In the week of self-examination and self-revelation, Nashville-based artist Chaz Cardigan was finally ready to break through the toxicity of addiction and other bad habits. Chatting with his friend Kevin Griffin (Better Than Ezra), both shared a raw conversation about their addictions, sobriety, and breaking the cycle, and Cardigan’s latest single “S.O.S.” emerged from this.
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Co-written with Grffin, “S.O.S.” is a call for help that plays out in an infectious, pop anthem fueled by Cardigan’s penetrable chorus I wanna get over it.
“S.O.S” is all about trying to break out of a cycle,” Cardigan tells American Songwriter. “For a lot of my life, my identity has been tied directly to my output, how productive I am, or looking productive to other people—my drug of choice.”
Cardigan would use that crutch of productivity to keep his distance from people, and keep in his own world, something he now knows is not sustainable to true self evolvement and ultimately, happiness.
“I’ve been stuck in a cycle of learning that [I’ve tried] to change, failing, and burning out, over and over for years,” says Cardigan. “Towards the end of 2018, I started going to therapy to unpack that and some of my other more toxic traits.”
Keeping his DIY approach to his music, Cardigan’s latest EP Vulnerabilia, his first under Capitol Records and Loud Robot—a record label under J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot production company—was self-produced with additional production from longtime collaborator Jamie Lidell (Hailee Steinfeld). A classically trained pianist, Cardigan also played all the instruments on Vulnerabilia and dreamed it after completing a silent retreat at a monastery—something he does annually. Revealing and introspective, Vulnerabilia dives into Cardigan’s own struggles, including a time when he was homeless and coming out as queer to his family.
Once, after a show, Cardigan says a fan told him that his set made her want to call everyone she knew and tell them that she loved them. Through an unraveling of insecurity, anxiety, and other mental struggles on Vulnerabilia, if Cardigan can get these message of perseverance across in song, he’s done his job.
“I’d love for my songs to make them feel more secure in whatever emotions they’re feeling even when those emotions are a little scary,” says Cardigan. “I want everyone to feel confident in their vulnerability.”
