iKeda: Those dresses ended up being a flop. My thing before music was doing fashion design, painting, and airbrushing. I didn’t know anything about producing clothes. I got a credit card and spent like a thousand pounds getting this massive roll of fabric made, and figured if I sell like 25 of these dresses I’ll make it all back. But then the only person that wanted one was PinkPantheress.
What kind of art were you practicing at Central Saint Martins?
My whole life art has been my thing. When I was young I used to draw manga—not the classic ones like Naruto, but the really cute, girly ones: Shugo Chara!, Lucky Star, Hello Kitty. I used to be so obsessed with the Hello Kitty cartoons. Then, I applied to CSM, but I didn’t really think I would get in because it’s hard to get into and I hadn’t really found my style yet. But I really connected with the interviewer. I was mostly just doing a lot of painting. But I was holding myself back. I can be one of those people who just sticks with the thing they’re really good at and that keeps you from developing at other stuff.
Did you feel you were stuck in a box of your own making? Did you meet people at school who shook that up?
Definitely. My specific course really sucked, I’m not gonna’ lie. It was broken up into 2D, 3D, XD, and 4D, but I should have been in XD instead of 2D because that’s where everyone was doing, like, performance art and sculpture. I thought that was where I belonged. The people in my course were really boring. It was fine art. I had a couple of friends that were really cool, though, like this one girl from a really rich Chinese family who would take me out to dinner and buy bottles of wine from the 1920s or whatever. I made friends in the fashion course, mainly the ones who were studying women’s wear.
How did you express your interest in music then? Blogs? Parties? Talking to friends?
Mainly Tumblr. You could pick a song to go with your page.
What did you pick?
A lot of Azealia Banks. Lana Del Rey. M.I.A. I used to be obsessed with Metronomy. But those girls were my mains when I was like 16. With Azealia and Lana I really liked the unreleased stuff. I don’t want to be that annoying person, but I am that kind of person. Like Azealia had this Strokes cover that was called “Barely Legal,” it was so good. Then, Lana had this one called “Take Me To Paris” that keeps getting ripped off the internet and it’s really sad because that’s one of my favorite songs by them.
What did posting songs on Tumblr turn into?
From there, I started making mixes to go on my Tumblr, and then, my SoundCloud. I just made them on Rekordbox, and didn’t have any CDJs, but would just use my computer to turn down one track and turn up another. Completely focused for like 30 minutes, because if I touched anything it was over. Then, in my last year of Uni, I started DJing at pubs and queer events in London.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
