The Stars Are aligning: Saturn is Rising

“je ne sais quoi” - noun - zhə-nə-ˌsā-ˈkwä 
: something (such as an appealing quality) that cannot be adequately described or expressed
an indefinable, elusive quality, especially a pleasing one
a pleasing quality that cannot be exactly named
However you define it - Saturn has it, the je ne sais quois

PHOTOGRAPHY JHEYDA MCGARRELL @jheydamc 
INTERVIEW Q @quentossential
STYLING DRE ROMERO @apieceofpinkvelvet using only archive designers pieces
HAIR MALCOLM MARQUEZ @malcolm.marquez @opusbeauty 
MAKEUP DARIAN DARLING @moidariandarling@uncommon_artists
THANK YOU THE SHOW MUST GO ON @tsmgofashionrental

How are you doing, baby - how’s music going?

Music is fruitful! There’s a lot of fruit on this tree and I am ready for someone with a bunch of money to come pick it.

You described your last release “Venus Virgo Expansion Pack” as the Green Era - what color are we getting with the next release?

Mmmm. I would say this is still Green Era - but more of a Femme Fatale Edition. 

A lot of Femme Fatales are blonde - this is more of a hair color thing than it is a race thing - so I think I will be incorporating the blonde femme energy in this era, though it will remain green in certain capacities.

Your first fully-in-charge project was orange. Has color theory always been part of your process?

Since I was  kid I would always ask myself - what is my color this year? It was always baby blue or green. My sister’s color was orange and I hated it growing up, but I wrote a song called orange, so I had to listen to the universe. I think color is really important, they say it is the best way of branding; establishing a brand color. I have to say, more than people know my song names, they always bring up the color green with me now.

  • Saturn wear a dress by Y/Project and boots by Pleaser from The Show Must Go On
  • Saturn wears a top by 1x Blue, skirt by Marithé + François Girbaud, a vintage faux fur stole and boots by Pleaser, all from The Show Must Go On
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You’ve elevated the color green for me too, I’m now into shades of green that I was historically not attracted to… So on this album, you're elevating the Femme Fatale. On the subject of characters; you’ve shared with me that acting is the only artform you’re formally trained in. How has the art of embodying a character translated into your music?

I haven’t really thought of it in this way before, but for this next era I actually am animating a full character, it has a name and everything. Her name is Dunning - I’ll give you the last name later ! 

Every pop star animates a character and becomes something else: marketing teams tell them “this character looks best on you, you should look like this!” I’ve always known that, watching every after-school special about pop stars, so I know how that goes and have always applied that to myself. 

But my characters are really just grander extensions of myself: I employed orange which embodies rage, which leads to healing. Green is an abundance and heart chakra, so with the last album, “Venus Virgo…” I think I was opening up my heart chakra - this time I’m welcoming abundance, money, men, success and all things fruitful to lure my world’s survival. 

What are the key tenants of the character “Dunning”?

Dunning is actually an actress. I would say she is aware of any game that can be played on her, she’s faster than all the boys. She is warmer, or perhaps more openhearted than I’ve ever been and she’s ready for love in a certain way, even though she knows that most boys play games. She’s fighting to get through all the madness so she can have her happily ever after. 

What if Cinderella was a femme fatale? Instead of fighting with her stepmother and stepsisters, she’s going through all the trials and tribulations of dating that most girls go through.

It sounds to me like Dunning is almost like the empress in tarot?

Mhmmm.

Would this persona inform your songwriting or have songs been brewing and you’re now translating them to fit her?

I’m always open to my creative process and listening to what it wants to be. I write all my songs from personal stories - I don’t write the character into it. 

Dunning is actually based on a cognitive disorder called the Dunning-Kruger effect, which is the effect of feeling more competent than you are and how you can go further than you may have gone, if you were actually competent. So I’m employing that energy with love, because I don’t know shit about it, you know, other than what I want from it. I’m just pretending that it’s all good and all of the songs are based on the situations that led me to this energy. Every guy that’s fucked me over in this last year - and there have been five - each song is about one of them.

Gotcha, so you follow your impulses with writing. Do you also have a process where you sit down and decide, “today I’m gonna write about so-and-so”? Or is more of a when-the-muses-speak-you follow situation?

Yeah, that’s it. I have a song on the project called “Shed my Skin” that came about when I was in the studio with my collaborator Caleb Stone. I heard the beat, a lyric came to me and it dawned on me that this song was about a guy that I just left at like 7am. This session was at 11am btw. It just flowed out and I realized I’m starting to tell direct stories about these guys and what we've gone through. Each song is so specific to each person.

When you’re in the moment of writing, do you feel like the song writes itself or are you being very deliberate about your language or your vocal pattern?

It’s a stream of consciousness that all breaks down later. I’ll do a mumble take and I’ll try to piece together what I am trying to say. Initially it's very off-the-cuff and how I’m feeling, listening to the muses. When I hear the recording back I will hear more clearly what I’m saying and make it a lyric. 

It’s not so much about changing it to make the story better, but I will say that I have brought in writers for some of the songs to help me finish and they have suggested good ways to illustrate things for the listener. I’m very much about how I feel, but they bring out telling where I am, what’s happening in the room I’m in.

Saturn wears a bodysuit by Y/Project from The Show Must Go On
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My feelings are so deep and present that if it matches what I’ve been through, I go with it. For example, someone suggested a lyric that was silly to me: “I got you dancing on your knees” which I thought was neither comfortable or possible, so I didn’t use it.

    When you’re collaborating in a moment like that, how do you discern where your decision is actually gonna be? In terms of having them influence you, making sure that it’s authentic but also making sure that their expertise is being heard and that they’re imbuing the song with what they have to offer?  

    My feelings are so deep and present that if it matches what I’ve been through, I go with it. For example, someone suggested a lyric that was silly to me: “I got you dancing on your knees” which I thought was neither comfortable or possible, so I didn’t use it. 

    Do you experience writer's block? 

    Only if I’m actively trying to write, but I’ve learned to only create songs when I’m feeling a way. I’ve never written a song just because I wanted to write one that day, I’ve always written them because I didn’t cry about a guy or because I needed to express something. It comes to you when you have that feeling to write from, versus wanting to write a song at a time you’re not present or haven’t gone through something yet.

    When the lyrical content is already decided, do you consider the current trends in music in the instrumentation or do you follow your authentic point of view? How do you balance out the influence of the cultural consciousness versus the music you want to make for yourself?

    In the words of Whitney: “The clubs are happening”, you know? That’s where I go to get my stuff off and where I hear the beats and sounds. I pull from there because that’s where I’m at, so it never feels like I’m being trendy, it just feels like I’m reflecting the life that I’m a part of. The clubs are always ahead anyway, I’m never listening to the radio and taking it from there. I also like to combine ambient music with club sounds and finding a middle ground between the two.

    On the days you’re recording, do you listen to a lot of music or do you shut everything off - how is your relationship with hearing things outside of you when you’re creating something for yourself?

    I will say, my producer once asked me what song we were inspired by that day and I just replied “not one damn thing - I want you to start from scratch” The time before that I came in with a clear reference, so it really just depends. The first single is a song that I produced from my mind. I was at home stoned, heard this beat in my head and just opened up my voice notes - I heard the sample, I heard it all. The lyrical content was harder to find because the beat and the sound of the song was more important to me

    What is your relationship with being open to how a song can change from its inception in your head versus being firm about how close it stays to the original idea?

    I don’t care about that anymore. I used to stand in the way of everything because it had to match exactly what I thought - but I know it’s not mine anymore and I’m grateful to have it, so I just shut up. I just shut my ass up and eat my food.

    We’ve been hearing for 5000 years how fucked up the music industry is and how unsustainable it is to be an independent artist. How do you cope with any concerns you may have personally, living sustainably as an independent artist while still honoring yourself and your artistry?

    I try to charge a lot when I can. You know? And I try to be cheap also, I try not to have expensive needs or tastes. Longterm, I’m not sure, none of us know. I’m hearing they are trying to unionize the music industry - that would be great. I think there’s a lot of money in the art world, if you know how to sell it to them?

    • Saturn wears a top by 1x Blue, skirt by Marithé + François Girbaud, a vintage faux fur stole and boots by Pleaser, all from The Show Must Go On
    • Saturn wear a dress by Y/Project and boots by Pleaser from The Show Must Go On
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    My experience of you is of someone who has a really strong sense of faith. In the days where shit is getting really tiring, how do you practically implement that? What could you suggest to artists who are struggling to cope with how to maintain relevance within the industry?

    Trusting your intuition is the biggest thing I have learned. My intuition has always told me that the universe is on my side for this. I’ve tried a bunch of things to maintain safety that were outside of art and the universe has taken that away from me so that I can focus solely on this career. 

    In times where I thought I didn’t have anything - what am I going to do? - the craziest situations have come to me. Like, I made 20k on instagram in June 2020, just from talking and that was right when I had spent my last roll of 100s. It happened just like that and while I imagine those things are far and few between, I just know my story keeps telling me that I’m meant to do it. I have to have faith that it’s not to take me high and drop me low, it’s meant to sustain me. That’s what it’s about for me; it’s not about attention or thinking I am fabulous. In life, we’re meant to sustain ourselves and this is what I like to do, I have to trust that those things are gonna come together. 

    Do you have concerns for AI ?

    Honestly right now, I’m on the side of the industry where I think AI could be beneficial.. She can help with videos, she can help finish writing a song… I haven’t done that yet because I get off on being creative, but I could..

    So you would work with AI?

    On the film side, yes, not for music. I think music comes from God, from a person - you just can’t replicate what a person can do with music.

    Dream collaborators in and/or outside of music?

    Lucas Films would be great, I’d love to do something over there. I know Anne Rice’s estate is doing a lot of things now and I would love to get into Anne Rice’s world over on AMC. 

    Music wise I really like the underground, so I really don’t know, but a lot of my friends who are DJs are fab, Makadsi is great… Azalea said Lizzo should be working with windchimes, that’s what I would do. I’m into whatever Azalea says I should do, so somebody ask her.

    You’re curating a dinner. What 5 artists in music or otherwise are you going to dinner with ?

    - Nadia Lee Cohen

    - The ghost of Michael Jackson…

    Just the ghost, not the full animated body?

    If they can bring him back, yeah… And I want him in the way that he left here.

    You would also have to be there…

    Thank you

    Yachts 

    Britney Spears 

    Whitney 

    And Prince. Oh, I want Madonna there! Or, I want her to come to the afterparty.

    Because you’re so tuned in; are there any artists that people don’t know about that you think they should know?

    An only child, Caleb Stone… You know, the last time I answered this question, the person I was being nice to ended up being really mean to me, so I’m trying to pick people I love. Seven 0000, Evro and ByHaze

    Whenever I am asked this question, I am humiliated, so I don’t want you to answer this the typical way - but: Describe your music, but via a television show or movies…

    Any movie that Atticus Rose and Trent Reznor have done the soundtrack for, as well as the movie Thirteen, Interview with a Vampire, Spiceworld… 

    Let me think of something sexy gay and queer - oh, Vicky Christina Barcelona!

    Is there anything you want to share with the readers?

    Stretch and believe in yourself. When you feel like a man is crazy and lying to you, he is. 

    You can either leave at that moment or stay and have a fun game of I-know-but-you-don’t-know-that-I-know-so-I’m-gonna-play-YOU - that’s always good to know about life

    When the new album releases, what do you hope will come through for this new era?

    Calling in abundance, prosperity, clarity, love, success and just a normal fucking life. 

    Well, I don’t think you’re gonna have a normal life, darling?

    Normal meaning honesty and people being nice to me. I’m so sick of men being afraid of me or whatever their fucking issues are. With this album, I’m expelling that, to let in great things and shouting out every fucked up guy of the last year and a half. 

    What kind of man do you want - should we just put that out there ?

    Genuinely confident. Not confident because of anything but someone who naturally has a sense of confidence that is unexplainable. 

    Incredibly ambitious and uniquely ambitious, not something obvious, but an entrepreneurial spirit - not because of the success that comes with that, but because of what it does to your soul. 

    I have a lot of it and I don’t want someone to feel jealous of how much ambition I have and what I am willing to do to achieve it. 

    I wanna be inspired by someone else. A really passionate lover, not someone who will go wherever the wind takes them - or blow whoever the wind takes them to. I want someone with standards, because I want to know that you’ve realized that you’ve achieved a real high level of bitch.

    I want to be appreciated because there’s a lot of goodness over here. And to top it off, someone who is God Fearing.

    Amen. Love you !

    I love you more !

    @SATURNRISIN9