Daniel Caesar's Leap of Faith – Office Magazine

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From navigating the muddled waters of young love in Freudian to exploring death, spirituality, and absolution in CASE STUDY 01, Daniel Caesar has consistently bared it all.
Apart from his prowess as a singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, and producer, he possesses a keen understanding of life, its trials, and its triumphs. In his latest album, Never Enough, Caesar reveals a new facet of himself as both a sonic architect and a person. Like the rest of us, he grapples with the very human obsession with self-evolution.
Never Enough provides a glimpse into the next chapter of Caesar’s life and career, showcasing his continued growth as an artist and universalizing his personal experiences.
Shirt ACNE STUDIOS, pants WILLY CHAVARRIA, shoes CAMPERLAB, jewelry TALENT’S OWN. 
While much of Never Enough was created during Caesar’s isolation on a remote farm in Canada amid the pandemic, the creative framework came to him while on a boat in the south of France. During that boat trip, he overheard a conversation where someone uttered the two-word phrase. Its meaning was already echoing in his head before he could articulate it. „Never enough,“ he says, sitting across from me on the velvet slate-gray wrap-around couch in the center of his studio.
 
He recalls feeling frustrated on that boat, grappling with the idea that something was never enough, but he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what. The yearning to understand the meaning of these two words and what „enough“ meant to him eventually revealed itself as the central drive of this album.
 
As an independent artist, intuition has always been integral to his music, both sonically and emotionally. Even though he is now signed to a record label, this aspect of his craft remains true. „It has to sound like me,“ he says, very seriously, before bursting into laughter about the album’s naming. The tracklist evolved through three iterations in Canada, Los Angeles, and New York City before Caesar realized that he could continue to perfect the album or put a stop to his nitpicking, close this chapter, and move on. Never Enough is an ode to human insatiability, the innate human desire for more, and the realization that exactly where you’re at is just as fine.
 
Get to know the Toronto native a little better below.
 
It’s been a while since you released a full studio album. How are you? What have you been up to the last few years?
 
It’s been really great. Kind of like a roller coaster, but fun overall. I traveled a lot, saw a lot of places, met a lot of people.
 
Where did you go?
 
Majorca, Sudan, Jamaica, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Paris, Berlin — so many places.
 
When during that time did you start working on Never Enough?
 
2019 as soon as the world locked down, I was like, I got to do something, so I built a semi-studio in my house, and I just started cooking away.
 
This also feels like a new chapter for you in terms of tone, subject matter and production. What would you say defined this shift?
 
Joining a new label; heartbreak; breakups. I went through a lot of cycles before I settled somewhere that I felt was fair — moving forward but also giving people what I feel they want from me — to not alienate anybody.
 
How did lockdown impact your creative process?
 
A lot, because I was isolated, so in the beginning there’s definitely this hopeless feeling to the album. I’d have to look again but it feels as if it starts out hopeless with moments of despair throughout that lead into a gradual optimism at the end.
 
The title seems to evoke that initial hopelessness, which I, and I’m sure many others, experienced as well. How did you decide on those two words as the name for such a monumental project?
 
I think I was on a boat in Saint-Tropez at the time, doing mushrooms, and I was complaining about something, I don’t know. I said, “It’s never enough for this person or these people.” I can’t remember what it was, but a boat floated by, and it was called Never Enough. Then we started talking with the people on the boat, and they said they were from North York, which is basically Toronto. It’s down the street from me, part of the GTA area, so that was just this full-circle moment.
 
Almost like synchronicity?
 
Yeah, exactly. 
 
Aside from France, were there any other significant places you visited that influenced your perspective over the last couple of years?
 
Jamaica, New York, and probably Stockholm.
 
Part of your family’s from Jamaica right? What about being there?
 
I love Jamaica. My father’s side is from Jamaica. The first time I got to go, I’d only gone as a child, and then probably three or four years ago, I started going as an adult by myself. I brought my girlfriend at the time, and we just kind of did whatever we wanted — it was a completely different experience.
 
I understood myself, you know what I mean? I love it so much. They’re so honest and emotional.
Jacket and jeans CALVIN KLEIN, gloves AIREI, sunglasses GENTLE MONSTER, shoes UGG, jewelry TALENT’S OWN.
When you feel inspired, do you immediately write a song down or let it play in your head until you find the right words?
 
Sometimes. Usually, if it’s a strong inclination, I’ll stop everything and grab a pen, or I’ll pull up my Notes app. But usually, I’ll have something slow cooking. Music is always flowing in my mind, which is why I was in my producer bag for a minute, but I also had writer’s block for a while. I think because of my lifestyle, being on my phone all the time… listening to podcasts. It’s like, ugh. My inner monologue has been a little corrupted, so I’m trying to clean it up. It’s either negative, “You’re not doing enough, you’re not doing this, you’re not doing that… they want you to do this, they want you to do that” or reminding myself to stay focused. I pontificate too much all the time. I think that the lyrics are finally coming back to me.
 
How much of this album did you produce?
 
All of it. I played 80% of the instruments, all the bass on the album, most of the guitars, and most of the keys, but I also had Dylan Wiggins in there with me. I needed his guidance for sure. Although I know what I’m doing, sometimes my confidence isn’t all the way there in that sphere. He’s a better musician than me by far, but I have a clear vision, and I know how I want all the parts to sound. It helped to have someone else in that seat though. I’d ask “Yo, you want to play this?” Then he’d be like, “Nah man, you got this. Just sit and figure it out.” When he does make a decision that I don’t agree with, that’s when I finally start to understand what I imagined. I definitely needed that push. Just someone to be there and believe in me.
 
Was the creative process more intuitive or collaborative?
 
It started out intuitive then turned more collaborative. I think that’s important, especially working with a label. I woke up to that over time.
 
How do you make sure that what you create still feels like you?
 
I fight for myself, I’ve got to, but I also believe in compromise within reason. I’m pretty self-aware so I know I’m difficult naturally. What I create does still feel like me though, but like a packaged version, or else things would be even more chaotic than they sometimes already can be. Still, I fight to be myself every day.
 
Do you ever ask yourself, “Does this fit?”
 
I try to stay open-minded, but it’s more like, “Is this me?” Am I telling the truth, or am I lying?
 
Is that what you think makes your music so relatable — the honesty?
 
I think so. Part of making songs people can relate to is accepting that you’re not special despite wanting so badly to be. I’m singing about my own personal experience, trying to be unashamed of getting specific because everyone has felt what I feel. Although I feel like the only one, that’s not true.
Jacket and pants HOMME PLISSÉ ISSEY MIYAKE, shirt CALVIN KLEIN, shoes DRIES VAN NOTEN, gloves, AIREI, jewelry TALENT’S OWN.
As someone who has been in the music industry for a while now and transitioned from being an independent artist to being with a label, has there been an underlying pressure to create?
 
I put the pressure on myself, honestly. There is a pull to put things out, but there’s more of a pull to get things together I guess because making the music is not difficult. It’s everything else around it. It’s marketing and presenting it to the world in a package that becomes stressful because sometimes I have to change what I like. My musical tastes are stable, but so broad, and what I like aesthetically and visually changes so much because I’m around so many cool people that are into cool things.
 
Do you ever struggle with perfection?
 
Yes, and fear.
 
How do you get away from it?
 
I jump. When I finally close a chapter on something I’m never quite happy with it. You know what I mean? For example, I could keep perfecting this album for another five years, but I’ve accepted that it’s time to let it be. It’s also so different from anything you’ve put out.
 
Do you ever worry that your audience is expecting something similar from you?
 
Yeah, I do and I rebel against it of course as with all things, but I also try to accept it. I oscillate between the two and try to land somewhere in the middle. But yeah it’s very different. That’s why I love that Jay-Z line. He’s like, „N—s want my old shit, buy my old albums.“ You know what I mean?
 
For sure. CASE STUDY 01 and Freudian will always be there, even if people listen to this new one, they can always go back. When did you finally say, “All right, this is done; I can’t do anything to it”?
 
I want to say six to eight months ago at this point. I basically knew I was done and agreed to a date. That was a battle because I have personally always thought that an album should never have more than 10 songs, but I just end up with so many – I’m at 15 now.
Shirt, pants and shoes ACNE STUDIOS, jewelry TALENT’S OWN.
You mentioned heartbreak earlier, which comes through especially in your singles “Valentina” and “Let Me Go,” with their general sense of longing. How would you describe heartbreak?
 
It’s not always so happy-go-lucky all the time. I guess that explains the nihilistic tone throughout the album. It’s like you get hurt, and then you’re like, “All right, how am I going to operate in the world now? I believed in things I don’t believe in anymore.”
 
Would you say Never Enough brings us through that reflection?
 
Exactly. Yeah, it’s a whole story for sure. When sequencing an album, I try and tell a story. I think that’s the most important thing, but it always has to end optimistically, because I have a superstition that I kind of live out what I write. You know what I mean? Maybe not always literally, but for the most part.
 
Oh, really? Which comes first? The song or the lived experience?
 
It’s like there are moments all the time when I will—it’s so fucking corny. I do this in my head; I don’t do this out in the world, but I’ll live through a moment and quote something I wrote in a previous album to myself, kind of like, oh. And then I realize it’s kind of like everything’s just cyclical, and I probably find myself in similar situations all the time because of my habits.
 
For sure, I feel like it’s the same with all things, just like love and heartbreak is part of the same cycle.
 
Yeah, it’s definitely cycles, which is what the last album was about. It’s all things always, but as an individual, singular being, you can only exist as one thing at a time, although all things are always simultaneously happening. You just go through seasons.
Coat WINNIE, sweater and shirt LOUIS VUITTON, pants PAUL SMITH, shoes ACNE STUDIOS, sunglasses GENTLE MONSTER.
Do you see yourself ever going back to writing love songs?
 
Recently, I found myself in another crush. I haven’t had a crush like this in a long time. People were trying to push me into writing love songs for this last album, and I couldn’t because I wasn’t in love. At least not new love. I was in a post-honeymoon phase of love, like, oh, I love this person but at the same time, I can’t stand them.
 
That pull toward being close to what you desire and then once you get there, the excitement’s over.
 
Exactly. Yeah, this pedestal thing. It especially comes through with my first album, it’s like I idealized the person that I was with. I treated them as if they were God, which is so unhealthy, but it is what I do. I feel like a lot of people can relate to that, the initial infatuation especially. Yeah for sure. And it’s like I felt this feeling before, I’m addicted to it so I try to find it again.
 
Are you already writing songs based on this new love?
 
I literally wrote a song this morning. I could see myself making another great love song honestly… I think I’m doing that right now. And I don’t want to say I’m over this album, but I’m already onto the next thing and I’m excited for what’s to come. I changed so much, so fast, so it’s like I’m already over this. What’s the next sound? What’s the next aesthetic?
 
I feel that, I mean there’s the album, the pre-tour you just announced, the actual tour, what else is coming?
 
Definitely more of everything. More production, more songs. I want to go through a period of high output, so I’m going to do the whole thing — drop the album, the tour, TV performances, but I also want to do mixtapes and other albums. I was gone for a while, but I don’t want to do that again. I have a lot to say. I just have to divide it all up to have complete, coherent thoughts and stay focused.
 
Are you looking forward to going on tour this time around?
 
Extremely excited. I think it’s going to be sick. I’m really excited to just be on the move again. It’s like an adventure. It’s really the kicker for tours — adventure. The performances are great, but it’s waking up in a new city, meeting new people, doing new things.
What’s your favorite part?
 
In the beginning, all of it. At the end of every tour, I always say, „I’ll never do it again,“ but for the first three quarters, I love it. My favorite has to be the little romances. I’m always looking for inspiration.
 
If there’s a lesson in all of this, what do you hope your people ultimately take away from your output this year?
 
That life keeps going and if you really love something, keep doing it, and take everything seriously, but also not too seriously. Live in the moment, and if you’re not happy with something, it doesn’t help you or anybody else to let that get you off what you’re meant to do. You have to accept that there’s something you aren’t pleased with, and you’re very capable of doing something you are pleased with. In the end, always keep trying to impress yourself.
Sukii is more than meets the eye, and her career thus far isn’t even the tip of the iceberg to what she’s capable of. She is synonymous with bold, creative, and limitless. This is what the Salomon XT-Whisper is all about – a silhouette reinvented from the archives, tailored in 2009 for the unconventional, the daring, and the creative woman. Sukii Baby sits down with Kerane Marcellus in her XT-Whispers and discusses what makes her limitless.
“One day I’m going to be an astronaut, superstar-stripper-ballerina-computer science mechanic-car builder-fashionista-designer! The list goes on forever…,” said the artist and entrepreneur on a morning call in Los Angeles after a streaming session. Born Qui Yasuka, she used to say that proclamation often to her father. Born to a Japanese mother and an American father, Yasuka’s tumultuous upbringing was the catalyst to where she is now and where she wants to be in the future. She’s been an enigma for some time; not much has been unveiled about the multi-hyphenate—until now.
 
Her childhood in Japan as a “hāfu,” a term used for kids who are not fully Japanese, wasn’t easy. As a child, not being able to afford the things others could awakened a determination in her. Over time, she became an amalgamation of all her wildest dreams. All her interests and eras over the years have given us the Sukii Baby we’re getting to know now.
 
You might know her from a certain album cover or more recently her thriving streaming community. Yasuka’s love of video games has always been present. Her father is a computer scientist from the generation of Star Wars and Final Fantasy. “I actually grew up on every single console that there has ever been made…I pretty much played almost every game,” she shared. She started streaming more video game content after taking a half decade hiatus from screens in general including TV and movies. Her break came from another awakening and pivotal moment in her life—a loss of a loved one.
SUKII BABY wears TOP by WILLY CHAVARRÍA, JEANS by ACNE STUDIOS, SUNGLASSES by BONNIE CLYDE, SHOES SALOMON XT-WHISPER.
 
“I had promised my grandmother that I would go to college in America, because it’s easier. When I was on the plane, I had just seen my great grandmother, and she passed away when I was on the flight back to America. So I was like, ‘I need to lock in.’ I need to take life a little bit more seriously. I got multiple jobs, I wasn’t living with my dad anymore, because you know how parent-child relationships kind of go. You get older, you leave the nest. It’s different for everybody, but that was just not a place where I was able to live. So, I was living on my own, sometimes doing good, sometimes not doing so good,” she revealed candidly. “I don’t come from money whatsoever so, I had to figure everything out by myself.”
 
In her early teens, she was dabbling in Adobe Photoshop and eventually became a master. After growing out of meme-making, she started gaining inspiration from unlikely sources ranging from her dreams, Animal Planet, the Cooking Channel, and the Travel Channel. Her cyanotype prints, in particular, have magnetic emotions tied to them with imagery from all over in hues melancholy blue. “I would just indulge in so much culture and everything around the world so much that I just wanted to start making photos that make you feel something.” Once she mastered Photoshop, she added video editing and creative directing to her repertoire of talents.
SUKII BABY wears JACKET and SKIRT by JORDAN LUCA, BRA by DSQUARED2, HEADBAND by RINALDYYUNARDI, SHOES SALOMON XT-WHISPER. 
SUKII BABY wears TOP by PRO CLUB, SHORTS by CHAMPION, GLOVES by HANDSOME STOCKHOLM, NECKLACE by MARTINE ALI, SUNGLASSES by BONNIE CLYDE, SHOES SALOMON XT WHISPER.
 
While in college, she changed her major thrice, a fact that many of us share in common with her, before ultimately deciding to go “full force” into art. First, it was architecture, then interior design then to animation. ”In animation, you can make whatever you want. It’s not necessarily just focused on housing, focused on blueprints, focused on CAD, you can basically go anywhere,” she mused. She had wanted to work at Disney studios at one point, then even Adult Swim but ultimately started her own thing with taking commissions, printing designs on her 3D printer, using her computer and mechanics skills, and selling pieces on Depop. Clearly, she’s a self-starter, a go-getter, if you will. A characteristic you need to build success all from scratch.
 
She’s even into fixing up cars, a love that came from her grandfather’s work as a mechanic. You could call her an engineer—a fitting addition to her growing gifts in life. In high school, other kids had G-wagons, Mustangs, and Hellcats while Sukii’s old Forerunner once stopped in the middle of nowhere. “The universal joint fell out and I just heard a scraping noise on the ground and I got out of the car and looked underneath. A big, long pipe was just skidding across the concrete underneath. Ironically, the next question in the interview was if she’d work on a fixer-upper. She laughed at that. 
Her art has been a grounding force for her throughout her life. In school, although she was an extraordinary student in other subjects, English was her Achilles heel. “I would be so frustrated that I couldn’t speak English like everyone else could. I would spend so many days, so much of my time, just trying to learn. I had so much pent up frustration from that. I was never mad about boys, I was never mad about friends, I was just simply mad about English. I used to go mute a lot and I wouldn’t really talk to people,” she shared. Yasuka kept art gifts often from her family in Japan and over time, her art became her main source of expression to cope with her frustrations.
 
“I’ve always definitely wanted to make novelty items. I guess that’s what kind of artist I am. More novelty rather than traditional. I like things that are bigger than what they’re supposed to be,” she said. “I really just enjoy using my hands, because I truly don’t think I’m the best at using my verbal skills. I didn’t even know that you can have these talents as jobs.” She wasn’t banking on being a famous or rich artist, she just wanted to be happy as her upbringing was the opposite. She cites designer Yoon Ambush and painter Egon Schiele as some of her favorite artists. Yoon’s influences from Japan have inspired Sukii’s artist journey while Schiele’s works make her feel like she’s in his paintings and feel the emotions of the images depicted.
 
Her mother is another artist in her own right that’s been a forever inspiration for Sukii. She noted her parents would jokingly argue about where she gets her creativity from—it’s definitely her mom. Sukii’s words, not mine. “My mom’s always been like that girl.” She’s passed down so much to Sukii from her curiosity about the world to how she carries herself. She fights for what she wants and her strength and outlook on life has impacted the multi-hyphenate in a myriad of ways.
SUKII BABY wears TOP by MELITTA BAUMEISTER, PANTS by BRIGADE, SUNGLASSES by BONNIE CLYDE, SHOES SALOMON XT-WHISPER.
 
 
Even her personal style is influenced by her mother’s. “She literally has rainbow hair right now. Like, that’s crazy!” Eclectic is the word she used to describe her aesthetic. In Japan, she had her teen phases like many of us. We’re talking an emo-scene era. Think zip-up hoodies, heavy black eyeliner, and a beanie with that signature side bang peaking out. She recalls growing into her body earlier than the other girls in school and making clothes from unlikely fabrics due to growing up in a low income household. “I was cool like that. I didn’t really care about people’s opinions because I was so worried about what was going on at home I was just trying to get through my day.” She still wears a lot of her dad’s clothes, though. “My dad had the craziest swag.” His archive includes pieces from Japan in the ‘90s ranging from FUBU to Timberland boots. “Nowadays, he just wears Sketchers,” she said as a giggle escaped. Now, with her eclectic style she’s wearing her pair Salomon XT Whispers with ideas to make them even more her by adding pearl beads. “Accessories on shoes, I think, are so beautiful.”
 
What doesn’t meet the eye is how passionate she is about education and building community. “I’m getting loud overall about women in more fields and I’m definitely screaming, hooting and hollering about art.” She’s hoping to serve her community with multiple charities that make an actual difference from clean water to solar power. “A lot of people aren’t teaching younger generations how to do anything. That’s kind of really what I use streaming for. I use the stream to play games, but we also have real conversations, and I teach them how to do different mediums of art or engineering or just whatever else that they might want to learn that they didn’t know about,” she asserted. “Sometimes I surprise them [the streaming audience], so they don’t get so used to being comfortable, like thinking, ‘Oh, we’re gonna hop on here and play a game.’ No, y’all are gonna learn something today! I’m getting loud about education!”
SUKII BABY wears COAT by SACAI, TOP by OAK & ACORN, SKIRT by SCULPTOR, SUNGLASSES by BONNIE CLYDE, SHOES SALOMON XT-WHISPER.
 
She’s utterly limitless and is making sure the next generation is too. This year and the rest of her future looks like having a solo art exhibition featuring her pieces from cyanotypes to sculptures, launching her brand that will be reminiscent of souvenirs that can be held onto throughout life. “I hope people take souvenirs home that help them with themselves and their future, if that makes sense. And, you know, taking a little piece of me with them, that’s such a blessing to even think about.” She’s also on a quest to be on the Discovery Channel or National Geographic. Teaching is one of her greatest passions, and not just on one particular subject. She just loves teaching people about things that they didn’t know as she had a “bookworm” childhood. Spewing random facts is a hidden talent that keeps getting unveiled.
RIGHT:: SUKII BABY wears TOP by MELITTA BAUMEISTER, PANTS by BRIGADE, SUNGLASSES by BONNIE CLYDE, SHOES SALMON XT-WHISPER. LEFT: SUKII BABY wears TOP by WILLY CHAVARRÍA, JEANS by ACNE STUDIOS, SUNGLASSES by BONNIE CLYDE, SHOE SALOMON XT-WHISPER. 
 
She’s healing her inner child by having the freedom to make and do whatever she wants and taking note from her grandmother’s wise words, “You’ll never know if you don’t try.” That phrase is the definition of courage and boldness to the young artist. “Being courageous definitely means walking through the door of starting or being whatever it is that you’re trying to be.”
Aime Simone takes office through his creative journey, from the streets of Paris to the stages of the music world, with a unique path that weaves through fashion, mental health struggles, and a constant evolution of self.
(HAT Bluemarble, PANTS Mugler, BELTS FROM UP TO DOWN Commission, Racer Worldwide, Acne Studios, GLOVES Puma, BOOTS Ann Demeulemeester)
 
Tell us about yourself.
 
I grew up in Paris. Overall I think I had a hard experience of growing up. I felt a lot of anger and got into a lot of trouble. But I was also very outgoing and curious. I loved motorbikes and gangsters. I spent a lot of time playing in the streets, and during school vacation I stayed with my grandparents and played all day outside in the countryside with my sister and brother and our cousins. It was wild times, really free and messy. Through my parents and the context of Paris I was exposed to a lot of culture, architecture, art exhibits, things like that. I was not particularly interested in those things but I became educated to it. My parents are very critical thinkers, that definitely affected my a viewpoint on the world. Debate and argumentation is a big part of French culture in general. It’s ingrained in me to look for the flaws, to see what can be improved. There are positives and negatives that go along with that. It’s difficult to resume in a few sentences how I have been influenced by my family and environment. This is a big topic that can go in so many directions.
 
You mentioned previously in an interview that you see Berlin as a total universe, with a timeless and cohesive artistic language. Do you still feel this way? Any other cities, Paris for instance?
 
Yes, I think each city has a soul, something particular about it that makes it what it is. Some cities have such a strong identity, artistically it is difficult to not be pulled into their universe. Places evolve over time but a city with a history such as Berlin or Paris is heavy, it can’t be erased so easily. The glory days of Paris are long gone, but you can still find echoes of it. And who knows, maybe it can be brought back to life. Maybe it’s happening now.
 
You said before: “[Pop music] is popular. I hate elitism. A craft that everyone can connect to.” Do you think more experimental or alternative music is elitist? If so, why?
 
I think it can be. Oftentimes it is difficult to differentiate between what is subversive for the sake of subculture (emancipation, community, finding of self), and what is inaccessible for the sake of exclusivity (to create us/them, to exclude, to put oneself up and create a hierarchy). Experimental and alternative music may need a certain amount of education in order to understand it. There’s nothing wrong with that. I think that there is a simplicity with pop music that is very generous, I like that about it.
(RIGHT: TOP Vintage AW 1996 Raf Simons HAT as belt accessory Egon Lab JEANS Acne Studios BELT Racer Worldwide GLOVES Puma BOOTS Ann Demeulemeester)
 
What’s your take on mental illness and the way it’s perceived and treated in the Western world? Have you found a community of people, with whom you can exchange experiences and perspectives on this with?
 
I think that there is still a lot to be discovered about mental illness that we don’t understand yet. I had very extreme mental health problems for over a decade, which I was very lucky to survive. All the clinics and doctors and medications I was prescribed did nothing to help me out of that. It took very intense personal work, and a lot of love, and experimentation to find a way to heal. Today I am very steady, I healed a lot. I’m much stronger.
 
You threw your poetry book at Pete Doherty? What’s the story here?
 
It was during one of my longterm stays at a clinic. I had been listening to his solo album a lot, Grace/Wastelands, and I asked for permission to leave for the evening to be able to go to his show in Paris. I brought a notebook of poems and lyrics I had been writing, and during the show I threw it on stage, and it hit him in the face. He picked it up and started reading to the audience. I felt like I wanted more, it wasn’t enough. So I screamed at him, “give me your guitar!”. I thought it would be amazing to have his guitar to write songs on. But instead, he reached out his hand and pulled me on stage, and then I had his guitar and I was in front of an audience for the first time in my life. I played one of the first songs I had written, and Peter watched from the side of the stage. After that he asked me to wait to go backstage after the show, and there he started to learn the song I had performed, asked me to write the lyrics down for him. But it was getting late, and my permission from the clinic had run out, I had to go back. He was confused that I was leaving so quickly although he had invited me backstage, so I explained that I was in a clinic for anorexia. He looked at me, very touched, and wanted to see me again, asked for my telephone number. So that was the start of a close friendship that lasted quite a while, before he had to leave to rehab. It was very meaningful that he believed in me. He made me promise to never stop making music.
 
You also were working with Hedi Slimane in fashion. What was it like for you to move a bit out of music into another creative industry?
 
Hedi found me through music, he probably knew that I was around Peter (who he was close to in the early 2000s) and that I was making music. He hired me as an exclusive model for Saint Laurent. It was far from what I wanted to be doing, but it was an experience that allowed me to travel and learn about how things work in the fashion industry. It was difficult for me, I was pretty naive and I didn’t understand that friends in the industry are not real friends. I was in very bad mental health at the time, I don’t think I was ready to handle it well.
(RIGHT: TOP & SHORTS, Loewe LONG SLEEVE, ROA SCARF & SHOES, Ann Demeulemeester GLOVES, Puma JEANS, Egon Lab) (LEFT: TOP, PANTS, SCARF & BOOTS, Kiko Kostadinov COAT, Ariuna GLOVES, Sf 1 OG)
 
 
What was it like when you first arrived in Los Angeles?
 
It was surreal. It felt like everything was a movie set. The context was so luxurious, it was very strange. I was in West Hollywood, Fairfax. That’s where Hedi had his Saint Laurent studio. I was deep in my problems, really struggling. I was trying to make music. I was smoking a lot of weed, driving around, eating tacos… living in a kind of glamorous, nightmarish loop. I was feeling really terrible. But I still had some kind of fantasy about LA.
 
What was it like to return to Paris after living in these different cities and things changing in your life along the way?
 
Not comforting. It was time for me to return and to come to terms with where I come from. It was a challenge, I had to find my place there, a city that had never felt very supportive. It took a few years but now I feel like I have my role here, this is where I’m supposed to be right now.
 
What is the music scene like in Paris? I’m fairly involved in fashion, art, design, but music lesser so.
 
I don’t think there is much of a music scene in Paris like there used to be. 10 years ago there was a big scene of live bands, an indie rock revival. Today artists are more isolated. But recently there have been a lot of artists moving to Paris. I do feel like there is something developing here right now.
 
Live music seems to have fallen off in New York for sure in the last maybe 10–15 years. Would you agree? Do you see that in other cities as well?
 
Yeah, I think that’s because of social media and also the cost and complexity of producing live shows. People are entertained on the phone so there is less need to go out, so there is less support for live artists, but long term I think that will change. It’s depressing to be too connected to the internet for too many years. I think people need real life experiences, real connection. And music is one of the most powerful ways to bring people together. It’s a ritual.
 
How do you want to be perceived visually? Your persona, how would you describe it?
 
I don’t want to be perceived in any particular way. I just want to live my lifestyle in a way that feels inspiring. My aesthetic is one thing, I think a lot of people assume things about me that aren’t true because of it. But I’m not gonna change to make it easier for people to understand me. I’m not one dimensional, I got a complex story, my life hasn’t been simple. So that shows in how I present myself, and that’s real. Evil for good. I let people figure out what that means.
 
Your upcoming album REV carries themes of revolution, revenge, and revelation. How do these relate to your personal life?
 
Revolution has always been relevant in my life. I never fit in to what society expected me to be, I’ve always gone against the rules because I had no other choice, I wasn’t meant to follow them. Sometimes I wish I could have, it would have been easier. But it just didn’t work like that for me, it’s like I was put on this earth to disrupt. I can’t avoid being who I am. Revenge is an energy, a powerful source of drive. I do want revenge, I want revenge for all the years I spent suffering, for the time I lost caught into endless cycles of mental and physical pain. I can’t accept that. I want revenge on the people that let me down. I want them to see that I made it, that their lack of belief or animosity didn’t stop me. I know revenge is dangerous, it can turn against me. That is one of the main narratives of REV. Revelation, because there is something bigger, something spiritual, that I can’t deny. It comes through sometimes to remind me, to give the keys, to make it all make sense. Those moments are rare and precious. Sometimes they come to me in dreams, sometimes it’s more conscious.
 
There’s a strong sense of mythology and world-building in REV. How did you craft this world, and what does it represent to you?
 
It represents my life. It’s an allegory for everything, from the city I live in to the industry I am part of, the relationships I have experienced. It’s a way to tell my story. I found that using fiction and allegory allowed me to be more truthful in a way. The world of REV is something that imposed itself, it was impossible to make it anything else. I think artists often have the experience that what they create is coming through them, channeled from somewhere. The world of this album was created like that.
 
The album’s sonic palette is more aggressive than previous works, blending post-punk, electronic, rap, and even witch house influences. What drew you toward this more intense, cinematic sound?
 
REV is an energy, a mindset. You can be rev, and that means that you don’t let anything stop you. The sound of the album needed to reflect that energy, needed to create an immersive world where the listener can enter into the story, become their own protagonist. The sound is intense and cinematic, but it has a range of opposite extremes that create a lot of depth and allow for the softer, soulful moments to shine through even brighter. I think that the aggression in the sound is something that takes getting used to, but once you get accustomed to it, you have learned the language of this world, you will understand what it means to be rev.
All hail la reigning princesa de España— Bb trickz. Not only is Bb back, but she’s back giving us all what we love and desire from her. In her first single release of the year, Not a Pretty Girl, Bb enchants listeners in her Spanglish mashup, a signature flow that the Spanish rapper has infused into her tracks. 
Here we see Belize posted up in her bedroom in a lo-fi self-filmed video on her laptop, an homage to Clairo’s original. It’s no surprise that we all want to be Bb girls. Las más malas, las más chulas, everything that the Spanish it-girl embodies, and she’s not afraid to remind us. And Not a Pretty Girl, is a testament to just that. 
Poppy, and seemingly sweet on the outside, there’s a surprise when you take a bite and taste a bit of spice. Her music is what we’ve all been unknowingly craving. She’s a formidable power disguised as the baddest reinita in today’s music scene. Coming off last year with major features and a debut Coachella performance, Bb’s future is one that is bright and taking the world by storm. This is Bb trickz’s year and she’s only getting started. 
 
Watch the video of her latest single below.
 
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