Q&A: Babebee wants to know, ‘whatislove2u’?
REFLECTING ON RELATIONSHIP CYCLES AND ATTACHMENT STYLES - Korean American artist Babebee blesses listeners this Spring with their new ep ‘whatislove2you’. Through ghostly ethereal vocals over electronic indie pop production, Babebee guides us alongside them in this healing journey of finding security within ourselves and our relationships with others.
Produced by Babebee, along with a few collaborations with close friends, ‘whatislove2u’ is a whimsical electronic display of how the experiences we have in our childhood and in our first relationships can affect how we will act and feel in future relationships. Whether you’ve had an anxious attachment, avoidant, fearful, or have experienced them all at one point or another, this EP has a song you can relate to.
Most of all, Babebee made ‘whatislove2u’ as a reminder that we are all worthy of unconditional and secure love. We should be able to express ourselves openly, freely, authentically, and to love and be loved regardless.
Read below to learn more about babebee’s new EP and what they’ve learned while creating it.
LUNA: How would you describe your project baby to a new ear?
BABEBEE: I would describe Babebee, genre wise, as indie electronic. Just combining a lot of genres that I loved growing up like classic rock - but also influences from DJs and up and coming artists that I'm inspired by like PinkPantheress. FKA twigs has always been like a huge inspiration for me. But I feel like my sounds are kind of all over the place because I get bored a lot. I just like to make whatever I enjoy listening to at the time. If I'm in a shoegaze era then I'm making a bunch of sad shoegaze songs. But if I was like ‘Oh, I don't want to be sad. I want to be in my digicore-hyperpop-Sophie-Charlie xcx’ then I will make more upbeat songs. I feel like Babebee is just anything and everything.
LUNA: It seems like your music comes from a very raw place of exploring your life experiences. How did you kind of fall into this art form of music?
BABEBEE: Music is a very therapeutic process for me. Growing up, I didn't have that kind of family dynamic where it’s okay to talk about feelings. I grew up very isolated being one of the few Asians in my community. I felt like being chronically online was my form of connecting with other people who related to me. I think that's how I got really passionate about writing poetry like turning that into music, because it really helps me come out of a dark space whenever I am in one. I feel like it's just unconscious streams of thoughts that I'm dumping into a song.
LUNA: You've been making music for a little bit. How has your music changed in the past few years since you started? And how is your upcoming EP, whatislove2u different from the rest of your body of work?
BABEBEE: I think when I first started, I had a lot of unreleased songs - well, they were released, but I've taken them down because I'm not the proudest of them anymore. But I do have my really old projects. To me, they're really old, but it's only been since 2021, so a few years. But those, compared to what I make now, and even whatislove2u, I feel like are kind of the past version of myself and I'm just releasing it because there are new meanings to it. I feel like it's me releasing like this old version of myself, who is still part of me. I still love writing about relationships because it's helpful to see how I’ve changed, and also the types of people I'm meeting and how I really value myself. I feel like before, I would just be in a bunch of toxic relationships because I thought that was normal. And I was like, ‘you know, I should be dating someone mean to me because that’s all I know,’ but now I'm like, ‘wait, fuck that, I dont want to date anyone that's mean to me.’ I feel like a lot of my music was centered around romantic relationships, or even relationships with my parents and how my parents have definitely impacted who I am and the people that I make romantic connections with. Childhood trauma type of shit. I feel like, whatislove2u is basically all of that. Before I would be very cryptic lyrically, but I feel like whatislove2u has songs that are very straightforward. I'm talking about attachment styles, and I'm not trying to hide that part of me anymore, but I'm also trying to move on.
LUNA: Are there any artists that have inspired you sonically in the past or present?
BABEBEE: I would say in the past, growing up, my dad would listen to a lot of Journey, a lot of ABBA, and whatever was popular during the 90s and late 80s. And my mom would listen to a lot of kpop and watch Korean television. I grew up listening to a lot of oldies and old Kpop. I feel like that has really shaped my taste in music. I feel like Kpop can be very different from Western music. It's opened my ears a lot. Then I started finding artists that I like, like The xx or FKA twigs, even Björk. I had a whole Aphex Twin obsession. I like hopping genres, basically. All of that inspires what I make now. I feel like it's really hard for me to stick to one sound because I've been so influenced by so many different genres that I like to bounce around.
LUNA: whatislove2u explores attachment styles and relationships. You can hear that a lot on the tracks, “GO, GO / 가자!”. And “NEXT2U”. Can you expand a little bit more on this idea of attachment styles through these tracks?
BABEBEE: Yeah! The EP is pretty short. It's five songs. “GO, GO / 가자!” was the most recent song that I made. But “RUN” was also pretty recent, and it's basically the epitome of an avoidant attachment. Like you're running away even though you really want that person, or you want to fall in love, you’re just running away. I used to be that kind of person. Whenever something good would happen in my life, I'd think it was too good to be true. So I would self sabotage and run away. I feel like that is explored throughout whatislove2u. What's really weird is that I feel like my own attachment styles started going crazy - I would be avoidant and then I'd be anxious and then I’d be fearful. “NEXT2U” is about someone just triggering a fearful avoidant attachment, where if a person is avoidant, that I'm going to be anxious, or if the person is anxious, I'm going to be avoidant. So it was this chaotic sense of self. And then, with “HAPPY ENDING”, it’s the resolution. You know, I really enjoyed those times of figuring out and healing from traumatic experiences, but at the end of the day, I want something secure.
LUNA: Does the order of the tracks on the whatislove2u have anything to do with the concept of the EP?
BABEBEE: Subconsciously I think, yeah, I put the tracklist in order where I was going from the extreme to finally waking up and returning back to reality. Being in that zone of attachment and everything, it's really like a different world than reality, it's like a kind of a fucked up fantasy.
LUNA: Can you describe what it was like creating this EP? How did inspiration strike? Did each piece of the process happen quickly or did you have to let some of it marinate?
BABEBEE: For me, whenever I'm in a creative mood, I just pump out songs. And once I have a bunch of rough drafts or things I want to throw away, then I find the ones I really like. I'm like, ‘Okay, this is a project. This makes sense.’ I feel like whatislove2u is an accumulation of songs that I've written over the past few years. There are some older songs, but then there are some newer songs from last year. So to me, it feels old and new at the same time. The process was just a kind of ebb and flow. There wasn't a rush to finish anything, it just kind of happened.
LUNA: Your Production skill is wildly impressive. And you produced this entire EP! Does this extra intimate layer you have with your music add to the relationship that you have with your work?
BABEBEE: Yeah, I think I'm a control freak. I feel like the past version of myself, when I was very insecure in relationships, is a reflection of how I am with my work. Like, I really want to be in control of my feelings, and if I'm really confused, then I want to run away. With music, instead of projecting that onto other people, I can do that with my work, because it's not a human being I’m projecting it on, it's just my art. I kind of do get a little controlling when it comes to projects, but I also did collaborate with my friend Jodah on a few songs and Angelus on “HAPPY ENDING”. I'm always open to collaboration, but I feel like this project was different from, like, A PROPHECY, because A PROPHECY was just me and another producer. But with whatislove2u I wanted to go back to my roots where I was locked up in my room just producing and being very obsessed with the process. whatislove2u brought me back to my roots and refound my love of producing and writing. Like, this is why I'm doing this kind of type of thing. For a minute, I hit a roadblock after A PROPHECY, where I was like, ‘Damn, I don't know what I'm going to do next. I really love that project, and now I have to figure out what direction I need to go.’ And I think that a lot of times artists try to find their own sound. And for me, I was figuring out what my sound is and then I realized, ‘Oh, I can just do anything.’ You know? I feel like whatislove2u is like ‘I can do anything’.
LUNA: What do you hope audiences will take away from whatislove2u?
BABEBEE: I hope audiences take away that love should not be conditional. Whether it's family, blood family, or even just friends. The thing is, everyone is deserving of love. It’s so cliche to say ‘Oh, if we had more love in this world,’ but I actually truly believe that if people had more love, not just for other people, but for themselves, if I had more love for myself, if we all had more love for ourselves, we'd be more gentle to other people. Especially nowadays with the horrible shit going on. I don't want to get political but, personally, I'm just pro no genocide. Pro Palestine. That shit is crazy. I just hope that people are able to connect in a way that we don't have hate towards each other in such a demeaning and violent way. I feel like this project is just about love and how love is revolutionary to me.
LUNA: Do you have any exciting plans following the release of whatislove2u?
BABEBEE: Yeah! I have a show coming up. My first headlining show. I'm pretty nervous and excited. It's gonna be May 1st at Baby’s All Right. It’s a venue where small artists do their first headlining shows. I'm really excited. I'm also going to be showcasing parts of the EP. So yeah, that's coming up. I'm honestly just ready to jump into a new universe of sound. I already kind of know what I'm gonna release next, which is kind of a drum and bass type of dance banger, and then I kind of want to go into shoegaze. So it's just all up in the air, nothing is like concrete except for the show.
