Agent Provocateur: Shygirl Interviewed
“Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever been more open than I am now…”
An exhibitionist, a sybarite, a thrill seeker, *Shygirl’*s appeal lies in her command of sex and power, transgression and freedom. Need a Dionysian delight? Enter the digitized rendering of an underground renegade.
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Anyone can pinpoint the moment in time they experienced a Shygirl track. My own primer was in the summer of 2019 when I heard ‘UCKERS’, a UK bass-dancehall hybrid churned through an industrial horror blender. I expected filth; what I didn’t expect was the macabre siren cry in the opening few seconds to thread its way through the rest of the number, or the staccato sing-rap lyricism ploughing through paramours with imperious precision.
Every Shygirl track has a disarming effect. Be it the mutant energy of SOPHIE-produced ‘SLIME’ or the cybernetic spoken-word of ‘Rude’, Shygirl neuters listeners by hissing ASMR debauchery directly into their ears, confronting them with a mirror image of their kinks and their compulsions, pushing against the boundaries of respectability over production beamed in from the future.
This prurient voyeurism stands at the core of what the South Londoner represents, infiltrating its way into the imagination of lovers and listeners alike. “I enjoy making people feel uncomfortable because in that discomfort you’re asking yourself questions,” Shy states. “In my music I explore this notion that I could be two people at once depending on who’s looking at me. But what does that say about who’s looking? Whatever you say about me, what does it say about you? I’ve always thought of myself as someone who can live through and give energy to others.”
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28-year old Shygirl – real name Blane Muise - is her own boss: with that comes managing a team and deadlines, fostering a creative environment that’s inclusive, thereby actively pushing back against an industry preserving age-old practices. “I am in control of what I do, who I employ, and where I place myself. On my productions we have a process: we refer to people by their correct pronouns, lay out what we tolerate and what we don’t. But even in those spaces you get misogyny and racism,” Shy pauses. “I can’t live in a world where I experience stuff and have to resign myself to thinking things will never change. That’s not the type of person I am.”
Between working on new music, co-running her label NUXXE, directing short films and fronting campaigns for a Burberry, Shy finds time for pause on the day we speak. During our virtual one-on-one on a scorched Saturday afternoon, there are moments of unembellished self-analysis interrupted by droll tangential anecdotes. Shy recounts recording a feature for the Zebra Katz song ‘LICK IT N SPLIT’, the session engulfed by fumes and a crush on a dealer. “I have a huge amount of respect for Ojay (Zebra Katz) and you can hear this urgency, this nervous energy in the rap. Also, I fancied the dealer. You know when you fancy someone and they make you feel like you’re 14? I was uncomfortable but my inner voice was triggered. Wow, I’m really giving you all the tea today!” Shy laughs.
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After our chat concludes, Shygirl hops on IG Live, interacting with her rapidly growing fanbase from parts of the world she never dreamed of touching. “You get a little kick out of seeing yourself in places you never imagined,” Shy says. “I never imagined this for myself and it is affirmational to a certain extent. But it also pushes me to further engage with myself because I must be bringing an energy out that’s worth something if these people feel something from what I’m doing.”
Shygirl’s traces her affinity for immersive audiovisual worlds back to her childhood when her Dad introduced her to the likes of Aphex Twin and Björk; the latter’s ‘Homogenic’-era techno futurist single ‘Hunter’, leaving a lasting imprint. “I remember listening to ‘Hunter’ for a month on repeat. There was a long period of time where I was bouncing between Björk and Madonna. None of my friends were listening to that stuff but they’re the artists both my parents put me onto: artists pushing things forward. They appealed to the masses but they still had that underground sensibility. That fascinated me then and it’s something I try and channel now,” Shy muses.
Shygirl’s songs unravel the dissolution of a clandestine underworld where the Other stands at the epicentre, underscored by a wicked, almost divine desire to connect with fellow permissive souls. It’s within these nocturnal, often queer spaces, Shygirl emerged as a lithe distiller of genres. “Good things happen at night,” Shygirl states. “The most formative years were my early twenties, when I’d moved back to London from uni and I started DJing. That’s when I met Sega (Bodega) and when the nightlife scene shaped me. There’s a hedonism that we associate with the club that speaks to me and my lifestyle; things that I do that don’t necessarily stay within the lines of what’s normal or ordinary. It’s not so much about the club, it’s just about the mindset of the people who go to the types of clubs I go to.”
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A career as a musician crystallized when Shygirl quit her day job in 2018. Around this time, Shy, who already had a creative arts background, met experimental producer Sega Bodega and on a whim recorded what would come her debut single ‘Want More’. Since then, a symbiotic partnership has formed between the pair, with Sega producing the bulk of her discography, becoming a trusted confidante along the way. “Sega’s like a brother to me. He’s the type of person that’ll say things to me that other people won’t and vice versa,” Shy shares. “It’s nice to have that freedom with each other. You can’t have ‘yes men’ around you all the time, I love having naysayers around me. It’s so important having that soundboard, being able to talk things out with someone who just gets it.”
Shygirl’s collaboration with another pioneering producer ARCA, on the song ‘Unconditional’, released last year as the Black Lives Matter protests reached fever pitch, eschewed the usually abrasive side of Shygirl in favour of susceptibility; her modulated, wraithlike vocal performance both elegiac and cavernous. A song written in the aftermath of familial reckoning, took on a more emotionally resonant form as a rhapsody for the collective suffering of a “bigger family”.
“Me writing ‘Unconditional’ was a cathartic process. These feelings that were tremulous at the time went beyond my ego and it had real purpose. When the protests were happening, I messaged ARCA that I was thinking about this song again, how it reflected how I felt but in a different way. I was bringing up things that I hadn’t addressed in my own life, how I’d normalise certain behaviours towards myself and other people. it felt like the right time to be released. I was really grateful to have made that with someone I respect so much,” Shy reflects.
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On the song suite ‘ALIAS’, released last year, intention met execution. Four digital avatars - Baddie, Bovine, Bae and Bonk - refracted composite parts of Shygirl’s persona through the prism of clubland, techno, ballroom house, hardstyle, Eurodance and so on. Cajoling the listener through various inflections and moods, Shygirl fashioned a world with one cardinal rule: explore your limitless potential. This year’s long-form realisation ‘BLU’, featuring reworked tracks from the project, was another vitrine for Shy to stretch the intemperance of ‘ALIAS’ into an alternative terrain; an icy, metallic blue realm, featuring high-fashion aesthetics, clones, hazy effects and all manner of vehicular posing and posturing.
“’ALIAS’ is a body of work I’m proud of and I felt proud of it before I even put it out” Shy beams. “I want people to see the trail of it all interlinking. Before, in my own life, I definitely had phases that I’d drawn a line under. It’s nice to find something where I can be consistent and have growth that doesn’t feel like you’re shutting off parts of yourself.”
Shy continues: “When I made the music for ‘ALIAS’, I asked myself what is this saying about me? It’s almost like naming a child. I wasn’t taking note at the time but I was letting it run free and I think that’s how I got to the different sides of myself that I personified in those characters. Ultimately, this is an introduction or a continuation of an introduction - a second conversation about how I best want to re-introduce myself.”
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The quest for pleasure-seeking thrills and erotic vocality drives new single ‘BDE’, inspired by a time she dated “a nice guy” who just couldn’t satisfy her needs in the bedroom. “Parts of ‘BDE’ is about dissatisfaction with sex but it’s also about coaxing it out of someone else; building up someone else’s confidence, me saying “nobody does it like you,” Shy explains. “It’s this idea of the feminine want: what it is to be a woman in that position, to want something, to be thinking about the other person while trying to get what you want out of it.” As the aggressor, Shygirl gives her collaborator Slowthai the ammunition and the audacity to drip smutty venom over the grimiest of beats: “I wanted to give thai the space to flex, to be filthy but I’m setting the tone. I need this Big Dick Energy! Why the fuck am I going back to this guy? I need someone who’s thinking about what I’m thinking about.”
Shygirl obfuscates demarcated lines of sexual identity in her work; dismantling sexual taboos, proselytising sexual freedom. She references the recurrent nature of shock-and-awe commentary around sex in music, noting the virulent trend of vilifying black female musicians who dare to foreground their pleasure: “We need to take note of misogynoir because it’s deep rooted. Black women are not meant to have ownership over their sexuality. That’s part of the allure for people that are objectifying Black women; that it’s not by their own design, it’s to be inflicted on them. Like we’re supposed to be submissive.”
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Her brazen assertion of sexual agency in her songs, this need to reclaim and aurally decode her desires stems in part, from the times she was sexualized as a pre-teen. “There’s still so much shame in sex,” Shygirl says. “I know I’m not the only person who’s been thrust into thinking about sex and not by choice; to have guys - actual grown men - catcalling me. As a kid, it’s one thing to have crushes on people your age, but it’s very different to have grown men looking at you and to feel unsafe in that gaze.”
Scrolling through socials, reading tweets and testimonials, you see first-hand, the incentivising effect of Shygirl’s sex-positive ‘pep talks’. “Something that had previously been terrifying is now something I assert control over. It makes me feel powerful and I want people adjacent to me to feel powerful as well; it’s powerful to be aware of yourself and to be in love with yourself sometimes,” Shy avows.
With the rough sketches of a debut album revealing itself day by day, Shygirl is honouring the process and biding her time, accessing inspiration from corners of the music world she felt were incongruent from her own. “There’s definitely a lot of music that I’m working on. It’s like sculpting, it reveals itself at a certain point: it’s a fluid process and it’s very mood-driven,” Shygirl says.
“Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever been more open than I am now. I just want to convene all the things that inspire me and find a way to interact and give back to those spaces. I want do more collaborations; it’s been really nice interacting with other artists, especially other female artists like Kali Uchis, Raye and fka Twigs. I hope to strengthen those relationships and be part of that community more. For a long time, I’ve been quite cliquey with the friends I had, the producers I worked with. It’s nice to be thrust into another community where I’m making genuine connections because ultimately that is the thing that really drives me in life; getting to know people and embracing their experiences.”
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Words: *Shahzaib Hussain *
Photography: *Chieska Fortune Smith *
Fashion: *Matt King*
MUA: *Porsche Poon*
Hair:* James Catalano*
Creative Direction: *Rob Meyers*
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