Meet Tristan—an Artist You Won't Want to Keep to Yourself

Photos by Brooke Flecca.

Meet Tristan. While you may know her from her song, “Keep That to Yourself,” she’s an artist you won’t want to gatekeep. Her newly released EP ‘IF THE SHOE FITS, WEAR IT,’ is kind of like a really good pair of shoes—so good you can’t shut up about them. Her lyrics are smart and she is a true storyteller. We were lucky enough to ask Tristan a few questions about her most recent project and more. Her answers did not disappoint. So, without further ado…let’s get into it.

 ‘IF THE SHOE FITS, WEAR IT’ is out. How are you feeling?

Mainly, I am feeling relieved. I have been working on this project for quite a while now. I have forced my friends to listen to it so many times and I have listened to it so many times, so I am glad that it belongs to other people now. It’s also nice to have something that you are really proud of under your name. Now when I say, “I’m a musician,” I can say, “Look! I have proof! And I’m really proud of this!”

I feel like I have to ask a shoe question because of the project’s title. Do you have a favorite pair of shoes at the moment?

I wear sneakers everyday, and right now my favorite sneakers are my Adidas Campus 2000s. It’s snowing in Nashville as we speak, so I also have these black platform Ugg boots. I’m kind of slipping and sliding everywhere outside, but I’m alternating between those two pairs of shoes at this time.

How did you decide on the EP name?

‘IF THE SHOE FITS, WEAR IT’ was kind of the only option the whole time. It’s a long story, but I had written the first half of the song “BIG BABY!” forever ago and I had posted it on TikTok with just me and my guitar. For the longest time, that little clip of the song was a secret inside joke song with me and my few followers at the time. I say in that song “It wasn’t about you, but if the shoe fits, then wear it.” I was like, “If the shoe fits, wear it” would be such a dope name for a project one day. I had no plans to do a full project. I had written the song “Keep That to Yourself” and knew I wanted to put that out, but that was all I had. And then “Keep That to Yourself” blew up in a way I had never expected, and I was like, “Well, maybe I should do an EP then.” And the rest stemmed from there. It all came from “Keep That to Yourself” and a half song that said,“If the shoe fits, wear it.” I was like “Okay, I'm going to build the project around this.”

You mentioned the title comes from the song “BIG BABY!” I love the lyric video—is that you when you were little? What were your go to performance songs growing up?

The “BIG BABY!” lyric video is a compilation of a bunch of videos of baby me. I found them on my mom’s old hard drive. I used to perform in my living room all the time. I would put on these extravagant concerts. My sister would dress me up in outfits. I would hand draw tickets and hand them to my family. I had a karaoke mic and I would sing Taylor Swift songs and also my own songs for hours, forcing my family to listen. I’m so thankful that my mom took so many videos because they are really awesome to me now. In the song “BIG BABY!” I sample one of those videos in the bridge part. It's a sample of me saying “This next one’s one of my own and it’s a song called ‘She’s a Bad Girl’,” which was some vicious song that I wrote as a child. I thought that it was fitting that song included videos of baby me, especially since I’m still on the same shit now!

When did you start working on the project?

The first song I made, before I even knew that I was making an EP actively, was “Keep That to Yourself”. I started working on that with my friend David in October of 2022. I was still living in Boston. I had just dropped out of school, but I still had my apartment there and David was a friend of mine from school. I made that song with him. After it came out, I started being thrown into other sessions with people I had never worked with before. The next song I did was “let’s hope i move on” in Nashville. Most of the other ones were done in LA. I did a little trip for the first time, and I was like “Oh my god. I’m doing it. This is going to be an EP and this is really crazy.” The rest of it kind of fell into place from there.

 I’m such a fan of the song “Los Angeles (Interlude).” Did you make that song in LA?

Thank you! It actually was recorded in Boston. I’m a liar! [laughs] But I did record the EP mainly between LA and Nashville, so that’s what sparked the idea for the song. I knew that I wanted David to do a second song on the project and that one felt right, and so I asked him if he wanted to make it with me. So, it was done in Boston! All the songs were pretty much written in my room in Boston before I moved out or my room in Nashville once I moved—and then they were produced between Nashville and LA mainly, besides the ones I did with David.

What song was the hardest to write? What made it so difficult?

The hardest song to write for the EP was surprisingly “Last Girl on Earth.” It initially started out as a completely different song. I had written the verses and posted them on TikTok. It had a pretty similar melody, but it was a little different. Then I wrote a different song called “Last Girl on Earth” with different verses, but the same chorus that I ended up using. One day I was like "What if I just smashed those two little half songs together” and “Last Girl on Earth '' was born. It’s stupid and funny—and I love making fun of myself. It gave me a headache for so long, and it was so frustrating, but when I finally got it right, I was like, “This is perfect.”

What was your favorite moment from the making of the project? Who did you collaborate with and what did they help add to the EP?

Sorry in advance for the rambling I am about to do, but this is something I am super excited to talk about. First of all, I’m so excited about all of the cover art for the EP and the singles. All the beautiful photos were taken by my friend Brooke Flecca. We’ve known each other since the second grade and she is so talented and amazing. We were both in LA at the same time and we were running around Silverlake and Los Feliz, taking pictures in front of people’s houses and cars and just terrorizing the poor neighborhood. It was so much fun and I’ve known her forever. And then all the video visuals were taken by my friend Isabel Crist, who I have also known since elementary school—and her and I ran around Nashville like crazy. For one of the shots we walked for ten minutes in the woods to find this abandoned house. That’s usually something that I would be so scared to do, but we had so much fun. I just had a blast with both of them and I have known them both my whole life.

For the songs, they all had different producers, who I was working with for the first time. They were all so wonderful and kind. They let me play around and listened to the crazy ideas I had. “Keep That to Yourself” and “Los Angeles (Interlude)” I did with my friend David Cloobeck from school. “Keep That to Yourself” going big was the best moment of my life, so I am forever in his debt. I love him so much. He is the sweetest. “BIG BABY!” I did with Jake Weinberg and it was the first day I met him. We were scrubbing through compilations of babies crying to find sounds for the intro. It was just silly and fun. “tough subject” I did with Davin Kingston. He’s the best. “Last Girl on Earth” I did with Alex Hope. We went with a circus clown theme. “let’s hope i move on” I did with Alysa Vanderheym. Working with women is so nice and I have never left a session and been like, “I have no notes and don’t know what I can add to this to make it better.” It was just perfect from the get-go. Everyone that worked on the project I’m obsessed with, and I love them so much—but I’ll stop talking.

What song or lyric are you the most proud of?

I had been sitting on “let’s hope i move on” for the longest and I was so excited for everyone to hear the bridge of that song. It’s such a special song to me. But as a whole, “Keep That to Yourself” is still my favorite. I was such a control freak about each lyric on that song. It took me so long to get everything just how I wanted it and I'm really proud of it.

You’ve played a lot of live shows recently. Have you gotten a chance to play the EP songs since its release? What is your favorite song from the project to perform?

I played a couple of shows last year, opening for different people. It is always super vulnerable to play super personal songs about your life with just you and your guitar to a bunch of people who have no idea who you are. “Keep That to Yourself” is always my favorite to play because it's the one that maybe someone will know. I’m like, “Oh my god! Someone knows it!” So that’s always fun. I haven't had a chance to play the full EP since it's been out. I was supposed to play a show last week and there was a bunch of snow in Nashville, so we had to postpone it to March 22nd. I will be playing all the EP songs for the first time on March 22nd, with more of a full band setup—not just me and my guitar—so I’m really excited.

 How do you imagine people listening to the songs on the EP? What do you hope people take away from listening?

All of the cover art we did had a car theme to it, which kind of happened by accident. But then I realized that in “let’s hope i move on,” I say, “not sure if I hope you turn your car around.” There is definitely a car theme happening throughout the EP as a whole, so when people listen to it, I imagine them driving with their friends. That was how I played the EP to most of mine. I hope that people listen to the lyrics, and I hope that they mean something to them. We all have, if not the exact same, similar shared experiences and no one is alone in their heartbreak or happy moments—anything. We all go through the same things. Lyrics are super important to me, so I hope that comes across.

What did I miss? Is there anything else you want people to know about you or your music?

You didn’t really miss anything! My friend Isabel and I did a bunch of cool video visuals. Two of them are out now. There’s an acoustic version of “Last Girl on Earth” that we filmed at an abandoned house and then there is a little visualizer for “let’s hope i move on” that we filmed inside the abandoned house—which I was really nervous about! Those are on my YouTube right now. We also have a full music video for “tough subject” that is coming in the next couple of weeks. And I haven’t talked about this much yet, but I will be doing a deluxe version of the EP at some point. Everyone can stay tuned— I have a few more little tricks up my sleeve.

You can listen to ‘IF THE SHOE FITS, WEAR IT’ on streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. Go listen and make sure to follow @twentyminuteslater to stay updated on future posts.