A$AP Ferg's Still Striving

Anajah Hamilton Says Hello

July 10, 2023

Anajah Hamilton isn’t trying to be your it-girl. She isn’t trying to become your most saved photo across your Pinterest board, or the person you obsess over on social media. It can be said that, yes, her initial notoriety or ‘big bang theory’ moment of stardom began with trends and within rectangular screens. She has garnished an undeniable following through her existence across these interactive platforms. However, can she be honest with you? Can we skip past the facade that having “influence” garners and speak candidly? Hamilton doesn't just want to be perceived. She wants to be heard. She isn’t limiting herself to a term coined through the assimilation of unobtainable beauty standards, nor abiding by what social media describes as likable.

Photography by Naicha Mercier
Styling by Natalya Clark e
Talent Anajah Hamilton
Intro by JoliAmour DuBose-Morris
Interview by India Espy-Jones
Makeup by Ashlee Valle
Photo assistant: Halee Afolayan
Styling assistant: Mikaela Driscoll

DRESS by CONSCIOUSLY SHOP MARITHE + FRANÇOIS GIRBAUD, SHOES by CONSCIOUSLY SHOP MIU MIU, TIGHTS by CONSCIOUSLY SHOP

These things are true about Hamilton: She’s an artist, a curator, an indulger, a traveler, and all-around talent who’s inspirations and connections to community guide her pen. After a slow farewell to the modeling industry and a transition into more auditory forms of art, she’s showcasing her vulnerability one lyric at a time. On social media, many edit out imperfections that would leave them feeling vulnerable. The erasure of imperfection, and with it, vulnerability, reinforces the irretrievable ideal of perfection. Hamilton’s artistry exists as a notification to everyone that there is no weakness in honesty. She is carving an image that cannot be erased or archived. It’ll exist beyond Instagram stories and retweets — with her new EP, Hamilton is writing her story over, beginning with ‘hello’. And with this you will never say goodbye.

How would you describe Anajah?

I would say Anajah is a quirky girl. She is a history buff, she loves art, she's really bubbly and fun.

What is your relationship to sound, both internally and externally?

I've always had a really interesting connection to sound; for one, my ears are super sensitive. I can't listen to bad music. And if I make something bad, I legitimately have to throw it away, like I can't work on it anymore. I've also been singing since I was a child. I was in a choir from eight years old until eighteen then I sang backup for instrumental artists. I would go to the studio with my mom and sit there with my notes. I was always so professional and excited. I’ve always been really demure and quiet about being a singer.

It's something I really care about and it's not something I really like to post or boast about. Not yet, at least, but I do feel like it's something that's really important to me. I recently did a 15-week music theory course because I feel like being an artist, if you want to be someone with longevity or at least with as much knowledge as possible, you have to continuously advance your craft or deepen the idea of it because art is a conversation and it can be repetitive. I'm trying to find as many new and interesting perspectives in my work so people can relate to it when they do hear all my new stuff.

1: ANAJAH wears JACKET by PURE PLEASURES STUDIO, BRALETTE, TIGHTS, SHOES, and BELT are STYLIST'S OWN

2: TOP and PANTS by CONSCIOUSLY SHOP, BELT and RINGS are STYLIST'S OWN

What part of your being do the emotions of your music come from?

As a Libra, I struggle a lot with my mind and I think I really lead with my brain. I'm a cancer moon as well. I'm not really an emotional person, but when I write music, I feel like I can really open up and say exactly what I feel or what I actually mean because I don't express emotion to people. But when I write music, it definitely comes from a very sensitive, deep, visceral place that I don't allow most people to enter. I also tend to hide my deepest secrets there.

I struggle with impostor syndrome and chasing perfection and wanting more out of life, dejection, you know, and I think being an artist is being vulnerable and honest in front of people. But I also think having to put it into words, it's such a different experience than drawing or any other medium. I have to legitimately therapize myself in order to create and I write a lot from a place of self-doubt and searching for my worth.

What would you say is the difference between your creative and analytical mind?

Well, I think I'm big on compartmentalization. I love having things in boxes, but when I start to create, they kind of bleed into one another. It's like a school project where you're making a diagram. It has all these words and you're adding pictures. That's how I make music. I feel like one side of my brain is thinking about, ‘Okay, how is this gonna look? What color does this remind me of sonically?’ But also, ‘Does this make sense lyrically?’

It has to be both. If I try to separate them, it can be a little corny. I definitely blend both sides of my brain a lot when I make music, because it's not just about how it sounds, it also matters if it makes sense.

What do you think about most?

I guess how I'm perceived, which is so bad. Like it's just bad. It's terrible. I think in all honesty I feel like something that's always on my mind is how I'm being perceived if I'm around all my friends. I'm like, ‘Ok, am I being annoying or too silly?’ if I’m on a date. I'm like, ‘Oh my God, am I sending out the wrong signals?’

As a person, my brain never stops, but always draws back to being perceived, which also goes back to comparing myself to others and people see me. With that as my main thought, it's also about calming down and re-centering myself.

1: DRESS by CONSCIOUSLY SHOP MARITHE + FRANÇOIS GIRBAUD, SHOES by CONSCIOUSLY SHOP MIU MIU, TIGHTS by CONSCIOUSLY SHOP

2: TOP and SKIRT by SANDY LIANG, SHOES and TIGHTS by CONSCIOUSLY SHOP PRADA, RINGS are STYLIST'S OWN

How do you navigate familiar spaces as you redefine your identity as an artist?

As I redefine myself in this very different part of my life, I think that I'm trying my best to just be as authentic as possible. I feel like in the age of the internet, there's a lot of people who perform or put up a wall or feel like they have to be a certain kind of way for people to like them so that they can get followers, or brand deals or people to really gravitate toward them.

I've never liked that. It always made my skin crawl. I just want to be a human being, whether that's in real life or online. In any part of my life, in any room that I stand in, I just want people to see me as a person.

As you flip through your physical music library, which album do you find your fingers on the most?

I really love The Dots and Loops album by StereoLab. I saw them a few months ago at Brooklyn Steel and they were so good. They're just so cool and chic and I love the sound that they use. It's so timeless and futuristic, especially for a French disco band from the nineties. It just sounds like it could be from any time period. I love what they sing about, like they sing about just existing time space filling it up, I think it's really interesting.

Describe the last dream you had.

I have a lot of dreams but if I don't remember them. It's because they're gonna happen. I've always been a clairvoyant person and when I was a child, I used to be able to tell people what was gonna happen. I told my mom she was pregnant and she was like, ‘No, I'm not.’ She was, and I named my sister. I've just always been really strange and I feel like dreams are very important. I don't know in what way they're significant to me yet, but I know they're important.

1: TOP and PANTS by CONSCIOUSLY SHOP, BELT and RINGS are STYLIST'S OWN

2: JACKET by PURE PLEASURES STUDIO, BRALETTE, SHOES, and BELT by CONSCIOUSLY SHOP PRADA, TIGHTS are STYLIST'S OWN

What is your fondest memory?

I remember when my great grandmother passed away, I was sitting outside by myself after the repass and I was just talking to the wind telling her I'm going to miss her, like being an odd kid, and then the wind started blowing and I was like, ‘where is it taking me?’

And the wind blew me to where my cousin was and he was digging a hole. I didn't know what he was doing and then I started helping him and we found a horseshoe. It always felt like a good omen. It always felt like she was telling us to find this thing. Even though she's gone, she's still gonna guide us through life. After that, other weird stuff happened.

She loves frogs, and one night, like, we heard a knock at the door, we opened it, it was frogs, like, just like strange stuff. I feel like my fondest memories are with the older people in my family who have passed on who shaped me into the woman I am now.

How has your influence on others impacted your personal life?

In my personal life, because so many have seen me go from a girl in my town to doing all of these novel things. It really affects how people treat you. It's very tricky because it’s always hard to differentiate when somebody actually wants to be your friend and not use you for who you know or what room you can get them in.

I also feel like I have a need for people to see me as a person. I think often people say, ‘Oh, she's pretty and you know, she has this on or she's met this person or she's done this or done that.’ But when I actually confide in people emotionally, if I'm going through something stressful or worried about work or if I have a family issue, if I talk to someone who I felt like was my friend or like a lover the response is just like, ‘Oh, you're gonna get through it. It's gonna be okay.’ I'm like, ‘Damn’, it's just so shallow.

I feel like a lot of people you meet are so focused on chasing after their dreams that they keep it surface level and will cut you off very quickly if you're not feeding into whatever plan they have going on. So what I've struggled with a lot in my personal life is finding genuine people who also work in the same industry as me. I feel like the people I hold close to me are people from back home or people I grew up with. Some people act like their social interactions are a job and I can't do that. It just makes me feel like I'm in a simulation and I hate that.

1:TOP and SKIRT by SANDY LIANG, SHOES and TIGHTS by CONSCIOUSLY SHOP PRADA, RINGS are STYLIST'S OWN

2: DRESS by CONSCIOUSLY SHOP MARITHE + FRANÇOIS GIRBAUD, SHOES by CONSCIOUSLY SHOP MIU MIU, TIGHTS by CONSCIOUSLY SHOP

What does transformation look like as someone who's grown up so connected to the digital space?

To me, transformation looks like an internal conversation with oneself. Life is so long, and it can be fun to discover all the ways possible that you can present yourself to the world. Being a young person who grew up posting and sharing so much of myself on the Internet, I find that it is so important to have an identity that truly reflects your inner self. To transform in the digital age is to continuously learn who you are, away from the computer.

Is there anything you've healed from?

Being an artist, both a singer and a model. If you're a model, people love how you look and they want you to be seen and not heard. And the whole idea of your body image and how you view yourself facially is just like, really stressful. I was a singer first and I became a model by accident. Having to transition into the music space, I worry, ‘Do people take me seriously?’ I think something I've healed from is the stress of worrying what people think about me. For the most part I've really calmed down my inner critic and I've just been trying my best to like to sit with who I am.

I like myself and I think I've healed this whole idea of constantly trying to change myself, trying to fix every little imperfection. We’re always going to grow and change, but the mindset is different. When I’m in a good space, I'm like, ‘Okay, I do like her. She's fun.’

FAUX FUR TOP by CONSCIOUSLY SHOP, TOP and BOTTOMS by SANDY LIANG, SHOES by CONSCIOUSLY SHOP MIU MIU

What are you trying to let go of as you step into this new chapter of your life?

I think I'm trying to let go of my fear of failure. No one wants to fail. No one wants to be a laughing stock. But I think if you don't try,you'll never know. So I think I'm just trying to let go of my fear of doing something and it not being good. I want to be like, ‘You know what, I'm gonna just post the craziest thing in the world like why not?’

For sure. What can we expect next?

I've been working on a lot of new songs. I've been making an EP for a while and finally wrapping that up and releasing a bunch of singles. What's next for me is just working on music and being considered a singer. I really love being a singer. It's so much work, but it has its moments of fun and creativity, but I love to work on art and my craft and I just want other people to enjoy it with me and to really like it. I want to hear what people think.

Music

Ward Is in His Jordan Year

July 05, 2023

Jordan Ward laid out many of his ideals on life, relationships, the music industry and his family on FORWARD his debut album.

On some tracks on the full-length, over sticky, guitar-tinged beats the St. Louis artist rap-sings about his current state of mind and his life. The topics on FORWARD range from soured relationships, and friends that are draining to the weight of relationships with family members. In its entirety, the album is an earnest project that is written in diary form.

There’s a through line heard throughout FORWARD that connects Ward with his church-centric upbringing in St. Louis – some songs have an energetic feel that only someone connected to the musicality of the Black church could create. “My mom was a singer in many different choirs,” he tells office. “To this day, she’s very active in the music ministry in St. Louis.” He adds though he didn’t evolve into a religious person, he feels his music is influenced by gospel music and the different people his mother studied under.

Photography by Ricky Alvarez
Interview by Robyn Mowatt
Styling by Dylan Andrews
Photography assisting by Austin Withers, Savino Reyes
Styling assisiting by Finlay Mangan, Angelo Saunders

Left: jacket WALES BONNER, jersey HERON PRESTON, shorts WILLY CHAVARRIA, headband NIKE.

Aside from growing up in the Black church, Ward also says he was heavily involved in the dance community in St. Louis from an early age. At 9, his mother placed him in a musical theater program where he learned tap, jazz, ballet and hip-hop. He acted, sang, and danced for years, due to his excellent dancing skills and involvement in competitions, he was constantly traveling. Jordan’s aspirations to move to Los Angeles guided him and by 18 he moved there to pursue professional dancing.

After some time there, he landed a gig touring as a backup dancer for Becky G. While on the road, he found himself drawn to creating music while cooped up in his hotels – Becky G. encouraged him too. Though it felt foreign for him at first, he began doing what felt natural for him: writing and singing about his life as a dancer on the road. By the time 2015 came, he was hired as a backup dancer for Justin Bieber as a part of the singer’s Purpose tour. This led to Ward striking up a friendship with a talented artist and dancer who pushed him to start freestyling and recording, he stayed consistent and within a year and a half he released his first EP, A Peak At The Summit.

FORWARD released on Interscope Records has so many layers and that’s what lands Ward in the lexicon of rising alt acts who once were inspired by distinct eras of hip-hop: think the blog era where artists like Wiz Khalifa and J. Cole got their footing (Jordan looks up to both of these acts). In conversation, the artist-rapper expresses that FORWARD paints a picture of where he’s at right now as a music-maker. But, it also does more than that, it introduces him to new listeners by way of fleshed-out arrangements by Lido, the album’s executive producer and Ward’s honest lyricism. These notions when paired with hip-hop, gospel and rhythm and blues influences create a fusion sound that culminates with Ward ushering in a reflective chapter of his artistry.

office caught up with Jordan Ward following his first headlining tour to speak about his influences, his creative childhood and his background in St. Louis, and more.

What were some of your earliest music memories?

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was just one of those CDs that I just remember always being in my house since I was a kid. And I would always pick it up and listen to it, and it followed me into my adulthood. Other than that, I mean, I grew up around a lot of gospel music.

Left: jacket WALES BONNER, jersey HERON PRESTON, shorts WILLY CHAVARRIA, boots TIMBERLAND, headband NIKE.

Right: jacket HERON PRESTON, sunglasses STYLIST'S OWN.

How old were you when you started getting involved with creative activities like musical theater, dancing and more?

I remember being drawn to singing and dancing and rapping ever since I was a kid, ever since I can remember. But the first time I actually got involved was when I was eight or nine and I started doing musical theater. My mom had noticed I was getting in trouble for singing and dancing in class. So basically she was just like, "Let me just switch you with some singing and dancing." So she sent me to some musical theater auditions.

I started doing community theater, professional theater. And then when I was nine, I started dancing, started taking tap, and then when I was 10, I joined my dance studio and I was like a competition kid. I was a convention kid. As a kid, I always just wrote raps, had rhyme books, battled people at the YMCA lock-ins and around neighborhood and stuff. I had a big community in the musical theater realm. And then within the dance studio culture in St. Louis, I knew a lof of kids from competing.

What other types of music were you listening to as you were growing up?

Other than gospel, I mean, coming up as a kid, I was big on 50 Cent. And then right before middle school, I got more into 2Pac’s Me Against the World and Nas’ Illmatic. I like All Eyez On Me too. Biggie’s Ready to Die, JAY-Z’s Reasonable Doubt. I was on my real hip-hop shit as a kid. I started listening to all that when I was like 10.

Were you creating music as a part of the SoundCloud era in middle school or high school?

I never made music as a kid. I used to just rap, write raps. I recorded one demo in my friend's basement because her dad was a church musician and he had a studio. By the time I got to high school, I was way more focused on dance.

In high school, I wasn't thinking about being an artist at all. I was just focused on being ready to move to LA when I was 18, to start my career and shit. But I definitely was super into music though. If anything, I thought I was going to go from dance to the music industry, but just in a different way. I came up on the Lil Wayne No Ceilings era, the Wiz Khalifa “Taylor Gang” era, coming home, watching Wiz Khalifa YouTube videos “DayToday” every day, watching Mac Miller, watching just even early Tyler, The Creator and Drake.

I was traveling a lot for dance. Every weekend I would fly to these different workshops around the country and try to get on scholarships so I can train more throughout the year. And I would be flying by myself a ton. So I always just had music with me. And I feel like that combination inspired my view on the world a lot.

Jacket, pants and shoes GUCCI, top HERMES, sunglasses FLATLIST, rings MIANSAI.

Do you think you’ve taken anything from the blog era and used it as a part of your artistry?

For sure. I mean, I feel like the blog era artists lay it like a new blueprint for artists. As far as putting yourself on the internet, branding yourself. My YouTube series “PlantainGo!” is definitely inspired by Wiz Khalifa’s “DayToday.” I'm trying to carry that era with me – everything from the merch to just the community recognition.

What inspires me from that era and what I try to bring with me is that the internet allowed people with different personalities. It allowed for a different set of representation. When I saw these artists on the internet that maybe came from a similar community that I came from, but was different from a lot of the people they came up around inspired me.

People like Wiz Khalifa and J Cole, they made me feel I could identify with them as a young Black kid growing up in the inner city that didn't talk like everybody, or didn't necessarily dress like everybody. I was doing contemporary dance and doing ballet and getting music from what I would be doing with that, studying at my studio and stuff. And I would see them be tapped into the same music too. So I feel like it's just inspiring.

How did you transition from dancing to creating music? Especially since you initially moved to Los Angeles to chase your dreams of being a professional dancer.

By the time I actually started working professionally as a dancer, the last thing I wanted to do was become an artist. I feel like there's an unspoken code you assume as a dancer when it's just, you just become more ninja like. You're only there when you need to. You not asked. At least the way I was thinking about, I'm not asking for extra attention. The only thing I want to speak for me is did I do my fucking job. I was touring with Becky G for a year. Becky would just hear me sing, playing around sometimes, and she’d be like, “Just sing a little something for me.” And I’d be like, “What are you talking about?” Then maybe a year and a half after that is when I started fucking around with the music.

I was on tour with Justin Bieber in 2016 with my friend, he was another dancer and performer. We just had a lot of free time in the hotel rooms, and he's an amazing artist. So he would be making music on his laptop, and then I would just be free styling for fun next to him. And then he was like, "Bro, you should fuck around with that." And then I started writing raps, and then pretty much all my free time on tour became me just getting recording equipment and recording demos in my hotel room.

I spent the next year and a half being in my hotel room, hooking up my mic, instead of going out and drinking with everybody all the time, I would just be pulling beats off YouTube and just seeing what I could do living in my own little world before I touched down back in LA. And by the time I came off tour, I had a tape and I started going to the studio on my breaks in between booking studio time in LA. By the end of 2017, I had a tape and I put an EP out, and then yeah, it just started from there.

Jacket and pants ALEXANDER McQUEEN, shirt ACNE STUDIOS, shoes CAMPER, sunglasses FLATLIST, rings MIANSAI.

With your debut album FORWARD do you have any lessons or themes that you took from your first project?

I feel like I'm just always trying to evolve. I'm never trying to do the same thing twice. So on that first tape, I feel like I was describing where I was in life. It was called A Peak At The Summit, which is basically me describing being at one peak of dance and then looking over at the next peak or the next summit of music and being like, "Damn, I got to go through that journey to go up and down." And I feel like, so on that tape, I was talking about my current life being a dancer and my current relationships. And I feel like on FORWARD, I tried to go a little bit before that and talk about my childhood and my family. And I mean, it's music at the end of the day. It's not a tell all or anything, but I feel like I just tried to show a little bit, give a little more context behind it.

What were the biggest themes you were hoping to get across on FORWARD?

I was just trying to illustrate what I was feeling on the inside. At the most basic level, I was just trying to show my evolution as a human being, try to give more context as to why I choose to express myself the way I do, why I have the humor that I do, why I have the emotion that I do, why I have the passion that I do, because of everything that's led me up until this point. And I'm not sure why, but I was just trying to paint the picture as to what led up here.

Left: jacket, pants and shoes GUCCI, top HERMES, sunglasses FLATLIST, rings MIANSAI. Right: jacket and pants GUCCI, sunglasses FLATLIST.

What was the process of creating FORWARD?

Everything was recorded in LA except “IDC” with me and Joony. We made that in New York. We were both in New York at the same time, and that was our first time meeting. But everything else was made in LA. We worked a lot in Lido’s studio. Lido has a home studio, so I was at Lido's crib a lot. There are a lot of the producers on the album, I would just be at their crib. The intro “BUSSDOWN,” produced by my homie, Eli Heisler, I was at his crib when we made that.

All of us came together, myself and the producers, and we rented some houses out throughout the year. One in Malibu, one in Topanga, one in Venice. And just spent four or five days at a time, just locked in, making different ideas, taking mushrooms, going to the beach in between, coming back, trying something else. There was definitely a sense of camaraderie.

I’m curious about the fusion sound you landed on, on the album too. I don't want to say that it's R&B or anything, because I'm not sure what you want to define yourself as, but I'm just curious. Was that a decision that you came up with Lido you executive producer, that you just didn't want to confine yourself to any genre?

I'm not the first to do any of this shit. You know what I'm saying? I'm inspired by mad people. But yeah, I guess, I mean, I don't know if we was sitting in there like, “I don't want to be confined to one genre.” I don't think we stay in one genre. Going back to what I was talking about earlier as far as what I was so inspired by on the blog era, is that you could really hear all these artists' influence.

I don't really mind what genre people put it in. I feel like that's not my job. I like to consider myself a hip-hop artist. I'm not going to call myself a rapper, but I like to consider myself a hip-hop artist. But ultimately, most things are just rhythm and blues derivatives. Rhythm and blues is the ultimate genre after blues and gospel and jazz and all that.

I never want to pigeonhole black artists. What if the artist actually doesn't want to be canonized and placed definitively in a lane?

Since you said that, I'm going to just go ahead and insert that right there. I mean, Chuck Barry, father of rock ‘n’ roll from St. Louis. Tina Turner, queen of rock ‘n’ roll, also from St. Louis.

I feel like I'm just always trying to evolve. I'm never trying to do the same thing twice.

Jacket and pants HERON PRESTON, shoes JORDAN BRAND, bag LOUIS VUITTON.

What was it like collaborating with your friend and stylist Angelo as you were piecing together the album?

I’ve known Angelo since like 2014. We both came up in a similar dance circuit as kids to adults and ended up on similar career paths. But me and him have been friends before I ever started making music, before he started pursuing fashion professionally. We both have gone through financial ups and downs together, real life ups and downs, relationships, all that. I've slept on his couch.

He's seen how my tastes and everything have shaped over the years, why they've shaped that way, how everything has influenced what I do. And I've also seen him evolve as just a fashion creative, and I think we just both have a trust in each other. And now he knows where I'm at with the music. I know where he's at with the fashion, and we both want to take each other to the next level.

How would you describe this chapter of your life?

This chapter is about reaching the fullest potential. I don't even just mean that in just music because my journey with music isn't about becoming as big as I can. It's about being the best artist that I can be genuinely. Of course, I would love to travel the world, and I would love to create financial freedom and create a freedom for me and my loved ones. So I feel like you have to create something sizeable naturally to do that. But to me, it's just about really bringing to life everything that God or the Spirit has put on my heart.

Music

Arlo Parks Unravels "My Soft Machine"

July 05, 2023

Arlo Parks possesses a remarkable ability to encapsulate life from her perspective. Through her enchanting lyrics, she unveils a tapestry of her own experiences, seamlessly intertwining precious moments and gritty realities that often lie hidden within the fabric of her music. With her sophomore album, aptly titled A Soft Machine, Arlo conjures recollections of specific moments and emotional encounters that resonate universally.

From wispy chords and ethereal melodies in tracks like "Impurities" and "Dog Rose" to fervent outbursts of punk-inspired roars and sweeping guitar riffs in "Devotion," Arlo effortlessly recreates her world. In doing so, she extends a warm invitation to listeners, welcoming them into the murky depths of her twenties and the seasons of transformation that accompany personal growth.

Introduction by Sahir Ahmed
Interview by Jard Lere
Directed by Michael Beckert
Starring Arlo Parks
Presented by Worthless Studios
Produced by Griffin Di Stefano, Huey, and 6DEGREES Films
Cinematography by Ava Rikki
Styled by Scott Shapiro
Hair by Jamilah Curry
Makeup By Isabel Rosado

In her own words, Arlo describes how writing has become her refuge — an outlet for releasing emotional tension, constructing alternate realms beyond her own, and unraveling the complexities of life's challenges. She is set to release her debut poetry anthology, THE MAGIC BORDER: Poetry and Fragments from My Soft Machine, with Harper Collins (4th Estate and Dey Street) this fall, further exemplifying her written prowess. The collection includes not only twenty new and original poems but also the complete lyrical compositions from her album.

Read our exclusive interview with the singer-songwriter below.

Hey, how’s your day going?

Hey, my day’s going okay — I’m writing to you from an airport in Salzburg, Austria with a black coffee in hand; it’s surrounded by snowcapped mountains; I feel like I spend most of my life in airports.

You're in the airport and you can only listen to King Krule or Frank Ocean, which one do you choose?

I think it would have to be Frank Ocean — there’s something in the layers, the humanity, and the wounded beauty of his songs that I could truly find something new in for the rest of my life.

What about three of your favorite words in English and French?

Boulder; ribbons; starry. Mercure; pomme; ange.

How did you get started with writing?

I was a very emotional, imaginative, energetic kid. Writing became a way to release emotional tension, build worlds outside of my own, and unbraid myself from difficult things. I don’t remember ever sitting down and deciding to write, it kind of just happened.

Do you remember your first song?

I can’t really remember my first song — it was probably something Elliott Smith adjacent using the chords to “Last Christmas” because those were the only ones I knew. I think it was homework from my first guitar teacher.

I heard a lot of punk influence on My Soft Machine. What inspired this shift?

I was just listening to a lot of guitar music in general — Nine Inch Nails, Deftones, MBV, Broadcast — I like the essence of punk, of living outside the box — that was a guiding force for me.

How has your sound evolved since Super Sad Generation?

It has evolved in a million different directions, I’ve become more experimental and more comfortable with shapeshifting and plunging into the deep end with no parachute. I’ve built a beautiful musical family around myself that brought all kinds of new elements to My Soft Machine — whether that be percussion or guitar work or vocal treatment or energy. I’ve grown a lot in the last 5.5 years.

Describe the album in three words.

Open heart surgery.

What was the writing process like?

It was the same as always, I collected words, phrases, text messages, and fragments of conversation, and spent a lot of time alone, fueling up. Then I went into the studio with my friends and built stories around the chords they gave me or I demoed in my bedroom — I find a lot of comfort from consistency in a writing sense.

How do you know when a song is finished?

I never really do honestly. I just look myself in the eye and ask myself if it is as beautiful as it can be. If the answer is yes then it’s finished.

Which song are you most excited to perform?

Definitely "Devotion", I love thrashing my guitar and shouting into the noise and almost falling over every time.

[This video was made possible by WORTHLESSSTUDIOS - the Brooklyn based not-for-profit that supports young career artists by providing materials, tools, space and technical assistance to help them realize their creative visions.]

Fashion Credits

1st Look - TOTAL LOOK ALEXANDER MCQUEEN. SOCKS FALKE.

2nd Look - FERRAGAMO.

3rd Look - COAT WILLY CHAVARRIA. SWEATER AMI. PANTS ACNE STUDIOS. SHOES CAMPER.

4th Look - JACKET AND PANTS WILLY CHAVARRIA. SHIRT BOSS. SHOES ACNE STUDIOS.

5th Look - HOODIE AND PANTS ACNE STUDIOS. SHOES ZEGNA.

Sign up for our newsletter

A$AP Ferg's Still Striving

Recommended articles

Legends Never Die

Euro Trill is Mighty Chill

Ekkstacy Wants to Be Everything — and He Just Might Be

Anajah Hamilton Says Hello

Recommended articles

Jockstrap Makes Classical-Inspired, Disruptive Pop

Sounds of the City

Smerz Makes the DIY Club Bangers Of Your Dreams

Ward Is in His Jordan Year

Recommended articles

Tommy Richman Returns with New Single “LAST NITE”

Leaf, On the Full LP

office.mp3 Kelvin Krash Knockouts

Arlo Parks Unravels "My Soft Machine"

Recommended articles

BFRND Tapped for Balenciaga Music Series

Premiere: Music Night Presents 'David Bowie Is' with Mick Rock

Appetite for Change - Grow Food

Confirm your age