Last year, pop star and resident “Smoochie Girl” Ashnikko followed up her 2023 debut WEEDKILLER with the maximalist world of Smoochies: a saccharine mix of romantic tracks (“Microplastics,” “Liquid”) and pop aggression (“Chichinya”). Having written music for both the Birds of Prey (2020) film and Arcane (2021), the 30-year-old London-based singer-songwriter is no stranger to world-building.
Before the last show of her Smoochies Tour in Toronto, Ashnikko sat down with STATIC to discuss crows, Marie Antoinette, the bottom of girls’ purses, and her many inspirations.
Can you describe the quintessential Smoochie Girl?
Okay, let me switch my brain on. The quintessential Smoochie Girl, she’s a DIYer, she’s a little bit of a crow in the way that she adorns herself with found objects, a junk journaler, a girl who wears her clothes in the way that they’re not supposed to be worn. What else? Sorry, that question is a lot for my last-day-of-tour brain.
I think you described it perfectly.
I wish I had a better answer. I think [she’s a] very mischievous and curious and adventurous person. Yeah, very much following wherever the night takes them. A collector of objects and trinkets and doodads and tchotchkes. [She’s] a girl who always has a snack in her purse.
It’s funny that you mention crows because crows are a massive part of the Smoochies Tour stage show and you even compare yourself to one in “Trinkets.” What do the crows mean to you?
They represent the unknown to me. I kind of imagine the crows as my white rabbit—following the mysterious crow in my back garden. Crows are so intelligent and, for years, I’ve been trying to court the crows in my garden. But, it has not proven itself fruitful because of my yappy dog. She will only let me have one love in my life; she’s very jealous. The crows symbolized the unknown and being quite enthusiastic about stepping into it.
Your visual style is so strong: “STUPID” and “Hi, It’s Me” have these great horror movie aesthetics and “Smoochie Girl” and “Trinkets” are very cinematic. What are some of your favorite films that you think about when creating a music video?
Let me pull up my moodboards. I have a lot of films on there. I have Helter Skelter (2012). I have FRUiTS Magazine; not a film, but these are some of my references. I have Josie and the Pussycats (2001). I have Stardoll: iconic website of my childhood. I have the Cooking Mama Nintendo DS game.
I have just a lot of pictures of the bottom of girls’ purses. I think [it’s a] huge inspiration for me. I feel like purse sediment is almost like reading someone’s tea leaves. What other movies do I enjoy? Sorry, I’m just giving you, like, lots of inspo.
No, this is great.
Mmm. What else? Maybe some, like, Fantastic Planet (1973), Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared (2011), Alice in Wonderland, of course. A lot of Vivian Westwood’s early collections. Hmm.. decaying Sylvanian family members.
Decay?
Yeah, like moldy Sylvanian family members, like Calico Critters. There’s this one animated film called Mind Game (2004) that I absolutely love. It is so colorful and so fucked. That was a huge ref for me.
There’s this really, really old film called The Merry Frolics of Satan (1906). I haven’t seen it, but I have a lot of screen grabs of it on my mood boards. What else? I have a lot of pictures of rats and tiaras. A lot of Junji Ito manga in there. I feel like it was just a real hodgepodge of stuff. Not one thing, just everything that I like. Very colorful and maximalist. At the core of it, it’s maximalism. I would like to go back and amend that a Smoochie Girl is a maximalist. They’re the enemy of minimalism and the color gray. Sworn enemy.
You can definitely tell that from the outfits that have won Smoochie Girl [on the tour].
Everyone looks so good. It’s so inspiring and it’s so cool to see everyone really, really getting it, really understanding the world. I feel like they get it in a way that I haven’t had in past campaigns. This campaign has been a lot more accessible for people to step into and play around with and take inspiration from in their own designs and their own outfits that they put together which has been an absolute honor.
What is one historical figure that you would call a Smoochie Girl?
Oh my god, that’s such a good question, fuck. Hmmm…gosh. That is something that I have never thought about. Do you have anyone that you were thinking about?
The first thought is Marie Antoinette, but like Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette.
I actually just listened to a seven-part series about Marie Antoinette. She was kind of rock and roll. She was a victim of misogyny because she took all the blame for the problems of the French government. She was the scapegoat. It all fell on her. And they all called her a whore and a lesbian and a chaotic queen. They were so cruel to her when it was actually the King’s fault. It all fell on her shoulders. Anyway, I don’t know. You don’t have to add that in about Marie Antoinette. She’s a very divisive character. Obviously, she lived in flagrant excess. But, she was a fashionista.
She’s always been a great aesthetic inspiration.
Yeah, she’s a fashionista. But, I don’t think that a Smoochie Girl is that disconnected from the rest of the world. I don’t know if I would say that Marie Antoinette is a Smoochie Girl. Maybe aesthetically. I really loved when she played around with her wigs. She had her wig artist and they would throw whatever the fuck they wanted in her hair, like “Let’s make the wig a giant boat!” I really liked that. That was a really cool phase she went through.
She went through like a…God, what was that phase? Where she only wore…she was cosplaying like a peasant. She would wear white peasant dresses.
She had in her estate a whole kind of town so she could pretend to be a peasant.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Petit Trianon. I don’t think Marie Antoinette, maybe morally, is a Smoochie Girl. But aesthetically, I can see her world of maximalism fitting in, but I would love to see someone cooler. Let’s find someone else. Like, a rock and roll courtesan.
Now I’m just thinking French, like Joan of Arc.
Sure, sure, sure. Also maybe Madame Tussaud. Now I’m just in France. Madame Tussaud was a really cool character. A bit morbid, but loved beautiful things and would recreate people out of wax for the curiosity of others. Man, just odd. I do love history.
On the note of inspiration, what are some musical artists that have inspired you?
I love when Gwen Stefani first started putting out her solo stuff that was very aesthetically striking and, sonically, very interesting and new. I love early M.I.A. stuff. I love Missy Elliott and her whole world that she was building. I love Hayley Williams. Oh my god, I love Britney [Spears]. Her first albums were just fucking incredible. Like, completely set the blueprint for pop music. Who else do I love? Joan Jett. I love Dolly Parton. I love Loretta Lynn. Let me go to my playlists. Are we talking about icons here? I love Grimes, I love Bjork, I love Rihanna, I love Hole. I love Kelis. I love Babymetal, I love Madonna. Pussycat Dolls, oh my god. Huge for me. Let’s see… SOPHIE, Purity Ring, Uffie, Christina Aguilera, oh my god, yes. Lil Mama. Gaga.
And you actually were on a Gaga album.
I was, I remixed “Plastic Doll!” Yeah, that was fun. That was really fun. BloodPop asked me to do that. And then they accidentally put my demo on the album instead of my mastered version which was unfortunate. That is the second time that’s happened to me in my life.
What was the first?
I did a song for Arcane (the Netflix animated series) and they [used] the demo where I literally had a cold. You can hear my blocked nose in the show.
So in the final version of “Paint The Town Blue…”
Yeah, in the show, [it] is me with the blocked nose. Like, completely rough vocal. Literally something I just sent them to be like, “Do you like this?”
I feel like that works for the character of Jinx.
Maybe, but I have OCD, so that sent me [into] the depths of my hellish brain. For a long time. I love…I love to control.
So, you’ve written amazing lyrics including “I shaved my hairy toes for you, I’m a hobbit.” What is your songwriting process like?
I have written for K-Pop, I’ve done stuff for Doja Cat, I’ve done lots of things and I’m hoping to do more in the future. I do a lot of research and development where I just watch a lot of films, read a lot of books, go to a lot of museums, go on side quests, make friends, learn new hobbies. And then, I compile them all and begin my writing process. I’m very one-track minded when it comes to writing. I can’t really dip in and out of writing. Some people can come back from tour, go to the studio for a few days, and then go back on tour. I can’t do that. I have to be like, “And now it’s writing time!”
Something that’s so refreshing about your music is how biting and aggressive it can be. I feel like your album WEEDKILLER, with “You Make Me Sick!” and “Chokehold Cherry Python,” is kind of the height of that. Where do you draw from to write some of your angriest songs?
I mean, I just peek outside of the window. I open my phone for five minutes, you know? I feel like it’s really hard not to be angry right now, in this world of mass exploitation and destruction of [the] planet and humanity. That’s a really, really, really easy emotion to tap into.
Speaking of WEEDKILLER, do you ever regret the bob?
No, I think it’s funny. I love it, but I needed to cut it because my hair was so fried. I did, for a moment, wish that my hair was longer. Now, I’m letting it grow out. Now, I’m like, “Oh my god, what the fuck did you do?” It’s so hard to grow your hair out from a bob. But yeah, it was a fuck-ass bob for a second.
How did blue hair become such a core part of the Ashnikko brand?
Oh, I dyed it green and then it faded to blue. I like blue better. I just stuck with it for so long that now it feels weird not to have it. Didn’t really think about it that hard. I do change it every once in a while in a very sneaky way. Like, at one point, I was purple and black. Now, it’s like a pigeon, bluey-grey. I’m sneaking my way into different colors without anyone realizing. And before you know it, I’ll have my natural hair color back.
We’ll never see it coming.
It would be so gradual.
Your first EPs, Unlikeable and Sass Pancakes, are so different from the Smoochies sound. How do you see your sound evolving in the future?
Hopefully, just as drastically because I love to play; I love to experiment. I don’t know what’s gonna happen. I do feel like this Smoochies world, sonically, feels like something that I can live in for a little bit longer. I’m not sure and that’s the beautiful thing about making music. I really just have no idea what I’m gonna make when I go into the studio. And then, when something that wasn’t there before bursts into existence, [it] feels like magic.
You just have to see what comes to you.
Yeah, yeah. It’s quite strange. Like, okay, six hours before this, this thing didn’t exist. And now, it’s here and it means a lot to me. It’s this thing that I can’t touch but is very meaningful and is an extension of my spirit. That’s why I love music.
You’re calling from Toronto. Have you tried poutine yet?
Oh god, if I tried poutine I think I would just be on the toilet all night. I think my personal experience of tour is a very digestively upset one. I simply can’t do it any longer. The inside of all of my internal organs right now are just screaming at me to chill the fuck out and eat a salad. Don’t even talk to me about poutine because I will…I can’t.
Fair enough. You did say on stage that you have the “composition of a Victorian child.”
Yes, I do. It’s not ideal. Touring is hard for me. It is really hard for me, but I do love being on stage. I love performing. I wish I could just teleport.
One last question, you’ve released six Halloween-themed tracks since 2018. Will we be getting a “Halloweenie VII?”
Gosh. I’m sure, right? I’m sure. Probably. I just don’t know when it would be. I don’t like to speak with finality, you know? Very likely. Very likely.
Well, thank you so much for doing this.
Thank you! I wish I had a better figure who was a Smoochie Girl. Me and my girls had a little day out of London to this place called the Charleston House which is this cacophony of color and it is incredible. The whole house is top-to-bottom mural painting. Found objects and handmade things and just a crafty bitch heaven. It’s really…it’s so good. It was painted by Vanessa Bell and her husband, Duncan Grant, and they were basically in this polycule there. I think they were Smoochie Girls. I’m not sure about Virginia Woolf, but her sister definitely. Love her.
I’m glad we found someone.
I love Marie Antoinette as a fashionista. But, she was too disconnected from the world. Also, maybe Boudica? She murdered Roman invaders in cold blood. She was Queen of the ancient British Iceni tribe. She led a failed uprising against the conquering forces of the Roman Empire. She is considered a British national heroine and a symbol of the struggle for justice and independence. Anyway, she was this real, iconic woman leading an army. Huge fan of her as well.
These are some niche historical choices.
I do love history. This is why I’m upset that I didn’t have more people. Wait, actually, let’s see, who else? I’m looking through some more girls. Maybe Mary Shelley? Loved her. Just through and through, a real true goth. Yeah, throw Mary Shelley in there. And then, Marie Antoinette sometimes. When she was in her wig phase.
With the boats.
Yes, when she had boats in her hair. When they were getting real conceptual on her head. Then, she can be a Smoochie Girl. But, not when she was cosplaying as a peasant. That was not very Smoochies.