How TOKiMONSTA's past helped shape 'Fovere', and her future
A favourite of Australia, we were stoked to steal some time with TOKiMONSTA, where she goes deep into the stories behind Fovere.
California native electronic music artist TOKiMONSTA is coming off of her fourth album Fovere; a smorgasbord of great beats with great features to top them off.
Although short in tracks, the album is packed with heart. Featuring five collaborations and a world of influence, Jennifer Lee (aka TOKiMONSTA) has pieced together an album that offers an insight into her past, her present and her future... Whilst also bringing the upbeat, smooth and party filled beats and high production we love and expect from a TOKi release.
A favourite of Australia, we were stoked to steal some time with Lee, where she goes deep into the stories behind Fovere, as well as discussing how food and music work together.
Plug into the latest music with our FREE weekly newsletter
Aiden Benavides: You're coming down from the release of your album, how are you feeling about the reception of the release?
Jennifer Lee: I feel great about the release I'm really proud of this project in regards on how it's been received. From what I can tell it's been received quite well, I can only really judge by the things people are tweeting at me and leaving comments and stuff... My mum says she likes it so it must be doing okay (laughs).
How do you think your process of making albums has changed from your early albums like Midnight Menu to your most recent album?
Well Midnight Menu is about five years only now and that's quite a long time, I think the interesting thing is that most people jump between that album and this one and tend to disregard everything in between them. If you were to listen across my entire discography or even just some of the songs in between those two albums the transition would make sense.
With this album it's me tapping back into that era, having a more simple but a more musical approach to music, but I think that at that time, I had an approach to music that was a lot less pure than what I understand music as now. I think that now I have such a clear idea of what I think of as me, and the directions I want to go in. I'm trying to use this album to wrap back around into an aesthetic, like that sort of night time vibe feeling, Fovere is just so much more evolved. If you listen to my last album I think it sounds far more different to this one because I'm going back to that (Midnight Menu). Other than 'Put It Down' I feel like most of the tracks are on a very mellow level.
I would agree with you that most of the tracks other than 'Put It Down' are mellow because 'Put It Down' is a very hyped up song. What I noticed was that now that you've had those extra five years you've had the opportunity to work with so many new people, and on this album five out of seven tracks have collaborations on them. What's it like working with all these other people? As a follow up do you send off your tracks for collaborators to work on or do you work in the studio to build the track with them?
I think that these people i'm working with are amazing, I only work with people that I really respect and are pleasant to work with. And on terms on how I work with them? With Anderson. Paak we'd always work in the studio together, so I was in the studio with him while he was writing and we were fleshing out on how the song should be while he was recording as well, with Gavin I was also in the studio with her for that one, with Jonny Pierce from The Drums I sent him that track and he recorded it for me and sent back to me then I'd send him back notes because that's what worked for him due to him travelling a lot. With Kiya Lacey, this amazing young singer from Tennessee, I sent her the track and she'd send me back rough versions of it, we had almost a studio experience with it where I was emailing her back and forth giving her notes and ideas for lyrics and stuff like that, with a l l i e it was a similar thing because she lives in Toronto so we did it via internet as well.
Sweet, it's really interesting hearing all that. When it comes down to deciding on what goes on your albums how do you choose which tracks end up and do not end up on the album?
There's definitely a few tracks that didn't make it, not quite as many as before. I think I've learnt to be more efficient with how I work on these songs. I work so hard on each song now I feel like I don't want to abandon anything. I hate that wastefulness like "Oh I worked on a song for a week and it's not good"; I don't think that's the way I wanna treat it. With all the songs that didn't make it and were not good for this project, I hope to go back to and rework them in some other capacity, because I think the music industry is very inefficient. A lot of music just gets thrown away and it can still be beautiful music, it just needs to be worked on a little bit more. There's a few tracks that didn't make it, but I think they are really good so I hope I find a way to use them.
That sounds great. So I know tomorrow you're playing at Buku Festival in New Orleans then later in the year you have Panorama and Coachella, are there any festivals or events coming up you're really really excited to be working at/playing at?
I'm always excited for any festival, but I have to say it's always nice to be able to play Coachella, because that's my local festival and it's a big festival for all the people who live in LA. It's big for me cause all the people going are from my hometown and as an artist my biggest following of people are in LA and they are always supportive of artists from here.
What's the local music scene like in LA and are you still apart of it even though now you've broken out into a bigger audience?
Oh I go back there all the time, I guess the biggest one for me is Low End Theory where Gaslamp Killer plays. That has recurring events Wednesday night which is very much home territory for me and people who came from the same LA beat scene. Every now and then I'll do an unannounced secret set over there as well. That's the great thing about LA; it doesn't matter how big or how small you are you can still go and enjoy the local scene to see what the younger producers and the younger generation are doing without having to alienate yourself, at least I don't.
Local scenes are very important. What was it like transitioning between a smaller label like Brainfeeder to a larger one like Ultra Records?
It's different really, Brainfeeder is a tastemaker label and at the time I was on it, it was a group of friends, we used to hang out with each other and I still see all of them, i saw Gaslamp Killer two weeks ago and I saw Daedalus last week. I see Fly Lo often as well, they are people who are my dear friends, people who I can go out and grab dinner with and even though we've gone in different directions all of us are still so proud of each other and still have the same roots and the same understand of music.
In terms of me going from Brainfeeder to Ultra? It was me trying to see if I could get a Brainfeeder sound appeal to an Ultra audience. I think it was a good choice, I only did one album with them, it was still productive with me being able to create one of my most popular songs with MNDR and that track I'm really proud of. I also think that album could've been released through Brainfeeder, but with Ultra it could come out on a larger platform.
Here's a question about interviews, I know you must get some questions repeated a lot but is there a question you're dying to to be asked and that no one has asked yet?
Hmmmm I don't know, There's been a few times someone has been really creative, but I don't know I like talking about food, but maybe it's because it's dinner time over here. If you were to ask me a question about food I'd be pretty happy.
It's funny that you mention that, because before the interview I was asking my editor for tips and he said something along the lines of "you can ask anything you want just don't ask anything stupid like 'what's your favorite food?'" (Editor's Note: Aiden, you dog!) But now that you've mentioned that I'm going to ask you what's your favorite food?
(Laughs) my favorite food is... well I have a lot of favorite foods, but if I was stuck on an island with only one thing I'd probably some sushi. Probably would regret that later.
Getting back to music, I know you use Ableton and a lot of analogue equipment; but is your music gear something that you keep on changing and adjusting? Particularly your live set?
Not so much, it's more been my live set evolving over the years. What has changed more or less is my stage presence and production. I guess I could bring in a synthesiser and do that aswell, but I'm comfortable performing in the way that i'm doing it now and it's only getting more interesting. There's so many generations of my life combined, every album I do something different and it's also a way for me to keep every live set different. If you were to see me two shows in a row it won't be the same show. All my shows are with ableton, but now I have a live show with lights and projection, that's the main thing that's changed over the years, now my shows have a more visual element.
Is there anything outside of music that's a particular inspiration to you?
I think food. I know that sounds redundant, but it's a very sensory oriented experience that's completely different than music. I've experimented with having food at album release parties where each song was paired with a different dish. I think it's so different to music in so many ways yet it's so similar, in terms of how it can make you feel, I just find that very inspiring. Also I like drawing and sketching, I don't know, I get easily inspired by everything; fashion, watching TV, I'm all across the board. If I get bored of one thing I'll move on to the next. I can read books for two months straight and then not pick one up for two years.
That's real interesting, when you tour I know you must experience a lot of different art, food and fashion. Where around the world do you find inspiration or where around the world you just enjoy?
My favorite places to go around the world? I would say Paris, Paris is a place I enjoy; I enjoy Tokyo; I actually really enjoy Melbourne. I don't know, I really enjoy places where I have a lot of friends, so when i go there i'm not just a tourist i'm there enjoying myself as an actual person who lives there, and all these places are really satisfying and it almost feels like another home to me.
When it comes down to your albums, do any songs stand out to you in particular?
It's hard to say, a good way to look at this album is that every song is a child, it's not fair to say I like this kid more than this kid, I appreciate them all equally and in different ways.
What's you favorite album that you're listening to at the moment?
A new album I've been enjoying recently would be the new Kendrick Lamar, Untitled Unmastered, that came out the same day as my album and I just gave it a full listen, I thought it was really amazing. Also Lapsley's Long Way Home is another album that came out the same day as mine which I'm also enjoying and I think she's amazing.
Speaking about other artist any dream collaborations you might have?
Bjork is one I always wanted to do, I think it would be insane working with her.
Kind of like what Death Grips did with her?
Yeah exactly, or like the work she did with the RZA or Timberland, I'd like to see what she'd be able to do.
To wrap up; anything you would like to throw out there?
I hope people will get a chance to listen to my album and hopefully they gain something from it, if they don't that's fine too. I hope people find some album that they like it doesn't have to be mine.
Words by Aiden Benavides
SEE ALSO
More From Our Network
