https://www.roxylola.com/contact daily 0.75 2020-05-18 https://www.roxylola.com/home daily 1.0 2025-02-13 https://www.roxylola.com/about daily 0.75 2025-02-13 https://www.roxylola.com/jorja-smith-dreamland daily 0.75 2021-12-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec1be5d88e8165184652e29/c78482d8-5c73-41fa-ab0f-357248068997/js.jpg Jorja Smith: Dreamland - Jorja Smith: Dreamland From 10 Magazine, 2018 When a 21-year-old woman is dominating the UK R&B scene, she’s bound to be busy. And Jorja Smith is very busy, leading the pack of Brit women taking over. We do love female supremacy. Yes, Smith is in her own lane, but other artists like Ella Mai and Mabel are coming up with her. It’s the rise of independent women to reign over the R&B scene in the UK, and we’re into it. We’re also very into Smith. She’s soulful, she speaks her truth, writes her own music and is tough. Our kinda woman. Smith is busy when she calls me. She’s racing through an airport in Switzerland, where she has just performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival and for Quincy Jones’s 85th-birthday celebrations. She’s on her way back to London, where she’s moved from her hometown of Walsall and, in a few days, will be heading to Los Angeles. One might think she would be coming down from the high of releasing her debut album, Lost & Found, in early June, but there’s no comedown. Instead, she’s off on a whirlwind tour that will take her around the world for the rest of the year. Intense, overwhelming, but essentially the dream. There’s grit to Smith, a strong sense of independence, and when we ask her who keeps her grounded, she doesn’t miss a beat: “Me.” It’s very much what she’s about – owning it, expressing herself purely through her music, writing and performing. It’s the life she’s always dreamed of. She does it all in a tracksuit, braids and sneakers – the JS uniform. She describes her style as “whatever I want”. It’s the key to her fullthrottle success: playing it by her own rules. Smith began singing when she was young. “I think it was really natural, I used to make a lot of noise when I was younger,” she says. “I’d start writing stories but never nish them. I learnt to play the keyboard at eight and would mess around with chords. Then, when I was 11, I wrote my rst song and I just haven’t stopped.” When asked about her mentors, she lists the English-Irish singer-songwriter Maverick Sabre as well as her mother and her father, who was part of a neo-soul group – “They’re the ones who told me to follow my dreams.” And so she did, moving to London in her late teens, juggling a job at Starbucks with songwriting. And then, suddenly, she was featured on Drake’s More Life album and working with Stormzy and Kendrick Lamar. A solid start that escalated quickly, one that she’s always asked about, but honestly, it seems unnecessary to focus on this when she’s now in her independent prime. It’s clear what Smith is all about on her album, which steers clear of any features and is very much a journey – and fight – of self-realisation. She describes it as “an introduction to Jorja Smith. If you don’t know me you can get to know me.” A whole lot of smooth, jazzy R&B beats flow, working so well under her raw but perfectly polished voice – one that’s been compared to Amy Winehouse’s. So it makes sense that the most animated Smith gets when we speak is about Winehouse, who she says is her hero. The album that she praises for changing her life is Winehouse’s debut, Frank; her favourite Winehouse song is You Sent Me Flying. So what is it about her music that resonates so deeply? “The fact she’s so honest in her lyrics... She’s very vulnerable. You listen to her and you can literally believe everything she’s saying. You don’t feel alone. I think it’s very important. The lyrics, the way she writes is incredible. She’s so honest. You can’t take that away from a person.” It’s that vulnerability that pulses through Smith’s music, too – she’s made sure of that – and is probably a big part of why the internet has fallen in love with her heavy, heartbreaking love songs that fuse fluently into political, hard-hitting thoughts. If writing is one of the most honest forms of self-expression and Smith’s greatest strength, it seems lucky, then, that she cites her greatest weakness as overthinking: the gateway to a great song. “Having the ability to be able to get everything out that’s in my head gives me the best feeling – making music is my outlet.” Life is ideal right now. The plan is on track. She’s writing more, working on the next album. There’s something quietly powerful about Smith, she champions herself, is totally headstrong. “Be you, because you can’t be anybody else,” she says. “You’re you for a reason.” She’s right. Her only goal is to “be happy”. Good goal. What’s the best part about being Jorja Smith? “Best part about being me... Oh God,” she says. “Right now I’m just doing what I want to do. Living the dream. It’s my dream.” https://www.roxylola.com/tame-impala-homecoming daily 0.75 2021-12-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec1be5d88e8165184652e29/bebd3f94-7496-4f7d-9243-b5f723cd015d/TMA17_Covers_v4_SUB_A-HR+copy.jpg Tame Impala: Homecoming - Tame Impala: Homecoming From 10 Men Australia, 2021 In February 2020, Tame Impala’s fourth studio album, The Slow Rush, was released. It almost acted as a prophecy for the past 12 months. On the first track, One More Year, Kevin Parker sings: “But now I worry our horizons bear nothing new,’Cause I get this feeling and maybe you get it too, We’re on a rollercoaster, stuck on its loop-de-loop, ‘Cause what we did one day on a whim, Has slowly become all we do… ” Life, it seems, does imitate art. Parker’s power. “The last show we played was in LA at the Forum,” he tells me from Perth. “It was weird because coronavirus was starting to become ‘a thing’. A few days later it all kind of blew up. The first song in the set was One More Year, and it was strange singing those lyrics to people, because everyone was like, ‘What the fuck’s going to happen? Where are we going to be?’ I saw a comment on Instagram – someone posted a picture from the show and they wrote, ‘Man doing stuff really went out with a bang’.” He laughs. One year on from The Slow Rush – which received two Grammy nominations (the awards had not happened at the time of writing) and won five Aria Awards – Parker is back living in his hometown, with his wife Sophie Lawrence Parker, reminiscing, making music, and when we get on the call, he has just returned from the beach. It’s the ultimate lifestyle you’d hope the guy behind the Australian psychedelic, brilliantly layered musical project Tame Impala would be living. The producer, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who writes, performs, records and produces its music, began learning to play the drums – the core element of Tame Impala – at the age of 11. He played in high-school bands before he was old enough to play in bars, and then it got serious. He dropped out of studying astronomy at university when he was offered a record deal. Ideal. “Yes, very,” he says with another laugh. So, how does it feel to be back in Perth and forced to lock down in the place he grew up? He has called himself a “nostalgia addict” in the past… “What was more of a factor is just being at home all the time made me want to be organised for the first time in my life. So, a few times this year I’ve gone through my old stuff, found instruments and clothing. There are boxes from 10 years ago, for example from when we were first starting out. I’ve found this 8 track recorder, a little digital multi-track recorder that I used to record all my music on, and I literally haven’t held it in my hands since before we got a record deal. It was really emotional. That’s what I’m referring to when I call myself a nostalgia addict, that rush of the past. That instant version of who you used to be and the kind of person you were all those years ago.” Parker is making music, naturally, using “whatever’s around”, he says. “On one side I’m a gear nerd, so I’ll try to find new things, but then there’s the other side of me where I’ll literally just use whatever’s sitting there.” His music-making process is physically the same as it always has been – “It’s just me using what I have to make music” – with more electronics than just over a decade ago, when Tame Impala began. “I used to be a rock kid. I grew up on strictly rock music, even though I had this curiosity for dance music and electronic music. So I never really thought I’d be making music influenced by dance music and just electronic sampled kind of stuff. I’m so much more open these days.” Over the past few years, Parker, who works in a mostly solitary space, has delved into the high-powered world of collaborations, working with artists including Lady Gaga and Kanye West. The most revolutionary for Parker has been Travis Scott. “It was probably the one [collaboration] that changed the way I approach music the most, vibe-wise. Being in the studio with Travis for hours late at night made me realise, ‘Hey, I want this!’ It’s the kind of vibe that makes you think, ‘Oh this is how you make awesome music.’” Could a Tame Impala collaboration album be on the cards? “It would be [appealing]. It’s obviously something I’ve thought about. There are parts of my creativity that I can only really access when I’m by myself. But then a lot of these collaborative experiences have made me long to be the ringleader. You know, when an artist invites people to collaborate, it’s like an open forum. Sometimes it makes me long for that myself. But at the end of the day I like to think there are so many possibilities for making music for myself, it doesn’t just have to be Tame Impala. The possibilities are endless.” The kaleidoscopic world of Tame Impala is one that transports you to another realm, vibrates through the body, takes you on a trip. Watching Parker and his band live is sonically thrilling, visually hypnotic. “Visuals are so important to me. An album cover – I’ll gladly spend equal amounts of time getting that right. Equal to the music. Video clips, not so much. I’ve always just had a weird relationship with video clips. When I listen to my favourite old songs, the visual that goes along is just wherever I was in life at that time. Some songs would remind me of what I would see out the window of the bus driving back to my mum’s place. So I don’t like to force a visual on a song, I just love the idea everyone has their own visual for a recorded song. Obviously it’s different for a live song. With a live show, you just want to blow people’s minds and put the most psychedelic shit up there.” The album artwork for each Tame Impala project always feel so right – for The Slow Rush, there is something ethereally eerie, an otherworldly influx of soft sand through a window, which happens to be an abandoned town in Namibia. “The album has a strong theme of time passing and us experiencing time. It’s no coincidence that I was really obsessed with pictures of abandoned places, where it looks like something was totally happening and humans have used it and had a great time there, or lived their lives in a place, and suddenly it’s completely desolate,” he says. “I came across a picture of this town in Namibia that’s in the desert. It used to be a diamond-mining town. Sand just blows through the windows in the most amazing forms. So much so that it just looks like liquid coming in the window. I just loved how it looked. You couldn’t tell if it was happening in real time, flowing in the window, or if it had been a hundred years. It looked like both at the same time. I was like, ‘Oh yeah, we have to go there. One of these rooms has to be the album cover.’” Parker sits on the sand in Perth, photographed for this story by his wife, who at the time was just shy of nine months’ pregnant. “We kind of work together a lot. She has such a great eye for things and such a great sense for good shit. Whether it’s music or visuals. She loves disposable cameras – she’s had one going since she was a teenager, just taking pictures of her friends. She loves the idea that, one day, we will have boxes of disposable pics.” The concept of time passing is not only evident in The Slow Rush, but also in the way Parker frames his thoughts about life. I ask him what the best moments have been since releasing the first Tame Impala studio album, Innerspeaker. “Fuck! I’ve had a lot of great moments. When we were at Glastonbury we played on a Friday, so we had the rest of the weekend to go wild. We were watching Chemical Brothers, and it was just like this really warm, magical moment, because I was with people I loved – my friends, my wife. We all felt the same, that whole weekend was just like Utopia. Glastonbury is Utopia. That was a highlight, because the whole weekend was crazy. We didn’t get an opportunity to talk about how great Chemical Brothers were, but a few weeks later we were like, ‘Guys, how fucking good were the Chemical Brothers?!’ My life peaked at that moment. No pun intended.” Ah yes, doing stuff really went out with a bang. And for the next decade? “I don’t know, but I’m excited. I think getting the album out was a big thing – I felt like I couldn’t do anything else until I finished that album. I know everyone was anticipating it.” Does he feel pressure? “Of course. But I always feel pressure – I put pressure on myself. That will never go away but that’s something I realised at the time, making that album. I’m never not going to feel pressure, but that’s good. If you don’t feel pressure to do something good or you’re not able to express yourself under pressure, then you’re dead.” So, to put him under pressure, I ask what a Tame Impala song called No Place Like Home would sound like. He laughs. “My first country song ever – I definitely hear banjos.” Would he delve into country music? “Oooh, I don’t know. It’s definitely not toward the top of the list, but I do love doing new things and I love a challenge. At the rate I’m doing collabs these days… ” https://www.roxylola.com/zendaya-tommy-hilfiger daily 0.75 2021-12-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec1be5d88e8165184652e29/2b9433b1-ac9a-44c2-86eb-94ef59c77e3c/Screen+Shot+2021-12-01+at+1.24.19+pm.png Zendaya & Tommy Hilfiger - 10 meets Zendaya & Tommy Hilfiger From 10 Magazine 10+, 2019 When you walk through the streets of New York, the word “Tommy” is inescapable. Tommy Hilfiger is the red, white and blue beating heart of the city, of the country. This is Hilfiger’s kingdom and it’s where he continues to reign. This is the good side of America. I’m on Madison Avenue, heading into the hub that is the red-and-blue-stamped Tommy Hilfiger headquarters. It’s the day before the show for the label’s second collection with actress and singer Zendaya. Inside, a surprisingly calm team is fitting a crisp white suit on 67-year-old model JoAni Johnson. Behind them towers a mood board that is a collage of images of Aretha Franklin, Princess Diana, Lauren Hutton and Brooke Shields, as well as a sneaky photograph of Hilfiger himself in 1974 wearing a fabulous fur-collared coat, standing in front of the second store he opened for his first big venture, People’s Place. The business went bankrupt the following year, leading Hilfiger to buckle down for a few years to learn about the business of fashion, a time in his life he has since said provided the best lesson he ever learnt. From there, Hilfiger set up several design teams and companies, going on to found Tommy Hilfiger Corporation in 1985. We like a boss. Since then, the Tommy takeover has accelerated, full speed ahead. Perhaps it’s Hilfiger’s ability to involve the hottest celebrities – often musicians – of the moment with his brand that has kept it relevant. Snoop Dogg famously wore a Tommy Hilfiger rugby top on Saturday Night Live in 1994 that was re-released earlier this year as part of the Tommy Jeans Archive capsule collection. There are iconic photographs of Aaliyah DJing and rocking red, white and blue in a 1996 campaign. And the brand sponsored tours for the Rolling Stones and Britney Spears in the late 1990s. And then, the ultimate 2000s get: in 2004, not long after Beyoncé released her debut solo album, Tommy Hilfiger launched a fragrance collaboration with her titled True Star. It makes sense, then, that in a time when a whole generation has intimate access to their favourite celebrities at their fingertips, Hilfiger would collaborate on whole collections with some of the most adored women and men in the world right now. In 2016, Hilfiger tapped the American sweetheart Gigi Hadid for four seasons of collections under the name TommyNow, the “see now buy now” arm of his brand that allows consumers to shop the pieces online minutes after they’ve come down the runway. It’s a business model that Hilfiger championed before it was considered clever, and now successfully dominates. Hadid and Hilfiger took over the world – quite literally – travelling from New York to Los Angeles to London and finishing the collaboration in Milan. The following season, Hilfiger showed a race-car-ready collection inspired by Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton. Zendaya’s second collection marks the homecoming show for Tommy Hilfiger after last season’s takeover in Paris. The partnership with Zendaya has undoubtedly brought a new sense of swag and sass to the label. When I meet her and Hilfiger at the brand’s HQ, they’re ready for business. Upstairs, above the fittings, they sit together, legs crossed, overseeing the whole operation. The room is buzzing with their high-powered energy. Hilfiger is dressed in a classic Tommy look: red trousers, navy blue blazer and white shirt. Zendaya is sleek in a black, knee-length, double-breasted leather jacket and a soft, buttoned-up and belted shirtdress; later, she towers over everyone in leather boots. Slick. “I’ve grown up seeing the logo my whole life,” she says when we talk about the Tommy Hilfiger domination of the city. “[The collaboration] was right for me because the brand has always been a staple in pop culture. Tommy told me, ‘I want you to be able to be as involved as you want. If you want to pick everything down to the logos and the wrapping paper and whatever, then you’re completely welcome to do whatever you want and we’re going to create whatever vision you have. And that’s what he’s done, and I’ve been able to be creative and explore what it means to make clothes. It’s been really special.” This second collection is an ode to the 1970s and the people who performed at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, where the show is taking place – a sweet, full-circle moment for Hilfiger. “Zendaya brought a lot of photographs and inspiration boards to me,” he says. “I didn’t know what to expect. I was a little nervous, but when I saw the inspiration, I was like, ‘Thank God, oh my God!’ If there was a target on the wall, it was like, ‘Bull’s- eye.’ I was getting chills. My era, the ’70s that I understand so well and love so much. And we haven’t done it in an entirety before. There have been pieces but we’ve never done an entire collection that is ’70s.” It’s an era that Zendaya and her creative partner Law Roach are “heavily inspired by”, often for hair and make-up ideas. “When we were given the opportunity to actually make our own clothes, it just felt like that was the right place to go,” says Zendaya. “Most of what I do is inspired by then anyway. I don’t know why, I’m just drawn to it.” The collaboration is happening in what seems to be a whirlwind year for Zendaya, who has continued her role as the new-generation MJ in Marvel’s Spider-Man saga and, most notably, is the star of the brilliant Drake-executive produced HBO series Euphoria, a raw depiction of addiction and mental-health issues among teens that has taken over the world. “I am very inspired by my peers,” she says. “I think a lot of them are doing incredible work and opening doors and making a lot of changes. I want to be a platform to support people my own age and younger who are showing me how to do it. I am proud to be part of this generation. I think we’re doing a lot of great things. No better time to be or exist.” Being a young woman in America right now sees fashion fit into Zendaya’s world as a source of empowerment and escape. “Fashion has been a tool that I’ve used to find my own voice and self-confidence,” she says. “I’ve been able to become more fearless, figure out who I am and what I like and what I don’t like. I think clothes are more than just clothes. They’re memories, moments and very much a part of you and who you are. Sometimes I go on red carpets and I create these different characters. It’s empowering because I get to explore these different facets of who I am already. All these different versions of myself exist within myself anyway, I just get to find out who they are. So, to me, it is a form of acting, like any other art form that I love. It allows me to escape into something but also empowers me to be more creative and care less about what other people think.” Her involvement in each collection – Zendaya calls it “overbearing”, Hilfiger calls it “perfectionism” and “professionalism” – has brought a new freshness to the label. It is, as he describes it, a “real, true-blood collaboration that has enhanced my brand”. It feels free and new-generation cool, cementing another epic moment in Hilfiger’s history. “I’ve learnt from Tommy [how] he has [built] this incredible, massive brand,” says Zendaya. “It has outlived so many others because of his ability to stay relevant. He does it by always uplifting and encouraging young voices that are coming up and giving them a space to be creative, to have a voice, and he gives them the resources they need to be creative. So when you’re able to do that and you don’t have an ego, that’s how you’re able to continue to grow and be successful. That’s what I want. I want to always be able to have the capacity to reach and learn at the same time.” The AW19 show is, of course, a successful extravaganza. Held at the back of the Apollo in a set that recreated a New York street scene, complete with brownstone stoops, it had trumpets vibrating through the air, girl groups singing loud and proud, and a slew of women and men in all that 1970s get-up, swaggering down the runway to Franklin’s Respect. What we want, baby, they’ve got it. It is the natural evolution of the brand, from sponsoring tours, to dressing musicians to giving over complete creative control of collections and touring the world. “The best part has been having someone’s ideas come into our kitchen and allowing the brand to go to yet another level,” says Hilfiger, reflecting on the collaborations. “Some brands get stuck doing what they do and sometimes they can be myopic. They don’t look out, and if they do, they bring ideas back they’re comfortable with. I wanted to say, ‘OK, bring new ideas and help us move the needle.’ It worked. It’s working in such a great way. Beyond what I expected – way beyond.” This is Tommy, now. https://www.roxylola.com/aap-ferg-ten-portrait daily 0.75 2021-12-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec1be5d88e8165184652e29/c482d4f1-9811-467c-845b-7a5c5635b232/AsapFerg.png A$AP Ferg: Ten Portrait - A$AP Ferg: Ten Portrait From 10 Men Australia, 2019 A$AP Ferg is falling backwards into a pool in Sydney, covered in Tiffany & Co. jewels. Refrain from using the word drip, please – this is a waterfall. “Tiffany store on Fifth, I’m performin’ with the glist’, all the glist’ up on the wrist, waterfall not the drip,” he raps on his record Floor Seats. Yes, this is glitz and glamour at its finest. This is glowing up and growing up right here. It’s the start of a new era for Harlem born and raised rapper Darold D Brown Ferguson Jr, better known by his stage name, A$AP Ferg. As part of the hip-hop collective A$AP Mob, Ferg became the second member of the group to sign a record deal in January 2013 and has continued to live up to his high-school nickname, Trap Lord, heavily influenced by the style and sonics of his birthplace. “Growing up in Harlem, it’s a very stylish place,” he says. “From all the drug dealers that used to be in the neighbourhood, copping all the clothes and having the fancy cars, all the way down to the OGs, the original gangsters, mentors, the people who paved the way for us. They were always stylish. I got a lot of my style from my dad – he wore slacks and Coogi sweaters. My father always kept me fresh and my mum always had a great sense of style.” Ferg’s father, Darold, owned a boutique in the city, printing shirts and logos for record labels. Inspired by him, Ferg launched clothing and jewellery lines before he pursued music and attended the High School for Art and Design in Manhattan, majoring in fine arts and fashion. An impressive amount of knowledge, interest and love for our holy trifecta that is fashion, music and art has seen Ferg create epic records and clever, abstract artworks, as well as break boundaries in business. The announcement that Ferg would be a brand ambassador for Tiffany & Co. felt exciting, fresh, and has seen him collaborate with Elle Fanning, producing and adding a rap to a Moon River remix for the brand’s campaign. “I wanted to bring some ’hood to the Tiffany world,” he says. “They didn’t have any ’hood or urban flavour. They didn’t have any black people, kids, teenagers representing the brand. They didn’t have any edge.” So Ferg stepped into the building and rapped divinely over a trap beat: “Tiffany for the breakfast.” Flex. “I used to design jewellery when I was younger and my school was across the street and down the block from the Tiffany Fifth Avenue flagship store,” he says. “I would have to walk past that store every day to take the train home. I would feel so intimidated to walk in because I knew I couldn’t afford anything in there. The reason why I really wanted to join the brand was because it’s part of the legacy – I wanted to bridge the gap between them and the world. I had never seen anybody who looked like me who was a part of that brand. So I wanted to be the first. Even if I wasn’t the first, I just wanted to show people that it’s possible.” In 2019 it’s hard to come across a rap record that doesn’t brag and boast about being iced out and dripping in diamonds. To Ferg, the collaboration with Tiffany is more than a ex, it’s a lesson to the culture. “I think it’s important that rappers wear jewellery, because it just goes with the part of the rags-to-riches story. It just adds to the costume of the picture we’re painting,” he says. “But what’s cooler about me being a part of the Tiffany brand is that rappers aunt about spending millions of dollars on jewellery, and I don’t spend millions of dollars on jewellery because I get it from Tiffany. I’m showing people we can make business moves and align ourselves in partnerships with these brands and still be y. And at the same time save money.” His outlook feels fresh. The alignment with such an iconic brand is another chapter in the story that sees fashion influenced by hip-hop artists, and hip-hop music heavily influenced by fashion, as brands continue to be constantly name-dropped. “Fashion has been a huge part of music because it’s our identity. Especially for hip-hop artists that come from urban communities where people can’t afford to live certain lifestyles, at least we can dress like we’re living the lifestyle. Fake it ’til you make it. Houdini used to wear feathers and leather pants and long hanging earrings – they were being rock stars and they probably didn’t even have the money, but they had enough to wear an out t to make them feel like they were part of that lifestyle. It’s very important because it allowed us to dream. Dressing the part allowed us to play the role in that part and become who we were aspiring to be.” The people Ferg aspires to channel come in phases, always referencing fashion in music and pop culture. “I get inspired by Cash Money Records, when they were doing white tees and bandanas around their necks. Then I get inspired by Cooley High movies and the ’70s, and then I’ll get inspired by, like, Funkadelic and George Clinton and how they had a very bohemian, eccentric style. Very colourful, very hipster and a free way of dressing. I get inspired by so many different things on a normal basis, and when I dress certain ways it makes me into that character and I’m able to do different cadences by dressing that way.” Ultimately and naturally, it all comes back to music. “I grew up listening to ’90s hip-hop and R&B, Mary J Blige, Jodeci, Usher, Puff Daddy, Lil’ Kim, Biggie, Mase, Cam’ron, Snoop Dogg, Tupac... All of those guys. Growing up in Harlem I would hear it in my dad’s car or at home. He got a lot of free CDs so we would listen to a lot of the music before it came out.” Those influences can be heard in his music – earlier this year, Ferg collaborated with fellow A$AP Mob member A$AP Rocky on the track Pups, which samples multiple elements of ’90s rapper DMX’s Get at Me Dog. The collaboration is one of many between the two crew members. In 2019 the importance of a crew in music feels stronger than ever. The members of the collective have grown up together in the industry and have become a hip-hop family. “Having a family and crew in hip-hop is good because there’s so much gravitational pull in different directions and it’s cool to have your friends to keep you focused and remind you of your purpose and why you’re actually here, doing what you do.” This year he continues to hustle, working on new music with a new sound and making rugs. Yes, Ferg is working on furniture and homeware. “Lifestyle things,” he says. “I’m more into lifestyle versus fashion,” he explains, noting his love for Ralph Lauren. “He’s number one because he’s into lifestyle. I believe fashion is more of a fad. He could dress a reman, or a cowboy, a businessman, someone going to play polo. He can dress everybody.” But back to the rugs. The endeavour goes back to Ferg’s brand, Devoni Clothing, which he started in 2005. “I used to design belts and stuff like that before I started rapping and making music. I’m basically upping the brand and starting to do custom rugs from Nepal. I haven’t got my rugs yet, but it’s in the making. I’m turning my paintings into rugs.” His style is abstract and he references “a lot of the masters” including Francis Bacon, George Condo and Picasso as artists whose works he would love to collect. We like his style. When he’s painting, Ferg listens to anthemic music from artists such as Chris Jones and Seal, “so I can think big and think about mountains and create something bigger than me. To me, those artists are larger than life.” If he were to paint someone’s portrait in his abstract style it would be Lil Uzi Vert. Why, I ask. “Lil Uzi is legendary,” he says, simply. Ferg moves naturally in front of the lens that belongs to his girlfriend, photographer Renell Medrano, whose work has a real edge of fantasy. Together they work effortlessly, bouncing off each other and with full freedom in the suburban house that they chose to shoot in. We love a power couple. “I just think she has a great eye. She just knows how to shoot me well. I don’t trust a lot of photographers. I don’t trust the angles, or that they’re going to capture me in the best way possible. She actually captures me all the time in the best way possible. And she’s a female – if she says it’s nice, then it’s nice.” Ain’t that the truth? He’s in his element, waterfallin’ in Tiffany & Co., suited up, bossed up and ready to level up. “I’ve got new cadences, a new lifestyle and a new rack of music coming with different sonics. Nothing sounds the same or reminds you of any music I’ve done in the past. It’s better. Man, I’m levelling up because I’m just bringing more heat.” Fired up with the right amount of ice to keep it cool and in charge, riding with the Mob every step of the way. Get on the winning team. https://www.roxylola.com/tkay-maidza-super-tkay daily 0.75 2021-12-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec1be5d88e8165184652e29/ce873a9e-f382-4ffd-89f9-3d6ac95d745f/Tkay.jpg Tkay Maidza: Super Tkay - Tkay Maidza: Super Tkay From 10 Magazine Australia, 2021 The universe of Tkay Maidza is buzzing with good energy. In one corner, flowers bloom fast, the sun shines bright. In another, Maidza revs full speed ahead through fields of daisies on a Mad Max-esque dirt bike. In yet another, she codes in a lab, Kim Possible style, her pigtails high and bodysuit tight. So, what’s the sitch? Maidza is fast becoming the reigning queen of Australian hip-hop. The Zimbabwean-born, Australian-raised artist has solidified her presence with a trilogy of EPs titled Last Year Was Weird. The third and final project was released in July. On each EP, Maidza’s versatility shines as she flows smoothly between pop bops and hard raps. “When I was younger, all I listened to was the radio. [Pop] was what grabbed my attention as a kid. I think my experiences are pretty unique to me, but I know there are certain things I say that other African-Australians will understand. We’re that small circle of people, the cool kids, who love grime and trap and went to raves. There’s a very specific taste there and I think that influenced me, being there for 20 years of my life.” Maidza’s Zimbabwean roots instil a sense of hope in her music. It’s uplifting but still electrified by an underlying deviousness. “Zimbabwean people want to see the bright side. A lot of Third World countries are like that. The music that comes from those countries reflects manifesting something else. A lot of Zimbabweans are very optimistic. They want to make the best of what they have.” That is exactly what Maidza is feeling right now. When we speak via Zoom, she is at her new apartment in Los Angeles, having recently moved from Adelaide. It’s something she’s been wanting to do for years. “I’ve been loving it. I’m meeting people that I really like – just off the first time meeting them – which is rare,” she says. “I’m definitely going to stay here. I feel the buzz. I’m very sensitive to energy and I get overwhelmed… but I love it here. It’s cool, it’s exciting.” It was in Los Angeles a few years ago that Maidza met her main collaborator, producer Dan Farber. “We have very similar outlooks on life. It’s so important to have someone that supports you no matter what.” By then, Maidza had released her debut album, 2016’s TKAY, which was a synth-pop, electronic project and, truthfully, not a representation of the Maidza we know today. Listening to her intuition, she tapped Farber to work with her to create a more authentic sound. “It didn’t represent me,” she says of her debut. “I wanted to see what I could do if I felt like I was being more honest with myself. I always believe that if you love what you’re doing and it’s meant to be, it will work out.” Farber’s production perfectly complements Maidza’s music, whether she’s singing or rapping. Together, they hit the sweet spot, and have undoubtable musical chemistry. Having a good team around her is key. “The people that surround me are amazing because they are encouraging me to be my best self. They’re not asking, ‘Where’s the hit song?’ Eventually, that is the goal, but everyone understands that the first priority is to build the story and create stability to make sure my identity is very clear. It’s like, ‘How am I going to build this and make this a 20-year plan instead of what we need right now?’ That’s the difference between a quick, easy dollar as opposed to, ‘What if we bought houses in five years?’” The music industry is tough, but Maidza knows what she wants. For a start, she would like to see more women in CEO positions. “A lot of women I work with, like A&Rs or PRs, understand the way female artists work. It’s important for female artists to have other women on their team. It makes a big difference, empathetically.” Maidza is headstrong and determined. An avid tennis player growing up, she says nuggets of wisdom learned on the court now guide her through the industry. “The thing I learnt from tennis is how important the hours you put in are. Also, just seizing opportunities. If you have a ball in your court, try to get it to the other side because then fate can work for you; someone might make a mistake and that’s great for you, or someone might see something they wouldn’t have seen if you didn’t try at all. It’s such a mind game, too: confidence, body language and the way you present yourself to others – good energy is important.” Intuition and energy are Maidza’s secret weapons. As she raps in Shook – “Intuition with the vision, see my future really clear” – she’s manifesting through her music. She describes herself as shy, but the Maidza we see in music videos and on stage is full-throttle fabulous. She thrives when creating characters for herself and putting on a show. “I think channelling energy is the biggest thing for me. I want to see something I haven’t seen myself in before. I always want to create some sort of character. I think I’m very lucky with the fact I can be different people: there’s a flower universe where I can be soft and then there’s the rap intensity where I have crazy updos and look more bad-arse. And then there’s moments where I can be goth and go to a rave in Berlin. I’m always excited to reinvent myself.” For our shoot, Maidza shines in Gucci’s Aria collection. “It was my first time wearing Gucci, and it felt like another moment where I realised that everything I wanted from this EP [Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 3] has really come to fruition. I felt very expensive and special! I was channelling the Grammys after-party.” Manifesting. Maidza loves superhero movies and comic books, particularly X-Men and The Avengers, and she brings a superhero mindset to all that she does. For the single Kim, featuring Yung Baby Tate, Maidza was inspired by the Disney cartoon character Kim Possible, who saves the world from supervillains and always comes out on top. In the music video, she cosplays Possible, Lil’ Kim and Kim Kardashian, chanting, “Bitch I’m, bitch I’m Kim.” The response has been huge. One of the comments on the YouTube video reads: “Shit, this is an MTV back-in-the-day quality video.” Hell, yeah. On the EP, the thunderous Kim track is complemented by the bubbling, adrenaline-filled Syrup, which reveals Maidza’s clever wordplay (“My bars like chocolate, silky, milky, smooth” – it’s true). The sweet Onto Me, featuring UMI, shows Maidza’s softer side, while High Beams is a haunting hype up. “I’m proud of all of them on different days. At the moment, I am trying to focus on myself, so I’m loving So Cold. That’s the one where I’m like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe I made that.’ On another day, High Beams is fire. Kim is sick. Breathe is different. I’m so impulsive and intuitive, I’ll be in a certain headspace and then I’ll quickly move out of it. Listening back to the volume three EP now, it sounds like a completely different person. I’m learning from it, too, just listening back. It’s a stream of consciousness and sometimes it takes time for me to realise what I was saying.” The Tkay Maidza blueprint is made up of influences including Kanye West, André 3000, Kendrick Lamar and Nicki Minaj (“Because she’s so sassy.”) Maidza collaborates with artists she admires and in the future, she hopes to work with Kaytranada, Pharrell Williams, Hudson Mohawke, Aminé, A$AP Rocky, Doja Cat and Tyler, the Creator. “The list goes on,” she says. For now, she’s soaking up the Los Angeles sun and vibrating on a high frequency, elated with the response to Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 3. “The thing I’ve noticed over the last few weeks is that everyone wants something from you… You never really know the true intentions. It can be distracting.” So, Maidza’s protecting her energy, focusing on an upcoming tour where she plans to channel “carefree energy. When I step on stage, it feels like I’m becoming my ultimate self.” She has also begun working on an album. When asked about the best moment so far, she says it was moving to Los Angeles. “The goal at the beginning of the three EPs was to be secure enough to do the move. I’ve been meaning to move here for seven years and I’ve never been ready for it, but it felt like this year was the perfect time. It felt like nothing else was meant to happen except for this.” With her precise attention to detail, wild imagination and excellent execution, Maidza is poised to be one of hip-hop’s leading female figures. Her story is unfolding just as it’s supposed to. On the biggest lesson she’s learnt, she says: ”I feel like everything I want is already in me. I just have to believe in it.” https://www.roxylola.com/cartier-crash-course daily 0.75 2021-12-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec1be5d88e8165184652e29/8309873e-e76b-453d-b728-b7081c3102b1/DAKOTA_1.jpg Cartier: Crash Course https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec1be5d88e8165184652e29/610c27af-d964-48e5-93ee-febf7cb617ef/DAKOTA2.jpg Cartier: Crash Course https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec1be5d88e8165184652e29/aa042775-2187-4f39-ba34-b4c4fde9d454/dakota3.jpg Cartier: Crash Course https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec1be5d88e8165184652e29/3880d38e-7c50-4b20-9db0-decd00e4a9f8/dakota4.jpg Cartier: Crash Course https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec1be5d88e8165184652e29/01d0ebf6-340c-486d-bd44-52ccf9ec9459/dakota5.jpg Cartier: Crash Course https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec1be5d88e8165184652e29/e3458cda-fbc5-46d3-bedf-85dad98cc729/dakota6.jpg Cartier: Crash Course https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec1be5d88e8165184652e29/7a67b159-34ff-4e8b-8abf-f5af98475537/dakota7.jpg Cartier: Crash Course https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec1be5d88e8165184652e29/ff8cbf3d-9848-4408-bc3f-c75e67dcd8d5/dakota9.jpg Cartier: Crash Course https://www.roxylola.com/genesis-owusu-who-gon-stop-me daily 0.75 2021-12-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec1be5d88e8165184652e29/f6883555-325c-41c0-9b7b-2ea3fabd7b37/genesis.jpg Genesis Owusu: Who Gon' Stop Me - Genesis Owusu: Who Gon Stop Me From 10 Men Australia, 2018 Genesis Owusu is rolling in the scene, living in the dream. The 20-year-old hip-hop artist is making funk-filled, dripping- in-soul waves through Australia as he rises up, ready for domination. He’s our one to watch. Owusu (real name Kofi Owusu-Ansah) grew up in Canberra after his family moved from Ghana to Australia when he was two years old. “My parents moved for me and my older brother to have better opportunities in regards to education. They listened to everything, music-wise. I think that’s a big reason I try to make sure any two singles don’t sound too similar. I think that influence rubbed off from listening to so many different kinds of music.” Owusu first started a rapping project with his brother called The Ansah Brothers. “That was really just for fun and for the sport of rapping. It was casual, carefree. We just wanted to rap. Genesis Owusu is much more an expression for me as an individual. Just trying to convey my emotions, thoughts and feelings onto a canvas sonically and lyrically.” Yes, Genesis Owusu is taking off. In the past year he has played his first international shows, been a prominent act at a number of Australian festivals, completed a journalism degree and released two singles that are really very good. “It’s about creating something different, something that comes from Owusu’s mind.” The beauty of being Genesis. What does he bring that’s new to the game? “Me, myself. No one else is me. No one else has had the combination of experiences at the moments that I had them, and I’m trying to convey that in a different sound and not just ‘what’s poppin’’ at the moment. I love trap music but I wouldn’t want to make a trap song. What would make you want to listen to my trap song if there are a million trap songs out there right now?” True. And so his style is funk-ified, the sweet spot where hip-hop and jazz meet. It’s music that makes you feel good. The people around him are forming the world of Genesis Owusu. Working with members of the Free Nationals has been a top moment for Owusu, and another stamp of approval – the Free Nationals don’t work with just anyone. “They’re down-to-earth, chill people who also happen to be the best musicians ever. I keep trying to be so different from everything else, just being with those kind of artists... They not only enhance the Genesis sound but also help create it. They are helping to mould what it is.” The Owusu world is home to his friends, his hype men who accompany him today and through each moment on this journey. “They’re my closest friends, the people I create everything with, perform with – they jump on stage with me. We’re planning a new music video together and they shot my last one as well. We make clothes together. They’re just like my creative unit. It’s kind of hard to find, especially in a place like Canberra, so once we found each other we became very close.” The Owusu crew has formed, and the way they bounce off each other feels right. We like a creative unit. His need to express himself comes through different forms. “I’ve always kind of wanted to dip into everything, and music happened to be the one that worked out. If I have something to express, I want to use whatever medium works best to express it. What I wear will express what I feel, in the same way what I say in my music will express how I feel. Maybe I want to draw it, or make a T-shirt out of it or sing it. Fashion was a big one from the start before music.” There’s an ease to the way Owusu moves, anything he wears becomes part of him, that moment. And it’s why he wouldn’t describe his style. “Too many barriers, boundaries, restrictions.” Owusu has no boundaries, he’s on a mission to create music that feels invigorated and energised. He’s working fast: “I can’t just wait for things to inspire me, I have to make it happen. I have to compromise at some point to not make it some soulless product but to also not wait six months for something to inspire me. You have to search for it. Search for experiences and new musicians to work with.” When I ask him where in the world he would love to record an album, his answer is so simply him. “At home. An artist will make a really good project or song in a particular space where they’re nobody and it will blow up. Someone will take them and put them in some multimillion-dollar studio with all the best engineers and they’ll be shocked when the product isn’t the same. You took them out of that environment that cultivated that. The studio and engineers would help, but at the same time, if I’m making an album, I want it to be me and created in a place that cultivated me.” Owusu is ready for action. He knows his greatest strength is “self-control” and his greatest weakness is “indecisiveness”. He doesn’t have moments of doubt, his key to success is to “do you and believe in it”. If he could walk into a room and speak to anyone right now, it would be “Kanye West – for a lot of reasons. I really want to meet Pharrell Williams. Pharrell is one of my biggest inspirations. That song [You Can Do It Too, which Owusu gave thanks to in a recent Instagram post highlighting all his achievements]... he was right. He did it. He permeated in a world of gangster rap and drug pushing – he came with his cool falsettos and skateboarding and anime. Also, André 3000. Miles Davis, rest in peace. Jimi Hendrix, rest in peace. Erykah Badu.” Good choices. He would love to feature on “a wild album, like a Björk album”. Genesis Owusu knows what he wants. https://www.roxylola.com/rae-sremmurd-a-night-at-the-hotel daily 0.75 2021-12-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec1be5d88e8165184652e29/9d991df7-fbcc-4d81-bb37-6e6e0f5d46a6/swae.png Rae Sremmurd: A Night At The Hotel - Rae Sremmurd: A Night at the Hotel From 10 Men Australia, 2019 Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi can’t stop dancing. Their flow is infectious. It’s 12am in Sydney, it’s the middle of a summer’s night, we’re exploring a hotel and they’re on top of the world. Tonight, this is their kingdom. The world of Rae Sremmurd, Jxmmi tells me, would be filled with “loud, hot colours”. You can feel the heat through their wickedly good music that’s seen them become rap’s new royalty since their debut album, SremmLife, was released in 2015. Their beats pulsate, the melodies are smooth and they look good. It’s a perfect equation, a brilliant culmination of what hip-hop/rap and all that hypebeast culture is right now. “At night time the sky is probably pink,” Swae says of their world. “You drink the water in the air and the soil is edible.” The simple Sremm life. The brothers grew up in Tupelo, Mississippi, with their mother and brother. “The person that inspires me is my momma,” says Jxmmi. “She worked hard. She had to work two jobs, could barely pay the rent but she never let it break her at any moment. Where we are, we now give it all back to her, you know what I’m saying? But she was definitely that one person who inspired me.” Music came naturally: Jxmmi began playing in bands in the sixth grade and Swae knew music was what they would pursue when they’d come home from shifts at McDonald’s – burger flipping served as great time to come up with the “best songs ever” – and go straight to their room to write songs. “We were like, ‘Yo, we would rather be doing this than the 9 to 5s.” And so in 2009 they formed a hip-hop band with a friend, Dem Outta St8 Boyz, composing and producing the music at home and then releasing dance videos on social media. In 2013, the brothers based themselves in Atlanta, meeting producer Mike Will Made-It, who signed them to his record label Ear Drummers, and Rae Sremmurd was born – say it backwards. Through the hotel’s hallways, Swae’s falsetto cuts through the air and Jxmmi skateboards, full speed. There are no rules in this world. They do what they want and they wear what they want. Their attitude informs their style and their style has become intrinsic to their work. “My attitude is, I don’t give a... ” I tell him he can swear. “Oh! My attitude is I don’t give a fuck! I’ll put that shit on. It might have been in the girls’ section but it might t if the guy is slim enough to wear it, and luckily I’m a slim guy. If I like it, I’ll put it on. I don’t give a fuck. There ain’t nothing I won’t wear if I like it.” Boom. Yes, we like their attitude. They glide through the lobby, lounge on velvet chaises and get up on the bar. Everything they do is soundtracked, each moment choreographed into a routine, ready for their personal photographer, who chronicles every move for their social media, never missing a beat. Swae sparkles in Saint Laurent and Jxmmi looks pretty in Prada. It’s about being fresh, Jxmmi says – “We’re always looking fresh... They’re saying that, just now, fashion is starting to be a big part of hip-hop but it’s been a big part. Way back in elementary school, our goal was to be the freshest kids in school. Stay fresh the whole year.” Fresh is the goal, the mindset and the motto for every day. “When I’m getting dressed, I have songs playing in my head and I feel like I’m in a movie,” Swae says. “If my outfit ain’t going with the song and the movie in my head, then I ain’t fresh enough.” The movie of their life is fast paced, full speed ahead and filled with fearlessness. What makes you fresh? “It’s in you, not on you,” Swae confirms. The swag, the style, the smart, sharp, witty dance moves are all part of the performance. “One of the biggest influences for me was Prince,” Swae says. “Good music inspired me. It doesn’t matter who it was. I don’t put a limit on it if it’s good music. Something might influence us and we don’t even know it and it stays in my mind. I carry it with me.” They’re carrying it onto a generation of those dedicated to the SremmLife, very similar to Swae and Jxmmi, obsessed with hip-hop and their favourite artists and on the hunt for freshness. Who do they want to inspire? “People who feel like they can’t do anything,” Jxmmi says. “People who feel like there’s a ceiling or there’s a roof.” Adds Swae: “I want to inspire generations and generations of people.” I ask them what they would say to people they inspire who want to follow their path. “Smoke and mirrors,” Swae smiles. “Don’t put all your value on things that don’t matter,” Jxmmi says. “You’ll be trying to impress people and, at the end of the day, people don’t care about you. Do your thing, be yourself. Stay focused.” We ride the mirrored elevators and sneak through the echoing fire escapes of this art deco hotel with the Sremm crew. In today’s hip-hop scene, there’s significant importance placed on an artist’s crew (Drake’s OVO crew, The Weeknd’s XO crew). The SremmLife crew are the people they keep around them, the “day one homies”, Swae calls them. “The people with the good vibes. People who push us, people who remind us to stay grounded. They’re people who push everything forward, who are optimistic.” The people who motivate them are integral to the best moment on their journey so far, which Jxmmi says is, without a doubt, “touring the world. Seeing different things. A lot of people where we’re from never even get to leave the city or, if they do leave the city, they don’t go that far – they might go to Texas, New Orleans, Alabama... We’re in Australia right now and we’re from Mississippi. That’s incredible. That’s the best achievement to me.” Touring the world, supporting themselves with their ideas, as Swae says, is unrivalled: “You have access to everything just off of your ideas. Just exercising your voice. Nobody else can take credit for what you did. You’re supporting yourself. It’s crazy. It’s dope.” The Rae Sremmurd union will always be strong, despite ongoing rumours the pair are about to split to focus on their solo projects. Together, they make music that sets the foundation for what they believe in. Recently, they have featured on and written other artists’ music – they’re responsible for key lines on Beyoncé’s Formation, and Nicki Minaj is a frequent collaborator. “Writing for our own albums definitely fits us and what we’re talking about and our lifestyle. It’s harder to write for other people,” says Swae. “Something might come from your mind and it might not t the person you’re writing for. It’s really what you know and coming from your own experience. You can say what you write with so much more passion and you’re gonna say it more confidently because it’s what you really believe. It’s not like you’re trying to create an image – you’re writing the lyrics of shit you’re doing and seeing. It’s more authentic doing it for yourself as opposed to writing for other people.” That sense of trust between the brothers is evident when I ask who they’d love to have feature on the next album. “We don’t put any pressure on it because when we first came into the music industry we only made music with ourselves,” Swae says. “We weren’t relying on anybody else to complete ourselves.” Jxmmi adds that “working with other artists can sometimes be a disappointment. When it comes time to shoot the video and this or that, it can just lead to disappointment.” Swae agrees: “Yeah, the other artist might not like their verse later on [when they need to perform it] and you’ll just be like, ‘Fuck! I just put all that energy and creativity into a song and somebody’s not gonna meet me halfway?’ It’s like, damn, you’ve got a ghost on your song with you at that point. For real.” Their energy is contagious, their confidence is key and they’re working hard. There’s a sweet synergy, a pumping adrenaline between them and their crew. The vision hasn’t changed, they know what they want and they’ve got it. What else do they want to achieve? “We want to make an album where no matter the amount of songs we’ve got, they all go platinum at the same time.” I tell them that’s definitely achievable. “Oh yeah,” Swae nods. “Definitely achievable.” It’s almost 3am, our night at the hotel is ending. The crew has successfully all received trims from the barber on set and the group is now organising to wake up at 8am to get tattoos in their hotel room. But before they sleep they’ll party a little, drink glittering pink Luc Belaire champagne and create more magic. The Sremm life is oh so sweet. https://www.roxylola.com/kota-eberhardt-ray-of-light daily 0.75 2021-12-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec1be5d88e8165184652e29/c18b59b2-20b4-4fc2-9412-966a9daced2f/TW61-Cover-21.jpg Kota Eberhardt: Ray of Light - Kota Eberhardt: Ray of Light From 10 Magazine, 2018 Kota Eberhardt is glowing. She has just come back from a top-secret audition and a day of disruption. It’s hot in New York City. She’s wearing an oversized graphic shirt and opens up a bag of tortilla chips. It’s her favourite kind of day. “Of all the places I’ve been that I’ve called home, there’s something about New York. There’s nothing that collides like things do here.” It’s intense out there, but Eberhardt is intense. She originally intended to be a scientist, but life took a turn and she is now an actress, although it doesn’t feel right to box her into any title. She is simply on fire. The energy of NYC bounces off her. “There are awesome women here. I call them SWATS – special women and talent.” She’s a Cancer, FYI. Very important. Ruled by the moon, driven by emotions, with a need to nurture those she loves. An innately selfless lover with a lot of compassion. We had, what I like to call, a Kota conversation. It was two hours of thought-provoking topics, life changes, raw, swapping music. It went like this. It’s a time for unapologetic self-expression. What is Kota Eberhardt most passionate about right now? “Not apologising for taking space. Just authentically approaching every circumstance in my life fearlessly.” How? “Storytelling. I’m deepening the practice as an actress, working on scripts and new projects that come my way. This is the first time in my life that I really feel like I have a space to be all aspects of myself and to extend myself into this universe, like the tentacles of an octopus.” Yes, what a time to be alive. There’s a big horizon of opportunities for a woman with this kind of drive. “I’m doing a lot of confessional writing and I want to direct. I think, eventually, I’m going to get bored with acting and just want to hold space as a director.” It makes sense, she likes to be in charge. Eberhardt seems like the type of person who wants to take more control. “Definitely. There are limitations. I want to break glass ceilings. I live to surprise people.” As a headstrong woman, how does the idea of “the future is female” resonate with her? “I can’t wait until gender is extinct and people just have baby showers and say, ‘Yay, it’s a human!’ I can’t wait. It’s alive! That would be a wonderful announcement.” But she does love being a female. She embodies that superhuman strength. So yes, what a time to be alive, but what a hard time to be alive. Would she say she’s quite empathetic? She has to be for her craft. “Yes. As a Cancer, too, oh my goodness. I feel like I’m the most empathetic star sign in the zodiac scheme. Empathy is something a lot of actors talk about, but it’s not something they’ve lived with. Everybody wants to feel something. Everybody wants this grand idea of depth that they feel, but not everyone has the self-awareness and the awareness of the world around them to be able to dispense that story.” She’s been through a lot of shit, which she describes as experiencing “two sides of the coin”. She tragically lost her mother when she was 17, her father was then diagnosed with cancer, and Eberhardt herself was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. “This was the complete denunciation of God and this formidable force. I kind of felt like the world was against me.” But she still believes everything happens for a reason. “There are no accidents in this universe. Everybody that’s meant to meet will meet. A lot of people are like, ‘She doesn’t have training.’ I’m just someone in touch with my adversity. The role I had to read for today, I had an hour and a half to do it. I had a day to learn six pages. To memorise them and feel them and to create them and to live authentically through it is difficult shit. You have to have real reactions that are not pre-dispositioned. You didn’t plan it, you’re just reacting. That takes trauma, drama, struggle. That takes poverty, disease, death, murder. These are the things I have encountered and experienced.” Reality or fantasy? “I think my reality is my fantasy. I went to Los Angeles when I was 17, it was the year that my mum died. A couple of days before I got the call was my first time in California. The first time I saw a palm tree I wanted to drink it into my irises – I had never seen something so massive and so beautiful. My fantasy was I could live there. I was very decisive at a young age that I want to approach what scares me and make it my fantasy.” So if her reality is her fantasy, she’s living in wonderland. In her wonderland, Mr Little Jeans’s rendition of The Suburbs is playing – it’s her favourite song. We start talking about music. She’s going to see Roy Ayers tonight. Everybody Loves the Sunshine is one of her favourite songs. “I used to make music – I worked with Thievery Corporation on their Culture of Fear album. I’m so happy you’re asking me this, because I love music.” Her favourite lyric of all time is Placebo’s “Every me and every you”. She wants to get it tattooed on her back, to go with the number 11 that’s already there. “I’m really into numerology, it’s a special number.” I tell her I have a number 22 on my necklace. “Whoa, 22 and 11 are the ones. Numerology, astrology… very much what I’m into.” Idealist or realist? “I think I have to be a healthy combination of both. I was born an idealist – my father’s a lawyer, so I grew up with the realist right next to me. Best friend, my ride or die. Dad is very much a practical person who keeps me balanced. It’s natural for me in my life, and professionally I’ve sought out people who have that kind of parental survival instinct. Grounded, Taurus or Aquarius vibe. Extremely practical.” We play quick-fire, which in usual Eberhardt style, is so not quick. Her saving grace is her sister, Shannon. “She makes me feel that even if the world is on fire, my house is not. She reminds me that my door is open. When I get hurt or disappointed, or when things don’t turn out my way for whatever reason, she reminds me that my door is always open but not everyone will knock. She reminds me to respect myself, my boundaries.” Her worst enemy is her ego. That inner critic constantly judging her, watching her scenes when she’s filmed them. Trying to generate the right response. “There’s no such thing. You just let it be. The less you plan the better it feels… Like, today, I didn’t plan for anything, I’m just gonna live my life and you’re gonna call and we’re gonna have a conversation and it’s gonna be a transparent one. Not a guarded one. Raw and real… ” Raw and real it has been. Eberhardt prides herself on her friendships, and her weakness is noted as managing her expectations. When I ask her what makes her laugh she bursts into hysterical laughter. So, herself? “People who are unequivocally themselves. I love rawness. I don’t know what it is. Dave Chappelle makes me laugh. He’s the funniest comedian alive.” When I quick-fire-ingly ask what makes her cry, her face clouds over, a puzzle of despair, thoughtfulness and pain. “Sometimes I think about my mom and I think about what my life would have been like if I had that female mentorship on such an intimate level. Sometimes when I’m really sad I’ll go into the bathroom and just talk to her and speak out loud. Obviously I’m not talking to a person in front of me, but I feel that there is this bond that is unquestionably close. If there’s another realm or an afterlife, it has to be right next to us. Because the feeling that I get when I speak to her, there’s such a calm that comes over my body. It makes me cry when I get nostalgic about a life I never lived. I’ve embraced it through acting. You have to learn the buttons that make you try. I wish I had my mom sometimes. That’s a sad point.” Yes, there has been heartache. But there have been so many good moments that Eberhardt can’t narrow it down to one. A lot of them have NDAs, but today, her best moment would be “meeting Bryan Burk at a Nelson Mandela family charity event in Los Angeles, who introduced me to [casting directors] April Webster and Jessica Sherman”. Life’s good being Eberhardt. Are you reading anything, I ask. “Catherynne Valente has a fiction book called The Bread We Eat in Dreams. Let me find a quote, I’m a huge quote fan.” A quote I read the other day springs to mind: “What a wonderful thought it is that some of the best days of our lives haven’t even happened yet.” She looks up knowingly: “I love that. Oh my God. Girl, there are so many in here. Let me see. I have one I want to read to you. This is my favourite quote in this book so far. ‘Finally, she said, “I’m lonely” – it’s weird but you tell the wolves things sometimes. You can’t help it, all these old wounds come open and suddenly you’re confessing to a wolf who never says anything back. She said, “I’m lonely,” and they ate her in the street. They didn’t leave any blood. Wolves are fastidious like that. It’s in their nature.’” We continue to talk. She’s unstoppable. On films. She’s just watched All the Money in the World. “Christopher Plummer? Genius. And have you seen The Florida Project? That one’s really raw. I’ve been watching a lot of Westworld recently – virtual reality, artificial intelligence. And Evan Rachel Wood, I’ve been watching her since Thirteen. I didn’t grow up with a television!” I make the Evan Rachel Wood and Thirteen connection. “Did your mind just blow? She’s incredible. I love watching her. She’s effortlessly effervescent and dignified but raw. She looks like she could eat men. I like it.” Eberhardt could join her man-eating tribe. The Kota Eberhardt mantra is “know yourself, know the world”, because if you know yourself, you know the world. “If you know what you want, the rest is easy. Everything else will come to you.” I ask her to nail her essence in five words. Her mind goes crazy. “All right… you’re gonna laugh. Disco goth meets lesbian ceramics teacher living in Brooklyn meets slay kitty slay.” I laugh. It’s perfect. https://www.roxylola.com/billie-eilish daily 0.75 2021-12-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec1be5d88e8165184652e29/ee9f4b36-974e-42cb-9d69-cb439327db7d/d4007168d5ce7ded61e91c1df2800395.jpeg Billie Eilish: Hypnotising - Billie Eilish: Hypnotising From Vogue Australia, 2019 Billie Eilish has blasted into the world’s consciousness. She is not the pop poster girl for being perfect - but she is the artist that is redefining music and empowering generations. Like many teenage girls, Billie Eilish considers her bedroom her sanctuary. It’s where she writes, thinks and hides from the world, and its constantly changing decor is a manifestation of all that’s going on in her extraordinary mind. “My room is like my little palace,” she says. “But my room is the thing in my life that’s changed the most over time. I change my mind a lot … my room has been 20 different rooms over the years.” Yet few teenage girls can claim to speak to millions of people from their bedroom - Eilish can. That hit home at a recent concert in New Zealand, when she looked at the sea of faces in front of her, and “saw girls in my merchandise that I designed in my room”, she says. “I saw them crying and singing my lyrics at the top of their lungs and jumping and screaming and having the time of their lives. It made me think about the way I used to watch documentaries of my favourite artists and I used to cry because it was so beautiful. And there I was, on that stage … I stood there and just cried. It hurt in an amazing, beautiful, horrible, amazing way.” Eilish is just 17 years old, and one of the most popular musicians in the world. She is the first artist born after the turn of the millennium to have a number one album, and she has reached one billion streams on Spotify. Her appeal lies in her unique mix of talent, wisdom beyond her years, and a strong self-belief – a result, perhaps, of an unorthodox childhood that trained her in how to walk her own path. As she navigates a meteoric rise in the space of just two years, Eilish has gone from unknown teen to megastar. “It’s been a lot,” she concedes. “But right now it’s pretty perfect. I don’t have anything to complain about. I’m pretty happy.” Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell was born to actors Maggie Baird and Patrick O’Connell in Los Angeles in 2001. Her brother, Finneas O’Connell, who is four years older, is her songwriting partner, and they write and produce her music in the bedrooms of their childhood home. He takes to the stage every night with her on tour and has also just started releasing his own solo work. The siblings were home-schooled, a point of difference that their mother, Maggie Baird, believes was instrumental in shaping their characters. “We home-schooled in a way that was interest-led and experiential. Nothing had a higher value than the other, so going to a symphony and learning about maths through cooking or having a science birthday party all had the same weight. They were nurtured in what they wanted to do and had the time to do it.” The family is steeped in music. “We have a tiny house with three pianos in it … three pianos in a 1,200-foot house!” At age 13 Eilish’s debut Ocean Eyes exploded on Soundcloud. It was a dreamy, feel-it-in-your-soul ballad written by O’Connell and sung by Eilish. At 15, Eilish was signed by a record label, graduated from her home school, and began touring with her family around the world. Eilish and her brother first performed in Sydney at the Lansdowne Hotel in September 2017 to a crowd of 250 people. The audience was spellbound by her beautiful, delicately raw vocals, and her unpolished charisma (combined with O’Connell’s hypnotic beats). When the pair returned for a follow-up show at Sydney’s Oxford Art Factory soon after, they had amassed a cult following. The audience sang along fiercely to every lyric as Eilish let go and skyrocketed around the stage. This year’s Coachella performance, her first at the festival, was equally electrifying, watching her perform with that infectious innate freedom. The deep, whispering hypnotic staccato thrilled all 100,000 of us, her chill-inducing falsetto resonating and the impassioned screams of all her fans propelling her across the stage. A Billie Eilish concert is a real escape, an adrenaline rush of pure fun. A recent return to Australia off the back of her record-breaking debut album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, has seen Eilish come full circle. This time round she’s played to 33,000 fans at her headline shows in much bigger venues. In Melbourne, her concert sold out in a day, and some who missed out were offering up to $1,000 for a ticket. Over the intervening years, Eilish has matured. She is more confident on stage – bolder – and knows her power. “There are so many things I used to have deal with that I don’t at all anymore and there are so many things I never used to have to deal with that I do now. It’s a weird balance between the two. I’m a lot more protective of everything.” People struggle to box Eilish in. She is as big as a young Madonna and she joins a proud tradition of teenage renegades, among them, Kate Bush, Avril Lavigne (the equivalent of Eilish 17 years ago) and, more recently, Lorde. But perhaps there is no box for this teenager who wears baggy clothes, writes songs about mental health, night terrors and break-ups, doesn’t take drugs – due to apathy, she says – and recently revealed that she has Tourette syndrome, a neurological disorder that causes movements known as tics. Dave Grohl, believes she has a rare, once-in-a-generation authenticity. His daughters are fans, and so is he, after attending one of Eilish’s concerts. “What I’m seeing happening with my daughters is the same revolution that happened to me at their age,” he said in a social media post. “They’re becoming themselves through her music. She totally connects with them … [it] is the same thing that was happening with Nirvana in 1991.” Whatever magic Eilish creates in her songs, it’s sacred. And, with unusual wisdom for a 17-year-old, she knows how easily it can be destroyed. There are parasites in the music industry, and Eilish likens them to swarming ants kept away from food by a fence. “It’s up to you to keep the fence there,” she says. “If you just lifted it up, all the ants are going to go eat the food. That’s what the industry is like. Everyone is ready to tell you what to do. Everyone is ready to be, like: ‘You’re my creation.’ It’s weird that the hard thing to do is do what you want to, because everyone wants to make a product.” She is convincing the industry that she knows what she’s doing. “It took a lot of time to gain people’s trust in the fact I know what I’m going to do, what I’m good at and what I want.” Baird is in awe of her daughter’s strength. “Honestly, I’ve never seen anyone quite like Billie who really knows what she likes and doesn’t like and immediately says it. I tend to be a person who needs to please and Billie is not that way. She is very loving and wonderful and generous, but she doesn’t hold back on her opinions. She wants the creative to be what she wants it to be, and she has a vision and says what that is. She never goes along with something just to make it easier.” For all this newfound success and fandom, there’s an unapologetic vulnerability to Eilish that is infused with a deep kindness. She’s self-assured and champions individuality with an empowering neglect for those being judgemental, or influencing others judgement of her. In her first Calvin Klein #MyCalvins campaign, Eilish reveals that her oversized uniform is formulated to stop people judging her physical appearance. On set with Vogue Australia in Brisbane during her recent tour, she wore a Moncler puffer jacket and Louis Vuitton tie-dye top. Off set she is usually dressed in luxury logos, larger-than-life hoodies in shades of neon, knee-length free-flowing shorts, glistening chains wrapped around her neck and shining silver rings on every finger – her self-styled armour. And, of course, she always wears a damn good sneakers. Clothes are important to her. “Oh my god, dude. That’s the first thing that matters in every day of my life,” she says. “Everywhere I go, everything I do. Everything. It’s the first thing that I think about that I barely even think about it. It’s my whole identity. My whole personality is based off my clothes and what I’m wearing that day. I’ll have a different personality for a different outfit sometimes. If I’m wearing something I don’t feel comfortable in I will turn into a totally different persona that I hate,” she says, laughing. That’s Eilish’s appeal – she isn’t a cookie-cutter pop star. In fact, she doesn’t consider herself a pop star at all. Her music is a mix of different genres, another case of Eilish refusing to conform. It’s how she wants it to be, although she continues to be crowned the ‘new face of pop’. “It’s annoying,” she sighs. “As grateful as I am for the appreciation and the love, honestly, I’ve become numb to it. I remember the first couple of times people called me the face of pop or pop’s new It girl or whatever the fuck … it kind of irked me. The weird thing about humans is we [think we] have to label everything, but we don’t.” Eilish is at the forefront of a generation fighting for its own voice. In late 2018 she teamed up with the LA mayor to encourage people to vote. As her star keeps rising she wants to keep pushing for change. “I really don’t want to waste my platform. I’m trying not to but I think all of us in the spotlight – or whatever you want to call it – can be more vocal about climate change and things that need to be talked about. I still think I can do more. There are so many things being determined by people who are going to die soon anyway because they’re old as fuck. It makes me so angry,” she continues. “There are so many things I wish I could snap my fingers and make better. There is so much that needs help and [there are] people who pretend they care and don’t and [then] people who could do something, but don’t. I’m here and I can actually try. I suddenly have a platform and a spotlight that I can maybe, maybe, maybe make a difference to something.” Her mum echoes her thoughts: “I hope that she uses that power and control and creative energy to better things beyond art.” Of the future and what’s next, she’s thinking short term: “I just want to see what happens. I hope I make an impact. I don’t like to think about the future, because it kind of freaks me out. I just want to live in the space I’m in right now. I’m cool with that.” Eilish is passionate, inspiring and liberating. The debut album is a wonderland of theme songs to moments in life, her style is defiantly hers and her perspective on the world is wise beyond her years. “I just want to do what I do.”