Audio By Carbonatix
It’s been nine months since Lake Worth’s Neopopsicle released her three-track 2:59 EP. The project was to be used as a prelude to her upcoming project, 3 AM. But since then, the release date continues to be pushed back for various reasons such as her computer crashing.
Her latest single “Red Lights,” which focuses on the demise of a relationship, dropped last week and has resurrected the anticipation for the 27-year-old’s upcoming project.
Neo took some time out to discuss her childhood, heartbreak, sleeping around, being cheated on, and music.
New Times: What was your
childhood like?
Neopopsicle:Miserable. Because I as always trying to figure it out.
What’s the meaning of things? Why do I feel this way? Why am I so unhappy? Why
is music the only relief I get? At a very young age too. Seven. Eight. I mean, I
grew up on welfare in the hood, public housing.
Tell me about the
aunt who taught you how to bleach your skin.
One day I was like, “I hate my dark knees,” and she was
like, “I have a remedy for that. Just get some bleach and a little bit of lemon
and you just scrub your knees and they’ll get lightened by time.” And I think
that’s very detrimental to tell a child that.
It’s more of an ignorance thing that some people, we either
want to embrace our ethnicity but not our race. I think that’s where the issue
with her comes into play, where she sees herself as her ethnicity and doesn’t
pay attention to any kind of racial background she has.
How long did that go
on for?
Our whole lives. Since we were kids. Five. Six. Seven. They
started calling us “nigger kids” on the slide as a joke. They thought it was
funny. And then little things, like that
she would tell me do this for that.
Describe a breakup.
The last real, real relationship I ever had was about four
and a half years ago and, God that was bad. Not dramatic, but the pain of
feeling like you’re divorcing someone because I was with this man for four
years.
It felt horrible. It felt like my heart fell out of my ass.
Like someone ripped my heart out because your best friend is no longer your
best friend. And although it was mutual and it was respectful, I’m not slashing
anybody’s tires or busting anybody’s windows for no reason, it was mutual but
it hurt like hell.
How do you pick up
the pieces to a broken heart?
You don’t. You never do. It’s sort of like regeneration.
Your heart regenerates itself. The pieces that have been shed, they stay there,
and they’re there for a reason. It’s
kind of like footprints in the past. You see them there until your mind feels it
so that you no longer see them anymore.
When did you feel
great in your own skin?
Twenty-three, because my mom had put me through a lot in my
life. I’ve been living alone and independent since I was 18. I remember that
day, June 28. I packed my stuff right after I graduated high
school, and I left to college and I never really looked back.
We grew up not having anything, and so being independent for
that long, I really had to figure it out at some point. And when I graduated,
and I was living alone in Boca, one day I sat down and was like, “You know what?
I’m actually happy with myself. I’m happy with my life. I don’t let don’t let
what others say affect me anymore.” And I’m OK with that. I’m OK to keep my
mother distant, to keep my mother’s family distant from me, to have positive
relationship with my brothers and to choose to be happy.
When you have a song
like “Take Control,” it doesn’t seem like you shy away from your sexual nature.
How does that come out?
The production itself told me to write that. I never
preconceive a song. I listen to the
track and I’m like, “Ok. This is what it’s telling me to write.” And at that
time, I was extremely horny. I was going on eight months of having no sex because
I’m so anal about that, man.
Anal about what?
I want to have one partner and be extremely attracted to him
intellectually, emotionally, sexually and just devour him in all kinds of ways.
I don’t want to sleep around with a whole bunch of different people. I feel
there’s no way for you to really become comfortable in your own skin when you
sleep around. But do to anything and everything with one person, it just
creates this carnal, like that need to procreate.
Describe the line “My
dark knight rides white lines shooting up the stars” in your “Red Lights.”
“Red Lights” was written when I was cheated on a year and a
half ago, and 3 A.M. started from
there. The person I was in a relationship with is an artist as well. It’s a
metaphor for shooting up coke, and being high thinking that’s part of the whole
artist image. But that person doesn’t do coke. It’s just a metaphor for chasing
after the dream and doing what you see other people doing to reach fame, and
that’s what I saw this person doing. He constantly needed attention given to
him to validate himself as an artist.
Why has it taken so
long to release 3 AM?
Life. Because a lot of people don’t want to be honest with
themselves. Being in your 20s, having two degrees and not having the best job
in the world. Not having that much money. Not having daddy’s credit card or
mommy’s pay check. Being an independent person in this world in your 20s right
now where we’re al fucked with student loans and Sally Mae giving it to us. I’ve
just been living and trying to survive and trying to stay levelheaded, and
when you’re trying to put up a project the right way, pay to have it mixed and
mastered, and to have the presentation done professionally, because if you give
one ounce of shit about your craft you want to present it the right way.
Do you know when 3 AM will be released?
It should be here by the summer. If not, fuck it. There’s no
rush. Not to me.
Follow Lee Castro on Twitter @LeeMCastro.
