Enfnts Terribles

Is there something specific you wanted to showcase on the album? What’s the purpose of Lady Jesus?

Selfishly, it was just free therapy during COVID, going through a breakup. It gave me an outlet to talk about how I was feeling, but then I quickly realized that when I’m feeling some type of way, there’s no way I’m the only person who feels these feelings. When I was piecing the album together, I kind of realized that I accidentally told the story of my life over that year in chronological order. I knew that I had to sequence the album in that order and tell the story from beginning to end. That’s kind of the point of listening to it from top to bottom. It felt a lot—musically and sonically—like going back to my roots. I grew up with my dad being in punk bands, and I haven’t got to explore rock elements in production before. I was really into it when making the album, so it was great therapy for me.

Your music is pop music with rock influences, which has become very popular again. What’s the key to success for pop-rock in 2022?

People connect a lot to hearing real acoustic instruments. For a while in pop music, whether it was a good or bad thing, we didn’t have a lot of live instruments. Someway or somehow, people started to pick up guitars again and record those as the main part of the track. As songwriters, we’re mostly writing over guitar anyways, even if it doesn’t end up in the actual song. It feels rawer. Coming out of COVID, it’s kind of what people are craving. They want to feel like they’re in the room with the artist, so it’s cool to strip it all back and throw in some real instruments.

How do you reflect these influences in the visual part of your project?

I naturally gravitate towards specific color pallets with reds, black, and white. That makes my life so much easier for a photo shoot because I’m just like: “Here are the colors. Let’s go.” Gwen Stefani has always been a massive inspiration to me growing up when she was in No Doubt. I always wanted to be her, and she’s so fucking cool. Whenever I’m styling or figuring out outfits, I always want ‘90s Gwen Stefani and early ‘00s. Just the whole energy of chicks during that time was so raw and super IDGAF. They wore whatever they wanted and were so empowered. I try to bring that into what I’m doing now. It’s fun because I’m still figuring out my style and think I’ll always do that.

ENFNTS TERRIBLES stands for everyone that is unapologetically themselves and dares to stand out in a crowd. Would you consider yourself an ‘ENFNTS TERRIBLES’?

I didn’t know what it meant; I love that. I 100% identify as an ‘ENFNTS TERRIBLES’. Weirdly, I take comfort with being uncomfortable, which is something a lot of artists relate to. Being the outcast in situations is what makes me excited about life. So I do feel like an ‘ENFNTS TERRIBLES’, and I absolutely love that name.

You’ve been teasing a new song called “Monica Lewinsky”, which is out today. What can you tell us about the song?

We’re all so heavily influenced by pop culture, so without much thinking about it, I write about it in some songs somehow. “Monica Lewinsky”, which is out today, is just the pop culture song for me. When my friend Johnny and I were writing this track, we just loved Monica Lewinsky. She’s such a badass. The media put her through the wringer, and she came out on the other side like this amazing symbol for women and feminity. One day, we were drunk—not even in the session—and came up with “Wanna make history, like Monica Lewinsky” and wrote the song the day after.

It’s a fun song about bad bitches throughout the nineties and the early zeroes. I feel like that was such a weird time to be a woman. Now, everybody is freer, and I walk out on stage with my tits out without anyone giving a fuck. During that time, women were dragged for doing that or for expressing any sort of emotion. “Monica Lewinsky” celebrates that freedom and is an ode to Britney, Lindsay, Monica, Miley, etc. The women who’ve paved the way and had to go through a lot of shit to create this safer space we have now.

We’re almost halfway through 2022. What are you planning for the upcoming months?

Touring Europe has always been a massive goal of mine, so the fact that I’m even here every day and wake up in different cities every day is so cool. I’m going to put out an EP in Fall that I’ve been working on. Further, we’re doing a headline tour in the States, and we’re announcing a European tour soon. This year will be busy with a lot of new music coming out and putting out my album. I’m a completely different person, and I’m super hyped.

UPSAHL’s album ‘Lady Jesus‘ is out now on all platform, just like her new single “Monica Lewinsky“.