“I’ve Always Been A Lone Ranger!” Poppy Interviewed

Clash didn’t necessarily expect to be talking about hummus with Poppy last week, but that’s just what we got on to. When we speak to the Boston-born singer, she’s in Cologne and getting ready to open for Virginia metalcore types Bad Omens, who she’s supporting on their European tour. She’s able to fit a Zoom with me in the afternoon, sandwiched between her soundcheck and then her set.

So, how’s it been going?

“It’s been fun so far,” Poppy tells me. “It’s the first time that I’ve played shows in Europe proper, and I am very excited. 

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Just a few days before our chat, Bad Omens and Poppy released the song ‘V.A.N.’ together, and it made its live debut two nights prior in Berlin with Poppy coming back out to join Bad Omens during their set. She describes it as a song she likes to play live, and a “great moment” in the set. 

She enjoys the experience of collaborating, or going on tour, with other artists. “I think you’re able to build new friendships because you do a similar thing for a job,” she says. “And I always liked the idea of making a new friend. When I was younger, I didn’t really have many, and now I feel like I have some of the best ones.”

Indeed, Poppy has toured with some huge names, touring with Bring Me the Horizon, Sleeping with Sirens, Pvris, The Smashing Pumpkins, and now Bad Omens. After her support slot with the latter comes to an end, Poppy is coming back to the UK for a headline tour alongside Wargasm, culminating in two nights at London’s KOKO. It’s been “a minute” since she’s been over here, as she puts it, and this month’s shows are set to be her first in the UK since November 2022.

She’s excited to meet Wargasm, too, and their mix of nu-metal, hardcore and electronic elements makes them feel like the perfect support act. “I only recently heard their music, but I thought it was very interesting and they seem like they’re very kind people,” Poppy tells me, “I’ve heard good things about them.”

Poppy has amassed a pretty sizable fanbase in the UK, grown over the years through her transition from YouTube sensation to bonafide rockstar, and she’s excited to be back. “I feel like there are some people who like what I do and I’m flattered,” she says of her British fanbase. 

And of the setlist said fanbase can expect: “There’ll definitely be a couple new songs in the mix, and that is quite enjoyable for me.” In her support slots for Bad Omens, songs from her 2020 album ‘I Disagree’ dominate, which makes sense given it’s one of her heavier albums, but on her own tour there’s the potential for more of ‘Zig’ – which came out in October last year – to feature. 

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Clash asks if Poppy has seen much of these shores, and she said that she’s been to Stonehenge.

“That’s all I know,” Poppy continues. “I don’t really have a lot of food to eat there. There’s not a lot of things that are in my food pyramid.” We joke in response that the British aren’t exactly known for our rich cuisine over here, and she tells us that she’ll sometimes nibble on a lettuce leaf, or go for some hummus. She points out, too, that we often spell hummus with an ‘ou’ – it’s not really somewhere I envisaged the conversation going, but as a serious hummus (sorry, houmous) stan, I’m here for it.

‘Zig’ has been described as Poppy’s return to pop music, and it seems well-liked by critics and fans alike, whether they’re metalheads or more into pop. But it’s not something Poppy bothers herself with. “Honestly, I don’t really pay attention to any of the reaction because I’ve been working on other things, but maybe people like it. And if they do, that’s great, but I don’t really care if they don’t,” she explains. 

And what made her go for more of an electronic, dance-influenced sound this time around? ‘Zig’ was produced by Ali Payami, who won a Grammy for his work on Taylor Swift’s ‘1989’, and has also worked with The Weeknd, Ariana Grande, Katy Perry – pop royalty.

“For ‘Zig’, I just wanted to have a couple of dance music videos, so I worked backwards. It wasn’t so much the song first and then the video. I knew I wanted to dance, so the music had to reflect that,” she says. Will Poppy, who describes her stage presence as “interpretive,” be dancing more on stage on this tour? 

“Not on this tour – not on stage – but potentially in the future.”

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However, we’re not sure exactly what to expect in the future. Poppy and her work have often been described as ‘post-genre’ and this makes sense as a description. Her work has variously been described as everything from pop to metal to industrial, with elements of punk, ska, folk, noise – it’s probably fair to say that she’s something of an enigma. 

Clash asks whether she might venture back to heavier sounds on her next album, but she explains that it’ll depend on how she feels when she’s in the studio. When she’s creating music, she begins by writing in her journals. “Then, it’s like I make a collage and I find words that fit the music or vice-versa, and whatever I feel is what comes out in the end,” she continues. 

“Yeah, [my process] has always evolved. It depends on where I’m at. Maybe early on it started with just music and the track, but I feel like writing to just tracks nowadays is like writing to a brick because it can’t move. So that’s not something that I like to do anymore. Sometimes it would start with me and an acoustic guitar, but for this one, I’ve started with the idea that I wanted to dance and went forward with that – it changes every album.”

Poppy’s playing more guitar and bass on the album, too, than she has previously. She’s always played instruments at home, so she thought it was time to put it closer to the forefront of her career – it gives her something to do on stage, she explains. 

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One of her biggest influences, whether on stage or in the studio, is David Bowie, and she says that if he was still alive she’d have loved to support him, but she doesn’t want to support “a hologram,” if he was to posthumously tour again. He’s influenced her “in more ways than one over the years,” she says. “And the way that he stepped into every chapter without questions, he just told you what he was doing by living it.”

We venture if she sees any similarities between herself and Bowie, but she doesn’t think she’s the “right person” to comment. Well this writer certainly does – promptly comparing her evolution from album to album to Bowie’s various eras. “I think it’s the artist’s responsibility to constantly reinvent themselves, yes,” she agrees.

Poppy is often grouped alongside or compared to other artists who make creative, avant-garde pop music – Grimes, Charli XCX, Allie X, Slayyyter – but does she feel like she’s part of a wider scene? “I feel like I’ve always been a lone ranger, which I’m okay with,” she explains.

In terms of how she portrays herself these days – after all, she rose to fame on YouTube with those surreal videos that placed her squarely in the uncanny valley, she says, “I would just say that if there’s a microphone in front of your mouth or a camera in your face, you’re never being authentically yourself. That doesn’t mean you’re inauthentic. You’re just the version that you want to present to somebody.”

So, what does Poppy want to present to her UK fans? 

“Entertainment. Just entertainment.”

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Poppy kicks off her UK tour this week:

February
14 Manchester O2 Academy
15 Glasgow Barrowland Ballroom
16 Liverpool O2 Academy
18 Bristol O2 Academy
20 London KOKO
21 London KOKO

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Words: Adam England
Main Pic: Le3ay
Inset Pic: Angelo Kriktos

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