Interview: Stephanie Poetri daydreams IRL
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The world is listening to Stephanie Poetri right now. With over 500 million streams on her 2019 single “I Love You 3000” and the 2021 release of her EP AM:PM (plus an acoustic version), Stephanie is no slouch when it comes to creative output. Combined with her activity on YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok, Stephanie is proving to be a sentimental renaissance voice for Gen Z and beyond.
With a comforting and warm aura, Stephanie sat with us for a brief discussion about her breadth of creative work and her highly anticipated upcoming releases during the 2021 Head in the Clouds Festival.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
How’s your festival experience so far?
So far, it’s really nice. The air is crispy and cold. We love it. I’m excited, everyone’s going to have fun. I love when you can wear a jacket to a festival because the last thing you want is getting sunburned. I don’t see jackets on you. I’m disappointed.
They’re in our locker. Don’t worry, we brought one hundred layers for your set specifically.
Alright alright.
What’s a creative inspiration you have that most people wouldn’t guess?
Sometimes I translate words in my head from Indonesian that don’t really make sense in English. You know when you get those things in your mouth when you accidentally cut them? In Indonesian, it’s sayawan, which means “essence of cloud.” So if you think about that in English, it’s like “essence of cloud” — oh my god, what does that mean?
And we’re at Head in the Clouds.
Exactly. Don’t get those cuts in your mouth lah.
I was wondering if you could tell us about the decision to have an acoustic version of your album. You’re not seeing Lil Yachty come out with an acoustic album, so it’s a big decision.
Yet.
Right, we’re waiting for it to drop.
As someone who also studied, at one point in their life– a long time ago, I listened to a lot of lo-fi. I wanted to mix one of my favorite genres, acoustic-pop, with lo-fi and it ended up being the acoustic version. We also wanted to do it live. At that point, I didn’t know if I would be able to perform anything from AM:PM live because there weren’t festival or shows or anything. It was kind of like, “Are we still doing it in a safe way?”
I know you have a little bit of a YouTube career. I was wondering who are some of your favorite YouTubers?
Right now, I love this one person called ur mom ashley, who I ended up becoming friends with. Her content is very easy watching. It feels like I’m watching a friend. She does some challenges and it feels like if I was in college, I would watch her every day, but I’m not in college. (laughs)
I noticed you’re also streaming on Twitch. Anything you’re looking forward to streaming in the future?
I just started playing The Sims! I really want to play that because I already did a bunch of jobs, but one of the ones I’m doing right now is a Musician. But the other job I’m doing is a Paranormal Investigator. So I go to houses at night and I clean up paranormal goo on the floor and I exorcise stuff, and that’s my job in The Sims.
Anything you can tell us about your future work?
I have a bunch of music ready to come out some time next year. I genuinely think I have one of my favorite songs on the next project. I play it a bunch on my stream because I can’t keep a secret and everyone loves it. The whole project itself is really fun and I hope everyone enjoys it.
Is there anyone this week you’re particularly excited to see?
I’m excited to see eaJ and keshi perform. I’m also really excited to see UMI. She’s performing right after me, so I’m just going to stay on stage!
This interview was conducted by Justin Ricafort, in-person at 88rising’s Head in the Clouds Festival in Los Angeles on November 6th, 2021.
AM:PM EP and AM:PM (Acoustic) EP are out now via Infinite Thrills, 88rising, and 12Tone Music.
Artist pages: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | TikTok
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