Hannah Bahng Breaks Down Her The Abysmal EP Lyrics

OLeander

Lyrics that encompass the song:

i’m wide awake
i’m waiting for your tone
nothing to say
nothing you’ve never known
no remedy
you’re here and i’m alone

• “My friend sent a beat, and I started making melodies over it. I came up with the theme because of the toxic flower. Realistically, I think this lyric encompasses the song ‘OLeander’ and the Greek myth of Hero and Leander. It also shows the toxicity of staying in a relationship you know will hurt you but you’re so in love that you have to stay in it.” 

Hannah’s favorite lyrics:

you are fading (too high)
fading faster to the light 
worship close to me all night
drinking heaven (oh so bright)

• “I came up with it in a hotel room in Korea on a whim, but I think it’s poetic and nice. It’s also very pleasing to the ear. It’s an allusion to the Hero and Leander myth when Leander is swimming towards Hero’s candlelight but then he dies. It has that feeling of both yearning and desire so I think it’s a cool lyric.”

POMEGRANATE

Lyrics that encompass the song:

but i know you wanna leave me in the tomb

• “This lyric definitely encompasses the theme of the song since it comes from that fear and insecurity of putting your all into someone and not having that reciprocated, but it’s a metaphor for leaving someone for dead. It’s also a double entendre because ‘tomb’ can be thought of as the underworld.”

Hannah’s favorite lyrics:

call me selfish but i’m doing what’s right for my love
call me greedy but i’m insecure of what could come

• “It came to me the most naturally out of all the lyrics—both lyrically and melodically. When I came up with it, it just rolled off my tongue so easily. The syllables were just so perfectly in place for it to be those words. I was like, ‘Wow, this is like perfect.’ I didn’t edit it after that because I was like, ‘This is it.'”

Vertigo

Lyrics that encompass the song:

i’m still in constant vertigo
tired of running from me 
swept to open sea

• “It was so hard to find to choose the lyrics for this one just because it’s so lyrically dense. In this song, I’m talking to myself in the mirror like one long monologue or a diary entry. I think this lyric describes a feeling of turmoil and dizziness of constantly trying to run away from my own feelings instead of facing them. The whole EP is technically a prequel to ‘Perfect Blues.’ But this lyric references what it’s like to be swept away by the sea.”

Hannah’s favorite lyrics:

i want to be healed 
but i can’t waste my time

• “I’m very goal-driven, and I know that to be able to heal, you have to stop and process your emotions. Sometimes I brush them to the side to go where I want to go next. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Sometimes you don’t have time to stop and process your emotions. This whole song is me being vulnerable with what’s happening inside my brain and coming to terms with it. I’m just talking to myself like, ‘Girl, you crazy,’ and I’m like, ‘Girl, I know!'”

hannah interlude

Lyric that encompass the song: 

i’m terrified of what’s to come

• “This one gives off fear of the future. I’m naturally a paranoid person, but I try to live in the moment. I think my mom helps ground me a lot, which you hear in the voicemail at the end where you can hear her saying a lot of encouraging words and advice to always believe in yourself.”

Hannah’s favorite lyric:

i won’t stray from what i overcome

• “I like this lyric a lot because I’m saying that I’ll never forget my roots and I’ll never stray from the obstacles I’ve overcome. I’ll always remember them as I move forward and as I continue moving forward.”

Abysmal

The lyric that encompasses the song:

questions left unanswered bother my soul

• “The whole song of ‘Abysmal’  is about questioning and how frustrating it is not to have answers to certain things in life. I think the song touches on open-endedness, especially because it ends with the strings and the piano and I wanted those sounds to go as long as possible.”

Hannah’s favorite lyric:

racing through the lack of fuel

• “Every time I listen to this song, I think this lyric is so boss. This phrasing rolls off the tongue well. This one is about trying to push through your limitations even when you’re lacking the fuel and you’re doing everything you can, even when you don’t have enough.”

tonight’s the night i die to a frank ocean song

Lyrics that encompass the song:

came down from the high
altitude of mine
falling through lines of atmosphere lights

lights shining outside
no one to confide
with all of my real human fears

• “The first part is the literal context to the song when I was experiencing the turbulence of the plane, and the second part is the emotional fear behind the context. I think those two go hand in hand together to explain the song as a whole.”

Hannah’s favorite lyrics:

trying to find peace
losing pink matters to me

• “If you’re a Frank Ocean listener, you’re a real one and you know. It’s a reference to his song ‘Pink Matter,’ but I was also referring to my mom and how I didn’t want to lose her because she matters to me. It’s definitely an intimate line.”

perfect blues

Lyric that encompasses the song:

i pray to make new waves 

• “At the end of the day, I think there’s a hopeful light to ‘perfect blues.’ I think it just encompasses my desire to make music. It’s okay to feel blue. It’s not a bad thing. It’s okay to feel your emotions, you know.”

Hannah’s favorite lyrics:

deprived of oxygen, scared to lose
candlelit fire, burnt and spent

“I wrote this in my notes: ‘I like it. Candle fire is gone because there’s no oxygen.’ To expand on that, I really like the phrasing of it and I think it’s a fun imagery of ‘deprived of oxygen.’ Obviously fires can’t exist without oxygen and that’s why the candle fire is gone.”

Abysmal is now streaming on all music platforms and physical copies are available to purchase on bahngshop.com

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.