ings on Melancholy

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Seattle-based singer-songwriter ings has an inimitable presence. With a winsome grin, arms akimbo, she surveys the crowd at Springfield Missouri’s Outland Ballroom where I last saw her perform, wins them over with a look. Her songs, earnest and gentle as a warm breeze in autumn, are bound to lift the gloomiest of listeners.

Offstage, the larger-than-life nerd diva shed her skin to reveal the mastermind underneath – an introspective and thoughtful young woman by the name of Ingrid Chiles who is by no means less extraordinary than her stage persona (and who, even when not performing, continues to wear her day-glo spectacles).

Her 2013 EP Dog Physics is a wonderfully upbeat work of music. Yet, lyrically there seems to be a kind of persistent melancholy. I point this out to ings and she seems surprised, as if mine was the first comment to call out sadness in her work.

“Well people often peg Dog Physics as happy, but those people don’t listen to the lyrics,” she says.

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“Melancholy,” she says, “Is an underlying tenant of ings’ philosophy. Although I struggle with depression, I also tend to want to push past that, and seek something beyond that.”

In art, as in life, joy is never beside the point. For some of us, the process of seeking joy may be simple, but for those of us with depression, it’s easier said than done. Thus, the process of seeking joy becomes a constant struggle. For ings, music is an integral part of this struggle, which she expresses by likening “songs to software”. A song, to ings, can embed itself in a human mind and propagate joy the way a line of code in a computer maintains the machine. 

“You experience sadness,” ings says, “but you have to work through it. Björk said that there has to be a light at the end of the tunnel of a song. So in my own role as someone who makes songs, I have a responsibility to create songs that perpetuate my own commitment to eventually feeling optimistic.”

Of course, if you commit yourself to overcoming sadness, becoming optimistic, and growing as a person, you will inevitably change. And perhaps, I note to ings, the “software” runs the risk of becoming obsolete. In response, ings likens to work of an artist to “building a bridge while you’re crossing it.”

“Songs need to be true,” she says “but in a realistic time frame.”

“How so?” I say.

“I have to see my past self as a different person in order to have empathy and move forward,” she says, “You’re always a different person, with different experiences and information to process the world; so songs that are true for the past person may not be true for me now.”

She removes her day-glo spectacles in a gesture of mock seriousness and smiles, “I aim to write songs that stay true.”

This writing attitude comes through in the fourth track of Dog Physics, an irrepressible tune called “Dogs Are Aliens” that, ings explains, is about coming to see everyday things in different ways. It’s an uplifting song, but it comes from a place of profound melancholy. She sings,

Loneliness is just a passing mood

Cigarettes are just a type of food

Walkin away’s the way you use the shoes

I’m gonna see you the way I choose to

“I lived in Norway for a year, which was very lonely. I felt very isolated. I felt ups and downs, but they would come and go. [The cigarettes line] is about how people have habits that they find nourishing in the short term,” ings says. “I began the lyrics right after I got back, and they sat in my guitar case for two years before I actually finished the song.”

With all her life experience, it would be wrong to not let ings share a few pieces of advice to other artists experiencing the same struggle. 

First, ings says, “Treat every idea with respect. Honor it. Record it. Don’t immediately shoot yourself down. Record on your phone. Write on scraps of paper.”

Second, “Not everyone needs to be playing at the same time. Silence is a really important job.” 
“It takes vulnerability and confidence to be quiet.”

Third, “Don’t take yourself too seriously. You need to be happy with your life. If you want to make art a career, you need to derive your identity from more things than being just an artist.” 

And finally, “Focus on telling the truth and saying it how you see it. Try to become the best musician you can be.” Or poet, or painter, or novelist, or nonfiction writer…whatever you are.

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In the meantime, ings is taking care of herself. She finds comfort in the works of Emerson, particularly his work “Give All To Love”.

“I read it so many times that I accidentally memorized it,” she laughs, “It makes me think about how we so often rely on others to make us feel fulfilled. That’s not right. It’s wrong to treat humans as couches instead of dancing partners.”

A winsome grin spreads across her face, “I’d really like to be my own couch.”

You can find more on ings on her Facebook, Bandcamp, and Twitter. 

Read more of Vernon's work here.