I interviewed Brooke Candy for Vice Italy. Pics by Piotr Niepsuj.
Everyone says when you meet
celebrities they’re smaller than you expected, so I wasn’t stunned to find the Amazonian
Brooke Candy is actually barely above five feet and (dare I say?) junky-thin. What surprised me was her personality. Like y’all, I know Brooke from
her Tumblr and bizarre music videos which make her seem about as approachable as the reptiles she makes out with in them. I was nervous to meet her! And not only
because I’m a fan and therefore afraid she’d think I’m lame and/or catch me
putting her half-eaten food in my purse! No, I was afraid she’d be too much, too
loud, too obnoxious-even for me. So I
was shocked to find "The Freaky Princess" eloquent, elegant and full
of old-school etiquette. Brooke isn’t just the Sex-Crazed Fashion Alien she seems like. If anything, she’s a
Well-Mannered Cat. I learned this (and so
much more!) speaking with Brooke her first morning in Milan, where
she’s come to perform at PWP, eat [vegetarian] pasta dishes and make us all feel dumb
and boring.
Welcome to Milan! What have you done so far? Aside
from streaking on your balcony?
You’ve been following my Tweets!
Duh!
We just got here last night.
We stayed in a beautiful hotel and ordered room service. I ate spaghetti, and I
really like spaghetti, so that’s exciting. That’s huge.
You came to the right place for that. How are you
preparing for your performance? Do you have a backstage Diva list?
I just ask for tea. If I
have a back room, I take two minutes to drink tea. Otherwise just the
adrenaline of performing is enough.
Does being a stripper help you perform?
I don’t do that anymore, and that was just a way to make money.
It didn’t inspire you?
I started stripping because I
needed a job that would give me enough free time to work on my music while
living the way I wanted to live. Before I started stripping I was making music but I wasn’t
comfortable with my body. I was very butch and I wore caps and sweatpants. And then
I started to strip and got so comfortable naked that it became a part of my persona-not
that I’m a “made” persona-Brooke Candy is my real name and my lyrics are based
on my life. But stripping inspired my live performances and made me more open
with my body. I wouldn’t recommend it for every girl but for me it was an
eye-opening experience. It helped me learn how to work people. How to work a man.
A lot of psychology goes into stripping.
I had a method. You learn
that guys who come in with friends don’t have or don’t spend money. But the
ones who come alone do. So I’d find the lonely guy and sit next to him and say,
“it’s my first day, I’m so nervous, I’ve never done this before, will you talk
to me?” So we’d talk until he’d offer me a drink, and that drink would lead to
a lap dance and that lap dance would lead to lots of money.
You’re obviously a feminist, yet you’re very
sexual. Can you explain how it’s possible to be a feminist while behaving
in ways others deem “objectifying” to women? I understand, as a sex-positive feminist,
but I’m curious as to what you think.
It isn’t objectifying if I’m objectifying myself! Nobody is putting me in an outfit an putting me on
stage and saying, “go!” I chose to use my body. Every human has the exact same
shit-breasts, dicks, whatever. We all know what we look like, so I don’t even
really believe it should be an issue. Like I said, I don’t preach that girls
should do it, but if you choose it,
that’s fine.
How do you feel about Taylor Swift
and Katy Perry publically denouncing feminism? Even though they’re obviously, by
the definition of the word, feminists? Why are so many women afraid to associate themselves with that word?
Wait, what?
Katy Perry won the Woman Of The Year Award and said, in her speech, "I'm not a feminist, but I believe in the power of women." And Taylor Swift totally avoided the subject when asked in an interview.
I need to think about this for a second...
It didn’t make sense to me, either.
Hearing Katy do that doesn’t
surprise me but Taylor Swift is insane! Taylor seems so intelligent! Maybe
there’s someone behind her pushing her to say this? Maybe it’s her label’s
fault? Sorry, Taylor blows my mind, that makes me not like her anymore. I
always thought she was cool, but now I dislike her and I’m not a fan anymore…I can not fathom this!
I think the problem is they don’t know what the word actually
means?
But they should! We’ve been
oppressed forever! It’s disgusting! These women should know that we’re still
fighting for equality, that we have to work ten times as hard for less money, they
should know that. Do they not know that?
I think they’re afraid of their public. For example,
tons of people adore you, but you get hardcore haters as well. And I think
that’s unfortunately a result of you being such a sexually-open feminist. I
think it pisses men off, and it confuses people. It’s unbelievable the shit
people say to you...do you read all your comments? Do they affect you?
I read every single thing
written to me. Like, I wake up in the morning and read every single Tweet
directed towards me. I read every comment. 95% of what I get is love. The
hatred doesn’t offend me because it’s ignorance. I used to re-tweet the hate to
shed light on how evil people can be but then I realized I shouldn’t publicize
it because they just want attention. But it doesn’t affect me. I’m strong and
I’m centered and I feel confident with who I am and with my beliefs so I don’t
care who the fuck likes me and who doesn’t.
What does affect you?
I’m a sad person in general.
I’m very manic. I’ve always battled with depression and thoughts of suicide.
It’s just a chemical imbalance, I guess. There are certain things that set it
off, though. Like, I
performed in Madrid and they treated me with disrespect. They were on drugs and
the crowd was rowdy. They were showing me love but the love they were showing
me was so dark that overnight I lost faith in humanity. I was like, I don’t
even want to perform anymore! I was basically sexually assaulted and raped on
stage. I was like, I came here to bring you love and happiness and you’re bringing
me violence! I know that I promote sexuality but that doesn’t mean you can
molest me.
Acting sexual doesn’t mean you’re sexually available.
I believe the artist should
be in control when they are on stage. To have the stage but not have control over it, to have shit ripped off
of me and stuck inside of me was horrifying. I finished my set and cried for
the rest of my trip in Spain. But then we went to London and I was like, OK,
I’m doing the right thing (laughs). Not to say that people in Spain are bad,
but that was wrong. That specific occurrence was really unfortunate. I want
them to know it was wrong and that I feel violated. From now on I’m taking cues
from GG Allin. If you’re going to rape me I’ll fucking throw my shit on you.
I’ll poop on stage and throw it in your face. But I want my performances to be
full of love, so I hope it doesn’t come to that.
Courtney Love, Brody Dalle, lots of female artists
get assaulted on stage, it’s a pretty terrible trend.
I love Courtney Love. She’s
really similar to me, as a performer. She’s such a fucking feminist and very
sexual and crazy and brilliant. But people interpret that in a weird way and
think they can take advantage of us.
Because people are idiots. Especially men.
I honestly think that women
are better than men. I don’t care, I’ll fucking say it. We carry life, we
create it, we’re nurturing, yet we have to deal with more bullshit, everything
is more difficult to us, everyone fucking hurts us, yet we’re strong, we aren’t
destructive, we aren’t aggressive, despite being the victims of aggression
every single day. Like give me a break.
Would you say your main goal is to empower women
through your art? For example, “next time
they call you a slut, Brooke Candy tells you not to give a fuck,” is really
powerful shit for a young girl to hear.
Totally-I’ve gotten a lot of
positive feedbacks since then. Girls saying, “since you put out that song, I no
longer give a fuck.” Girls message me regularly saying, “I don’t care anymore,
words no longer hurt me.” I think that what I promote, even if it only helps
one person, is huge to me. Because I was tormented my whole life.
Who did this for you? Who helped you not give a fuck?
Lil Kim. She was a
successful woman, she preached everything I believe in. She was a total
feminist in her lyrics and in her sexualized imagery. What she stands for is so
cool. A lot of female MCs will say they were inspired by her, but what are they
taking from her? So many female MCs just rap about nothing.
Or they rap about fighting each other.
I hate that. All that just
for attention and record sales. I don’t believe in that, I believe in building
your fellow women up! Because you’ve gone through the same shit, it’s been
hard! Knowing that another woman has dealt with that and then trying to knock
her down is so stupid to me! No woman should be mean to another woman. Especially
through music, because music can sway the masses, literally. You can get into
people’s minds and sway their opinions and change their lives. So why are you
rapping about being a rich bitch? Nobody can relate to that!
Why do you think there’s so many new female MCs
popping up now? For a while there was nothing, and now, all of a
sudden!
Want to know? Kreayshawn.
She’s a feminist, she’s cool, she doesn’t rap about bullshit, she tries to be
really relatable, she’s a friend of mine and she’s really sweet. She opened the
door for all of us, and none of these women thank her. They all try to take her
down, and that’s so sad. She was able to do something other female MCs dream of
doing and she gets no respect. She opened this door and labels saw through her
a profitable market, so now these other girls have been able to get into it. I
believe she truly opened that door. So pay her some fucking respect.
People are rude.
People are stupid, that’s
the problem. I’m trying to spread a message but people don’t get it. Aside from
the gay community. They’re my biggest supporters. Gay men and lesbians. That’s
the final frontier of prejudice.
Why do you think they support you so much?
They accept someone who’s
different, because they’re different. They want to rep me and build me up
because they like the fact that I’m standing up for them and that I’m one of
them. I’m not just claiming this group of people for attention, I identify with
it. I was thrown out of my house when I told my mom I liked girls. I was
fifteen. I can’t do anything else but represent them. If I don’t, I’ll feel
empty inside.
Nice job Tea! x
ReplyDeleteI love this xo
ReplyDeletesux shesz a lesbo
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