Butterclock's Fave Things

Berlin-via-Paris musician Butterclock is responsible for the drifty vocal honey on San Francisco producer oOoOO’s 2012 Our Love Is Hurting Us EP. Sharing smoky basement stages on the reg (this month, in Australia); together these two are like some dark, romantic music power couple, who only talk in hushed tones of phantasmic R&B sweetness. They can also claim turning Rick Ross’ chauvinist anthem Hustlin’ into a come-to-bed song.

Like all good women, Butterclock’s got her own solo thing going on: her recent debut EP First Prom is a tight set of songs, cut from the same cloth as oOoOO/TriAngle Records’ hazy, lo-fi spectral pop, but nowhere near as gloom gang. It’s more "milky sweet moody". "Holograms", all twinkly beats and 80s-teen-filmy confused broken-hearted lyrics (“now that it’s over, it’s over, and I’m not over it”) is every bit as good as that Sky Ferreira song. Butterclock is every bit as good-looking, too: you could basically press pause at any random ten second interval in her "Don’t" video clip and 100% land on a stunsville frame; Butterclock lying on her bed staring up at you with baby deer eyes; Butterclock falling asleep in some random café. In one shot she is just sitting there on some concrete orb thingy holding a basketball, not even moving, DOING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING JUST HOLDING THE BASKETBALL but damn if it isn’t some incredible, can’t look away witchy sex magic shit.

You know when someone is so cool and in the face of such wild idolatry your own sense of self disappears and you just want to know what they like so you can like it too? Well here is some stuff Butterclock really likes.

PARTY STORES

“l am obssesed with Party stores! Especially the ones on Knickerboker Avenue in Bushwick New York, they have really cool balloons, plus Justin Bieber napkins, plastic flowers…l buy lots of things from party stores that l do nothing with, I just like buying them. It’s the next best thing when you can't afford to go to Disneyland…all the time. I literally spend hours of my life in party stores.

Here is a picture of Butterclock took for us of her having the greatest time of her life with some plastic flowers in a party store

BERLIN’S PLANETARIUM

“l've been living in Berlin for the past three years now, and used to live for a while in a strange neighbourhood called Weinsensee. Completely industrial, big empty avenues, huge supermarkets, abandoned fields everywhere. And right in the middle of this desert-like weirdness was the Planetarium; this giant, magnificent blue ball. l used to stare at the ball for hours from my window, I think it changed me. Inside the Planetarium is this environment that makes me faint with excitement…it’s a mix of fantasy and raw reality, futuristic and desolated. l decided I definitely had to shoot a video there, so I did (Don’t).”

Butterclock’s ‘Don’t’ video clip

BLACK CRACKER

“Black Cracker is a fascinating boy that l met a while ago in New York. Full of talent, contradiction and kindness. His beats kick ass and the lyrics are beyond poetical. He does everything: visual art, music, videos, readings. Plus he’s also a true friend; he had my back when I was heartbroken in Berlin.”

Here is Black Cracker, also holding party supplies

AFRO HAIR SALOONS

My love for Afro wig stores started back when I was about 12 in East Paris. l used to hang there all the time after school, rather than playing with other kids, I would go to this wig store, eat some Creole food and made friends with the amazing hairdressers. Most of them were from the French Carribean. The music they played was amazing—lots of zouk and dancehall. Now in every city l go, I always run into the closest Afro wig store, ‘cause this is where l belong.

o F F LOVE

“o F F love is my dearest friend, and inspiration. We met a long time ago, he’s one of the most talented and generous people l’ve ever come across. His music is heartbreaking, raw and honest, in the deepest way. No one sounds like him. He is a true artist—he is shy though, and doesn’t even realise how talented he his. He is the reason why I am there now—I owe him everything. He also has the best Shakira moves you will ever see!”

Fantasy Record owner o F F love’s ‘Probably Love’ video

SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR’S “THE SECOND SEX”

“I think Simone De Beauvoir’s ‘The Second Sex’ should be part of the curriculum at every school in every country in the world. It’s a classic. She is the mother of Feminism…well, to me. That lady did a lot for the condition of woman. She is a boss.”

Butterclock also being a boss in the ‘Holograms’ video clip

First Prom EP is out now on Fantasy Music. It will be re-issued on vinyl (with a new tracklist) on Japanese label Big Love this July.

Want to check out Butterclock for yourself? Check her out on her upcoming tour with oOoOO:

Gilkisons Dance Studio in Perth on the 21st of June

Puppies in Wellington on the 27th of June

Cassette Number Nine in Auckland on the 28th of June

The Liberty Social in Melbourne on the 29th of June

Alhambra Lounge in Brisbane on the 30th of June