Varg2™ Sheds His Skin

August 22, 2024

Though I made sure to send out the right Zoom link before our interview, Jonas Rönnberg is nowhere to be found. Rönnberg is a bit of an iconoclast, a self-proclaimed “bastard child” of Europe’s enduring techno scene. Most know him as Varg2™, the Swedish electronic musician, Drain Gang confidant, and graffiti vandal with ink inscribed across his forehead, jawline, and wherever else his skin is exposed. His catalog of albums and EPs is vast and cavernous. Standout track “Illusions 1996” from his latest project Nordic Flora Series Pt. 6: Outlaw Music is imbued with frosty synth crystals, coming across like extraterrestrial telepathy from an unknown spacecraft.

Interview Olivier Lafontant
Creative Direction by Ioannis Papadakis, Rita de Rivera, Aina Marco
Photography by Ioannis Papadakis
Styling by Juju, Varg2tm, Aina Marco
Set Design by Rita de Rivera
Movement Direction by Zahra Van Nguyen
Fashion assistants Abryl Cassanova, Lexington Rocchio, Ana Luna Lajeunesse
Photo Assistant Sofía López

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It’s been five minutes since our scheduled meeting was meant to start — five painstakingly valuable minutes — so I refresh my email for any updates. “Jonas says the link doesn’t work,” says his publicist in my inbox, so I make a new meeting and respond with another invite. Three more minutes pass. Another gut-wrenching response: “He says it still doesn’t work. Can you set up a Google Meet?” Fuck, I think to myself, We’re already off to a great start. I didn’t know how right I was.

Before I can even open a new tab in an attempt to salvage something — anything — from this potential meeting, an unknown caller barges into the vacant Zoom chat. The username “iPhone (5)” pops up onscreen, camera off, ushered in by the obnoxious clamor of bustling 808 drums compressed and distorted to hell. Once the camera is turned on, the music is paused; and there lies Varg2™ in the flesh. He gleefully chiefs the joint perched between his lips from under the hood of his black sweatshirt, clutching a pink Bratz Doll mug full of coffee. This is his morning routine. Even on first impression, I feel as though this sort of introduction makes perfect sense for him. His presence radiates a strangely familiar sense of camaraderie, effortlessly exuding the warmth of an old friend. Without hesitation, Varg2™ escorts me through the crux of his headspace, detailing his creative process, his affinity for trap music, and the path he’s taken towards self-actualization.

Olivier Lafontant— How are you?

Varg2™— I’m good, man. I’m good as fuck, I just woke up like an hour ago.

Where you at right now?

I’m in Sweden, it’s like 9 in the evening. I wake up in the nighttime. For me this is morning.

You’re waking and baking at 9 p.m., that’s kinda crazy.

I’ve been smoking since I opened my eyes, I need to smoke as soon as I wake up. Otherwise I don't feel right. But yeah, my days are kinda fucked up, I went to bed at 3 p.m. today.

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What have the past couple days looked like for you?

I’m not gonna lie bro, I’ve been out. It’s been good, me and my Swedish crew been out painting, making music, getting it done.

You still doing graffiti?

Every day.

What does that do for you? How do you process your life and your emotions through that?

To be honest, I think it’s the only thing that’s ever been consistent for me. It’s been my one true friend, it’s just always been there for me. It’s a lot of work that I don’t even put into my music. If I have struggles with my music or with some other shit I need to do, I’m just gonna be like “Oh fuck this shit,” and then paint. It’s just effortless love, unconditional love. It’s fucked up my life many times but it’s still the one that’s been there for me.

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Something that’s stuck out to me about you is how you make very electronic, cinematic music, but you’re very influenced by artists like Shawny Bin Laden, Ballout, OLA Runt, a lot of American street rappers. How do you process those influences and make it so that you’re still putting out music that’s true to you?

I think why [someone] listens to Ballout, or trap in general, or black metal — it’s music by people who speak their own truth. My music is true to what I see. It’s not about translating [what I like to listen to], ‘cause I make ambient soundscapes and shit like that. I’m just translating my emotions. It’s the same with trap. You can have shit like Lazer Dim 700 that’s super low [sound] quality, the production of it doesn’t really matter; it comes down to how well you can tell your own story, type shit. I saw 21 Savage just bought a new G Wagon for his mom’s birthday, and in the photo she had a white Richard Mille on. I’m sure as fuck 21 Savage also bought that Richard Mille. That shit fire. I sat and I looked at that picture, and his mom looked so happy, bro. And it’s like "Yeah, materialistic love, she got a G Wagon, whatever, whatever,” but I’m sure that 21 Savage was an annoying piece of shit when he was a teenager — I bet he snuck out, I bet he had girls’ parents calling his house, [he was] selling drugs, shit like that.

That smile is not about the fact that she got a G Wagon, [it’s about] the fact that her shitty ass son who kept talking about robbing people into a microphone can actually afford to buy her one from doing that. That journey is fuckin’ genuine and honest and beautiful. And you can talk about the “value of the lyrics” and shit, but that’s the thing, this is just the truth. These are the real poets, man. An artist goes to a place where normal people don’t dare to go and they report back.

tracksuit GREG ROSS from LNCC

Now that you're six albums into the Nordic Flora series, what do you feel like you've learned, and what makes this album different from the rest of them? Not just sonically, but also in terms of the emotions and the process you have at this point in your career?

Not gonna lie, I stopped making music for a pretty long time. I kind of found my way back making this album. It wasn’t meant to be a Nordic Flora record from the beginning, it just became that. The main difference is I made half of [the Nordic Flora series] on an iPad inside of a car in motion, [and] at airports. One tape, I forgot to turn the iPad microphone off and you can hear German men in the Lufthansa Lounge in Munich fuckin’ complaining about the bratwurst being out and shit. It’s a very honest record series. I put out my first record in 2013 and since then my music career has been an open diary. This record was made in Sunset Sound Studios with Yves Rothman, my good friend, in Los Angeles, an iconic studio. The fact that within the same record series and without signing major, just by my own two hands, I’ve gone from making wonky tape experiments in the north of Sweden to playing the celesta the Beach Boys played — for me that’s legendary. Now there’s definitely not gonna be no more Nordic Flora, I feel like I’m a new person now. I already have three new albums coming out, I don’t give a fuck. I got so much music.

You’re really on your Gucci Mane shit now!

Me and Christ Dillinger dropping a massive project.

Something that you said that caught my attention was the fact that you feel like your music is such an open diary, but as a producer you're not putting your voice onto the songs. How do you feel like you're still getting a distinct message out through your sound or the features you choose?

When the feature's on there, they’re telling their story. If I make a track with you, I clearly felt something with you. I work with my friends, I work with people I look up to and admire, you know? I never do a feature for clout or payment, I don’t give a fuck about that shit. The features I have on my tracks [make] music I listen to, [they're] people I respect, and people [whose] universe I feel correlates with how I feel. For me it’s logical, maybe it’s not logical for the listener, but that’s not up to me. And also what you said about music without words — sometimes words are not necessary, bro. Like, for example, for some reason I always think about big boats sailing away, you know? And it doesn't even need to be about like a goodbye or something. It can be just a fucking cargo ship, but you see the lights at the horizon going away. That's a feeling I keep feeling. And I don't know what that feeling is, but I definitely know what it sounds like.

An artist goes to a place where normal people don’t dare to go and they report back.

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Last year you had the “Fucked For Life” art exhibition with Bladee in Manhattan, and you also recently opened your own gallery in Stockholm. Considering how this is a different medium for you to express yourself, do you see it as a bridge to connect to your music? Or do you have two separate worlds where your art is in one place and your music is another place?

A lot of people try to separate what they do, but bro I’m not trying to do any of that. I’m not that complex. I live in one place, I live in one world and it’s my world. I made my own spot and this is where I exist. What I paint is what I see. I just do what I feel, and for me it doesn’t matter if it’s painting, or graffiti, or cooking, or writing, or walking and looking, or making music. For me it’s all in the same universe. And yeah it can be hard. I lost a lot of friends, I lost a lot of partners. It’s tough to be with someone who lives in their own world. I don’t really compute with society. My therapist of a few years said the most lame ass shit — she told me that every day when I wake up, I should choose the path of happiness. And I was like, "Choose to walk the path of happiness, that sounds like something a fucking Christian person would do," you know? And I'm like, "I'm not Christian and I'm not walking the fucking road to happiness, you dumbfuck." But that doesn't mean that [it has to be] this “good boy Christian road." The road to happiness can just be waking up, you know? And as long as you don't hurt other people through taking that road, just take it.

You mentioned as part of your process, you take time out to write. What is it that you write and how do you feel like you process yourself in your writing?

For like a lot of my older records, there's a lot of poetry and texts and stuff. I wouldn't say that I write poetry, but I write down my thoughts. I write a lot. I can see at least 15 different stolen moleskin pads laying on the ground here filled with notes. I just write down what I feel and like I said, I don't see a difference with that and painting or music because also when I sit making music, I go through and read my texts and I'm like, “Oh, I remember feeling that shit or thinking that shit.”

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At this point in your life, what is it that brings you clarity? Are you searching for clarity?

I’m 33 now. I don’t know, I’m not searching for any clarity. I’ve seen a lot of my friends die from drugs or suicide or mental health fucking them up and shit like that. I’m not gonna lie, my mental health’s been pretty damn fried for most of my life. I've been struggling with hella anxiety and depression, low self-esteem and antisocial behaviors and shit like that. But lowkey the day I turned 30 I was like, “You know what? I'm so blessed.” My parents — who I fuckin’ love — they threw a birthday party for me.

I stopped going to school at a very young age, and one of the things that made me stop going to school was 'cause I was so fucking bullied in school. I come from a small town, they would bully everybody. It was the 90s, there were no openly gay people, we barely had immigration. Even me being a white, kind of straight guy, I had problems in school because in a tiny village in the north of Sweden, you don’t have to do much to stick out, you know? One day they gave out [superlatives] to all the kids who were gonna start high school. Everything was like “Jock of the Year,” “Sexy Bitch of the Year,” and then they were like “Fat Loser of the Year” and they gave it to me. I was the only sixth grader that got something.

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That’s fucked up.

That shit was so humiliating, and my principal forced me to go up and get that prize while the whole school was laughing at me. I remember because the room that this happened in was one of my favorite rooms. We had this very beautiful socialist wall painting in this room, and [since then] that painting and that room has always been stuck with me like a fucking nightmare. The room that was something I really liked turned into something that just made me feel like I wanted to disappear, you know? And on my 30th birthday, my parents threw me a party in that fucking room bro. And it was crazy.

I kept thinking that all my friends from my childhood are dead, because most of them are, but I was sitting there with a few of the survivors and my parents. That day kind of changed my life. And I'm not gonna lie, bro, for the last three years I just been happy and on my shit. People are stressing about turning 30 because they still feel like they haven't reached anything, and I lowkey felt that too. I was like “Damn, I haven't done shit.” And then I was like, “You know what, bro? I’ve lived my own damn life by my own damn rules, my whole fucking life, bro.” And I'm gonna keep doing that.

That’s amazing, bro, honestly. I feel like a big part of social interaction in general is just being a reflection of the energy that you get around you, both the negative and positive. You talk about how the bullying affected your sense of self, but it’s the love of your parents that helps you see the light in everything else.

Yeah, but also these bullies, bro, what the fuck do they do today, bro? They do nothing. They do jack shit. They work at the local gas station in my hometown. Fuck y’all! I'll make your yearly salary in a day, in an hour. I'll flip that in an hour. Bitch ass punk.

Music

Computerwife Is Just a Girl on the Internet

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.

Music

How 6LACK Rejuvenates

Now may be the time to shift the tide and see 6LACK as a person who advocates for bliss — especially for those in the Black community. In order to achieve meaningful work, he must be inspired by every aspect of his life. We all know and love 6LACK as the artist who releases back-to-back hits and collaborates with our favorite musicians. Instead, he’s recently released different versions of the same songs for listeners to meditate, study, and relax to.

Tell me about some of your favorite discussion points with Sadhguru.

My favorite part of it was the different perspectives and talking about the same thing but from two different angles. I actually got to learn a little bit more than I got to share my perspective which was cool because I come from a space of normally being the person that people come to. So having a moment to sit back and listen to somebody with a lot more experience and wisdom was my favorite part. It was a listening session for me.

Were there any commonalities that you two had when it came to mental health and love?

I think the idea of being loved and making that a part of your everyday life and everyday practice. That has been the constant driving force behind everything that I do creatively, and I know as a yogi it has to be the center of who you are, so that’s definitely where we connected.

What do you think makes you and Sadhguru different?

I would say that the only difference that I could offer to that discussion is that sometimes when you come from different backgrounds or different areas, the hurdles that you have to go through in order to attain a level of peace or a certain amount of love is just a little bit harder to tackle. The focus on being loved when there are so many distractions and we live in the social media era where news is flying at us 24/7. Coming from a younger generation where there’s a lot more for us to sift through and filter through – that’s where I would say we’re a little bit different. I have a little bit more of an understanding and compassion for just how hard it is to dedicate yourself to that practice.

Was there any piece of advice Sadhguru gave you that really stuck with you?

Honestly, it was aside from the talking points. It was his poise and his patience throughout the discussion. I think that being able to speak clearly and freely only comes from doing so much work on yourself. That was the lasting thing that I noticed throughout the discussion. The way that he’s conditioned is just something that I aspire to be.

You released Since I Have A Lover back in March. What’s the overarching theme of the album?

Since I Have A Lover ties back to the discussion with Yogi Sadhguru. The album is about practice. It’s about figuring out how to be your biggest, best self and how to show up for yourself. It’s about love – and not just romantic love, but self-love. It could be love for a hobby or for a passion. It could be love for a routine, doing something for yourself health-wise…Reminding yourself of who you are outside and the one or two things you may have adapted as a personality. So for me, it was just an album that was made to help me practice getting back to myself and inspire other people to do the same thing.

You took a hiatus to focus on your mental health. During that time, what did healing and taking care of yourself look like?

Sitting with myself sometimes in complete silence and just have those moments where I’m going through everything that I’m thinking or feeling and trying to organize it. After sitting with myself, I was finding something to read; a good book. “The 5AM Club: Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life” was one of my favorite books during the beginning of that process because I was switching my sleeping patterns and starting to wake up earlier to tackle more of my day before 11 a.m. Besides that, yoga and meditation in the morning. Doing one or both of those makes me feel a lot more prepared for anything that comes at me for the rest of the day. I’ve been running a lot lately – any kind of exercise. Anything except the music was helping me because in order for me to be creatively inspired in music, I’ve just grown to the point where I have to be creatively inspired in every other aspect of my life first.

How long do you think it took you to get back to being musically inspired?

Right around the time I was wrapping up some of my sessions with my therapist who I was also talking to during my process. Once I started to have a better scope of everything that was going on in my life, I just felt better going into the studio. I felt more excited and a weight was off my shoulders and I actually had something worth saying.

You said you hit rock bottom which means something different for everyone. Do you feel like you’re bouncing back and more able to continue working on music?

Absolutely. To this day, it’s still an everyday practice, but the bounce-back has been amazing. I was up at 6:30 this morning for yoga class in Venice, then 8 a.m. meditation, and now I’m doing this nice interview. A lot of stuff has been done before my day really starts. As soon as I get off here I’m going straight to the studio.

I think that being able to speak clearly and freely only comes from doing so much work on yourself.

Why did you choose QUIN, Don Toliver, and Wale as collaborators for Since I Have A Lover?

I always just make the music first. Then if I hear somebody’s voice, it’ll pop into my head in a moment where maybe I have an empty space on the song that I didn’t complete. I’ll listen to it with that empty space for a while then hear one of my friend’s voices pop up in my head. That’s normally how it happens. For the song with Wale, I had finished the entire song, and then toward the end, I just kept saying ‘I hear somebody else but it’s not me.’ I hear poetry so it has to be Wale. For Don, I had an open space for a hook, and knowing that he was one of my favorite artists throughout the pandemic so I reached out and made it happen. QUIN is obviously my partner and one of my best friends.

Who do you want to collaborate with in the future?

I would love to make a song with Erkyah, James Fauntleroy, The Dream, and Frank. I’m open to anything. There are tons of people I haven’t worked with who I would love to work with. I would love to work with Sade even though she doesn’t do collabs.

During your discussion with Sadhguru, you touched on the point of Black women being the blueprint. How do you incorporate the inspiration of Black women into your music and daily life?

By opening my eyes and opening my ears. Some of the best advice and most unbiased opinions that I’ve ever gotten were from the people around me and the women around me. I’ve always been the leader for my group of friends as far as guys go, but it’s always cool to have a perspective that’s like, ‘Hey, you need to get your shit together. I can see you, and you might look cool to everybody else, but you have a little bit more work to do.’ It’s hard to accept in the beginning, but it’s so necessary in order to grow.

Are there any direct Black women in your life who give you daily inspiration?

My mom for sure. She was there from the very beginning of what wasn’t even a career during the time. Besides the music, she took on the responsibility of raising three kids, having to make sure everything was covered, and still allowing space for there to be some kind of creative outlet. If it weren’t for her, then I probably wouldn’t even be on this call right now.

If you were a yogi, what is some advice you would give to people who want people to slow down and take care of themselves?

I would honestly just say to be gentle with yourself, and be gentle with other people. That’s the best piece of advice. I’m even taking it for myself today and with everything that I do, with every conversation I have, with every conflict that pops up. I’m really taking my time and not getting worked up, not overreacting, and allowing myself to be responsible and seeing what that does for my life.

Were those some of the issues you faced that made daily life difficult?

For sure. You have pent-up feelings of resentment towards something. Then you get caught off guard and the next thing you know you’re reacting or overreacting. I know what the best version of myself is and I love to be proactive, to listen, and to figure things out.

Why is therapy important to you?

I really had to talk to somebody on the outside to figure out how I feel inside. It was the main thing that I know I was struggling with. I left therapy feeling like I had trained for football or a sport. I know so much better now and it’s not even that I need a specific answer about anything in my life. I just needed to get it out of my head and my body, and once I got it out I had a better idea of how to handle myself next time versus just continuing to create this story that’s way more dramatic than it has to be.

What are some of your goals moving forward?

I would love to put on some weight and take care of my body. I also want to spend as much time as I can with my daughter and continue to figure out ways to help myself and help the people around me figure out the rest of our lives in the most fun and creative ways possible. I want to make more cool shit.

Music

COBRAH GOES "MANIC"

August 11, 2023

With her latest single, “MANIC,” COBRAH invites us into her world of latex playsuits and metal chains; head-to-toe fishnets and ten-inch pleasers; flashing strobe lights and the undying spirit of a good party. Having found her artistic voice through the Stockholm fetish scene, COBRAH’s music is experimental and boundary-pushing, and her fashion and visual language are just the same. As a song, “MANIC” is fun. The half-spoken melody twists in a way that’s unapologetic and cheeky — the entire song is one you sing while winking. It’s a sensory ambush, but we’re not complaining.

Lyrics are nothing but breakneck turns. One second we’re talking about asscheeks, and the next we’re hearing that COBRAH’s father thinks very highly of her. The bass is unstoppable and the synths are pulsing. The low instrumentals are wavy and dark, fashioning their own musical dungeon. COBRAH’s vocal delivery is playful; she practically purrs the chorus. And, with the accompanying music video, up-close-and-personal angles make it impossible for viewers to look away. The song is sexy because it doesn’t let up, doesn’t give us space to process and overanalyze. If you're into breathplay, good, her latest single doesn’t give us space to breathe.