FEATURE: Modern-Day Queens: PinkPantheress

FEATURE:

Modern-Day Queens

PHOTO CREDIT: Elliot Hensford for MixMag

PinkPantheress

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I will end…

PHOTO CREDIT: Charlie Engman

with a review of the new mixtape from PinkPantheress. Fancy That is among the best releases of this year. The moniker of Victoria Beverley Walker, she released the album, Heaven Knows, in 2023. Fancy That is her latest mixtape. I want to come to some interviews with a tremendous artist that I have spotlighted before but have not written about for a while now. I want to revisit her here. I will start out with MixMag. They spoke with her in March. On her new project, she is blending new genres such as Trip-Hop and House. This is an artist striking a “balance between being a popstar and experimental, only expressing emotions when it suits her, and dealing with the friction between public perceptions and her authentic self”:

“Pink launched herself into the music world when her breakbeat-infused pop songs went viral on TikTok in 2021, with her tracks such as ‘Break It Off’ and ‘Just for Me’ doing rounds on the app and introducing global audiences to the UK underground sound. She was born in Kent, but moved to London to study film at UAL and found herself bored in lockdown and experimenting with music making. While initially releasing the music in short snippets onto the app completely anonymously, mostly in hopes of getting feedback on what types of sounds people were interested in, she later put the pseudonym ‘PinkPantheress’ to her tracks, got noticed, and eventually released her debut mixtape in October 2021 and dropped out of university. “In a weird way I kind of did [expect my music to blow up],” she admits. “I’m a manifester so for me there was no option of it not working, it was just a matter of when. I expected to blow up but not to the height that it did, I didn’t expect to be here right now at all.”

In 2022 she released the three-track EP ‘Take me home’, and in 2023 she dropped her debut album ‘Heaven Knows’. Since her breakthrough, she has worked and collaborated with the likes of Central Cee, Kaytranada, Overmono, Skrillex and Trippie Redd. Pink also took home the Best Female Act MOBO Award in 2022, the BBC’s Sound of 2022 title, and was Billboard’s Producer of The Year in 2024. But all roads have led her to making her upcoming project, something that she feels proud of and a representation of the lessons she’s learned in the music game over the past few years.

Though details of her new project are firmly under wraps, with only a May 9 date announced, fans can expect the continuation of her genre-bending style, reimagining elements of jungle, breakbeats and 2-step garage with ethereal vocals. This time, however, she was also inspired by trip hop, house, big beat, and older electronic music, as the selections in her Cover Mix playlist indicate. It’s evident in the tracks which contain crackles of the heavy distortions synonymous with bass music, and the elements of the orchestral and cinematic-side of old-school house music. At the time of making the project, Pink was listening to music by the likes of Fatboy Slim and Groove Armada. “I loved the size of the music,” she says. “All the music sounds so big and grand and present, and I really wanted to make music where it sounds like a statement is being made with the songs. I feel like that was what appealed to me, and it’s something that I wanted to take on board.”

The project is also laden with samples, a PinkPantheress music staple. It features some musical references from her previous songs, Easter eggs for the “real fans” as she says, including sampled vocals from ‘Starz In Their Eyes’ by Just Jack, a song that she used the beat from in her 2021 track ‘Attracted to You’.

“Sampling is funny because everyone has their opinions about it. Some people think it's stealing or unoriginal, which is something I dealt with a lot when I was starting. But for me sampling is my way of sharing a love for something and reinterpreting it. I would only sample something I love, I would never sample something for the thought of it having nostalgia-bait or whatever reason. I do it because I want to reinterpret something I love to different audiences”.

When she first released music and became known for her breakbeat-pop, she says she encountered tensions from dance music purists who were questioning the authenticity or genuineness of her intentions to make electronic music. “It was a bit annoying…getting questions as to why I’m making art, some people were questioning if I knew the genre and did my research, I guess because I’m young,” she starts to explain.

“But I spoke to one of these jungle purists - and it was very interesting hearing his side of things and how he felt about drum ‘n’ bass and jungle and his introduction to me. [He spoke about how] drum ‘n’ bass is still not a mainstream genre, globally, and it’s not one that’s understood by the majority of the world. It was something that was honed in the UK, and with us as a nation where maybe some of our music was overlooked in the past, it makes these genres extra special to the people who have loved it. Some people don’t feel the need for these genres to be spread around the world or on a platform like TikTok, because they see it as something we birthed here so we want it to stay here. But they understood that music has always spread, but now because of social media it's making it easier to spread. Those purists have now accepted the situation for what it is.”

Keeping the Black, British history of genres such as jungle, drum ‘n’ bass, and garage credited and acknowledged is imperative for Pink. She wants to make it clear who she is sampling, which acts she takes inspiration from, and, during interviews and online, she shouts out the pioneers who came before her and made these genres exist and usable in different contexts — whether that be Adam F, Shy FX, or Wookie. She even makes a point of acknowledging her contemporaries such as Nia Archives, who she calls a “great inspiration”, due to their influence on the way dance music is moving in the 2020s.

Beyond finding her place within dance music, Pink has had to come to terms with becoming a global popstar. While she started making her dance-laced pop music out of her love for the UK legends she’s been naming throughout our conversation, from Lily Allen to Shy FX, her global audience and their perception of who she is was an unexpected weight on her shoulders. “Being a ‘popstar’ or being in the public eye can definitely make you lose yourself,” she admits. “I am somebody who knows myself down to the bone but I’m telling you, being a singer makes it so easy to think about what people think or want to hear and it makes you lose elements of your beginnings”.

I am moving onto an interview with Billboard. Speaking with the Billboard Women in Music's 2024 Producer of the Year, PinkPantheress was asked about the new mixtape. She spoke about a tour with Olivia Rodrigo and why she is not an arena artist:

“I don’t like saying it in my accent,” PinkPantheress timidly says of her mixtape title, which was later revealed to be Fancy That, during her late March visit to Billboard.

Rocking a plaid top dress, dark navy jeans and black flats that could’ve been on an Aeropostale mannequin circa ’07, the U.K. native gushes about house artists like Basement Jaxx and early Calvin Harris influencing her nine-track mixtape.

“I feel like nobody’s really tapped into these fully since the eclipse of [their] genre. I was like, ‘Let me try to do it and see what I can do here,'” the 24-year-old says. “Just because I’m such a fan of it and I was very inspired by it. I haven’t felt really inspired in a long time.”

Holed up in her London home, PinkPantheress got to work as the project began to take shape over the course of two months. After some back-and-forth file transferring and tinkering with producer aksel arvid, Pink’s skittering production met her plush vocals while still maintaining her signature DIY raw experimentation.

She dug through the crates while pulling on samples from the aforementioned Basement Jaxx to Panic! at the Disco and even Nardo Wick’s “Who Want Smoke??” for her most sonically potent work to date. “I made something that kind of incorporated my two projects into one super project,” the Billboard Women in Music 2024 Producer of the Year adds.

PinkPantheress is reserved yet charming in conversation as she opens up about learning she wasn’t “an arena artist” after touring with Olivia Rodrigo, being the subject of plenty of memes, her global crossover appeal and acting aspirations.

How did you end up in Jack Harlow’s “Just Us” video?

Jack messaged me and asked me if I could be in the video. I asked if I could hear the song and he was like, “No, you can not.” I don’t really do cameos or anything, especially not for bigger artists because I get worried and scared of public perception. But he was like, “You need to trust me that I’ll make you look cool.” Then I just did it and it was really fun.

How did you get in the zone for this mixtape? What did you set out to do?

I wanted to create a project that reflected my progress as a producer. I made something that kind of incorporated my two projects into one super project. I produced a lot of it in London in my house. I listened to a lot of U.K. music. A specific era, a lot of Basement Jaxx, a lot of Calvin Harris.

I created the beats on my laptop and then I sent them to this producer I was working with from Norway called Axsel [Arvid]. We went back-and-forth and made the beats and I recorded really quickly. It was done in like two months.

Being a perfectionist in the studio, do you have to go back in and tweak stuff or once it’s done, it’s done?

Figuratively and physically and always literal, I am a tweaker. I am always going back and [asking], “What can I do here that I want to change?” I was actually fairly chill on this project because the more you perfect something, for me as an artist, people definitely prefer when I sound more DIY and raw. So I was trying to keep it as raw as possible.

I love how you flipped Nardo Wick’s “Who Want Smoke??” on “Noises.”

I love that song. I really like Nardo Wick and 21 Savage. I wasn’t even trying to use it until I was writing my song. I was like, “Oh, it would be cool to have a break in the beat where it’s the bass going [hits table].” They do the same thing. I was like, I might as well pay homage and put his voice in it. I actually wonder if he’s heard it and I wonder what he thought. He probably thought it was ass. I wanna know what he thinks. I wanna personally find out what he thinks. Obviously, it’s drum and bass now. It’s a whole different genre.

What do you think about your crossover popularity? How do you gauge it as far as your fans in the U.K. and your fans in the U.S.?

Even though my music is more genre-based in the U.K., I’d say I have more fans in America. I think in a weird way, the U.K. is more hip to drum and bass and the music I make, so me coming out after we’ve had a history of women that I’m influenced by — like Lily Allen and Imogen Heap, that’s where they were most respected and adored. I’d say the majority of British people are more used to my sound, so it’s probably not as much, “Whoa, what is this!,” as Americans are. [American] People in general speak of me as more an innovator or pioneer, whereas people in the U.K. will celebrate the fact I’ve been able to cross over and get the features I have. America’s just different”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Charlie Engman

Before getting to a review of Fancy That, I am moving to an interview from Vogue. This is someone who was not going to be boxed in. An artist who does not want to be famous or a huge star, she is authenticate and focused on producing the best and truest music. I think she will continue to grow and evolve as an artist for many years:

“For her Fancy That era, she wanted to stay true to that spirit, and reflect how she really wears clothes in her daily life. “I actually think I dress very normal—I just don’t dress in a way that people think a pop star should dress,” she says. “One thing about me is I don’t do glam. I don’t know how to do glam. I don’t look good in a long dress or anything skimpy, and I don’t feel comfortable in anything sexier. I just haven’t realized that in myself yet—I think I’ll get there, but I’m still growing. So pretty much everything you see me wear is what I wear all the time.” Including, she explains, the tartan pattern that recurs across the mixtape’s visuals—and which, true to form, she’s wearing on a tank top when we speak. “Aesthetically, I led with that pattern, which ended up leading into some other British motifs—you’ve got some telephone boxes here and tea parties. The real word, I’d say, is kitsch. I tried to make it as kitsch as possible.”

Bottom of Form

Just take the video for “Tonight,” which sees PinkPantheress cavort through a stately home in a Marie Antoinette-worthy ruffled gown and stacks of pearls, the ringleader of a raucous house party—she describes it, accurately, as Bridgerton meets Skins. “I’ve just always really wanted to dress up like that,” she says, laughing. She also notes that the song and the video reflect the more self-assured state of mind she’s in now. “I’ve written so many songs about love, but a lot of them in the past have been from a mindset where the ball is in the other person’s court and I’m the one left in the lurch. Whereas with this one, I wanted to be like, No, I’m the one in control. You need to come to talk to me.”

Part of that newfound self-possession, it seems, is a result of having had the time last year to meditate on what she wanted from her career. One important goal? To show other young women—and especially young women of color—that they, too, can forge a career in electronic music. “The only woman of color I remember really seeing [doing that] was M.I.A.” she recalls. “There wasn’t really anyone at a very high level I could look at and say, oh, this is an alternative electronic woman who’s Black or biracial, and is also being recognized as such, and not boxed into this R&B category or boxed into a powerhouse soul vocal category. I think we’re set to this extremely high standard when it comes to genre and what we should stick to.”

Earlier that day, on the street in New York City, a teenage fan had come up to PinkPantheress and told her she was the reason she started producing. “I know it sounds cliché, but I do want to represent for those girls. Who want to do what I do and don’t feel like they need to feel pressured to be able to be perfect at dancing, look amazing all the time, have a curvaceous build, dress a certain way, have your wigs look amazing all the time…”

She pauses, before breaking into a glowing smile. “That’s why I want this project to reach new heights—because I want to be here for the alt girls who like me.” She may be a reluctant pop star, but that’s exactly what makes her one of the most interesting ones we have”.

I am finishing with a review from The Guardian. Providing their take on Fancy That, if you have not heard the mixtape from PinkPantheress, then you really do need to check it out now. An essential work from one of the U.K.’s most important artists. A big reason why I wanted to include her in this Modern-Day Queens feature. Someone I have been a fan of for years now:

“There’s something telling about the fact that PinkPantheress launched the first single from her second mixtape with a video boasting that it was 2:57 long. “Ion [I don’t] wanna see no more song length jokes,” ran the caption accompanying a brief video of her dancing to Tonight, a track that throws together a mass of musical reference points: a sample from US emo-rockers Panic! at the Disco stitched to a speedy four-to-the-floor house beat, a candy-sweet pop melody, a hefty bassline that suggests the influence of UK garage or drum’n’bass and a lyric that alludes to both Avril Lavigne’s Complicated and Kings of Leon’s Sex on Fire.

Since the English singer-songwriter-producer first came to public attention in 2021, by posting snippets of the tracks she had made on a laptop in her halls of residence to TikTok, brevity has been her calling card: most of the songs that caused her commercial breakthrough lasted barely 90 seconds; one, Attracted to You, was over and done in 67. They garnered hundreds of millions of streams. Moreover, they were the first steps on an impressive commercial ascent that’s involved a major label deal, a succession of gold and platinum awards, a place on the Barbie soundtrack and invitations from Olivia Rodrigo and Coldplay to support them on tour. Perhaps inevitably, they also attracted criticism from people who viewed her less as a success story than a symptom: wilfully insubstantial, attention-deficit music befitting an era in which pop has lost its place as the basic substance of youth culture, an age when its primary function is just to burble briefly in the background of videos offering makeup tutorials and wellness tips.

There are definitely points during Fancy That where you wonder if PinkPantheress’s approach isn’t occasionally a little flimsy for its own good, most obviously on Stars, which borrows from Just Jack’s 2007 pop-house hit Starz in Their Eyes – a track she previously sampled on Attracted to You – and features a childlike vocal that smacks of irksome affectation. But far more often, you find yourself wondering whether her detractors’ criticisms might have less to do with her actual music than with sexism and snooty condescension. (If you want to survey PinkPantheress’s main audience, check out her 2022 Boiler Room appearance, which finds her performing surrounded by cameraphone-wielding teenage girls.)

Her bricolage approach to songwriting is fairly obviously that of someone raised with streaming’s decontextualised smorgasbord as their primary source of music. You can hear it in the way she leaps from one source to another, unburdened by considerations of genre or longstanding notions of cool, like someone compiling a personal playlist. Despite her tongue-in-cheek protestations about Tonight, Fancy That has a brief running time, dispatching nine tracks in 20 minutes. But during that short spell, she pilfers from Underworld’s brainy electronica and 00s pop star Jessica Simpson. She puts an obscure William Orbit track featuring vocals by the Sugababes next to rapper Nardo Wick’s US trap hit Who Want Smoke? and Romeo by UK house duo Basement Jaxx, who have acted as mentors to her.

There’s something infectious and gleeful about the way she stitches together her disparate influences into the frantic, neon-hued Noises or Nice to Know You, but her real skill lies in her ability to imprint her own identity on the results: the songs on Fancy That seldom feel like the sum of their parts. For all she’s fond of lifting other people’s immediately recognisable hooks – Stateside steals from Adina Howard’s Freak Like Me – PinkPantheress is fully equipped to craft earworm melodies of her own, as on the fizzy sugar rush of Illegal. Regardless of whether it was born out of a desire to attract an audience whose attention span has been shot by swiping, the succinctness of her songs seems less like evidence of insubstantiality than of a sharp writing talent: there are no longueurs, little room for indulgence, nothing extraneous.

It all hurtles by, so fast that you barely notice the odd song that doesn’t quite click, or that slips over the line that separates sweet from saccharine. The music on Fancy That feels simultaneously boiled down yet packed with ideas, fleeting but not lacking, familiar but fresh, focused less on making grand statements than with immediacy and unforced fun: all perennially good things for pop music to be. Clearly, PinkPantheress is a product of the current moment, with the accompanying concern about what happens when the current moment passes. But there’s something oddly timeless about her innate understanding of pop that suggests she might be fine”.

Go and follow the amazing PinkPantheress. If you are new to her music or are familiar with her, I cannot recommend her highly enough. This is a major talent who has decades ahead of her. Fancy That is the latest example of her distinct brilliance. It is going to be interesting to watch her next move. She will be seen as a future icon for sure. When writing those words, I type them…