Isaac Dunbar Takes Our Pop Quiz
office gave Isaac an impromptu pop quiz where there are no wrong answers... except, of course, the wrong ones.
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office gave Isaac an impromptu pop quiz where there are no wrong answers... except, of course, the wrong ones.
Within months, they’ve gone from acoustic sets behind Italian restaurants to playing their most anticipated show of the summer at Bowery Electric, where they shared a stage with the likes of The Revel, RAGS AND RICHES, TELEVISION SKIES, and Honey Drop. And for good reason. If you’ve seen them live, you’ll know that Denmark makes moshpits out of dive bars. They’re notorious for their onstage energy that’ll get even the 70-year-old wine-sippers rattling their bones. But as rowdy as it all is, that doesn’t mean they don’t have the musical chops. The guitar riffs are unpredictable and artfully crafted, the bass-lines come from years of theory and training, and the drums are rapid firing with constantly changing rhythms and time signatures. And if the songs themselves don’t sound that complicated, it’s because their technical skill enables the band to play effortlessly. The three speak their own musical language and finish each other’s sentences— it’s only natural that their music be as harmonic as the three of them are.
Ben Denmark— I work at a collectibles auction house on Long Island.
Frankie Fowlkes— It sounds like a joke, but he's being serious.
BD— Is it funny? I'm going to say a lot more funnier stuff later on. So get the giggles ready.
I'm getting the giggles ready. How'd you meet?
David Reichberg— Well, Ben and I are stepbrothers and we've been playing music together since 2013. And Frankie and I met in highschool. It was our mutual friend’s birthday party and he was like, “Dude, it's gonna be sick. Make sure you come, there are gonna be so many people.” I show up with my friend and it's dead. There's no one there and I go into the other room and it's just him and Frankie doing whippits. Frankie was lying there dead, so I sit down next to him and he shoves them in my face and goes, “Bro, you got to try!” [laughs]
What if your mom reads this article?
FF— My mom knows this story!
So when did you all get together?
DR— Right after D-Day in 2022. Ben and I were in our own band where we actually wrote some of the Denmark songs. We had this other kid who was playing drums, but right before we were supposed to play this show, he flaked, so we had Frankie fill in.
BD— It was kind of funny because, at that point, we were already planning to invite Frankie to join, we just didn’t think he’d play with us that soon. I wasn't as sold on Frankie because he’s way too pretty to be good at guitar. I didn’t know he was going to be sick! And then we jammed together for an hour in David's living room before that show. I was just playing drums on my lap and they were playing acoustics and I was like, “Damn, Frankie's actually good!” And then he talked about Slowdive and Dinosaur Jr. and bands that I like, that are actually really nerdy, even though he literally looks like he’d be the lifeguard in an eighties movie.
DR— Right before that show, I was talking to Ben and was like, “We should have Frankie join” and Ben was like, “Who would you compare him to? In terms of skill?” And I said “Me!” [laughs]
You guys do complement each other very well on stage. I know it’s not your choice, but I wish you’d get some better setups because it’s been David, Frankie, and Ben and the drums off to the side and in the back.
BD— I’d like to be in between them, but any time I can just see their beautiful cheeks is good enough.
Did you all decide to be Denmark after one show?
FF— After that one show, we didn't play again until late August. A friend was getting rid of a kit, so I brought it to my house and Ben was like, “I have this backyard where we should jam.” So on the day of the Caribbean Day parade, these two guys came over to my house and we set up the drums and we wrote our song “Magazine.” It was the first acoustic demo that we did together. And that was where we really felt like a band.
BD— It was a crazy feeling when it all came together for the first time.
DR— We did our first show on October 1st in Ben’s backyard, still under our old band name Torma. There were three actual people. Everyone else was just the people who lived in his house. And then my sister. And my dog.
FF— We didn’t know our roles yet.
DR— But we did a show two weeks after, like October 14th. We did our actual first Denmark show. Our first few shows were all in Ben’s backyard, but this one was legit and had like 30 people.
How did people start hearing about you guys?
DR— We did this one show in Ithaca at our friend's house. This guy reached out to us saying that he was hosting this showcase for bands, but there were like, two actual bands there. We were one of them, and the other one had to borrow our drums.
BD— In the footage, you could see me standing in the back the whole time, arms crossed, just making sure this guy doesn’t mess with my kit because I'm about to go on. They messed with our guitars pretty badly, I was pissed.
FF— But that was the first show where it felt real. People were moshing, it was the first show that we didn't set up ourselves. It was sick.
DR— It's not even about the size of the crowd. Sometimes I get the same feeling playing for, one or two people, as I do with a giant crowd. But playing music for the two of these guys is what gets me the most excited. I play for the two of them, more than anything. Other people just happen to be there.
FF— I think the moral of the story is that size doesn’t matter. If you’re playing a crowd, and it’s a below-average size crowd, sometimes that’s all you need.
Biggest musical inspirations?
DR— Let’s do our least favorite musicians too [laughs]
FF— My favorites are Smashing Pumpkins, My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive. Blue Smiley, Julie, Sonic Youth. I love the Heads and Nirvana…
Very eighties lifeguard.
DR— My least favorite artist is this guy called Frankie Fowlkes [laughs]
No breaking up in the middle of the interview!
BD— For me, it’s the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Chad Smith. I think that the combination of them— that energy is something we try to emulate. I like a lot of drummers like Stewart Copeland from the Police, Danny Carey, J Mascis from Dinosaur Jr, who’s not necessarily the drummer, but he wrote a lot of the drum parts... I just wanted to say as many as possible before David goes [laughs]
DR— Most of these are the same for me, so I’m going to go with a couple of weird ones like Michael Jackson and Maroon Five— Adam Levine and his early stuff.
He does have a swagger to him.
DR— Off the Wall is one of my favorite albums. And “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough” has one of the most famous drum fills of all time.
BD— It’s iconic and I get the inspiration. I want to be the backbone of this band in that way where David and Frankie are Michael Jackson. They’re the sexy drum fills, and I just want to hold the pocket for them to be sexy.
It's funny that you say that you want to be the backbone because you’re also the namesake of the band. How’d that happen?
DR— Well, we realized Torma was not a good band name and I've always liked the name Iceland. But then Frankie was like, “It’s Ben’s last name, why don't we just do Denmark?”
BD— I was kind of like the Tony Soprano of the group. All I do is eat prosciutto and have panic attacks.
DR— But Ben also brings the energy. I've always learned about energy and onstage presence from Ben, growing up and just seeing him.
BD— The funniest thing is that I learned that shit from you, bro!
FF— I didn’t know anything about performing until we started playing together. These guys really taught me everything, especially with guitar and being able to play on time. I thought I was pretty good at guitar before we started playing. I could technically play, but I wasn't able to play with other people. This is my first time playing with anyone else. If it wasn’t for you guys, I wouldn’t be able to do what I do.
Aw.
BD— Frankie, you sexy little devil.
BD— Another one of our biggest influences is Dan Stein. He taught David bass— for how long again?
DR— When I started playing bass, we started at our summer camp and then I started taking lessons with Dan. He's taught me not just literally how to play but how to think about music. He's also the guy who mixes and masters, he's also taken keys on a couple of songs, and he's played with us live a couple of times.
BD— He’s a really big part of what we're doing right now. So I just wanted to shout him out. Sexy guy. That's on the record. And he’s got a sweet mustache, real German style. Either way, my fingers are going up there—
In the mustache?
BD— I mean… [laughs] I'm not talking about German scat or anything. That's not what I was talking about. On the record!
FF— German scat?
DR— Oh, you mean when you're just scatting but it's in German, like jazz and that stuff.
What are you focusing on the most when you perform?
DR— Being tight. We always talk about being in the pocket. That's our pre-show chant— “we are the pocket.”
Explain the pocket.
FF— It’s being together. Not necessarily on time like a metronome, but in time with each other and—
DR— having the same feel, having the same type of like anticipations,
BD— having the same dynamics,
FF— having the same flow!
DR— There’s playing for yourself and then there’s playing for the music, and especially playing for the band. For example, if you’re the drummer in a band, but you want to show everyone that you’re the best drummer in the world, it’s not going to be good for the band at all. Being in the pocket, it’s not just timing. It’s also playing together and playing stuff that compliments the other stuff that's going on. It's a big problem when I see very technically skilled musicians only playing to show off how technically skilled they are. When I switched from learning how to be a good soloist to learning to play chords well and supporting people— that’s when I really learned how to play music.
In your shows, your songs take on an entirely different life every time. I think that's pretty incredible.
BD— Our goal is to have our live sound and our sound on the record be as similar as possible. We want the authenticity of our live performances to come through on the recording, but we want the quality of our recorded version to be reflected in our live performances. In your earbuds, we want to be the same quality musicians that we are live.
You want the energy of your performance to come through in the studio version, and you want the skill of the studio version to translate to your live performances.
DR— The performance of such is a big part of it— there's no better feeling.
FF— Ever since I was a little kid, long before I ever knew how to play guitar, I just would listen to music and imagine myself and my friends playing in front of everyone. It's the dream. Nothing makes me more excited and amped up than imagining that, especially because I never even thought that it could be our music. Just playing music that we wrote, in front of people that have either never met us before or love us and are our friends, it’s the best feeling. It’s just showcasing all the work that we do.
BD— Honestly, I just love playing music. Not even just for the massive crowds of all 40 people who come [laughs], but just for the feeling.
DR— Exactly. Plus, I don't even see the crowd when I’m up there! It’s just knowing that, if I don't give these people the best performance that I possibly can, I'm just going to feel depressed afterward.
FF— My vision goes red. I don't see anything. I don't hear anything. It’s just me and the music.
DR— And playing with people, there’s the energy we put out and the energy that comes back to us. It’s so emotional.
How do you write your music?
DR— Generally, we'll send over an acoustic demo or even just a voice memo.
BD— I ignore it until they play in person.
DR— Yeah, exactly. But then we get together and usually, it happens immediately. So it always changes depending on who worked on it first and you can kind of hear it. If you know each of us you can hear who did what.
FF— Probably my favorite song that we've done is “Just For A Day.” That was perfect. I had the progression and the melody for the verse but I didn’t know what to do with either. But David had the chorus and we took it to Ben and the first time we played it with him— going from our little acoustic demo, Ben came in with the drums and changed it dramatically. It was the perfect collaboration between all of us because it started with something I didn’t even know what the fuck to do with. Ben took it to a whole different level.
DR— That’s how it normally goes.
Where did the lyrics come from?
DR— Frankie wrote the verse and already had the phrase just for a day. I wrote the chorus: ego tripping in your mirror / Is it me or is it one of your friends? I wasn't actually tripping when I wrote that. I had a concussion, so when we were playing it, I had such a bad headache, but I wanted to figure out the chorus. So I just kept singing different things and eventually that came.
FF— The verse after is kind of inspired by an old woman I imagined— she retired from New York to Florida and was addicted to drugs. So, that’s where I got: thought I saw you waving through a glass door / It’s a long way home from here. And I had this CBS bag that my dad gave me sitting on the floor and I came up with CBS is blasting in the background / all that silver in your hair, because a lot of older people like to have their news constantly blasting.
They do that! My grandma always had Filipino game shows on— but they were crazy. There was a game show version of rock, paper, scissors and it was so melodramatic. There were so many rapid zooms. People cried.
BD— Rock, paper, scissors with high stakes has to be one of the most carnivorous things I’ve ever heard of.
All right, last question. Who's someone you want to work with?
BD— In September, we're going to be working with Steve Albini, who produced In Utero, the Nirvana album.
How did you get that?
DR— We just reached out! We’re really excited to work with him because he’s all about capturing what the band actually sounds like live. Most other places want you to be in the studio with a click track. Steve doesn’t even believe in click tracks, so we’re really excited to work with him.
BD— I'll take Dave Grohl. He’s amazing. He's just such an old, well-rounded musician and I’d love to meet him— not as a fan, but as a fellow artist.
DR— Frankie’s mom actually told us this, but Dave said that, when he plays, he imagines that every show is literally the last show. I like that. All I want to be doing is playing music with you guys and if I were to step outside and get hit by a car, I’d know at least I was doing what I wanted.
FF— Same. My dream for my whole life is to be in a band with my friends and there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing.
DR— Any of these could be our last show.
Knock on wood.
DR— Obviously knock on wood, but if we play like it’s our last show every time, we’ll have no regrets.
FF— Exactly, but what sucks is that even after I go as hard as I possibly can after every show, I'm like, “fuck.”
But that just means you're like, “Ok, next show I'm going to go even harder than I was.”
FF— Every show I go as hard as I can.
DR— It’s not even about going as hard as you can.
BD— It’s about being focused the whole time.
DR— Eventually we will play our last show, whether it's in a month, a year, 20 or 40 years. And that will be the best show we play. I don't know when it will be, but that will be our best. Hopefully not for a long time.
BD— Hopefully it's not until forever. Hopefully, there's some sort of serum that lets us live forever. We can just do this for the rest of our eternal lives.
Where do you see Denmark in a year?
BD— Celebrating the one-year anniversary of this interview!
FF— Just giving it our all. There's no way we could say anything for certain with music. I mean, I want to have an album and a bunch of new songs. But I just want to continue to give it our all and to work as hard as we can and get better.
Before we leave, what's one thing you want people to know about Denmark? What's one thing you want to say to the office readers?
DR— Energy.
FF— Come see us live because we’re going to go as hard as we can until we pass out.
BD— Our music will literally rip your chest hair off.
With music reminiscent of Project X and early 2000s clubbing, Groupthink lets you feel free from obligations. Free from assumptions and stereotypes, anyone can enjoy a Groupthink set. Within the sets, the music, and the atmosphere— there's something for everyone. Groupthink's entire artistic world is a party. Tune into Groupthink's site to attend the party yourself.
office sat down with Groupthink to discuss his career and recent inspirations.
Who are your musical inspriations?
Justice, LMFAO, Arthur Russell, Anna Weyant. That's Mount Rushmore for me right now.
Style icons?
Old people are so fresh. Amanda Bynes in She's The Man— all the styling in She's The Man is actually pretty good. I like to get a new pair of sneakers and jump right into a puddle. I like to dress like the iPod classic. Everyone looks hot in Brazil soccer jersey and a good pair of jeans. Pretty sure I'm addicted to these one pair of pants. Can't say the brand or you'll laugh.
In an age where everyone exists IRL and online, how do you build an identity around your sound?
I make a lot of music on my phone. We are surrounded by sound and lights and music and words and ideas. The material is already there. If you’re trying, then you’re trying too hard. We’re at a party on our phones, we’re online falling in love. We’re having a photo shoot in the middle of the club. The hottest person you know probably has 400 followers on instagram. I hate fake sterile bullshit and I hate bad advertising. The internet is just as real as the people you meet at a house party. And if you throw a sick party, you’re going to wake up in the morning, open your phone and relive the night over again.
What was your first exposure to music?
Pretty Ricky's "Grind on Me" is such a hot song. Music from movies— I used to fall in love with songs I never knew the names of until I grew up. I never really played guitar or felt cool enough to look up the names of songs when I was a kid. I like it better that way. I like not knowing, because it lets you fall in love. And it’s so embarrassing to Shazam a song.
When did you first realize this was something you could actually do?
It still feels surreal that I sing or that this is my job, but when I landed in LAX and there was a driver with a suit on holding a sign that say “Groupthink” I thought that was pretty hilarious, a little gauche and kinda too real.
How often are you actually on your phone?
Are you trying to embarrass me? (Too much).
What’s your favorite musical era?
We will never get the feeling back of the summer of 2016. I like a lot of the music that happened when computers first hit the scene. Very rudimentary and stupid in a savant way. I think about kids cutting out shapes from construction paper, that’s what I like in music. French electro is also so annoyingly good to me for some reason. I think there’s a law in France that the radio stations have to be 60% in French, maybe that has something to do with it. Also why did Justice never work with Ke$ha?
Usual after-DJing activity: Where are you at? Who are you with? What are you doing?
This is exactly the type of text I get after DJing. Lmao. Sometimes I bring a book and I’ll go outside and read, just becuase I think that’s pretty hilarious. Honestly, every night is different. That’s what I like about it as an art form— it’s turbulent and constant and dynamic. One night I’m with all of my closest friends and we’re crying on the steps outside grateful for the pure bliss of the moment we’re sharing. Another night I’m totally alone surrounded by strangers being offered shit I don’t want, getting in a G-Wagon and driving around the city. Obviously an afterparty. But more than that, I think people just don’t want to see the end of the movie. Everyone is coming-of-age no one wants to be of-age. And I’m a person just like that. If It’s fun and crazy, then I’m easily convinced.
What do you usually wear to a party?
It really hot and funny to dress like an English major. I can’t really think of something more embarassing than wearing a leather jacket. I have this really cute Margiela bag (lol) that I like to bring out just so I can take a lot of shit with me. I usually bring like 2-3 pairs of sunglasses and some headphones and obviously a USB. Probably a shirt or a book and some really low dose edibles. Half the time I just walk up to a club and take out my USB and someone will just let me DJ. Oh man, I shouldn’t be telling you guys this.
What's the vibe you try to curate at each event?
Hot. Cheeky. Smart. Vodka soda. Soda bitters. I don't know. I'm not gonna teach your boyfriend how to dance. Please don't give me any cigarettes by the way. Guy saves dying house party with his intimate knowledge of danceable left of center pop. "Hit me for the list" (I always add everyone to the list, I just like to make people feel special). This isn't the club you can't get into, this is a party at my house and everyone is invited. "What are you doing after this?" I could never try to curate a vibe but that's what it feels like to me.
Computerwife started when Warncke was 18, after downloading an Ableton free trial to follow the steps laid out by Grimes in a Song Exploder episode. It was a form of spirituality for Warncke, an attempt at reaching a higher consciousness through sonic textures. However, the third-grade band, where she played flute and clarinet, was her initial foray into music. She then learned the guitar and started writing original songs — her first was about Egyptian history for a school project; another early one was a jingle for her family’s cleaning robot. Eventually, she started uploading demos on Soundcloud and Bandcamp that teeter back and forth between private and public, with lyrics that probe the disquiet experience of growing up as a girl online. Through these enthralling, visceral creations, Warncke gained a dedicated niche following in her hometown of Atlanta and the DIY scene of New York City before signing a deal with Danger Collective.
Inside the cozy restaurant, Warncke talks fast and jumps from story to story. She has a lot to say, although it’s never negative. Even during our off-the-record gossip, she admires the vulnerability of some people’s mental breakdown music and dedication to bitchy personas, offering a new perspective to my hasty-hater tendencies. We discussed hacks for finding inspiration, internet spirals, and the troubles of being a sexy, sad girl.
Congrats on your debut album! How does it feel to have this full-length body of work out?
I want to hide from it like that’s the reality of it. It scares me that people can see, hear, or whatever — which is also kind of the point of making music — but I am proud. I literally cannot believe that with everything else that I've been doing in my time, like working all these jobs — let me count how many jobs I worked while making this [counts off on her hands].
Oh my god, how many years was this?
Three years basically. I worked seven jobs, some at the same time, and I was in school, so I honestly can't believe it. I also lost my apartment and all this fucking fuck shit, but yeah, anyways [laughs]. This album makes me proud because I worked my ass off and proved how strong I can be.
But, also, it feels outdated. It doesn’t feel like me. Finishing an album is a 7-8 month process of getting it mixed, mastered, and doing a lot of stuff. I have more modern stuff that feels more in tune with what I’m going for now. But I am definitely happy that it's out.
What part of your life do you think this album would be a snapshot of then? Who were you, and what were you like during that period?
It feels like 2019 to 2020, then it stops there, which is the thing that’s so crazy to me when I look at the album. I was a million different people and have completely changed who I was and what I was going for so many times, and I can hear it in the songs too. I was anxious, depressed. I was very innocent, and then I was trying to de-innocent myself and then regretting that. I was working my ass off and not even thinking about anything except I’m working my ass off.
The Computerwife EP came out two years before the album, and within that period, there was a point where you deleted all of your music. What emotions were you feeling, and when did you realize you had to dig them back up?
That was my first experience paying for my apartment and shit. I was working way too hard but making a shit ton of money because I was working at a fine dining restaurant — now it’s probably a normal amount of money, but at the time, it felt like a lot — and I was partying and doing crazy shit.
All of my friends were gone. I only had one friend in New York, and it felt weird to call him every day, so I started meeting strangers. I basically, literally, chemically in my brain, screwed myself up. It was so bad. I finally called my parents and was like, I’ve been up for three days — I need to go home. I tried to make music during that period, but since I was changing so much, I felt like everything was so bad. I deleted it all when I got home. Then I started talking to my therapist, and she said I had to keep making music.
I refound my music when Danger Collective signed me because they asked if I had anything I was working on. I had sent some things that aren't on the album, but then I found this Google Drive with stuff I had sent to an ex-boyfriend — that ended up being this album.
What was it like rediscovering everything?
I was like, wow, this is way better than I thought. Now it’s funny because I probably don’t like it again — Jesus Christ. At the time of rediscovering, I was like, why did I think I was so terrible? I wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought.
There are some songs I still remember that play in my head that weren’t recovered, but it would be cool to try and recreate them. Paul McCartney did that one time.
The cover art features a lot of analog technology — record player, crt tv, boom box — which has an older connotation than your project name, Computerwife. How do these mediums interact in your work?
Well, I reject modernity and I honestly hate computers in every way, shape, and form — other than making music. The way I do things as far as visual inspiration — or at least I try to, but it doesn’t always fucking work — is I try to be inspired by things that happened 20 years ago. My friends and I were talking about the 20 years cycle, where culture resets itself around that time. After we started saying that, I realized this is an easy way to come up with cool ideas — even if it wasn’t cool then, it would be now. After I started doing that, it was pretty easy to do different art projects based on things from 20 years ago that might have just been literally a camp counselor’s art project.
This used to be on Tumblr, but I switched to Instagram because it’s easier for me, but I have this blog — it’s very private — of albums, pictures, music videos, and stuff from Flickr, Tumblr, and Instagram that people posted 20 years ago. Every year I reset it. I base my entire inspiration on that one year [laughs].
Continuing that, how do you spend your time online? Can you give me a run-through of a day on the internet for you?
There are two things that I do. Number one, I check in on my favorite people, whoever I idolize. I try to do that every day to see what people are up to — if anybody drops any new merch, music video, or whatever. Then I can have my mind centered for the day like this is something I should be thinking about; this is a cool idea, I can try to do my version. That’s when I wake up, which probably isn’t a good way to wake up because it’s comparing yourself to other people, but it’s how I get inspiration — especially when I’m not going to work and have free time, it’s awesome. Then I start my day like I'm going to do this all fucking day.
I’ll work on something for the rest of the day — I’ll make electronic music, rock music, design merch, or commission somebody. That’s when it feels good. When I’m at work, it sucks because I’m just thinking about shit that other people did.
The second thing, I spend all of my time sourcing images from Flickr, which inspires me directly instead of copying other people. I’d rather copy these people from Flickr, NPC people, an obscure video, or a piece of art that a three-year-old drew at camp — it’s better than an actual human being who is directly alive in your present time. That’s so dangerous and unhealthy. I try to be inspired by those people in a business form but not in an art form because that's where the biggest mistakes of my life have been from.
What are your favorite types of rabbit holes to fall through, and what are your go-to sites?
The only rabbit hole I ever fall through is looking up shit from 20 years ago. It started in 2018, so I've been doing it for five years now — God, that's scary. First, it was with Getty Images, which is not a good image website. Then I started doing it on Tumblr, which was betting for hearing music and seeing music videos, art, movies, and obscure art-oriented stuff. I was also using Instagram, but they changed their format, so you can no longer fucking see every post from a tag — it’s all filtered by fucking algorithms. I can’t see, like, what a random person in the Czech Republic with two followers posts, which sucks because that was my favorite part. So now it’s just Flickr and Tumblr. Flickr is good because it's time correct; people posted their stuff in 2003, which is cool; Tumblr is good because it’s art-oriented and fan-oriented.
How do you translate those experiences and findings into music?
I incorporated it more in my lifestyle and visual stuff, but it goes into the music too. If I release another album, I'd go way harder on that. But the sounds — like the actual sounds and tones of the guitar, sounds of the synths, and some of the rhythms used — are pulled from albums I've discovered.
In the future, I want to completely commit; I want to recreate albums that are lost in time but with my own ideas.
The name Computerwife almost represents being married to the internet. What is your relationship to the digital world?
I mean, if we are going to talk about being married to the internet, then I would definitely call it my ball and chain — like I'm dragging that shit around with me, unfortunately. I wish I didn't grow up with the internet. I wish sometimes that things were a lot more chill and normal. Sometimes it’s exciting because I feel like I can make the coolest world for myself, but that's a lot of pressure.
I wish I didn’t stalk people; I wish I didn’t compare myself to people and all that shit. I’m connected with lots of people in the music community, which is cool because every day is a new fucking thing to do, but then also every day — it’s just too much. I wish I was bored [laughs]. You know what I mean?
Some of your lyrics explore mental illness and antidepressants — thanks for the Lexapro representation by the way. What are your thoughts on how this is discussed on the internet, and what role do you think the internet has?
I think the internet gave me depression — like I do. It’s cool that you said that about “Lexapro” too, because I did not expect people to connect with it like how they did.
I feel like it’s always Prozac, Zoloft, never really Lexapro.
It's weird that mental illness is so sexy, and I literally still think that it is, but I hate it. I hate it so much. But I do think to be cool and sexy, you have to already be fucking doubting yourself and not be confident in yourself in some ways. Maybe I’m wrong about that.
I mean, I love saying I'm a sad girl, wallowing in it, and making art about it. It’s difficult because I don’t want to romanticize it too much, but it’s also like, what else am I going to do?
That’s how it started for me. I think there’s a chicken or egg situation — I wrote an essay about this for music because I was involved with the Skramz community. Like what came first, people being angry and depressed and making Skramz music or people listening to angry and depressed music and then fucking making themselves angry and depressed. I feel the same way about the internet, Tumblr, and shit like that.
Especially early Tumblr.
Growing up, thinking about it, I had pain throughout my life. I think everybody does. Then when I got involved with the Tumblr thing, I saw it expressed in a way that was very beautiful and sexy or whatever, which made me feel like I needed to be even more like that. Eventually, that turned into it, not to minimize the actual struggles that I had in my life, but I probably could have been fucking fine if I hadn’t tried to be some type of way.
What are you most excited about for your show at Baby’s?
I’m excited to see Downgrade and Shower Curtain — I’m excited for everyone to see them. I’m excited for them to meet each other because I think they’re going to get along, that’s what I’m looking forward to the most.