"MY SHADOW"

The visual depicts Johann seemingly trapped in an Astronaut's suit. Is the aircraft plunging? Malfunctioning? Regardless of the destination, the art is in the tension that builds up on the way.

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Music

Now Entering: Contact Sports

October 02, 2026

I’d argue that many artists nowadays choose to enter the music scene by playing it safe, catering to what is technically good, and creating with an audience in mind—not for Contact Sports.

Contact Sports, the musical persona of Illumitati, is here to rebut that, challenging the conventions of what music should sound like and what it can stand for. Creative director Tati Bruening, the mind behind both personas, debuts her first album, Contact Sports, treading anything but lightly with blown-out, bulbous synths that capture the doom and gloom of a generation shaped by the pandemic and an all-consuming internet era.

With the state of our modern world, it’s easy to feel hopeless about the future. Contact Sports channels those feelings into an immersive world that extends beyond Bruening’s visual work and into sound. We sat down with the artist to discuss her latest project, the extreme yet necessary lengths we go to in our craft, and her slight jealousy toward chatbots.

Words and Interview by Bernice Nguyen
Photography by Kurt Johnson

You’ve spent much of your career creative-directing for other artists and brands. What made you want to step into your own project with Contact Sports?

I’ve always felt limited by other people’s constraints in my visual work, whether it’s working for a certain client or trying to uphold a position within social media algorithms to continue receiving brand deals that fund my livelihood. I also reached a point with my video art where I was rinsing the same tracks over and over again, and I had the idea of starting to score my work with my own music. It then just kind of snowballed into this project!

Contact Sports feels like more than just a music project; it has a very specific visual and conceptual world around it, which very much falls in line with your previous work. It’s not an easy way to create, and I admire that. When you first began developing the project, did you want there to be a separation between the two?

Yes, I created a separate identity for Contact Sports because I wanted the music to speak for itself, rather than have it come across as a desperate attempt to siphon an audience from my past work. I also felt that people might take it less seriously as a musical project if it were presented as “Illumitati tries music!!!!”

A lot of your work deals with the tension between humanism and technology and rejecting AI, especially “Me & My Machine”. That’s a really prevalent subject right now. Did creatively representing that feel important to you, especially in our modern age?

How could it not? I’ve literally seen videos of AI chatbots having conversations and falling in love with one another. That’s a human experience I haven’t had the privilege of having yet, and I resent the fact that robots are beating me to it.

You worked with Kurt Johnson on several of these videos and brought together artists like Genesis Owusu and Weiland to create this album. You seem to have had strategic, intentional visions for your work. Does collaboration change the way you approach your own creative vision?

Absolutely not. I feel like bringing in collaborators is similar to how a casting director functions: the role is already written, and it’s just a matter of casting the right person to fill it rather than having them write their own part of the project.

You mention that you aim to create your own sonic world with this project. Was there a particular moment when you came to the realization that you wanted to start making music?

It’s actually been a lifelong goal of mine, one I just never had the time or freedom to pursue. Ever since I became a concert photographer at 15 (at the time, as a way to sneak into EDM shows and raves), making music was something I wanted to try at some point in my life. I’ve had ideas for songs and melodies in my head since I was a kid, and now I finally have the technical skills to bring them to life!

You take performance art very seriously, with the “Me & My Machine” music video shot entirely on location in Riga, Latvia, featuring a visual feature of a 35-foot “Tree of Life” hand-woven from live electrical cords by Berlin dominatrix and artist Moir Div, who spent hours rigging you into the canopy. What is it about the extremities of performance art that contribute to your work and the result?

I think pain is a very important part of my performances in general, whether it’s rope burn or having to sit still for six hours straight in 100-degree weather in front of an audience. I think it shows commitment to your craft. What are you willing to do for your art? I think any artist who answers that question with anything other than “die” needs to rethink what they’re creating for.

Do sound, image, and performance remain separate elements in your craft, or do they feel inseparable to you?

INSEPARABLE. I create with the idea of world-building in mind, never as singular entities!

With your debut album arriving, and upcoming performances alongside artists like Madeon and Danny L Harle, what are you most excited for people to experience as Contact Sports moves into a live environment?

I’m most excited for people to experience the community we’ve been building around this project in real life. Everyone at the live shows has left with new friends and lovers, and with the death of third spaces, it’s been amazing to create a cult of kind people who love to dance. Seriously, every type of person is a fan of Contact Sports, and it’s amazing to see furries, sporty guys, tech nerds, clean girls, and emo kids all in one room together, having fun.

Music

Magdalene is Dangling Hollywood in Front of Our Eyes

Tell me about this single. The themes center around fame, and the "big city," "taking your clothes off" for lucrative reasons to get ahead. What inspired it?

We touched on the super baseline, obvious Hollywood tropes of the big executive man taking advantage. It’s a tale as old as time, and people don't really bat an eye at it. Through the lens of a woman doing it to a boy, it becomes more sinister. Just because it goes against womanhood, and when it's through that lens, it's like that's actually so fucking weird.

Classic Hollywood tropes of old white dudes dangling your dreams in front of your face and a bunch of money in front of your face, and then taking advantage of young people who don't have money and are out in California by themselves, and it's always too good to be true.

Is that something that you've experienced firsthand, or heard stories of?

I've been privileged enough to be a little older because I came up in the indie rock scene. So I toured in indie rock bands for years and then started making pop music. I kind of had the privilege of watching other people make mistakes and watching the industry eat people alive.

It’s a tale as old as time, and people don't really bat an eye at it. Through the lens of a woman doing it to a boy, it becomes more sinister.

So was it fun to flip that on its head and play that big executive guy, but through the female perspective?

Totally, and in a way that's like making fun of it. The video is meant to be very House of a Thousand Corpses, where it's this weird, on the fringe of society, group of people. There's this John Waters movie called Cecil B. Demented. That was a huge reference.

Do you think that boys are more naive?

I think it's an 'ignorance is bliss' thing because they're just not faced with it. And it's not even fair, you know. Even just things as simple as going into an industry meeting, the way that women are compared to each other, you're always being compared to someone. That doesn't happen to men in meetings. Men are never getting compared to each other like that. There are just certain things that men in the industry don't have to deal with, and it's not even their fault. They are naive because they don't have to be on guard as much, and not to say that young boys can't be taken advantage of in the industry, because they can and have been.

There's kind of a cultural moment happening around Los Angeles and critiques of the weirdness of the city, with people like Slayyyter and Kim Petras. Do you find that there's a sort of cultural convergence there? Is that something that you've noticed at all?

Yes, I definitely do. Especially someone like Slayyyter, who also is a bitch that's been in the game for so fucking long. I think TikTok killed the industry and killed creativity and ruined culture for a second, and also doesn't hold the power that industry people thought it would. But labels are still functioning as if it does. I think there are a lot of artists finally being like, fuck it. I'm just gonna make cool shit and fuck TikTok and fuck the internet, and I'm just gonna make shit I like, and it's nice to see that coming out of LA because I think quarantine really killed the underground here.

You know, when I was here playing with bands from 2014 to 2018, the underground scene was so alive. There were house shows and warehouse shows and bands playing all the time, it was packed the fuck out, there was so much shit happening. I think the underground kind of died here, and when the underground dies, pop music dies too. It can't exist, at least good pop music. So it's nice to see that starting to bubble back up in Los Angeles. I feel like it was a little bleak here for a moment.

That's a really interesting thing to say, that pop music can't exist without the underground, and that also reflects on your path through music. Is that how the Current Joys collaboration came to be?

Well, I was in that band. Little-known fact! Little lore drop! One of the greatest privileges of my life, honestly. I would not be where I am today without that band. Coming here, it wasn't even about, like, kicking the door down. I was like, I don't know where the door is. Ending up being asked to play in those bands. It showed me how to pursue my career and how to tour and how to be DIY. It was so fun, we were all best friends and were making good money, and were on the road. It was so fucking fun.

I think TikTok killed the industry and killed creativity and ruined culture for a second, and also doesn't hold the power that industry people thought it would.

How does this single sit alongside the others from your upcoming album, American Heroine? Why did you choose to implement more rock influence in this project?

I think this single is a good example of the rockiness on the album. It's definitely a pop album, but it's in the rock space. But not pop rock. I keep describing it as The Fame [by] Lady Gaga meets A Fever You Can't Sweat Out, Panic! at the Disco. It has that rock opera theatricality to it.

What are your thoughts on theatricality? Is it a necessary deterrent in a culture of nonchalance?

I'm actually trying really fucking hard. Like, I'm like putting my fucking pussy on the line here, people. I feel like the older I've gotten, the more [I think] being too cool for school is actually the most embarrassing vibe of all fucking time. I think of the artists that really inspired me, and it's Madonna and Gaga.

Those were bitches that were pushing culture forward, they were not nonchalant, they were really fucking loud and stood for something, and said shit that mattered and pushed boundaries. It pushed culture. That's what I'm interested in doing. If I'm gonna pursue the most elite version of a music career, then what the fuck am I doing it for? Because it's not to get famous, I don't care about being famous. Fame feels like the sacrifice you make to have a successful career.

I don't care about being famous. Fame feels like the sacrifice you make to have a successful career.

Your stage name, Magdalene, and many of your past singles ("DJesus" and "Heaven") cheekily play on religious iconography, but this seems like a bit of a departure from that. Why was this the direction that you chose to take?

It's all American commentary, whether it's like politics or entertainment. “DJesus” to me is a commentary on the cult that is Christian nationalism, you know what I mean? And how we're AI-ing Jesus' hands on Trump's shoulders, like he's the second coming of Christ, yet me in the crown of thorns is blasphemous. It also feels like my journey from my childhood to now almost. It touches on things I went through as a teenager and experiencing the city for the first time and experiencing the industry for the first time and the things that I was learning along the way and just becoming an adult.

Being able to look back on that and use all of those life experiences, do you think it lends itself to a more mature way of songwriting?

Yeah, definitely. I think that now I'm a woman, and I know myself, and I know how I feel about the world. I know where I stand on things, and I'm also not afraid to say those things, and I'm not afraid for people to hate me. I actually want to be polarizing. I want people to either love me or fucking hate me, and if they feel neutral, then I feel like I failed. It’s very fearless and purposeful, which is what I think feels mature about it.