hey, why doesn’t this exist? We need this. And we started building community, we started having amazing events and connecting with women around the world and here we are seven years later and now there’s other organizations that have popped up for mothers and caregivers too. And you know, it’s like really cool to see how the world and the industry is responding to it.
Rockmommy: Yeah, I know that’s I mean, a lot of what you’re saying is like why I started Rockmommy.
Tiff Randol: I think I see a lot more women posting about their pregnancy and posting their baby photos and kind of being open about it and even loud about it. And that feels like a big shift for me that wasn’t there before. It’s in the zeitgeist.
Rockmommy: I know you were saying earlier how it is hard to write music in spurts and not have the flow time. Now that you have this album coming out, do you have any shows coming up?
Tiff Randol: Yes – I’m working on what that looks like and, you know, working on that schedule, after putting out the album, Legacy. It’s coming out May 15th — download it and listen to it and share it. Really, I hope that it resonates for people – of all the projects that I’m working on, for IAMEVE, every little piece of the sound and the content inside of the music is so particular. It’s an immersive experience and it’s a deep dive listen album!
