RB Exclusive Interview: WHIPPED CREAM & NOSTALGIX Discuss Branding, Previous Careers, and Aesthetics (Part 3)

WHIPPED CREAM, your bio says that you were a competitive ice skater before making music full-time. Can you elaborate on this chapter of your life and your transition into full-time production? 

WHIPPED CREAM: “I grew up an ice skater. I hardly went to high school. I was like, waking up at 05:00 a.m. to go skate before school, go to school late, leave school early, go skate for 3 hours, gym. That was my whole life. And then one day I went to the ice. I had these shitty little boots on because my parents didn’t have that much money. I was working like, part time jobs to pay for my skating. And I went and I was practicing triple toe loops. And then I just, like, because my boot was so shitty, it, like, kind of broke on me. And I broke my ankle pretty bad. And the next day, like, woke up, hospital had surgery. They put a plate, six pins in my ankle. And they’re like, yeah, you might not walk normally ever again, never mind skate. I was told the worst thing possible. Like, literally, the worst thing possible.”

After the skating incident, “there was no plan B” for WHIPPED CREAM and she decided to “work full time, save money, travel and be a free spirit” WHIPPED CREAM also discussed taking vacation time to attend the Sasquatch Music Festival with a friend. This festival occurred at The Gorge in Washington State. It was there that she became fascinated with the music of Active Child when seeing him perform on “a rickety old stage.” Active Child blends electronic music with choir elements and harp effects. His influence on WHIPPED CREAM’s music can be seen in spades. This event and set “changed her life” and was “like a calling from God.” Setting her future trajectory as an artist into motion. “This is what I need to do. I need to go make music.. I’m moving back home. I called my parents and I’m like, I’m living in your basement.” Learning the art of music production through YouTube videos became her main goal. She “broke up with her boyfriend and didn’t talk to anyone” during this period of time. Her hard work paid off about two years later, with “a couple of her songs going viral on SoundCloud,” in addition to securing a festival slot at Shambhala. She attributes her determination as an artist to the same passion and fire that she had for skating from such an early age.

Did you create “So Thick” exclusively for the film Birds of Prey, or was it picked up by the film after you wrote it? 

WHIPPED CREAM: “I made it like a year before and had a meeting with Craig Kalman and some other higher-ups at Atlantic Records. I played them all this cinematic music and they said it was cool, but they didn’t want to put it in the movie. A couple weeks later I had a call with my A and R at the time. She goes, I played “So Thick” at the meeting we had and they LOVE IT. They’re going to put it in the movie! I was like, are you serious?!”

WHIPPED CREAM was surprised by how much they loved the track and “took it as a lesson. Sometimes the ones you don’t think people are going to like is the one that’s going to be put in the movie.” She also learned to “have more confidence in her songs” and was “very grateful for that opportunity I had because one of my biggest goals in my life is to sink in movies. I love cinematic music. I love going to movies. I want more of my music in movies. So that was a huge, amazing accomplishment for myself at that time in my life.”

Do you have any closing announcements for your fans?

During this interview, WHIPPED CREAM announced a new song called “Blind” (featuring Destin Laurel from Atlanta) that released on Friday, September 27th. She is also going into “full project mode starting October. So every single month there’s going to be a WHIPPED CREAM release for as long as I can live. There’s so much music sitting here, so that’s kind of the main thing is just getting it out now, and that’s the goal.”

NOSTALGIX, what is the story behind your iconic slogan, “Hot Girls/Boys Love House Music?” 

According to NOSTALGIX, this quote originated from a Tweet that she “made for fun one day.” Her followers responded very well to it and “got really excited about the idea.” She had an epiphany one day and thought, “I would love to be at a festival and see this at the merch booth..I’m going to just make a hat that says hot girls love house music because I would personally love to wear that, and I think it’d be so sick. I made it, and it ends up just being a very big hit!” The merch line has since expanded from hats to other items, such as fans and shirts.

What drew you to the 90’s aesthetic that you are known for? 

In response to this question, NOSTALGIX reminisced about her early life in Iran and “watching MTV on cable at her grandparents house.” During this time, she gained an appreciation for artists like “Missy Elliot, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and other 90s IT GIRLS.” This style and aesthetic fits her confident, self assured vibe well and helps her stand out as an artist.

What did you do before you decided to pursue music production?

NOSTALGIX: “So I was going to university to become a director because I wanted to be in film production, and that’s just what I really fell in love with since I would say, beginning of high school. But a little bit before then, I got very interested in, like, this kind of creating, like, stories and storytelling, making videos and writing scripts, acting, kind of everything that’s involved in making telling a story, and I was just obsessed with that. I worked on set a bunch while I was in high school, and I was just fully in it and loved it so much. But I think there’s a point that I realized that being a director, there’s just so many people involved, and I realized it wasn’t necessarily what I wanted to do.”

NOSTALGIX elaborated on this further by saying: “I like to be able and take a project and bring it to life. I want to have a vision and bring it to reality. I don’t want to have 40 people on set that I’m reporting to to have, like one idea go through. So I realized that it wasn’t necessarily exactly what I wanted. And at that time, I’d fallen in love with dance music. So within my first year of university, I started djing just for fun. And it’s something that just started to take off. And by the end of my first year of university, I was producing and it just became my biggest love. And all I wanted to do was learn how to make music. And I would spend all my time on Ableton. So I started getting pretty bad grades because I wouldn’t really care about what I was learning in school anymore. And all I would think about is like, oh, I really want to dj this show and, like, I want to make music and I want to become a better producer. Like, why do I feel like I’m wasting my time right now? And then, you know, I finally, I finally took a leap of faith to say, I’m just going to go for it and I’m going to see what happens.”

Do you have any closing announcements for your fans?

“I just came off of my worldwide tour, and I’m going to be doing shows in North America, so in the US and in Canada for the rest of the year. So got a lot of exciting shows that I’m doing and shows that I’m also going to be on support for. I’m going to be performing in red rocks on support for Gryffin, which is going to be insane at the Armory in Minneapolis, which are going to be very great shows. Also going to be dropping a lot of amazing music throughout the next couple of months. So definitely stay tuned for that because I’ve been working very hard, and I’m just so excited about the new projects that are coming.”

Connect with NOSTALGIX: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Spotify | SoundCloud

Connect with WHIPPED CREAM: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Spotify | SoundCloud