ZHU: DREAMLAND 2021

From finding enjoyment in her seemingly little downtime, to disconnecting her self-worth from her quickly rising career, this it-girl is here to prove that her art is grounded in a self-actualized perspective. Stella’s continued impact on this industry is transformative. Miss Stallion is the first live horse on the cover of office, and through an impactful conversation, opens up to us on a deeper level while sipping on her apple juice. Uniting animals and humans alike, she shows us that anything is possible and that her music transcends kingdoms.

Continue reading below as we catch up with Stella to discuss her upcoming EP, the importance of hobbies, and Vietnamese fishermen.

on cover: HORSEGIIRL wears TOP and PANTS by ISEDER, GLOVE by LARUICCI, SHOES by ZELLOUS

Cassie - Hi, how's it going?

horsegiirL - Going well. How is it going in New York?

New York is great. It's earlier in the morning, and pretty rainy. Where are you currently and what do you have planned for the day?

I am currently in Berlin. It's 2:30 here. It's also kind of rainy and gray, stay-at-home weather. I was shooting something yesterday till 6:00 in the morning, so I'm feeling a little bit out of it, but I've got some meetings and then some dinner plans later.

Wait, the shoot went till six in the morning?

Yes, it was a late shoot. We started at 6:00 PM and then finished at 3:30. But then packing down everything and getting home it ended up being six.

Damn. That's crazy. I feel like I've never had a shoot that went that late...or early.

It was because we wanted everything to be nighttime, so we had to start relatively late. The area where we wanted to shoot is mainly offices, so a lot of people will work till 8:00 PM, and only then all the cars are gone.

So sick. I want to get started and dive right in if you're alright with that.

I'm ready.

left: HORSEGIIRL wears TOP by GUVANCH NYC, SKIRT by GABE GORDON, SHOES by ZELLOUS; right: HORSEGIIRL wears TRENCH COAT by PRISCAVERA, TOP by THE AIR IS SIN

It’s kind of crazy that this year is already pretty much over, and we’re about to start 2025. So as you take a look back on the year what would you say has been the craziest thing that you've experienced?

Wow. I mean, just finding one thing is kind of hard. With the speed of everything and how many experiences are condensed within the span of 12 months, I don't really think that either the horse nor the human mind is really capable of taking in this much and processing it all. When I think of the beginning of the year, I played an Australia, US, and Columbia tour, which now feels like two years ago. I also just came off another run of Europe shows and some US tour dates. So to have that all happen in one year the scale has been overwhelming. It's great, but also, woah.

With all of these tour runs and different cities, has there been something at a show specifically that has stuck out to you as being an insane moment?

I think when I play festivals sometimes I never expect for those festival stages to be full. You know what I mean? I go into it thinking, "Oh, maybe today is going to be the day where I get humbled." I go into it thinking there's going to be a hundred diehard fans or something. Then when I played Portola in San Francisco, Miami III Points Festival, or the Glitch Festival in Malta, it ended up being so packed that people couldn't even get to the stage. It was so insane.

I feel like that's really exciting to see, especially since you've been touring so much this year. I recently saw a TikTok of the beginning of one of your shows. You played an educational clip about horses. How important is it for you to educate your fans?

Well, education is key. I think making the club a place of knowledge is fun. And when you leave the club and you feel like some of those facts about horses stuck with you, I think that's good. Humans tend to revolve around themselves a lot, so I think it's nice if they also look at fellow species on this planet and get educated a bit more.

Well, I mean, why not? It's like a two-for-one where they get to listen to you play, but then also walk away with something that they might've not known before.

Exactly.

We've had a few animals before on our covers, including a painted horse once. How was it shooting this cover being the first live horse for office?

I really love office. It's one of those magazines that's also well-known in the animal world. We don't really do offices, so if there's anything that has to do with fashion, a lot of us are very interested in that as a concept. So I'm super grateful. It was such a fun shoot. The team was great and I think we just had so many insane looks that it's fun to shoot things where you can really experiment. You're not tied into a more classic and conservative approach to a cover shoot. So that was really fun.

I was in there for a couple of minutes checking it out and it looked really great. I mean, the whole team was amazing. It was so fun to see everything come to life.

Especially if you haven't worked with a team before, you can only go by their Instagram or their website, but at the end of the day, it's about the vibe of everyone that really truly makes a shoot great. Everyone involved showed up, had fun, and it was a breeze.

Let's talk about the music a little bit. What can your fans expect out of your new upcoming EP– “v.i.p. very important pony"?

I think I really branched out in terms of sonically making a few more songs that are a bit more mellow. Not everything is super fast, but it’s still an electronic record, right? There are tracks that can sit in the club, but I think I wanted to also make music that isn't just a communal thing. There's music that is for listening when you're alone or when you're chilling, and then there's music that you listen to when you go out. I wanted to have an EP that has both of those moods on that while still being mostly euphoric, upbeat, and positive.

I've been listening and I really like it. I feel like what you said is right, where you have those songs that you maybe wouldn't listen to in a big group setting, but I feel like those tracks are where people get to have a bit more insight as to who you are as an artist.

Yeah, I think so.

From first listening to it I got the vibe that it's very luxurious and very glam. Is that something that you've always been accustomed to?

No, not at all. I'm a farm girlie. I come from the mud and the rain and just getting out there in nature. You still worry a little bit about what you're going to wear and how you look, but you don’t prioritize that over being out in nature. And so for me, luxury still is access to nature. I think that's the true luxury. However, getting to see the world a bit more, traveling, and being on the road, I'm getting more accustomed to the luxuries that the human world has to offer. It’s so fun. A lot of the EP was written while I was on tour in different cities, so that's kind of reflected in that. As much as I always thought, "I'm just a farm girlie," apparently, I also have a soft spot for cities and what they have to offer. I love that you said you think it sounds luxurious though.

Especially the first song too. I've had that one on repeat and it's so glam. It makes me want to get all cute and ready to go out.

Yes. Oh my God, love that. The first one, materiaL hor$e, the name is already telling it all. It's obviously also a little bit of an over-exaggeration because I'm talking about private islands and whatever. I don't think I subscribe to that kind of wealth. It's a bit insane to me— the concept that you just own a piece of the planet. But having fun with this concept is definitely mostly visible in materiaL hor$e.

Has there been a time in your life, or career, when there was that turnover moment? From when you were on the farm versus now where you're getting to experience all these new things that you're talking about in the EP?

I think some may already know this, but before really crossing over into the more popular sphere with humans, I actually already was touring, but just singing for an animal crowd. There the touring is just kind of different. You just gallop from one field to the next, you sing, and the bugs, worms, and the other animals just listen. There's not that much of a production going on. So that was kind of very different. But then I think in the second half of last year I started to tour a bit more internationally.

How did the other animals react when you were making that transition over to the human world?

There's an ambivalence. I think certain animals are incredibly supportive and think it's almost like I'm a bit of an ambassador. I'm helping to bridge the gap between species. But then I feel like a lot of animals also think it's wrong to become too involved in human affairs, let's just put it that way. So as with all things, there's always going to be animals that are for it and ones that are against it. But I feel like mostly the response has been quite positive.

I feel like there's going to be those haters out there that don't really understand. But I feel like you just have to pay them no mind.

Or you can take criticism that is constructive and reflect on it. I think it's also good to listen to different perspectives, but if it's just straight-up hate for the sake of hate, then you shouldn't pay no mind to it, to be honest.

Pay. The. Haters. No. Mind. At. All!

Nope!

HORSEGIIRL wears DRESS by ISEDER, RINGS by LARUICCI, SHOES by ZELLOUS

So if those animals at Sunshine Farms could see you now, what would they say?

I think at Sunshine Farms everyone's very proud of me.

We love that. We love a good strong supportive community.

I think everyone needs that. We all are herd animals essentially. We need strong networks around us. They don't need to be huge, but they need to be real and truly there for you— not just for your successes. I know that if I were to stop with everything tomorrow, my friends and family would still be there. They'd still love me and think whatever I plan on doing next is going to be just as great. That's the true blessing to be honest.

That's really amazing, especially going head-first into this music and fashion industry. The most important thing that I've learned for myself is just making sure to keep a strong community around because they're really the people who support you when you need it and help guide you in the direction that you want to continue to go in.

We aren't just the output of our productivity. I think that's so important to remember. We're all on this planet to really just experience, and if you only surround yourself with a network that only truly shows up for you when you're successful, then you essentially are so lonely. Your entire worth stems from you having an output of whatever it is that you're doing. From a more horse perspective, I think humans tend to struggle with that. You are worthy even when you're not a big CEO making billions of dollars.

I feel like that's something that so many different creative people struggle with, where they put all of their value and self-worth in what they do, their status, or how far along they are.

Especially when you start commercializing or trying to earn money with your art, it always is this huge struggle. Sometimes I think it's more freeing to be an artist that has, let's say, a "regular" job that just pays the bills. If it then doesn't work out and you don't make any money from your art, it's essentially almost like your art is not good enough, which that actually never is the case. Not everyone will be successful with the art they make, or at least not in their lifetime. So many artists become way more successful after they're dead because people just aren't ready for it yet. I have a friend who makes these amazing felt and knitwear pieces, and she is refusing to sell them because she's saying, "Look, I love doing this, and I feel like the moment I start selling them instead of just giving them away, I would lose the fun." I really respect that.

I feel like that's so hard to come by. It's seemingly rare to have a hobby nowadays. There’s such a beauty in just doing stuff because you like doing it rather than wanting to make a career out of it.

And it's so important because we tend to always inject this growth into everything we do, whereas I think the original idea of a hobby is you do something because it's fun and not because you're immediately like, "I need to be the best at this. I need to start making money from this." Then it's not really a hobby again. It's this other pressure where you have to self-optimize. There's so much pressure then to constantly be this machine that's getting better and better. I'm all for just doing things for the sake of just doing them and not with any kind of pressure to be the best at it or to make money off of it.

Well, I feel like that's how you'll continue to elevate yourself and you'll continue to have that longevity. Also, being an artist, you are somebody who is tying those groups together where you're giving people something in common with each other— which is enjoying your music.

Yeah. It's crazy. At the Hay Fever tour run, it's so interesting to see who's coming to my shows. I think it's quite a special thing— how many different subcultures clash at my shows, and it's still an amazing vibe. You can't really control who's coming to your shows, and speaking as an artist, you're already speaking to an existent subculture group, and those people will then show up at your shows. I feel like somehow at my shows, there are so many different people. You have the fashion girlies, the furries, the office core people, and everyone's just having a great time. It's just so fun to see all of those kinds of groups come together.

You're just the horse that brings them all together.

Exactly.

left: HORSEGIIRL wears TRENCH COAT by PRISCAVERA; right: HORSEGIIRL wears COAT by EMANUEL UNGARO, SKIRT by ESQUINA ESQUINA, SHOES by FEMME LA

Have there been any challenges you've had to overcome while crossing over from the animal kingdom in either music or fashion?

I think really just the fast paceness of this kind of industry that you have to constantly be in. There are a million tabs open that you have to work on, and I am grateful to say that I have this amazing team now, which also takes a while to build around you. I feel like I'm really having so much help executing my ideas. But even with a big team, you're still constantly just working, and I think that's sometimes still a struggle. I'm learning how to balance downtime and work time.

And what do you like to do in your downtime?

Honestly, just be at home or go into nature, really staying in one place. I think I used to always love traveling, but when your job becomes traveling, the last thing you want to do in your free time is get on another plane. It feels like a luxury to me now to have one week at home. I can spontaneously hang out with my friends or go to a little flea market. I can sit in a cafe or go into the forest for a walk.

I feel like that even ties back into the conversation we just had where once your passions become a job, you can start to lose a bit of meaning behind the enjoyment.

Exactly, and actually also just making music. I'm a musician, but touring so much has made it quite hard to actually do the main thing I love doing, which is making music. All of this is an amazing thing and it's also not going to be like this forever. So I'm really trying to soak it all up and enjoy every moment of this crazy fast life. So don't get me wrong.

No, of course not!

I think every touring artist struggles with this a little bit.

I mean, you definitely have to be cut out for that lifestyle. It's not for the weak for sure.

Like I said in the very beginning, I don't think our brains really comprehend this kind of fast-paced lifestyle. I don't think any of us mammals have evolved to be on five continents within the span of three weeks and in different climatic zones and constantly seeing all these new faces and having these short interactions. I think we're simply not really able to actually fully grasp that. And so we always need time to actually process and reflect, and for that, we have to be a bit still.

Yeah, definitely. What's the biggest misconception that your fans have about you if there are any?

Good question. I don't know if my fans have any misconceptions of me. I feel like maybe people that aren't farmies yet, don't even know that I make music and that I sing. When I'm getting tagged in a post on a news page somewhere that maybe isn't as accustomed to what I do, they often think I'm just a DJ. Whereas I always feel like I'm a musician first and I just happen to DJ a lot. So maybe that's a big misconception.

Are there any rituals you have or do before you perform?

I tend to take a couple of deep breaths. I started kind of always putting on a little incense or something, depending on how the backstage of the venue is because a lot of the time you have venues where there's another show on before. Especially here in Europe, we often have places where it's still very rock and roll. People smoke backstage, so I tend to just try and cleanse a little bit. And that's pretty much it, just getting into the outfit, and having a little apple juice.

So now that we're in holiday season, what's on your holiday wish list this year?

I actually recently did a thing with MTV where they also asked me what's on my wishlist, and I mentioned teenage engineering, the medieval sampler, and they actually saw it and are sending me one. So now I have nothing on my list anymore.

So because that came true, now you have to say something else in this interview so that whatever it is, they'll send it to you too. You have to think of something else!

I better make it a really big, big…car. No, honestly, what's on my wishlist? I feel like I have everything. I love cooking and I would love to maybe start making my own pasta. So, one of these pasta machines. I think they're so fun.

Ooh, yes! Every interview that you have now, after this, if they ask what's on your wishlist, you have to say something crazy. You've got to keep it going, and then you're going to get everything that you've ever wanted.

Oh my God, yeah, I need to aim really high though. I need to start saying insane shit. I don't know, an apple juice press… an industrial-grade apple juice press, or something.

If you could trade lives with any other horse in the world for a day, would you?

Well, for a day, I feel like one of those super crazy trained Spanish old-school horses. I find the discipline crazy, and I would love to see what it's actually like behind the scenes. But just for a day.

And then go back to your luxurious lifestyle. Then maybe a human... If you could trade lives with a human for a day, who would it be?

Definitely not a musician. I feel like maybe someone else, something completely different. I feel like a fisherman in a warm place that has a little boat. I was in Vietnam at the beginning of the year, and I was on this island, and they had these beautifully colored boats. The fishermen would go out on the ocean really early in the morning when the sun was still down. They would nap and chill on the boat all day long, and then come back. It just looked peaceful. I don't know. Something like that I think would be kind of cool.

I mean, it really is the opposite of your day-to-day, so it'd be fun to just relax, have some downtime, and just be able to enjoy it.

And I think being out on the ocean is such a significant experience because it reminds you of what tiny little speck you are on this huge planet. You can see the whole sky. The stars are so much more bright and you're just on this little vessel on this vast body of water. It's kind of scary, but also just quiet. It puts things into perspective about your own life, and I think that could be really cool. Some of it is also scary. I don't know if you've ever seen these videos of people working on these massive oil rig places in the middle of the ocean.

I feel like a big fear of mine is the really deep ocean. There's so much that hasn't been discovered yet. It's really crazy.

We know more about the universe than we know about the depths of our oceans. It's kind of insane.

As a parting word and farewell to your farmies, is there anything that you want to leave them with?

Well, first of all, thank you. Then also just listen to your intuition. That's a really big one. Don't chase anyone who doesn't reciprocate that energy. It's always a waste of time. Do you and follow your heart.

HORSEGIIRL wears COAT by THE AIR IS SIN, SHOES by ZELLOUS