What happens when you mix one part pop with one part glam rock and add a dash of tongue-in-cheek sex humor? You get NYC’s newest addition to the electro-pop scene, Sizzy Rocket. A drop-out of the NYU Clive Davis School of Music, she’s now signed to Universal and working with some of the most interesting producers in the business from Diplo to Flosstradamus and Babydaddy, with whom she wrote her first single “Bestie.”
Sizzy and I caught up to talk about her inspirations and more specifically her single. She’s fighting the good fight in bringing in-your-face, sex-positive, female-fronted pop music to the masses and wasn’t shy about sharing.
AfterEllen.com: How’d you get your start in music?
Sizzy Rocket: I actually started playing the piano when I was 4 and found this performance group for kids when I was, like, seven. We performed in the mall every weekend, every Saturday we would put together a show with choreography and then perform in the mall on Sunday. So, literally, my start in music was dancing to Britney Spears in a strip mall in Vegas. I was always performing, just around Vegas lugging my piano around playing coffee shops and small venues and then I just fell in love with it.
AE: How was working with Babydaddy of Scissor Sisters?
SR: It was amazing. He is the most amazing human being, just to talk to. We met and talked about music for like an hour before we started writing. He has the craziest stories about being in Scissor Sisters and touring with Gaga. He was just so much a part of that New York electro-clash Lower East Side scene that I adore and wish I was a part of. He’s very cool and down to earth, and he just understands that campy like tongue-in-cheek thing that I was trying to do with “Bestie.” It’s really hard to write about like “I wanna fuck my best friend.” As outspoken as the song is, it’s a really vulnerable thing to write about in front of someone, but I just felt really comfortable with him.
AE: Tell us about “Bestie”?
SR: I think what is funny about it is the fact that it’s just so deadpan. Everything I’m saying is true, so people get a laugh out of it, because there’s no metaphor, I’m not alluding to it. I just say it. I mean obviously the visual helps. That’s not something that happens in pop music a lot.
AE: Is there a story behind it?
SR: Yeah, there is. It wasn’t my first time sleeping with a girl, but me and my friend were out and things were getting a little crazy and it was just over the period of the night I thought, “Holy shit-I think I wanna fuck my best friend!” And so we ended up at the Thompson Hotel. It was this crazy one night love affair, and we’re still friends.
AE: What can we expect from your next single?
SR: The next single is a little bit more serious. Actually “Bestie” is the most ironic, tongue-in-cheek song on my record. Everything else is pretty dark and aggressive and hip hop influenced. The next song is actually slow. It’s more of a serious ballad.
AE: How does your sexuality inform your art and vice versa?
SR: My art is based around sex and sexuality because it’s important, it’s part of being human. There’s just a lot of emotion that goes with sex and sexuality for me and especially with liking women and being a pop star and how I’m supposed to behave. What it means to be a pop star and what it means to like women. I don’t think those two things necessarily go together. But when you look at my idols like David Bowie and Freddie Mercury and Iggy Pop and all these masculine artists it’s like sex and sexuality was power for them and I think my art is also based around power and sex and violence and aggression, so I just want to change the way that people see that for a female artist.
AE: How much of your music is message and how much it is fun?
SR: I think both are equally important. I definitely want people to have fun listening to my music. But there are two sides to it: If you’re out with friends in a club and my song came on I want you to be able to dance and escape and forget about everything that you’re stressing about in your daily life. But if you’re going through something that’s more complex and you’re just sitting in your bedroom, listening, I want you to be able to relate to it and get something out of it.
AE: Any advice for young, engaged, sexually aware young women out there?
SR: I would say I know what you’re going through and don’t be afraid to just be yourself, but I know that it’s scary and it’s definitely harder for young women to be taken seriously and to carve out a place for themselves in the world. I know what that’s like and let’s do it together, as cheesy as that sounds.
AE: What’s your current jam?
SR: “On The Regular” by Shamir.
AE: What’s next for you?
SR: Just more videos. I have this album coming out-it’s called Thrills. It’s a body of work that I’ve been working on for the last couple of years. Then more shows and just more content. I have a zine that is coming out. I have one that’s currently out, but there’s going to be one for each single. Just more cool shit.
AE: What’s one thing we wouldn’t be able to find out about you through an internet lurk?
SR: I have emetophobia which is a fear of vomit and vomiting. It’s like a really intense phobia. I don’t know where it came from, but if I see someone vomiting I’ll have a full blown meltdown/panic attack. It’s really intense.
For more on Sizzy Rocket, check her out on Facebook, Instagram, Soundcloud, Twitter and her website.
