Wallice on Creating Ceramics and 90s American Superstars
[UNPUBLISHED:] How are you doing?
[WALLICE:] I'm good. I'm really cold right now. I'm in this little room and it's so cold because I'm in London right now and it's already colder than usual.
[UNPUBLISHED:] We know you just wrapped up a series of shows in the UK, how was that?
[WALLICE:] I headlined a show last week and then the week before that I did the Great Escape in Brighton and then the Road to the Great Escape in Glasgow and Dublin. I only had like four shows but now my label, Dirty Hit, is based out of the UK and they have a studio here in London so we're just working out of here. We’ve been here for a week and we have one more week until I head back to the states. We’re just trying to make some more music for EP three and see what comes of it.
[UNPUBLISHED:] How we’re the shows?
[WALLICE:] It was really fun. The headline shows especially because it was my third ever headline show, my first headline show overseas and it was also the first headline show that I've done where all the music's out. So like the other two shows I did in December, I played this new EP but nobody knew it yet because it wasn't out but people really liked it. And so at this point, the EP was out for like a week and a half and it was really cool seeing people sing along in such a short amount of time. It’s just really good energy and I think my favorite show so far.
[UNPUBLISHED:] You just released your EP 90’s American Superstar. How do you think your sound has grown and changed from your earlier work?
[WALLICE:] I started with “Punching Bag” in October 2020 and that was like almost limited instrumentation and simple production, and you can hear that it was very bedroom poppy. I think then it evolves into like “23” and the rest of the EP but the second EP is a lot more rock and roll. I grew up playing the cello and I played the cello on two songs on this. Then in “Funeral”, we have like a whole horn section. They just keep getting rowdier like with “John Wayne” we recorded the drums, guitar, and bass all at once in a studio so it’s like it’s almost a live song. When we were recording, my vocals weren't getting picked up well so I had to record this after but on the same day. I always grew up listening to like alternative rock and I think the second EP is more of a direct influence from that compared to the first one. Then talking about growing up, the second EP has a more mature sound than the first one.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What's the inspiration behind the name 90’s American Superstar?
[WALLICE:] I think for this whole second EP, four out of five of the songs were written in a week on a trip to Utah that my co-writers, producers, and I take to my grandparent's house. There wasn't any Wi-Fi in the house because no one usually lives there so every night after work, we go into two massive drawers of DVDs. Since nobody buys DVDs anymore, they were all like the early 2000s or ‘90s movies so we watched Point Break, Heartbreak Kid, Dude, Dazed and Confused, and Where’s My Car? We were making a song and I just went into my drawer, picked up the movies, and thought about how the concept would fit into the EP. I was thinking of an overarching theme and how each song can play into this story of a 90s American superstar.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Are there any 90s American superstars that you look up to or that you were kind of trying to emulate while recording this album?
[WALLICE:] I really love Gwen Stefani.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What musicians did you look up to while growing up?
[WALLICE:] Weezer, Radio Head, specifically “I Miss You” by Blink-182 because I didn’t really expand my discography on them aside from that song because it was on my iPod. I really liked the Black Eyed Peas and Gwen Stefani when I was little.
[UNPUBLISHED:] You just released the music video for “Funeral” and we wanted to know what your inspiration was for the video?
[WALLICE:] Ever since we wrote this song I pictured it like a casket and a muscle car, and like this big rock and roll party concert. I like to have the video be a direct representation of what the lyrics are saying visually. I worked with Phil on my “Little League” and “Hey Michael” videos before and he just really gets the humor that I searched for in a video and working within a specific budget. He's like “okay, it's really hard to get permits to film at a cemetery” because I was like “what if this first shot is in a desert?” and then he’s like, “it's also really hard to move from the desert to a cemetery in one day.” So he was like “what if we build like a cemetery in the desert?” I was like “okay, that's right up my alley.” I also liked the idea of having a grim reaper in there because the lyric says that, and so we tried to make our best party we could. We shot in Yucca Valley, just two hours outside of Los Angeles and so my friends wouldn't have driven all the way down there to be extras and so it's a very limited party. I also don't think I realized what the director did until after, but it's also kind of like a sad party. I'm singing about being this fake public figure like a superstar and then like five people who barely know me show up which is why I think is like such a deeper meaning than I first understood. I did the styling for that too and I went to this fashion warehouse where you can rent designer clothes and I got this glitzy Dolce and Gabbana green dress and huge shawl, it’s pretty silly.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Do you have a favorite scene from the music video?
[WALLICE:] I really liked how they added subtitles to some scenes, for example, it was like “I have 711,000 listeners on Spotify as of May 11th” and something about that was so specific and so funny. I also just loved the sarcasm that the grim reapers have in dialogue, it adds so much to the video.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Do you have any other favorite lyrics that you wrote from this EP?
[WALLICE:] It would be on “Rich Wallice” because of how many jokes I can just fit into the song. They’re all pretty silly like in the chorus I say “I just want more money” like ten times and I think that’s a pretty silly lyric, but it’s so true and I still feel that way.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Do you have any other favorite lyrics that you wrote from this EP?
[WALLICE:] “Funeral” is my favorite but I also love “Little League.”
[UNPUBLISHED:] How did you want your listeners to feel when listening to your EP for the first time?
[WALLICE:] I wanted it to kinda feel like you're watching a movie.
[UNPUBLISHED:] If you could have one of your songs off the EP in a movie which one would it be?
[WALLICE:] I think I feel like “John Wayne” could be in like a like Tarantino film. I would I really love Wes Anderson but I don't necessarily make that music. I don’t even know what movies are coming out but Tarantino is my final answer.
[UNPUBLISHED:] We've seen through your ceramic Instagram account that you are a fan of making ceramics. Do you have a favorite thing that you've ever made?
[WALLICE:] I made this vase, it’s like a cow print big boot. Another thing that comes to mind is a planter that has an arm and then a hand holding a cowboy hat. The planter base has four cowboy boots.
[UNPUBLISHED:] If you could make a ceramic that represented the EP, what would it be?
[WALLICE:] I would take the VMA moon-man award and make it a silver rock star version.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What are some places or just some things that you do in Los Angeles that you really miss now that you've been in the UK for some time?
[WALLICE:] I love Pine and Crane, it’s one of my favorite Taiwanese restaurants. I like hanging out with my friends in my living room playing Mario Party 7 on GameCube. I also really want to go to the beach.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Do you have a favorite beach in Los Angeles?
[WALLICE:] I really like going to Zuma but sometimes it takes really long to get there but I usually do go because it’s my local beach.
[UNPUBLISHED:] We know you just finished up a tour with Still Woozy, what were some things that you would do with the band to kill time on the road?
[WALLICE:] We had pretty strict COVID-19 guidelines at the time so his tour bus and our van didn’t really do much. We had a monitor that we used earthquake straps to strap to the back of the front seat, and then we plugged in our Nintendo Switch and played video games on the long drives. One night we even played poker with candy. We also all watched Euphoria together every Sunday when it came out. I also crocheted everyone's hats. I miss the tour, it was so much fun and Sven (Still Woozy) is actually one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Who are some artists that you’ve been listening to lately?
[WALLICE:] I’ve recently heard of Mama, they also played the same stage as me at The Great Escape and they’re really cool. Chappell Roan is a friend of mine but she’s really good friends with my producer. She’s really catchy and her new song “My Kink is Karma” is a great one. Charli XCX is a big one. I just saw her last week and she was so good.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Do you have anything in the works, any future projects, or anything you want to tease that you're excited about?
[WALLICE:] I have a song that I just finished up about Los Angeles. It’ll be the first time that I’ll be featured on someone else’s song and it’s someone from my label which is really fun. Now we’re working on EP three but it’s in the really early stages.
