Diandra Interviews Bully: Getting Political, Musical, And Self- Analytical
I had a blast chatting with Bully because she is refreshingly candid. While most of us dream of attaining our success, she re-envisions what it means to actually have it. As her music climbs in popularity, she has a pressure to observe what is “her sound.” Authenticity feels like the “magic unicorn” every artist chases, and, in our interview, she discusses how she caught it on new album Sugaregg. HUZZAH!
Diandra: I literally heard you trying to connect and you were like, “This audio!” in a cool. rage voice, which feels very 2020.
Bully: (she laughs) It is so 2020! I was just packing my vinyls, for the record, and I looked at my boyfriend and said, “Nothing surprises me. Anything can happen!”
Diandra (laughing): I mean if one of those records came to life and slapped you in the face, I would say, “2020! Yup!”
Bully: Anything is truly possible! Like the fly on Mike Pence’s head.
Diandra: It was poetic, creepy, and a sign of dark times.
Bully: I told my boyfriend, “Is that the tv or Mike Pence?” It was just walking around, and you know he could not feel it because he had so much gel. I was dying laughing, especially because it has like a publicist now on social media.
Diandra: It 100% has a Netflix deal on deck.
(Bully laughs)
Diandra: So how are you these days. Are you creating?
Bully: HELL NO!
(Both of us burst out laughing!)
Bully: When I am in my business brain, it is very hard for me to get in a creative brain. I am very aware this is going to sound like a privilege, but, now, when I write, this is all I am doing. I can’t do an interview and send a bunch of vinyls through UPS because it is just hard. You are always looking on your phone, getting emails and notifications, and it is hard to be fun and creative. I am still promoting Sugaregg, so I haven’t really entered that full-on writing phase, and the pandemic doesn’t really motivate.
Bully – Where To Start [OFFICIAL VIDEO]
Diandra: You said Sugaregg was a “return to essence.” How so?
Bully: I am not a business person, and the reality of living as a musician is that you have to get used to that. So the objective of the record was to return to the naivety of when I started Bully, and I never considered what was going to happen after the record. It was about not worrying about the business until it comes, and just writing what I wanted to write at the moment.
Diandra: It sounds like it was more a return to innocence rather than essence.
Bully: Absolutely so! I was talking about this the other day. It was about checking in that my relationship with music was still pure and not greedy or swayed by other things like, business or what people want to hear. When you are in the thick of it, you just want to play and write music for a living. So having to silence those voices of what write-ups or critics say, and listening to what people like about your music, is kind of what you need to do. It is really hard to do, and with my second record I kept on thinking a lot whether it will be “cool” or how it would be received. So I went back to the first record, in not knowing what to expect, and not really thinking anyone was listening or that it would go anywhere.
Diandra: Isn’t it so ironic how we do things to attract people, and then when they show up we are like, “GO AWAY! You are ruining my process!”
(Bully laughs)
Diandra: But I like that you recognized you care because everybody does. This whole idea that we don’t care what others think is crazy to me. Of course, we do! The question is whether we get anxious over what they think.
Bully: Absolutely! For sure! I care, but I don’t want it to control me. I care, but I am actively trying not to or looking at how I care because then you start looking too deep into things and oddly not seeing them clearly. (she starts to laugh) I don’t even know if I should say this story. It is so stupid, but I was fighting with my boyfriend because we were going on a bike ride and he didn’t want to wear a bike helmet. I was like, “You know, it is not cool to think about what other people think of you and not be safe.” It was so dumb, but it was like, it’s not cool and authentic to do things that are not based on you.
Bully – Every Tradition [OFFICIAL VIDEO]
Diandra: Where do you think that pressure comes from because, frankly, I always thought it came from the industry’s pressure to make artist’s reach the world when that is impossible. Like, the WHOLE world CAN’T know you, and it seems that feeling is why you withdrew from social media.
Bully: Yeah, I just find social media so toxic and evil. (she laughs) It’s funny I did this panel, at a college, and I was like the “anti-social media” person. There was this photographer who was like, “It really helps me and my business,” and I was like, “Your relationship is totally different from mine. I post a really great picture and it gets a few likes, but I post a hollow selfie and it gets even more!” It’s hard not to feel cynical against the world when you feel no one can appreciate the art that you do.
You get a cool picture from somewhere you traveled, and it gets nothing, but something so materialistic can get more interactions. It doesn’t surprise me, but I am aware that these are companies that are profiting from your need for validation. Yet, there are kids that don’t know that, and I am very scared to perpetuate that part of it. It’s just a lot. If I don’t have to have it, I rather not. Like, why do we even have likes? And I can sit here and talk about it all day, but, right now, its the only way I can promote my record without touring.
Diandra: I think social media is really good for businesses and revolutions. So when it comes to supporting a “mom + pop” shop or overthrowing a dictatorship, I am for it, but, at its core, it is totally about jealousy. It is 100% about dividing people according to haves and have nots. That is why I am excited to see it get more political, and have people really talk about things that bother them socially rather than a new, diamond ring.
Bully: Yeah, I have gotten political on Bully’s social media since we started. I think about that a lot right now. It’s unfortunate that things have gotten so bad, you feel you have to get political, but it’s also, now, you can’t say you don’t know.
It is hard to feel like I am making a difference because the amount of information is so abundant, which is so great. Still, it is hard not to feel so discouraged with what is happening politically. The fact that we sit and watch the first Presidential debate, and it was a disaster, and then you see that VP debate, and it was like, “What I would give to have Kamala running things now?” It was so much more eloquent, and it made more common sense then the Presidential one. It was like, “Why aren’t they the ones running?” I don’t know if I am saying what I want to say.
Diandra: Yeah! I totally understand. I feel like the VP debate felt more absorbable and breathable, and I also agree it is not the easiest time to see whether you are making an impact, but it is because so many are trying to really have an impact, as well. I have never seen so many people fighting to vote and get others to vote and marching against injustice. It is really exciting to see. It is a low-key awareness that four more years of Trump will bring the Apocalypse.
Bully: Yeah! It is like how did we survive this guy for four years. How has he been President and is now up again? He is always fighting and bickering, and I just hope the young come out to vote and get him out.
Diandra: This makes me laugh because your album is all about insecurities, and I am like,“How do you have insecurities, and people like Trump genuinely believe they deserve the Nobel Peace Prize!’
Bully (laughs): You know, music brings out my insecurities because that is what I write about, but, when playing live, all of them are gone. I am the happiest on stage, and I think the pandemic has made me question what I do next or who I am as a musician because we don’t have that. So I am a little bit more insecure than ever because what is going to happen to my career?
Diandra: Totally! I think you are not alone in that fear because the world is mutually stopped.
Bully: Yeah! I was thinking about this a few weeks ago. Most of the people, in the world, can’t work, and it is hard to check up on yourself because everybody is going through the same things. Like, I really didn’t check on myself and how I was feeling about this, until a month ago, because you think everyone is stuck. So, it was like, “It’s okay to check up on you, an see how YOU feel!”
Diandra: I do feel like, as human beings, we are trained to always dismiss our own pain by saying, “Well, someone else is way worse than you!” I think that is so horrible for the person who actually is “the worst” because, they may be in a worst situation and A) handling it way better and B) you never want to be titled someone else’s “worst case scenario.” It makes me wonder why we don’t figure out or train people to just deal with their sadness as it is rather than competing or comparing sadness.
Bully: I was talking about this with my therapist the other day. It is very common for us to do that: “This doesn’t happen to me so I can’t complain!” But it’s like, that doesn’t make the suffering go away or invalid. Whatever is bothering you at the moment, does not mean it doesn’t matter.
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