Q&A: Paulina Captures the Haunting Shift from Lovers to Strangers in New Release
THE HAUNTING PHENOMENON OF SOMEONE CLOSE TO YOU BECOMING A COMPLETE STRANGER – Rising pop singer and songwriter Paulina has released her newest single, “Stranger,” offering a tantalizing preview of her upcoming sophomore EP, everything’s still. The track delves into the evocative experience of someone close to you morphing into a complete stranger, a theme that resonates with many and captures the unsettling nature of such a transformation.
“Stranger” dark and sultry opening with atmospheric synths sets a somber tone, mirroring the confusion and pain of such a profound loss. As the track progresses, it transforms into a powerful, cathartic release of frustration, reflecting the inner turmoil and unanswered questions that come with this experience.
Paulina describes the song as a bold departure from her previous work, showcasing a different, more intense side of her artistry.
“It's the phenomenon of someone close to you becoming a complete stranger,” Paulina says. “It’s haunting, bold and more angsty than my past songs. It introduces a different side of me, unlocking a new era of music that has been insanely fun to create.”
Paulina delves deeply into the unsettling experience of someone who once knew everything about you, including your most intimate secrets, suddenly vanishing from your life. This poignant theme resonates through the track, capturing the emotional turbulence of losing a close connection and confronting the stark reality of their absence.
“It felt like I was closing this chapter of my life that was filled with uncertainty and lack of closure, and I feel like this EP represents me giving myself that closure that I didn't really get before and it closes this chapter so that I can move on,” Paulina says.
“Stranger” is not just a song about loss; it’s a reflection on change and the inevitability of relationships evolving or dissolving. Paulina’s raw, emotional delivery, coupled with the song’s bold and angsty composition, makes it a standout track that captures a universal experience. It introduces listeners to a different, more intense side of Paulina’s music, hinting at the depth and complexity of her everything’s still EP.
Photography Credit: Cameron Bortolussi
LUNA: Thank you for sitting down and talking to Luna. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar yet, what inspires your artistic style and creative persona?
PAULINA: Growing up, Hannah Montana was my first image of a pop star. I feel like that's what sparked the initial interest to get on stage, perform and sing. Now, I love Julia Michaels, Lennon Stella and Ellie Goulding. I would say I pull a lot from those kinds of artists – both lyric-wise and overall sound-wise – so that's where I get a lot of my inspiration from as far as my own music. But really, I pull a lot from my own experiences as I'm going through life and navigating. I just recently turned 23 and I just moved to LA, so I feel like this has been really sparking the inspiration and creativity that I've been searching for for a while and I feel like I'm finally finding it here.
LUNA: Say if someone hasn’t heard of your music yet, which song would you introduce to them that best encapsulates your sound and artistic maturity?
PAULINA: My first single called “best friend.” I feel like I always knew I wanted to put out music and I finally did about a year ago. My first single was in April 2023. When I was making that song, that's when I knew this is how I wanted to introduce myself. I just felt like it really captured the sound that I was going for. I feel like for a while I wasn't really sure what kind of music I wanted to make because I've been writing for so long since I was 13. I've dipped my feet into a bunch of different genres and styles, and so when it came to my own music, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do, but I wanted to make sure that it was authentic and felt like me and I felt like with that song I finally found it. When I tell people to check out my music, usually I tell them to start with “Best Friend” because I think it is a little different melodically and it shows my vibe as an artist.
LUNA: Your latest single “stranger” just released. The title itself already implies a haunting and cathartic energy. What is the inspiration behind the single?
PAULINA: I went through a breakup and we've all been there. I went through a breakup back in October and it got me really thinking and trying to figure out what's my next step, and especially with music and how I express myself, I felt like I wanted to explore a different sound to really wrap up how I'm feeling and the emotion with it. “Stranger” was the first song that I wrote off my upcoming EP. It's going to be a three song project that is releasing in the summer. “Stranger” is the idea of someone that always knew everything about you and all your secrets and they were part of your everyday life. You can't really imagine not having them in your life and then suddenly they're not in your life at all. Sometimes by choice, sometimes not by choice. It's the idea of questioning and being frustrated with the whole situation and coming to the realization that this is how things have to be. The chorus, “now you're a stranger / don't know what's stranger to me / this odd behavior / erasing what we used to be,” it's like a play on the word stranger and how you are a physical stranger, but also I don't know what's more strange, the fact that you are a stranger in my life or the fact that you were able to move on so quickly and erase it all and act like it didn't happen. I feel like as humans, that's not really how most people operate. We think about it and process. Especially for me, I was confused. For him, it felt like it was like a switch just. I’m calling that out and just saying I don't know what's more strange.
LUNA: What did the creative process for “stranger” look like?
PAULINA: I have actually written that stranger line before any of this even happened while I was in school one day. I don't really remember how but it just came to mind when I went to music school for college and I remember thinking that was a really cool double meaning to a word. Fast forward to this time, I remember revisiting a bunch of old lyrics and ideas and then came across this and it related to what I’m feeling right now or what I'm dealing with. I sat down and it just poured out of me. When I was down in Miami, which is where my producer Sam Merkin is, he’s my very good friend and collaborator. We work amazingly together. He just understands exactly what I'm trying to do. I went down to Miami and recorded a series of the songs that ended up being this EP. My friend Elliot Harper mixed and mastered the whole thing. I knew I wanted to wrap it all up in a project and this was the first one we recorded on day one. I knew that I wanted it to build into more of an angsty sound and start off haunting to get that tone or that mood and then built into this more angsty sound which I listen to a lot but never explored in my own music. During the production process, the song came quickly and we finished it all in one night.
LUNA: “Stranger” is a sneak glimpse of your upcoming sophomore EP everything’s still. What can listeners expect from you in this new era of music?
PAULINA: I never really explored the angsty sound in my music. I think this EP also captures a lot more of my vocal range. I feel like in the past with music, I've played it a little bit safe. But with this one, I really felt like playing with how loud I'm going or playing with. With this EP, I feel like I'm playing a lot more with the volume of it. I'm louder. I'm bolder. I'm using higher notes that I wouldn't have written before because I feel like it really brings out the emotion that I was feeling and that's the best way to express it. I feel like it shows my versatility as an artist that’s more experimental. I feel like as I get further into my artistry and let it develop, I become more inspired and creative throughout the process and think about more ideas. It's cool to see the growth within myself as well because I feel like in my early music, I would sit back a little bit and trust his opinion with production, whereas now, I feel like I'm more calling the shots and it's really cool to to be a part of that process and to get more involved in it.
LUNA: What was your favorite part of the process or a favorite memory from bringing everything’s still to fruition that you would like to share?
PAULINA: It felt like I was closing this chapter of my life that was filled with uncertainty and lack of closure, and I feel like this EP represents me giving myself that closure that I didn't really get before and it closes this chapter so that I can move on. I wanted to mark this moment down in time through my music. I wanted to really capture exactly what I was feeling, exactly what I went through and now everything's still is me finding peace. It's basically the calm after the storm. For me this project is the calm after the storm where it was filled with so much uncertainty, frustration and confusion. I gave myself that closure. Everything’s still, that title was inspired by my favorite Noah Kahan songs called “The View Between Villages,” I've been listening to a lot of him and discovered that genre of music which I hadn't really listened to before, but I found a lot of peace in his music and specifically with that line representing that through all the chaos, we’re here and everything’s still and calm. I felt like that perfectly resonated with what I was feeling and what I wanted to get across in the EP.
LUNA: “Stranger” obviously touches on a very intimate and vulnerable storytelling standpoint in your previous relationship. What advice do you have for listeners who are navigating a very similar situation and have to find their own sense of closure?
PAULINA: It's definitely hard when it's unexpected and we don't have control over other people. What I learned when this is happening, I am not going to force anyone to do anything that they don't want to do or convince you that if you don't want to stay here, if you don't want to be part of my life, then I don’t need you. My advice for people that are going through that where I think it's our human instinct to try to hold on to those people, but if they're choosing to walk away or if they're leaving for whatever reason, let them and you will eventually realize why that happens. Me moving to LA and completely having this new life that I'm so excited to be living, probably wouldn't have been the case if I was still in that relationship. I think that in times of heartbreak or sadness or change, try to look at the brighter side and you'll soon see why it all happened. I feel as far as closure, it is hard. At the end of the day, no matter how many questions you ask, no matter how many conversations you have with this person, you're not going to truly get closure from them. It will really come from you walking away from it and closing that chapter. At the end of the day, I think you're the only constant in your life. My advice is to not search for the closure in them, but to search for it in your own life.
LUNA: I love that. I've personally been living by the phrase “let them” and I found that so healing. I also found comfort in the phrase “detachment is a gift” because it’s so important to not chase after someone that your ego is seeking to validate, rather than pouring into yourself and your peace of mind.
PAULINA: I think when you're in a relationship, it's easy to envision the rest of your life with them. And so when all of a sudden that happened, it felt like I was not only losing this person that I grew so close to, but it also felt like I was losing my future in a way that I had envisioned myself for myself. All of a sudden, I'm like that's not how I'm going to live and it's a very unsettling feeling. I love the whole “let them” perspective and it’s true because at the end of the day, you don’t want people in your life that don’t want or care to be there.
LUNA: If you could describe the EP in three words, which would you choose and why?
PAULINA: I would say it's expressive. I feel like a lot of my emotions really come through with how I'm phrasing things. Rather than it be a perfect recording throughout, we kept the little voice breaks and certain textures. I was very adamant on not getting rid of those and not trying to perfect it and smooth it out. I really wanted to keep all those little textures in my voice because I feel like it best captured all my emotion. I would say it's storytelling. It's a lot of wordy songs. Lyrically, I really dove into it head on and sometimes got very specific. I really want people to listen to the lyrics and let it take you on a lyrical journey because there's a lot to be said. Listeners will really understand it all having followed it. I feel like they'll learn a lot about me and what I had to go through and the whole situation. I would say I’m in between passionate and powerful. They go hand-in-hand. I grew very passionate about music and the music that I was making. I think that really comes through creatively. It really shows people how serious I take it and how serious I take myself and also life in general like, how I cope with things and how I express it afterwards. I think it's also powerful because I’m giving myself that closure. The last track is called “a song i wrote” and it's a pretty badass message and song. It's basically calling the other person out saying, you might think that you're over this and you might think you don't think of me, but I know that you're here listening to this song right now. So clearly, you still care a little bit. It’s me taking my power back rather than me crying about the breakup. It's more of a clever way of taking a stab at them and being like you got what you wanted, but who's really winning here. I think powerful sums up the whole EP as well.
LUNA: What is your favorite song from the EP and why do you love it? Is there a certain lyric or message that stands out to you the most?
PAULINA: This is so hard. I love them all because they're all different and they all bring me a different kind of emotion. Although I love all of them, the second song is called “funny” and it's an interlude. I think that is what I'm excited for people to hear because it's the most different from anything I've done. It's an interlude which I've never done before. It's a very short clip that leaves you wanting more, but I feel like it's perfectly wrapped up, like it's exactly how it should be. With that one, we were more experimental with background noises and sounds. I think it's a really cool track that most people won't expect when listening to the EP. I'm excited to hear what people think of that one.
LUNA: What kind of atmosphere or emotional space do you aim to create for your listeners?
PAULINA: I danced my whole life, and I love music that allows you to move to it in whatever capacity, whether it's slow or fast, and so the slogan or my motto, has been dancing to sad songs because I feel like a lot of my songs do stem from sadness or sad situations, but it's like dancing through the pain. No matter what you're going through, keep that smile on your face and keep dancing. With my music, I want to create that space where people can listen and cry to it, but feel some sort of happiness or light at the end of the tunnel from it. When people listen to my music, I really want them to listen to the stories I'm telling because it is very lyric heavy. I don't keep it super generic. I want them to listen and somehow relate it to their life. Even with “stranger,” it doesn't necessarily have to be about an ex. It can be about a friend that's now a stranger or a family member that's now a stranger. I want people to listen and think about it in their own way that resonates with their own life.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like that you would like to share with Luna?
PAULINA: I am very excited right now. I just moved to LA literally three months ago, and it's been just a whirlwind. It's like a different world out here. I've been meeting so many people and getting so inspired and working on a ton of new music, both for myself and for other people. I think right now, it's just taking it all in and getting accustomed to this new lifestyle, but also really activating the creative side of me and the music side of me, which I didn't feel like I was necessarily in the right environment for before. Now I do feel like I'm in the right environment. You can expect new music, lots of collaborations, lots of projects that I'm working on and hopefully some live shows. I want to start getting out there and performing around LA. I'm very excited to grow, build and to also connect with people because I am very social. I'm a social butterfly and I really love meeting people and learning about people.
