The new record from Chessa Rich is all about dreams, specifically hers, but maybe some of yours, too.
Rich — a 34-year-old Durham resident — says she's been a vivid and frequent dreamer her whole life and says it can be a portal to creativity. But she also lived with an undiagnosed sleeping disorder for years which made dreaming challenging.
Her new record, “Deeper Sleeper,” is out Friday, April 7, and Rich joined WUNC recently to talk about it.
This is an excerpt of an edited transcript of that conversation. You can hear the full interview by clicking the LISTEN button at the top of this post.
In "Wanderer," you sing about learning that you can die in your dreams and not die in real life. What does it feel like?
"It's so utterly surprising. I'm not going to go into the details of those dreams because they're quite frightening. But every time in my dream, I'm like, 'Is this really actually about to happen?' And then it happened. And then everything is just dark. And I'm like, 'Oh, I guess I died.' It always feels very, like matter of fact, and just sort of like observing it happening."
What was your sleeping disorder?
"I have sleep apnea. So, everybody stops breathing while they sleep at various points, but some people do it so frequently that their blood oxygen levels drop more than 5%, which is pretty significant. So, I've been sleeping with the CPAP for almost a year. And it's much better. You know, I wake up and I feel like I was actually sleeping for some period of time. But I also am just a person who needs a lot of sleep."
You spent some time in Spain after college and then came back and started making music. Was there anything in Spain that happened that moved you in that direction?
"I was working in Spain as a language assistant. I worked 13 hours a week and got paid enough to live and travel a little bit. And so, I really just had a lot of time, and a time container as well of like — I have these two years, I have no career aspirations... A friend lent me a guitar that I could have for my second year there. And so, I had all this time to really just play around."
"Dirty Wine Glass" repeats the line "All I Can Feel Is Grateful." What are you grateful for?
"Today, I am so grateful for the springtime. This happens every year. But when springtime comes around, I feel this levity and I feel hope in my life again, and I'm reminded that my life isn't terrible. It was just cold... Every day, every plant has a new something, a leaf is bigger, there's a new bud — it's such a cool reminder that we're the same way, you know? We wake up and we're not the same person that we were before. And I'm also very, incredibly grateful for the community of musicians in this area. It's like, truly wild how across genres and across national success levels, there's really this sense of, we're all on the same team and let's work on something together."
"Deeper Sleeper" is the new record from Chessa Rich. It's out now. She'll play the Cat's Cradle Back Room in Carrboro on April 29 and the Flatiron in Greensboro April 27.
