More about: Flossing

She started out in BODEGA before dancing at the disco at the end of the world with The Wants. And now Heather Elle is releasing even more music, this time solo. Under the moniker Flossing, she is combining the dance vibes of her other bands with a nihilistic, smart lyric-making and a certain tendency to the Armageddon herself.

Today, Flossing releases her debut EP Queen of the Mall so we asked Heather some questions to get a better grasp on the project!

Gigwise: What’s the inspiration/message behind Queen Of The Mall?

Flossing: I think about separateness versus oneness a lot, and how nowadays we can automatically, more often than not, perpetuate the former if we’re not careful. Boundary-setting with others, technology, and possessions became more necessary during the pandemic. I was suddenly stewing in my own bullshit more than ever, so picking apart my contradictions and bad habits inspired most of this EP’s lyrical content. I pulled the title of record from a photo I found in my mother’s family photographs where I’m at the Mall of America as a pre-teen. I felt a lot of mixed feelings while looking at it — priceless memories spent with family but also '90s consumerism’s affect on my current participation in capitalism and the economy. 

GW: What was creative process behind your debut EP?

F: I was sitting on most of these songs, except for 'Switch', while focusing on touring with BODEGA and The Wants. When I felt them nagging at me after all that time, I decided to lean in and record and produce the EP myself in my humble home studio. It wasn’t intentional, but once the body of work was put together, I realised just how much I was fighting my relationship with the bass guitar.

I’d kept my singing and songwriting so private over the last handful of years that my public identity had become too wrapped up in this one instrument and role. That’s why you hear mostly Prophet 6, soft synths, and even a pitch-shifted vibrator on this EP — I was screaming to showcase my other talents and styles.

GW: How would you describe your sound as Flossing? How is it distinctly different from your previous musical identities?

F: Right now, Flossing is pop music but definitely more experimental in the cross-genre sense. My punk and post-punk influences will always bleed through to some degree, but with this first EP I tried to lean more into my femininity, playfulness, and nostalgia for pop and electronic. I now feel more confident than ever in my voice and stylistic choices, not only because of less cooks in the kitchen, but especially because there aren’t men controlling what comes out of me anymore, to be quite frank.

I’ve really been trying to embrace more of my feminine side and the freedoms and challenges that come with the pop genre. Pop is beautiful because it really embraces humor, sensuality, and playfulness in lyrics, which I feel was the element most lacking in my prior work. Rock bands can easily become too self-serious and almost Republican in nature.

GW: The EP is described as being both political and personal, so in terms of your song writing do you tend to draw inspiration from your own experiences or from the world around you?

F: My dad is a social psychology professor and my mom was an occupational therapist for the criminally insane, so my automatic approach to anything is to observe it from a place of empathy and figure out how we’ve evolved and been conditioned to behave and think in the ways we do. In my Virginia schooling, I wasn’t blessed with great teachers of history and politics, so I don’t like to speak on political subjects that I don’t have some sort of personal experience with — or speak first, that is, unless I’m asked. Over the last year, writing by Eve Ensler and Malala Yousafzai has been putting a lot in perspective for me, politically speaking. Obviously my EP has a lot of lyrics about first-world problems — which is neither good nor bad, problems are problems — it’s just something to take note of. When I’m older, I would love to be more politically active in other countries, specifically advocating for human rights and access to better healthcare and education, but we’ll see what this life has in-store for me. One day at a time.

GW: If listeners could take away one message from your music what would you want it to be? 

F: Embrace dark thoughts, just don’t ruminate on them. Instead, try using humour and truth to do something creative and reprogram yourself for the better.

GW: Of the five tracks, have you got a personal favourite and why? 

F: I’d say 'On Read' because it’s the one with the pitch-shifted vibrator! No, but seriously, I'd say it's my favourite because it’s about setting boundaries with technology and others — one of the biggest lessons I had to learn over the pandemic.  

GW: Are there any specific themes or narratives you’re particularly keen to explore in future music? 

F: With creative and emotional labour, I'm more of a feeler initially, and I'll think and act on it later. However, I do have one idea for a concept album with my experimental project Please No Radio where each composition embodies a specific mental illness. But so much is still so unknown about the brain, and it might not be my place, or it could just be too difficult. The second Flossing EP is currently shaping up to have more fragmented dream-like lyrics over heavier industrial-influenced electronic music. 

GW: If you could describe Flossing in three words what would they be and why?

F: A … little… unsettling. After reading this interview people should know why.

GW: Finally what’s one question no one has asked you in an interview before that you wish you were asked?

F: If the human race was put on trial by advanced extraterrestrials, would you defend us and argue for our continued existence? 

More about: Flossing