INTERVIEW: Rhyme So talk 'Fashion Blogger', social media and ice skating: "It feels like there is less importance on listening to our soul and more on asking Siri or Google"
Australian-Japanese future pop duo RHYME SO recently released their addictive, highly unique second single ‘Fashion Blogger’ in March and followed it up with a Soft Rave remix this month. Comprised of Australian singer-songwriter, DJ, model and poet RHYME, and Japanese producer Shinichi Osawa, RHYME SO formed in Japan in 2017 and released their debut single ‘Just Used Music Again’ in 2019.
RHYME SO’s music is sparse electro with heavy doses of techno and avant-garde. ‘Fashion Blogger’ is probably one of the most individual and exceptional songs you will hear this year with a structure and sound like nothing else around at the moment. A effortlessly cool take down of our addiction to social media, RHYME’s charismatically talk-sings the entire song, with squelching and insistent electro beats the backdrop, wryly adopting the persona of a social media addict while gently poking fun at the pretentiousness of it all. ‘I am a fashion blogger too,’ says RHYME to which you can almost hear the raised eyebrow in the response ‘Really?’
“Our main point in ‘Fashion Blogger’ is to share a widely talked about commentary but make it, you know, fun,” RHYME said. “It’s a way to urge people to take themselves less seriously and get off the excess, unnecessary social media that may harm mental health. RHYME SO sounds like ‘I’m So’, so in the age of ‘I’ we want to play with the theme. We also want to shine a light on consumerism’s ‘one buy’ - one use clothing and spread awareness of sustainable fashion.”
In line with the beautifully created song, ‘Fashion Blogger’ comes with an equally impressive music video, featuring drag queen MILK, star of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Filmed in Tokyo, it sees RHYME and MILK, both former ice skaters, perform at the fictional IAFB Grand Prix 2020. It is mesmerising to watch and does what every good music video should - enhance the music and make you feel as if you are watching a short film.
Women In Pop recently spoke with RHYME to find out more about RHYME SO, ‘Fashion Blogger’ and shooting the video.
Hi RHYME! Thanks for taking the time to chat. How is everything with you in these very strange times?!
Hey WIP! Thank you for having me. Alas I hope everyone is coping with this major shift. Indeed, luckily at this time I am also very strange.
To start with, can we take it all the way back to the beginning – what are your first memories of music?
Bright and early, probably late afternoon. My father had me on stage as a baby in a Simba kind of moment. After all I was the first baby from [Australian band] The Screaming Jets. Once I could work out how to use my body my fondest memory was making and arranging music on the home computer when I was five, six years old. I made an album called Spooky House and funnily enough my mum found the CD late last year and sent it to me, actually it was horror-esque avant-garde and mature for what I was expecting. So I'm going to put it on Bandcamp for Halloween this year. Sending you a copy.
You used to be a professional ice skater – was this the main creative outlet for you when you were growing up?
It was a mix between performance and technical studies. Before Ice-skating I took up saxophone -thank you Lisa Simpson - and spent more time with that horn than the ice. It was only once I could work full weekends during high school and getting my car at 16 that I could skate twice a day and afford too. The first four years of skating (12-15) was limited.
How did the switch to music happen, was it always something you wanted to pursue?
I knew after graduating high school I couldn't keep skating because of finances and I didn't have the skill level to get where I really wanted, I also gave up getting a Higher School Certificate (HSC) to skate so university was not an option, but I did learn how to perform and how to discipline myself. The space between jumps and intense holding in spins is like the delicate silences in music and major spinning build ups in sonics. I moved to Sydney at 18 and got into events and learnt being a good crowd member. Then DJ-ing rock’n’roll at Frankie’s Pizza became my way. I had some really great teachers and experimented my own way. I will never stop learning though and still have a long way to go. Like figure skating, falling down just means another session to land it, I'm really hard on myself, but the good players always are. It's a destruction course, but this is always what I've been pursuing.
How did RHYME SO come about?
I used to listen and play Shinichi Osawa’s The Works and was obsessed with his sound. I was in Tokyo on an interim trip before moving to America, as I had finally secured a US visa to take the leap into unknown. And unknown I got, at that time in a dark tatami party I began talking to this mysterious man in the dim lights and my good friend introduced us by name. I nearly fainted, I was very surprised I was talking to Shinichi Osawa. Quickly things changed, I became his 弟子 (disciple) learning everything and bringing what I could. I ended up staying in Japan... 3 years! I felt like the Alchemist, I saw a good omen. Japan opened up the east horizon for me. RHYME + Shinichi Osawa (SO) began because we kept making conceptual sonics together. This concept is based off the rhyming sound (I'M SO) And I'm so coming about to my personal legend closer and closer.
Your latest single as part of RHYME SO ‘Fashion Blogger’ is just amazing and so addictive. Can you tell us a little bit about the inspiration behind the track?
I'm really happy you like this song, it was a looong and incredibly challenging process.
It started off a tongue and cheek track, to talk about the career of 'Fashion Blogging' and for that matter the term of 'Influencer'. It seemed at the time so many people were 'influencers' but I just couldn't understand it, I thought we all influence each other, not selected people with high number based following counts. So we wrote ‘Fashion Blogger’ three years ago and it kept getting rejected and or random feedback. We almost gave up on it. But it kept bugging us, like a million times, like all these phone notifications stealing our looks. Then the miracle happened, a lot of people love the song and concept and we got a lot of relatable feedbacks.
‘Fashion Blogger’ is inspired by a materialistic subject but also the highly innovative thought out fashion and the conceptualists within it.
I really love the crisp, spoken word delivery of the track. Was it a conscious decision to keep the track fully spoken word or did that emerge organically in the studio?
I read somewhere that said singing is a form of healing and expression for and from the soul and speaking/talking is healing expressing the contents of the mind. For 'Fashion Blogger' we were guided by source and went with what it demanded. This song needed to be recorded initially as spoken because it was representing the algorithm, a scientific formula like streaming/like/trending data that deemed what was 'popular' that was then deemed 'tastemaking'. The soul knows what it knows and influences us the way it wants to be sung to. The algorithm computer speaks/tells us what to listen to or 'like' on the Facebook or Instagram home page. Now it feels like there is less importance on listening to our instincts (our soul) and more on asking Siri or Google. What guides us to 'like' is the number mind talking, it doesn't have a soul, it is run by an accumulative number of different voices. A voice that does not sing. Spoken word, which luckily is my speciality, highlights this theme perfectly and hence we kept the demo recording to the end.
The song obviously speaks to our obsession with social media. What are your thoughts, or tips, on how we should all use social media more responsibly and healthier?
That's a really good question. I don't know. I'm still trying to work it out for myself. Artists, writers and scientists are alike in some sense, figuring out ways to solve life's questions. We are programmed to believe something. But that's our choice.
For a few years I would sleep with the phone as far away from my head as I can put it and I DON'T touch it for at least an hour after I wake up everyday. I try to turn it off as much as I can, it is becoming difficult. I'd love to read some comments in this interview with what you/other people do to use social media and phones more responsibly and healthier. PLEASE COMMENT.
The video is mesmerising, can you tell us a bit about making it and how working with MILK come about?
OH MY GOD, right. When we saw the edit we were like ‘what have we created?’ It was like a childhood fantasy come alive.
Our A&R had the idea to use my 'secret weapon' of ice skating to come into my debut. (I always talk about doing a music tour/show on ice) So when MILK agreed to be apart of it, we went ice ham. Like Blades of Glory 2... finding a sense of humour but keeping full homage to the sport. It is also very special because MILK wore white ice skates and it was the first time I saw a beautiful man wear white skates. So to switch the role into two women skating together was something. MILK is an amazing skater and had many experience of pair skating, it was my first time doing pairs. I returned to Australia to train with my Ice Dance coach but focusing on steps and pair movements. Then luckily got to go to NYC and train with MILK there to make a routine. It was fun, seriously, we felt like kids playing on the ice. MILK taught me a lot of performance edges and cadences to put on a show. As a fan of her work and Drag Race, it was a very lovable special experience. Drag Queens are the ultimate stage performers. The IAFB Grand Prix was a competition to reveal the 'competition'.
There has been so much talk and debate on gender equality in the wake of #metoo. What are your thoughts on sexism and gender equality in the music industry?
Well said, and as many have, I have experienced things that are irreversible in my life story. I respect the people who are making awareness and doing what gives them the sense of remedy. I don't like to focus on labels or the past too much. There is definitely a lack of female music producers in the industry, I think this is changing and I want to be a part of it. Me thinking about #otherstoo.
Check out what FLAVIA is doing, she is a great musician and writer and also has a lot of good perspectives on this topic and transgender consciousness.
What tips and advice do you have for coping in this strange and sometimes scary world of quarantine and self-isolation?
Do things that make you connect with your inner child. Games and art intake are good. I've been playing Animal Crossing and making music I would of liked to listen to when I was 17.
What else can we expect from RHYME SO in 2020?
A full catalogue release as well as a house is being built.
‘Fashion Blogger’ is out now via Central Station Records. You can download it on iTunes and stream on Apple Music and Spotify
To keep up with all things RHYME SO, you can follow them on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
