Welcome to the p1nkstar Futurity: Meet Your New Favorite Electr0nic Popstar
Some people are born famous, and p1nkstar—a pop princess—is proof. In a perfect, glittery space-desert future, p1nkstar would be performing à la Tiffany at a mall show, but that mall would also be a club with mirrors and faux-fur pillows everywhere, a photo booth with airbrushed clouds, and all your friends being hot and having fun.
Over the course of our interview, transcribed below, p1nkstar made a great point: “If you know, you know.”
When I came across p1nkstar’s Instagram, after hearing tales of her fame whispered about Austin, I simply knew she is what she proclaims to be: “ur fave electr0nic superstar.” From her virtual bubblegum look to her highly polished EP, the pop star seems to have emerged fully formed from your early-aughts computer screen to bless us with the upbeat, real/fake music we didn’t know we craved, deep in our operating systems. Fame is her genre, pink is her superpower, and pop is the language she uses to let us all know. Meet p1nkstar. — Taylor
Kelsey: What is your quarantine lifestyle like right now? How are you staying glamorous while sort of being trapped inside?
p1nkstar: It took a few days to settle into this new lifestyle. I had a bunch of shows planned, and they’re not happening. Now, I’m like, what can I do now? I guess I’ve been sitting in front of my computer a lot trying to work on things. I’m also really obsessed with acrylic nails. I didn’t get nails until a year ago, and I’ve had them since, and I religiously go and get them done. Now that I can’t do it, I ordered this kit and I’m learning how to do nails, so that’s the most glamorous thing I’ve done so far.
Taylor: I’m on your Twitter and saw a tweet: “I’m about to go get really good at doing nails.” I saw on your Instagram, with SXSW being canceled, you’re talking about these events you weren’t going to get to do like a big album release and a fruition of all these things. How are you dealing with that?
p1nkstar: I guess what I want to work on is planning a tour. I feel like it was working around SXSW and that schedule and the spring festival schedule, so it all got canceled. Now, I’m like, OK, let’s go, what’s next? I guess post-SXSW I was gonna work on music videos and stuff. I’m still gonna make my music videos.
Taylor: You did the virtual kiki, I’ve seen that you’ve been doing these Instagram Lives and stuff like that. Has it been easy to continue to perform and get your music out there virtually?
p1nkstar: I haven’t really performed yet, but I’ve been organizing things for other people to perform. I do want to do a live show and live-stream it soon, but I haven’t yet. I feel like a lot of my online presence is very much about me being an online person, so I wanted to capture that and put it in a performance that’s specifically made to be live-streamed.
Kelsey: I was curious to know, what’s the story of p1nkstar? Where did she come from?
p1nkstar: Oh god. There’s an unofficial backstory, and there’s an official backstory. But I mean, she just kind of emerged and exists and has always been famous.
Kelsey: I love that.
p1nkstar: p1nkstar uploaded a video that made her automatically famous, and she’s just been living that lifestyle since. It’s been really strange because a lot of people don’t know who she is, but they just go with it. I feel like the world just kind of goes with it. It’s like Very Famous, I feel like if you know, you know.
Kelsey: That is exactly it. Some people are famous from the very beginning. Then, the rest of the world catches up.
p1nkstar: Yeah, I think that’s how it’s been for me the entire time. I was just always famous, and this whole thing started, and it’s strange because now people see me as famous all the time. Now people have caught up, and they’re like, “Oh my god” when they see me out.
Kelsey: That’s a great feeling! Of course, your EP came out recently, and I think “Number 1 Hits!” is such a great title, it’s perfect.
p1nkstar: I came up with that when we were making the music. We had a tentative title called “Electro Dreams”, and that was the original title. Then, when we were actually all together to make the music—we had a producing-slash-writing retreat. It just happened very organically that we were just like, we’re making hits. We were making hits, and then we’re like number-one hits only.
Kelsey: I mean, they are all hits. I’ve been listening to these on the beach, and they’re just such bangers.
p1nkstar: Originally, “Electro Dreams” was gonna be the whole idea. It was me exploring different types of pop music. Each song was going to be like a dream, and I feel like, in retrospect, that sort of feeling came through even though we changed the direction through the process.
Taylor: Yes, it’s music to, like Kelsey said, run on the beach or sit in your silk loungewear at home, or get up and dance, and you know, be famous.
Kelsey: What inspired this particular collection of songs?
p1nkstar: It’s 2000s trance-pop, the first track, it felt like an introduction. I feel like all the music is different, each song has a specific era or theme in pop. For a while, before I was making pop music, I was into conceptual art stuff, and pop was—not a guilty pleasure—but it was always there in my life. It’s just all the things that I really like about pop.
Kelsey: Totally. I think that leads into a good question, how do the elements of pop music help you tell your story and make art?
p1nkstar: I love pop because it’s both very real and very fake, and very glamorous, very of the time. There’s “Connected” on the EP, and it’s a ballad. It’s really sincere, but it’s also really processed, artificial—it’s also talking about digital love and artificial intelligence and love. That’s what I love about pop. There’s this group who was on My Super Sweet 16 called 2Girlz. They were big in Japan, and they had a Super Sweet 16 episode here in the U.S. and they’re from LA. They have this song called “Fallin’ Angel” and the autotune is so amazing. It’s just two blonde, white 14-year-old girls, and it has this really fun music video that’s like five music videos put into one song. It’s all-encompassing, and it’s all glamorous and it’s all beautiful.
Taylor: I love how you described it as really real and really fake. I feel like that’s the virtual realm you’re talking about. I wanted to ask about your look, your aesthetic. Have you always had this pink, bubblegum type of look, and what kinds of influences led you in that direction?
p1nkstar: I’ve always had that look, and I also feel like it’s shifting with this album. It’s maybe getting more serious and more—it’s always been intentional—but just more forward. More towards a future. It’s always been very bubblegum, very pop, and intentionally clashing things together.
Taylor: You mentioned more forward and future. I feel like it’s also got this virtual aesthetic, like the first video I sent Kelsey, the ‘90s video you did where you were changing clothes over and over again. It was like a video game, which was so cool. Are you always incorporating that virtualness into your look?
p1nkstar: It’s stuff I’ve always been into, but now it seems like it’s more intentionally being placed at the front, especially the song. This music is just so forward-thinking and beautiful and pristine, which is something I hadn’t been able to achieve before.
Kelsey: Totally. It feels like it’s crystallizing, in a way. These things are coming together for you in this really clear way. Something that I’m trying to do with Very Famous is this blending of past, new-millennium aesthetics with a future-oriented mindset. How do you find yourself striking that balance of maybe aesthetic inspiration from the past, and blending that past and future?
p1nkstar: It’s complicated because I think it’s always changing for me. I’m in love with new-millenium aesthetics, but for me, it’s also seeing that and seeing how it translates or where it lacks. Filling in the gaps, lack of representation or lack of anything, and putting what was missing then in a way that makes sense now.
Taylor: Like lack of representation for your identity in the early aughts?
p1nkstar: Yeah, either representation identity-wise or just, like, who was at the front, who wasn’t there? Also, what aesthetics weren’t being celebrated then?
Kelsey: It seems like this alternate reality, this sort-of dream of what things could be with those sorts of aesthetics but more present-day and inclusive.
p1nkstar: It’s also like, how do we point towards that? The what-could-be and the what-should-be, and the future we envision. For me, one of the guiding themes is always thinking about futurities and queer futurities, and what that means, and how you make utopias, almost. Very Famous is kind of like that, a utopia in a way.
Kelsey: Oh, thank you! That’s what we’re going for—I’m trying to create a place on the internet that just feels like what we hoped the internet would be, this fun escape. Not always just fun, but this excited, future kind of thing.
Taylor: Yeah, it sounds like with both, it’s world-building. You’re creating this world that’s queer, future-space, and Very Famous is trying to do that too. Is that how you would describe it, world-building almost?
p1nkstar: Yeah, it’s just fun, it’s interesting. I’m not always thinking about world-building, but I do think that people use that to describe what I do. It’s just fun, and it’s real.
Taylor: I mean, also literally creating spaces, too, like you’re talking about with the virtual realm for different entertainers. I know you’ve hosted different things to also create space in the actual real world.
p1nkstar: I think that’s the most important part, at least for me. It’s always why I got in trouble when I was in the art world because there’s no performance, it’s all real. That’s really important for me that these things exist and solidify, and are tangible and present and interacting in the real world. I mean it’s all real.
Kelsey: I was thinking, being located in Austin, Austin has this stereotype—also based in reality—of being a pretty straight, white city. I know you’ve played a big part in shifting that image and the people you collaborate with. What’s that journey been like in terms of creating new sorts of spaces in the city?
p1nkstar: I think I just kind of ended up here, but I’m really grateful. A year into moving here, I didn’t know why I was here, and it all makes sense now. I feel like I never put on people that are not doing stuff that I really, really like. It’s always been fun for me to make these spaces because it’s what I always wanted. We just started throwing parties and having fun, and putting on artists that we really like and vibe with.
It’s been a wholesome journey. I guess what I’m trying to say is, it’s always play and it’s always fun. It’s never super-intentional, in a way, not that it’s not, but we’re never doing a social-justice argument for it, we’re just trying to have fun and throw a good party.
Taylor: You’re just doing you!
Kelsey: I love that. That’s exactly it, I think the things that happen out of fun and play and just naturally unfold, those are some of my favorite things.
p1nkstar: Yeah, and that difference in language I think is important. We’re not trying to solve this issue; we’re making something fun, it’s like another reality. Another solution or escape.
Taylor: A utopia, like you said. It seems like people are responding to it. You’re already famous, but people are starting to realize that you’re famous. It sounds like even though you’re just having fun, people are having fun with you and responding to what you’re doing.
p1nkstar: I love that, I think so too.
Kelsey: It’s always been my feeling that if you have fun, people will eventually notice. It might be in a slow trickle in my case.
Taylor: People want to join the party.
p1nkstar: People want to be part of it, everyone just wants to have fun.
Kelsey: Oh man, that is truly all I want in life. I think fun can also take on all these different meanings and feelings. I was curious to know your relationship with the color pink? Is that a lifelong love affair?
p1nkstar: There are layers to why I like pink (laughs) I’m trying to remember when it all started, it’s been so long. p1nkstar the name references not only a queer-future pop person, but also it’s a diamond. The biggest pink diamond in the world is called “pink star”, and also pinkstar is a code word for an asshole.
Beyond that, the color pink is beautiful. There are different shades of pink that mean different things. Hot pink is very 2000s-glam, like plastic, cheap glam, and I love that. I feel like I’ve traveled through different shades of pink, and I’m now in a more purple, pastel-purple, blue and pink. I have so many feelings about pink!
Kelsey: Oh, I get it!
p1nkstar: It’s glamorous, it’s feminine, I feel like some people are told not to go to pink.
Kelsey: It’s definitely a color people have strong feelings about. It’s happy and fun, it’s also a confrontational color in its own sort of way. Pink is a decision.
p1nkstar: A lifestyle! It’s always fun to see who’s also obsessed with pink ‘cause they’re usually really interesting people.
Kelsey: Totally, I don’t know if there’s a boring person who’s into hot pink. I mean, maybe, I don’t know. I know we’re in a strange limbo situation right now, but what are some dreams you have for the future you can share?
p1nkstar: Definitely music videos, that’s my next step. I also just want to travel. I want to travel, and I want to do shows everywhere and meet people everywhere. I’m looking forward to doing things that aren’t where I live necessarily.
Taylor: I can’t wait to see what kind of music videos come out of this EP.
p1nkstar: I’m really excited, I have a lot of ideas. I love making music, but I feel like the visual and image aspect of it is where I get really, really, really excited.
Kelsey: What are three things that make you feel famous?
p1nkstar: I think acrylic nails, faux fur, and hot pink, for sure.
Taylor: Yes! I’m definitely on the nail train. I feel like hot pink, fake fur, and acrylic nails is the perfect place to end.
“Webcam Toy Queen”: An exhibition by p1nkstar exclusively for Very Famous!
