In the usual Zoom fashion, I spoke with FIG, a 20-year-old lo-fi indie pop singer/songwriter based in NYC, about her inspiration and experience making her playful yet dreamy tunes.

E: When did you start writing and singing music?

F: I started writing two years ago, when I started college and came to New York. Before [that], I always did covers, but I’d never thought, “oh, I can record my own music.”

E: What was your main inspiration for your recent album “the fluke”?

F: The main inspiration is the artwork of the piece, which is basically me dropping a bagel… and contemplating my life decisions [while I looked] at that bagel on the ground. A lot of the songs are looking at life in a better lens, with a different perspective, a more positive outlook. A lot of the songs were inspired by how kids look at things as way brighter.

E: If you had to pick one, which track from the album is your favorite and why?

F: The song “so far” with Huck is my favorite. The process of it was super fun, and I was able to create an animated music video for it with these kids in their own little land. It was also the first time that I could work with saxophone and instruments like that; creating the whole atmosphere and world that I really wanted was awesome.

E: Which of all of your songs is most personal to you? Could you tell a bit about its backstory?

F: The song “plunge” on my EP is very sad; it’s about high school experiences and mental health. It’s kind of like being underwater, how you want to be in that moment and tune everything out. I guess it’s like opening up to the past and reminiscing about that moment, acknowledging that an experience or event occurred.

E: How has the time since March and all of the world’s changes that have been brought about influenced you as an artist?

F: The whole situation is just creating a new perspective for everyone… the whole process of being together and working together is something that’s so important to the atmosphere of creating music, so it was a difficult challenge to see what the workflow was like.

E: What’s your songwriting/production process?

F: Typically, I just do the whole song – songwriting and melody – by myself. I’m terrible at instruments and music theory, so I just write everything a cappella. After that, I’ll work with friends to build the instrumentation around the lyrics and the melody that I made, or I’ll meet with a producer friend, and it’s a whole process; we’ll either create a beat or write out phrases and create stuff out of that.

E: I know you do a lot of collaborations with other artists; what kind of musician/artist do you tend to work with?

F: Definitely [artists with] the same vibe that I have, I think, because it’s what I’m comfortable with, but I would love to reach out to more people. I’ve also been working a lot with hip hop and R+B artists; when I was younger, that’s what I loved.

E: If you could collaborate with any artist, who would it be?

F: Currently, tobi lou. In the beginning, on instagram, I’d dance and make music videos for different artists, and tobi lou reposted [one of them]. He was the reason why i thought to step up and create stuff on my own.

E: What music do you like to listen to in your free time?

F: I definitely like to listen to similar music to what I make: alternative indie pop. As a kid, I really liked hardcore hip hop, and I still love that now. I think, with Spotify and everything, there’s so much stuff and it’s so accessible now. [I also listen to] a lot of funk and R&B, just stuff that you can vibe to and dance to.

E: What kinds of things do you do to pass the time outside of music?

F: When COVID wasn’t a thing, I’d throw a dart on the map and go places by myself, solo trips. I’ve been trying to read more and get into film and things like that, and creating more visuals. I’ve really been into creating animations.

E: What are you currently studying?

F: Culture and media. I did jazz for a year, and then I dropped it because it didn’t make sense online. Culture and media is creating a lot of media-based stuff, which I'm interested in, and it’s cool because you can put it within music too and create this whole experience with music and different media.

E: Where do you see your music going in the future?

F: I would love to perform in general; I’ve never done it before except for acoustic chill stuff. As a kid, I’d go to concerts all the time, and the way that the artist creates a concert is this whole experience; putting them out there visually and musically, so I’d love to do that and tour.