For all its wonders, young love is one of the most notoriously difficult things to navigate – and that's doubly true for same-sex attraction as a teenager. So when L.A. singer-songwriter-producer BIIANCO started watching HBO's Euphoria, the relationship between Rue (Zendaya) and Jules (Hunter Schafer) struck a chord with her.
"I think a lot of queer high school romances are marked by equal amounts of passion and ambiguity," BIIANCO says. "In Euphoria, Rue spent most of that romance with Jules wondering what the hell Jules was feeling and what she was to her. Young love is such a knock-you-on-your-ass experience and can be a catalyst for so much growth. However, when you’re queer, you have to factor in how it can be harder to find someone to connect with and how to even tell if someone feels the same way considering how many of us are closeted in high school -- and all that just leads to one big confusing passion mess."
But pain in high school can often fuel art later in life, and with "Chlorine" – a self-produced afterhours jam where buoyant finger snaps and layered vocals rub up against lush synths -- BIIANCO draws on anxiety from her past to create something gorgeous in the present.