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Music

Becoming Internet Friends With Poetress, Rapper and Performer Kimchi Princi

The Sydney-based artist walks us through her new EP ‘Just In My Room, Just On My Phone’.

Image: Danielle Karlikoff

Kimchi Princi spends a lot of time hanging out in her bedroom while on the phone. But the Sydney artist and musician does a lot of other stuff besides texting and crushing hard and last night dropped her new EP Just In My Room, Just On My Phone.

The five tracks (that you can listen to below) brim with seductive beats, synth swells and Kimchi's unique outlook on life. The production of Night Dives and WA?STE take things to a whole other level.

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The creative pseudonym of Gina Karlikoff, Kimchi sings about awkward social moments and relationships, both the online and IRL kind. “Internet friend, it’s the hot new trend” she sings on “Internet Friend”, a story about meeting someone online and then lining up to meet in person.

We became internet friends with Kimchi by sending her some questions about her new EP. Read her reponse and listen to the EP below.

Noisey: 1956 or 2016 ’Just in my room, just on my phone’ has such a universal and timeless feel of teenage girlhood. The room as a place and the phone as freedom and independence. Did you frame these songs in any way?
Kimchi Princi: You’re on point about the room as place and the phone as independence.I hadn’t thought of it so explicitly but that’s where it’s coming from and what I want to express. I guess fuccbois are timeless but the idea of having a phone and being able to stay in your room where a lot of the moments in your life unfold while your physically alone is more specific to today. But also, whenever someone asks me what I’m doing, that’s generally the answer – “Just in my room, just on my phone.”

Talk us through the tracks.

It’s All You
You ever see someone you vibe with and you just want to say hi but you’re shy? All the time.

Shift
I really like driving, especially at night. It’s both good and bad how intense the car can feel when you’re with someone else. You can’t look at your phone and you can’t really move so if it’s awkward, it’s super awkward and if it’s good, it’s great. Night Dives is a producer based in Singapore and Melbourne so we really only worked online. It was fun tossing this back and forth over Facebook for a few months until we got the sound we wanted.

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Blood
For when ‘Buy Now’ is easier to click than thinking about our problems.

Internet Friend
This song always pops off! I guess the lyrics are relatable (“you’re just my internet friend, just the hot new trend…”). Felix didn’t intend the instrumental he’d made to be a ‘beat’ but I threw these lyrics over the top and he pitched them up. When I heard it back I was just like ‘fuck yeh, this is how I feel’.

Wake Me Up
This one reads like my diary. It also shows the shittier aspects the internet (social media) can bring, particularly when it comes to relationships - “stalking skills confused with cheap thrills”… You know how it is.

Do you have any videos in mind for any of the tracks?
Yes! I’m super excited to be doing the "Internet Friend" video with my sister, Danielle Karlikoff. Dk does all the visuals for KP – the photos, graphics, video clips and a hectic new live set that we’re working on. The vid is going to feature two friends of mine who I also have immense crushes on so it’s a great excuse to spend a day getting dressed and dancing with them haha.