"LORD PUSSHWIP IS DEAD":
Myriad of genres on Iceland-born, LA-based artist LORD PUSSWHIP's latest album.

Coming from the land of volcanoes and erupting geysers, Iceland-born Lord Pusswhip creates music in the space between awe and chaos. Just like nature’s unpredictable gestures, his sound ranges from melodious, tender ambient all the way into heart-racing, punching beats. Influenced by the punk rock scene from an early age, Lord Pusswhip has gathered sounds from a myriad of genres and blends them into a sonic whole that also manages to stay faithful to his love of hip hop and trap. Collaborating with Slowthai on the 2015 track, Like A See Sawandscoring the music for the Adidas Originals X NBHD campaign, his latest album, LORD PUSSWHIP IS RICH (featuring guests including Left Brain from MellowHype / Odd Future and Trippjones) is the final work of the “Lord Pusswhip Is…” trilogy, preceded by LORD PUSSWHIP IS DEAD and LORD PUSSWHIP IS WACK. Recently nominated for „Electronic Album Of The Year“ at the Icelandic Music Awards, these works are the sum of an exploratory process marked by travels, collaborations with underground artists and even the “demonic schizophrenic vibe” that the artist encounters in cities such as Los Angeles.

This time, NSNS editor S(GBA) talks with Lord Pusswhip and takes a peek into the artist’s current creative flow, future works and how LORD PUSSWHIP IS RICH opens the door into musical experimentation and promises to keep it open.

You’re in LA now. What are you doing there?

I came to L.A. in 2019 to work on music and participate in the scene but when things were getting apocalyptic in March 2020, I fled back to Iceland. The pandemic cut my stay short because of Covid so I wanted to go back to the States for some time to get it cracking again. Right now, there’s a red alert storm in Iceland and people are snowed in, so I’m not complaining.

You seem to be working all the time on/in/with music. Did you study something with music or was it a hobby that turned into a job?

I’ve always been a student of the game, totally obsessed with music. I did study piano for a long time when I was a kid but always thought of it as more like a chore, but at the same time I was really interested in making music – I just never really made the connection, I was too naive. When I started leaning more heavily into punk rock in the 6th grade, that’s kind of when I started making my own music.

Do you say yes to everything?

No, I’m quite picky but of course want to always stay open and flexible!

Since your musical style is so vibrant, moving between different styles and genres that have a strong energy, I'd like to know more about your vibe and the vibe of this album in particular. What did you have in mind when you started working on it, what has inspired "Lord Pusswhip is Rich” along the way and what do you think about the result?

Originally, the album was supposed to be called “Church ov Ambiguity”, which was supposed to be a comment on nuances in modern life; grey areas, binaries, dogmas… One of the songs on the original tracklist is an unreleased track from 2017 called “Deliriant”, where I just said: “We will experience catastrophes on a major scale in our lifetime” over and over again on a techno beat. Nina Kraviz has played it in her sets. That song hasn’t come out yet and honestly, it would be kinda weird right now with everything that has happened in the world since then. In 2019, my manager at the time suggested to name the album “Lord Pusswhip Is…” and have it be the end of a trilogy. The thought behind the album was, just like my debut “Lord Pusswhip is Wack”, to make a longform “producer album” that goes all over the place in terms of sounds and genres and features some of the artists I've frequently worked with. When “Lord Pusswhip is Wack” came out in 2015, I had just arrived to Berlin and the techno influence hadn’t quite set in yet, but it’s pretty apparent on “Lord Pusswhip is Rich”.

How did Lord Pusswhip become rich or have you always been rich?

“What are riches and houses and power, if in that house blooms no lovely flower?”

I'd like to know more about the process of making this album and the journey you went on.... a project is defined by a beginning and an end, would you agree? Let's start with the smoky studios and dingy back rooms. Can I get a glimpse? What was it like working in those studios and working with all the people involved?

This album took so long to make, it honestly felt like a never-ending story! I remember my designers in Germany who made the cover thought that the album would never come out. I’m super thankful to everyone who collaborated with me on it. Left Brain who people remember from MellowHype and Odd Future is a good friend who lent vocals for the track “Badidas 3k93”, named so because the origin of the beat was for an Adidas commercial score that got scrapped. Left had followed me on SoundCloud which blew my mind and after I messaged him, he told me he wanted to come to Iceland, so we hooked it up and played together at Secret Solstice Festival. He came here on a "Jackass"-style trip with some of his rich homies from the States and we recorded that track on a total bender at my studio. Another night I did a feature was with one of my favourite current rappers, TRiPPJONES in New York. It was during my first tour in 2018 and I was staying with Harlan from Show Me The Body – him and Tripp are in an amazing collective together called CORPUS in New York. I remember we used guitar pedals for his vocal delays. I’d made the beat in London at XL Recordings studios with my friend OEML, who was doing stuff at the time with the awesome and underrated collective TTY that I think is defunct now. He had given me a folder of found cassette recordings and the main sample is some kid doing a Sun-Ra impression on his piano.

Was there some epiphany with this album?

Good question. No, not really - I wish, to be honest! I love having epiphanies. Maybe one day I’ll achieve nirvana while chopping up breaks or something.

How do you think that your sound will evolve as you live more and experience more?

I’m bringing more instruments into the fold and also trying to use my own voice more – a lot of people don’t know I started rapping before I started making beats. It’s kind of a secret but I’ve been working on a release of my vocal stuff only, but that’s another story.

I read in an interview in this on XLR8R: "The Nordic countries are all producing new and interesting sounds and styles - from the Northern Electronics crew to bbbbbb and the wave of crazy rap artists - what do you think is special about the North that leads to this free experimentation? Your answer was: Björk said it best in the '90s, "We listen to music from abroad and misunderstand it in a wonderful way." But now that you're in LA, it's 2022, the U.S. is not Europe, and tech companies and TikTok rule the world. Are you still of that opinion, and in what ways would you misunderstand the world you've chosen to live in and transform it into your own creative, beautiful understanding?

It’s still very true. The main problem with the Icelandic music scene though is a lack of standards. Quality-wise, sometimes it feels like anything can fly, really. It’s very easy to get noticed there. In terms of Hollywood Babylon, I love it here but sometimes you have to be wary and make sure you don’t get lost in the sauce. The L.A. mindset can start affecting you, and it can be a very strange world. I don’t know if there’s so much drama here because it’s where the world’s drama is produced, and people are living in some kind of self-fulfilling feedback loop. I heard someone say in an after-party here once: “If you’re not a liar in Los Angeles, you’re never gonna make it,” which was pretty profound to hear. We have a saying in Iceland: “Glöggt er gests augað” which basically means that the outsider is able to see the forest for the trees. Sometimes, as a guest, it almost feels like you have some kind of jester’s privilege – people will allow you to be more critical than the natives sometimes.

Can you tell me a typical Lord Pusswhip story? Something like “oh man this is me” ... I'm sure there's a lot of fun to be had hanging out and flitting around LA. Do you do that in LA or is that a crazy movie fantasy?

When I lived in Koreatown in 2019, this schizophrenic guy approached me at the laundromat because he saw me reading a conspiracy book and he went on a deranged but fascinating tangent. Months later, totally out of the blue, in a whole other part of the city, he pulled up on me by the curb wearing a white tuxedo. It felt like such a weird cosmic coincidence that I wrote a semi-autobiographical short story based on that experience, where I used a bunch of experiences, stories and encounters I’d had in L.A. as the inspiration. It’s kinda like the Mulholland Drive thing, that demonic schizophrenic vibe in this city is just something else and it’s so interesting how it gets mixed up with all these people’s dreams, often turning it into nightmares.

Name a place in LA that you like to go and let your inner child out. Maybe a costume store or something super weird where the first time you went you thought: “What the heck, welcome to LA”…

Not to be all goth but I love Hollywood Forever cemetery! I’m really into Old Hollywood. I’m hoping I bump into Kenneth Anger there one day before he checks out.

Were you funny as a kid and do you take things more funny or more seriously now?

I was so shy and timid as a kid so I’m definitely funnier now! Before I came back to L.A., I rapped on stage for the first time for the whole of the pandemic at Countess Malaise’s release party in Reykjavik. I tried out some comedic bits impromptu while doing the soundcheck and had to stop promptly when I realized there were a bunch of kids there and I wasn’t keeping it very PG-13.

Favourite meme?

We’re really way past the Dadaist part of internet comedy history. I love anything deep fried.

LISTEN TO THE FULL ALBUM OF LORD PUSSWHIP IS WHACK: