Q&A: Breaking Into the DIY Scene, flora mma Gets Vulnerable With ‘Songs to Sing Under the Sheets’
A COMFORT BLANKET OF EMOTIONAL VULNERABILITY — flora mma’s newest release has drawn me in with dreamy and heartfelt qualities. Titled Songs to Sing Under The Sheets, the artist's newest EP is full of lo-fi tracks, carefully crafted to hit a chord, releasing inner exposure.
The Los Angeles native, otherwise known as Flynn Namala, is a pleasant change to the music on my current playlists. With music being crafted from start to finish in their bedroom, their new EP is full of intensity. The creation process for the young artist is a unique flow, and this is reflected in the smooth and calming style in which the tracks take form.
I had the chance to catch up with Flynn as we spoke about the evolution of the music industry into a DIY community and pondered over the inevitable disclosure you must accept when putting out art into the world. Flynn is a direct person and intuitive artist, uncovering within their music the truth behind the human condition.
Read the full interview below.
LUNA: It’s great to talk to you. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself? What would you want the world to know about you as an artist, or you as a person?
FLORA MMA: I would just want people to know that I really love music. I want to make music that makes people feel something, like a movie soundtrack. That's the goal. I love movies. I love at the end of the movie, when that song comes on and they're running off into the sunset or driving away.
LUNA: That's a great goal. I always bump stuff like that. I'm into sentimental, nostalgic music.
FLORA MMA: Exactly. I would say, for the EP, don't listen to it if you don't want to cry, because I was listening to it the other day and I was like, “Bro, this shit is so sad.” If you are sad, then you should definitely bump it. But if you're in a happy mood, like, it's not going to hit. It's not a good day.
LUNA: Well, I mean, the title of your EP is Songs to Sing Under the Sheets — I feel like that implies, you know, that you're not going out and getting crazy. You're getting into your feelings, listening to these tracks.
FLORA MMA: Yes. I was going to call it Songs to Sing Out of the Sunroof of Your Mom's Minivan, but then I listened to that and I was like, “This shit is sad — you can't sing it out of a sunroof.” And then I changed the name.
When I was in middle school, I would go under my covers in the middle of the night and just cry to this song “Drown” by Bring Me The Horizon. And then in a song I released earlier called “Something,” I have a lyric about it, but recently, my sister goes, “Yeah, I remember when you used to cry in the middle of the night, I could hear you. I would just laugh at you.” She was like, “I don't care, but I could hear you.”
LUNA: That is some sibling-type behavior, for sure. And a great origin story. That probably helped bring you to where you are now. Let’s talk about your EP. Any big inspirations and experiences that went into making it?
FLORA MMA: Basically, last August, I moved into a new apartment. I was in a band for five to six years before that. I always wanted to produce my own stuff because I wanted to make more pop music, so that was my goal with the solo project. From last fall on, I was just trying to learn how to produce. I would just try to make beats. Basically the EP is me just messing around, learning how to make and produce music. And then, during this spring and summer, I picked my favorite songs from everything that I had been working on, and made this [the EP].
LUNA: So you worked on it for over a year, since last August, right?
FLORA MMA: Yeah, because I would make something, and then I would listen to it, and then I would hate it, and then I would put it away. Then I would listen to it again and I'd be like, “Okay, this doesn't suck as hard as I thought. We'll bring it back out.” I'm not completely disgusted by it anymore.
LUNA: Seems as though that's a very normalized process for artists. Do you have any standout lyrics or parts that mean the most to you?
FLORA MMA: “I Hope You Know” probably means the most to me. There's a voicemail in it from my mom. I didn't tell her I put it in. So I'm just hoping that she never hears it. We had gotten into a huge argument and then she left me this voicemail on Saturday or something. Right after I heard it, I was just standing in the kitchen, doing dishes. And then that whole little verse just came to me, and I just started humming it in my head.
After I put that voicemail in I was like, “Wow, yeah, this shit, it's so sad.” I don't know why that made the song, but it really did. Because even though my mom has been super hurtful, it's an important message for the song. I want to be like, “I hope you know how much you mean to me?” It's sad — I still love her, even though I know she’s going through it and that fucked me up, too.
LUNA: Yeah, it is such an emotionally vulnerable thing to put out in the world. It's a coincidence that we're talking about parent-kid relationships, because I was just reading an article about forgiving your parents for things. They can hurt you, but you still love them. It is a convoluted bond. I think it’s such a heartfelt touch to the album. I love it when people put voicemails in — it’s much more personal.
FLORA MMA: Yeah, like Frank Ocean [on the track “Be Yourself” on his album Blond]. I'm like, “Yo, this is so cool.”
LUNA: Yeah, because you can imagine all these things about the artists that you're listening to and try to apply it to your life. But when you hear something from their life, you're like, “Oh shit. They are real people.”
How do you make sure you have time to create? Do you have to set time aside for it?
FLORA MMA: It's whenever it happens, it happens. I used to feel really guilty if I didn't work on music every day, because I would think, “How am I going to be successful if I don't do this day after day?” Now I'm more like, if I feel like it, if I don't feel like doing it, I just don't do it for a few days. A few weeks ago, Leo [my fellow collaborator] left for a few days. I was like, I'm so excited to take a break from music. I'm tired of it. And my ears hurt. And the next day it just started flowing and I sent him this demo for a hyper-pop song and I just got excited. I feel like whenever I tell my brain to stop making music, my brain says, “Just let me just do it!” I don't have a schedule. It's just my favorite thing to do.
LUNA: As an artist, how do you feel that your art community is challenging existing barriers and assumptions? Kind of a big question, I know.
FLORA MMA: What is my art community? That's a good question. I mean, I’m trans, so for a lot of trans artists, I feel like just existing is breaking all these barriers. I only know a handful of trans artists. And it was always my biggest goal forever to be, like, the first trans pop star, but now I don't know. That sounds like a lot of responsibility now. So I don't think about it a lot.
LUNA: Lots of pressure there.
FLORA MMA: Yeah. I don't know. I think this is a big question. I feel like the DIY community just wants to make music without wanting anything from it or wanting money or aim. I think that's pretty cool. That's pretty different.
LUNA: Yeah, the DIY community and the art music scene has changed a lot. Artists work from start to finish on their projects, and do all of their own press and their management. You’re super involved in the process, which is not how it was five or 10 years ago. I think it’s really awesome to be so involved in the process rather than having it be taken away from you.
FLORA MMA: Yeah. It's cool. For me, this is the first thing I've put out which actually represents how good I think I am as an artist. Most of the time I drop something and I feel like it’s not as good as I think I am, but this is the first time I was proud to have this out.
LUNA: That feeling is a huge accomplishment, so congratulations. What's next for you?
FLORA: Well, I have a lot of songs … Probably six or seven songs that I want to put out.
LUNA: Yeah. Put them out there in the world. My last question: What are you listening to?
FLORA MMA: Summer Walker’s new album, Dijon’s new album. I like “The Dress'' a lot. There's this artist called SAIA who is super sick, and their EP came out a few weeks ago and it's super good. I'll also shout out to my friends, Fashion Jackson, who just dropped a song called “Magnolia.” Also a band called FOMO, Fear of Making Out. I also recently started listening to Rex Orange County again.
LUNA: Oh my god. This one summer, I was falling in love, and that album was my soundtrack. Meant everything to me.
FLORA MMA: Oh totally. Willow Smith, too. I could just keep going on forever, but I'll just say that. She’s so good.
LUNA: She's on a big tour right now.
FLORA MMA: Yeah. She's fucking opening for Billie Eilish next year.
LUNA: Life goals.
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