Feura (they/she) is not an artist that you forget; not an artist whose name will be on the tip-of-your-tongue. Once you’ve been seduced by Feura’s adrenaline inducing performances, listened to their provocative, club-thumping anthems, or seen the video for their latest single, “Zuck Me Off” - you never forget the icon that is Feura. I’ve had the chorus of their new single stuck in my head since I first heard it. Complemented by live guitars, the song is highly danceable and highly political - begging billionaire Mark Zuckerberg to treat Feura like his personal wage slave. In the accompanying video, Feura crawls through the Toronto Financial District on all fours while Zuck tugs at their black leather BDSM gear. It is incredibly well shot and provokes interest in real issues while stirring your sexuality.
Prior to experiencing “Zuck Me Off”, Feura and I started talking over Instagram (you may be noticing a trend here) and we discussed collaborating on something. I did some internet digging, made my way through videos of Feura performing, and pieced together a more full idea of who Feura is. I quickly dropped back into their DM’s asking for an interview. The performer I saw online was vibrant, choreographed, and exploding with energy. In one video, Feura is on-stage striking a pose when their song begins, they eye the audience through drag make-up and as soon as the beat hits - they’re gone - running through the audience and pulling people from their static awe and encouraging them to dance.
Once we had an opportunity to meet virtually, the first thing I noticed was how intellectual and educated they are. You’ll see for yourself once you get reading, but I quickly discovered how deliberate and calculated Feura’s art is. If I am even remotely self-aware then I know I am not the most informed person when it comes to the issues facing queer Canadian artists of colour making their place in the music scene. Feura advocates these issues with every breath, truly personifying the themes and statements their music makes. What’s more, they do it with a fun, sexy, and bubbly disposition (believe me, we laughed through a great deal of this interview). Discussing politics and heavy-hitting issues with Feura leaves you smitten with the ease that they traverse these topics, and champion them with a true display of artistic purpose.
BACKGROUND
Toronto performer, producer and DJ, Feura brings a fresh take on hyper-pop by incorporating their theatrical background, drag-inspired costuming and performance for a fun and energetic experience. Inspired by artists such as Dorian Electra, Lady Gaga, Charli XCX and SOPHIE, Feura uses drag to incorporate all of their favourite parts of theatre: acting, dancing, costuming and character creation, with their musical expression. Unlike most drag performers, Feura sings live while they embrace the campy nature. “To me, every time I step on stage, my ultimate goal is to be the best entertainer I can. As a multiple discipline artist, I don’t limit myself to categorization as to who I am or what my craft is”. By continuing to break down binaries in their artistic practice, Feura’s work can truly be described as queer in nature.
29JAN22
-The speed round-
Smol: What is the best liquor to shoot?
Feura: Fireball [laughs]. Not great, but if you’re on a student budget that's what you got. It’s big at the gay clubs… we love Fireball.
Smol: What’s your favourite fruit?
Feura: Mango. They’re just sweet, and when they come in season it’s great.
Smol: What’s your next travel destination?
Feura: I want to go to New York, but, oh, you know what? It will probably be BC though. I’m going to go see some art in BC and I have a lot of friends who are here for school at Ryerson. They’re all going back home for the summer, so I might do a two week trip, go see the mountains, get away from people but in a way you’d want to – not in a COVID way [laughs]. Go be one with nature. I’ve never been before so I’m really excited.
And New York, I just want to go see the art, and the culture, and the people there. I’d love to perform in New York someday. I have to say, the political climate of the United States has kind of pushed me away from there right now, also the COVID stuff. But you know, eventually!
Smol: What’s your favourite childhood memory?
Feura: It’s kind of funny, but I directed my first play when I was in grade four. I wrote the whole thing for a Medieval Times talent show, so my favourite childhood memory is the day that the show went on. My parents have the whole thing on film too. The curtain was a bit higher than the floor so you can see me shuffling around in the back trying to get the actors to do things. It was like a two-page script, but it was a big deal at the time.
Smol: That’s pretty impressive for grade four!
Feura: Yeah! Everyone was like, “I’m going to sing a little song,” or “I’m going to do a little dance,” and I whipped out a sheet of paper – and I was kind of illiterate at the time, I was known for being the kid who couldn’t spell at all – and I was like, “I’m going to write a play!” [laughs]. So I sat down with my mom and she wrote down my play. Every line was, like, three words and a period but it was a cohesive story at least. I bribed all the actors, because they were my friends, with lollipops. So I’ve been doing this since forever ago!
Smol: Favourite day of the week?
Feura: Gotta be Friday! That’s when the club scene is the best, everybody is out, and I guess Saturday is a close second. I mean, I think if I said Monday that would be enough to end the interview [laughs].
Smol: What is your favourite game?
Feura: I mean, life’s a game! [Laughs] Nah, I don’t know, I’ve been playing Mario Kart a lot with my friends. We do that a lot, you can make it into a drinking game, and there are wondrous ways to do that. Like, every time you do a lap, and you’re in first place, you have to take a sip of your drink. It kind of evens the playing field.
Smol: What’s the most addictive snack?
Feura: Ouu – I am a sucker for the watermelon gummies. I have a huge sweet tooth; it’s, like, kind of a problem. I’ll go to the dollar store and they have the dollar packs, like the rip off version of the Maynard’s ones, and I will just down a pack of that while I’m making music and not even notice, then go out and get another one. I mean, I like to keep everything on-brand, so the pink and the green [laughs].
Smol: Do you have any pets?
Feura: No pets at the moment. I’m out too much in order to have a pet, and I’m doing too many projects, and working on the release a lot right now. I would love to have a cat but the poor thing would be neglected and I would be like, “Ok, you need to be an independent being.”
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Smol: When did you start playing music? Did you take lessons?
Feura: It kind of goes back into the whole theatre thing. For me, I consider myself a multi-disciplinary artist; I don’t like to pigeonhole myself into music. So the “Zuck Me Off” release is very much informed by my theatrical background – the ways that I direct the video and even the cover, and all of that. So going back, my first experience with music was doing musical theatre, because really I just wanted to be up there and act, but then all the shows were like, “Well, you have to act and sing,” and I was like, “I guess I better learn how to sing!” My first big role and breakout into the industry was playing Orphan #12 in Annie, the musical, when I was ten years-old.
I continued to do musical theatre, but I was also playing hockey at the same time. I played hockey for ten years, from four years old ‘til 14, and I had four concussions which I call my ‘creative concussions’ [laughs]. It’s crazy because prior to that I was a math and science kid and then, you know, knocked a couple of brain cells around and then – Boom! Art! But one of my concussions was so bad that I had to live in a completely blacked-out room, nothing to do, and what they told me was, “You can’t watch screens, can’t really think too hard,” and I couldn’t read or do math. My options were: listen to audio books, and I was listening to Anne of Green Gables – I know, very riveting – or I could learn music. So I picked up the guitar, and I started learning how to do a few chords and things like that. I wouldn’t say I’m highly trained in any instrument, I can kind of play everything to a poor degree which I think is kind of every producer’s vibe [laughs]. Then, in high school I started taking vocal classes in school.
But really, the turning point for me was COVID. I was getting really involved in theatre. I wrote and directed a political play in grade 12 and brought it to a theatre festival. It was about state violence and it was also a satire. I love bringing fun to politics. Then I had my first paid directing gig for Theatre By the Bay, but COVID moved it all online and I was directing the actors via Zoom. It was kind of painful; I think it was painful for them too. And as somebody who needs to make things all the time, I started looking at ways I could do that, and I came across a music production course online. So I signed up for online music production and I just absolutely fell in love with it. I’m coming up on, or just over a year now, since I’ve been producing.
Smol: That’s impressive. It’s great that you’ve been able to turn lockdown into a positive.
Feura: Yeah! For me, COVID has given me so much time to think about my own projects, and as terrible as it is, having school online means I can turn off my camera during my classes to work on music and they don’t even know [laughs]. For example, “Zuck Me Off” was written in the middle of one of my courses. While my teacher was giving a lecture, I was playing on my bass, writing this line, and I was like, “Wait, this kind of slaps!” I was writing it down and listening to the lecture, partially, and realized they were talking about the billionaire class, and I had stuff I wanted to say. So, I raised my Zoom ‘hand’ but it was too late so I put all of my thoughts down, into the beat I was working on. Yeah, COVID has given me so much time to think about the things I want to work on and time to create them.
I think if you’re passionate enough about it, and can find new ways to be innovative, and keep yourself preoccupied through creative means, I found time in COVID to find new skills to apply to my art, so I guess I consider myself a COVID artist in a way.
Smol: Was it easy to apply your theatre background to your music?
Feura: When people think of theatre directors they think, “You sit behind the table, you have the script, you do the thing.” But, when you are an independent artist, as a director working for small theatre companies, you have to do everything, you have to do the scheduling, the booking. So planning “Zuck Me Off” I had to reach out, write the contracts, do all of that while having the overall artistic vision. I was working in a space I’ve never done before but having all of that theatre training; I know how to talk to actors, give direction, and use that language to communicate to my co-director and editor, Sean, what I’d like to see expressed.
I also use my theatre background when crafting my live performances. For me, live performance is not just about getting up there and singing. I think about it from my informed theatre background.
Smol: I’ve seen videos of your performances and I sense a punk kind of energy. You’re on the stage at the beginning of the song – and then you’re gone! I imagine you’re running through the audience. Do you think you apply that ‘punk energy’?
Feura: Oh yeah! I want to get actual video of it eventually, but I was running around and getting people to stand up and dance. It’s interesting that you bring up punk because I didn’t think of it when I started, but what I'm doing is really a continuation of queer radical music culture. Punk was also very politically informed, not necessarily queer, but look at The Sex Pistols and what they were doing. Even in my aesthetics, I consider myself to be the cyber-punk version because I have the shaved-head mohawk thing happening, and even the wristbands, the sexual imagery, the strangeness - that’s all very punk.
We take a few minutes to discuss punk bands that helped to create safe spaces in Toronto in the late 70’s for queer artists and community members. We agree that the DIY sensibility, and the punk attitude of being yourself and not giving a fuck, were catalysts for creating an inclusive music scene.
Feura: There was a very strong boundary drawn between queer and gay and lesbian, because even for myself, I don’t consider myself gay and lesbian, I consider myself queer because it ties into the whole, “You are what you are,” attitude. And that’s what I want to be known as.
Also what I make is mostly electronic and MIDI-based music. I think “Zuck Me Off” might be the only song I use live instruments for, because I do play guitar and things like that, but it’s just such an accessible medium that anyone can get into. You don’t have to know music theory, you just click in the notes that you want. Like, I don’t know how to play drums but for the single I can go get some drum samples and make something that sounds cool. Music is accessible and that’s how I was able to get into it and start writing. 20 years ago I would not have been able to produce, write, you know, get together teams… you had to go to a label. This era of technology has really opened up accessibility for artists.
Smol: What are some things you’ve learned while working on this project?
Feura: I am super lucky. I am part of the Canadian Musicians Cooperative, which is this new initiative where you can buy a membership and they give you all this amazing industry training. So this summer I worked as an Emerging Musician, under a Canada summer jobs program, and I was basically paid all summer to do live performing online, and to sit in on Zoom classes. They were all about industry training, so: copyright law, booking shows, writing contracts, publishing, marketing music, everything like that. You can see the huge difference it makes as an independent, getting access to that training and learning about it, because now I’m able to exploit all the different ways to profit off of this project and make it successful, and make it look professional.
Even just reaching out to people and organizations such as yourselves, and realizing how important that is, not only for us as artists, but to support the smaller initiatives that are popping up to enrich the music scene happening within your town.
I will say different granting bodies are looking at you as a business. So for “Zuck Me Off”, when I was applying to the FACTOR grant, which I did receive, I did not put in this song because I was concerned they wouldn't accept this kind of art. But the money was used for making this political art, which I now want to make my thing. As a person of colour coming from Barrie, Ontario, up north, I know all about reading the situation [laughs]. I’ve got lots of experience with that one.
Smol: Is being a Canadian artist a disadvantage on the global scale?
Feura: I if we were to condense Canada’s population into, like, we’re about the size of New York. But, if we look at how much culture and diversity we have within Canada, from a perspective of where I want to live and the values; yeah Canada still has a lot of the same problems that I’m looking to talk about, like exploitation, and things like that. When it comes to the way that we treat culture, I much prefer here instead. We have this great value of multiculturalism over the United States, which is more nationalistic, like, “You are an American,” instead of just being like, “No, we have all these niches and we love them for what each of them are.” I think my art, creating political art; it flourishes in an environment where it is all about multiculturalism and respecting different nationalities and cultures. What everybody brings to the table is unique and different.
Smol: What inspires you to make your art?
Feura: That is a hard one. When it comes to what inspires me – it’s sort of everything. I’m an accumulation of everything around me, like when I’m thinking of my art and what I want to do with my life, like, I’ll go on these meditative walks and I’ll just look at people around me, architecture, visuals, everything. I just gather that information and that is what moves me to make art. But most of all, over anything, it’s people. People inspire me. What people are capable of doing; we are just such unique creatures with our abilities to express. The biggest thing that separates humans from other species is our ability to collaborate. “Zuck Me Off”, that song is so inspired by looking at people around me and thinking about: how can I help in what I am capable of doing, and what I am good at as a person, how can I work with people to create a project that can inspire others too? Get out, mobilize, especially young people because young people are so jaded with over saturation of media since we were children, we all have numb brain now [laughs], short attention spans. But yeah, overall, just wanting to help people – that’s what inspires me.
But some creative mentions, of course drag artists have always inspired me. The Club Kids, if anyone knows about that movement from the 80’s, of just like, outward, unapologetic energy and creative expression. Like, “F-you I don’t care about if you don’t like me,” that attitude really inspires me as a whole. Again, you can see it, because people like to ask me, “How was it being walked around on a dog leash in downtown Toronto?” [Laughs] It’s that F-you attitude that inspires me and moves me to do what I want without caring.
Smol: I can tell from the video, it’s genuine!
Feura: Thank you! I think the proof is in the pudding. Like I said, I’ve been doing this since grade four! [Laughs] I know many artists and I think plagues of artistry is that sometimes people want to build up a conception of what a successful artist looks like, and then try to be that person, versus saying, “What am I? Why am I a successful artist? What’s inside me that I can show?” For me, that’s all about making projects, not just music, come to life and really inspiring people. My live shows, it’s about being moved, it’s about having a community and a connected space. I think music is one the things that can bring people together the most, it’s a collaborative connection. That’s really what I want to bring home with my art.
Smol: Why is collaboration in music so important?
Feura: Being able to do something with a bunch of other people is just such a powerful experience. When it comes to music, one of the things you always hear from people is, “I went to this concert and it changed my life,” or “I met somebody at this concert and now we’re lifelong friends.” Community spaces, community drum circles; get out there and connect with people. I’m taking dance classes right now, and it’s pretty funny because I’m not great at dancing [laughs], but I wanted to connect with my community.
Smol: How did you pick the name Feura?
Feura: It’s pretty funny because everyone thinks it must have some kind of meaning behind it, but I kind of just made it up. The long and short of it, my original concept for the EP was sex robot, and exploring gender through the idea of an idealized woman even though it’s not even a woman, it’s a pile of metal. And I’m still very intrigued by that concept but I’ve kind of moved away from it to work on projects like “Zuck Me Off”, which is a little more punch-in-the-face, which I think is more effective. Sometimes people, with conceptual stuff, they think, “Oh just let it be an art thing,” but as soon as you put on a Zuckerberg mask people take onto it right away [laughs]. But yeah, I had this sex robot theme that I was working on for a while and my friend was like, “What about femmebot?”, and I was like “That sounds like Austin Powers, it kind of sucks.” But I kept thinking about it, and slurring it in my head, and was like femmebot… feura… Feura! I looked it up online and nobody owns the right to the name, OK great! And I love that because I get to instill my own meaning into my name. Feura is what I am.
Picking a name, even just as an artist or whoever it is, it’s such a queer experience. I don’t care who you are, but finding your own identity and expressing that through a name - that is the queer experience. Of course you could bring it into trans issues, if you’re trans you get to pick your own name! But just as a concept, not being defined by what other people label you, or what you’re born with, I just think that kind of self-reflection is amazing and I think, as an artist, picking a name is a queer experience of itself. I maybe think about that stuff a little too much [laughs].
Smol: How long have you lived in Toronto for?
Feura: I grew up on a farm, and I’m actually wearing camo pants right now [laughs], but yeah, I’ve lived in Toronto for just over a year. I originally came here to go to the University of Toronto for Political Science and Theatre. I’m taking a break this semester because my music is kind of taking up my life. But, before that I grew up on 100 acres in the middle of nowhere on a farm – well not really a farm, it was a managed forest. Just cute animals and trees and me [laughs]. The way that I emerged out of that has always been a mystery to everyone around me and myself, because where I’m originally from, I didn’t even associate with being Chinese until I was 12 years old. Everyone around me was, like, redneck, blonde hair, blue eyes. If you look at the class photo it is just me – and the rest is blonde hair, blue eyes. But my parents knew right away that they had to get me out of that situation and ended up putting me in school in Barrie. So I really consider that I grew up in Barrie, in that whole conservative suburb culture thing, but I’ve always been that niche person who grew up on the outskirts who didn’t quite belong. Just because I’ve always been really into politics, I’d show up to school with glitter on my face, so I’d just kind of be in the back like, “Hi guyssss.”
But yeah, being here, in the city, I’ve just flourished I think. I’m finding who I am. Living here has given me access to a lot of communities and connections like, pitching the idea “Hey, can you come downtown and walk me on a leash?” I would not have been able to find that person. And there are so many open-minded people who have taught me so much about myself.
Smol: Who in the Toronto music community would you shout-out?
Feura: I, first of all, will shout out every single bar that I’ve done open mics at. I think artists really undervalue them. Even if I was getting hired for shows all the time, I would still go to an open mic. I love them because you just get such a variety of people, not necessarily people who want to be musicians, but people who want to go out and show a cool song they wrote even if it’s not really what they do. I love bringing my music to those spaces because, for example, I was at the Film Café in Kensington, and they had an open mic night, and I ended up singing “Zuck Me Off”. I never know what the reaction will be because there were only like five or six people, but my motto has always been, “I will lick the floor for a microphone,” I will give you such a good performance every time because I love it so much. And anyways, they loved it! They were like, “What is this??” I had tied the microphone cable around my neck and was choking myself like, “Zuck daddy!” [Laughs] Every venue who has put up with me in that capacity – 10/10.
Artists who have really informed me – seeing other visibly queer artists was a really big help for me. Hyper-pop artists like Dorian Electra who have brought drag into electronic dance music, that kind of creative concepts and visionary work really inspire me to do what I want to do. And to know that there’s a demand and an audience that wants to see that, has helped me to come to terms with my own queerness.
Even the people I haven’t met, like artists I know have informed me and shaped the community I am working and living within today, and maybe I don’t even necessarily know who they are, but shout-out to all of them that have come before! Especially being a queer artist, people who have fought for my right to be on a stage. Like, the thought of people coming out to see a Chinese performer a couple of decades ago, it would have been a bit of a “Who knows?” And then a Chinese performer who is non-binary, “What’s that?” And then they are in drag and do all this radical stuff, who ties themselves up and sings about wanting to suck off Mark Zuckerburg. Anyone who has come before me to make a space where I can do that and not get hate crime – 10/10! [Laughs]
Smol: Any memories that stand out of a performance you’ve seen?
Feura: My big changing moment was when I went to see King Princess. This was before she really blew up and she played at the Danforth. If you ever go to a King Princess concert it’s basically a big lesbian gathering, like, all teenage lesbians. So I went, and just being from a small town and being surrounded by a community of other people who I saw representation of myself - and like, this was when weed wasn’t legalized, so don’t do this kids, but it was also the first joint that I shared. The crazy part is that it was passed to me, then I passed it to the next person, and it went all the way up to the stage to King Princess and she smoked that. That feeling of community, and that feeling of seeing a performer onstage and connecting, even if it’s through a passed joint - that inspires me in my art. I just want to recreate that feeling for everyone in the audience, every time.
Smol: How would you describe your music? How would you describe your live performances?
Feura: I’d say every song that I create has high energy. I love a good catchy hook. It is, at its core, party, enjoyable, bring-you-to-your-happy-place, or cathartic. I always want my music to feel like a big cathartic release, which is why I love electronic music and hyper-pop. It just has those big EDM builds with big danceable sections, and things like that. You can ingrain some very powerful lyrics with those feelings. For me, one thing I don’t like to do, as an artist, is get sad and write sad music. I just take that sadness and put it into something energetic so it feels like it’s pulling your soul open. Like, you’re able to release through head-banging.
With my live performance it’s exactly the same only it’s the personified version. When I’m onstage I hope you feel my voice and feel connected to the feeling I’m trying to create with every synth. Now seeing me on stage, I can make eye contact with you and I’m able to see the people who listen to my music and talk with them, connect with them, and do group activities such as [whispers] partying and drinking. Just come! I’ll get you to dance on stage with me!
Smol: Tell us about drag and how you use it in your performances.
Feura: I would be doing drag whether I was performing or not. For me, it’s an exploration of how I view myself and putting all my creativity, and personifying it, onto my face and how I dress. For example, in the “Zuck Me Off” music video I’m not in my full drag look because I didn’t think it would fit. But, for the single cover, I want to present that version of Feura because I think a lot of my music, in being political and in these hyper-spaces, drag is an outlet of hyper exaggeration and an outlet of critique. It’s creative expression through critique. You know? I like feeling fabulous, I love the glitter, I love the big hair! But, as someone who never really felt feminine, as a kid if you told me I would ever be putting make up on I’d be like, “No way.” I was very tomboy, very butch, because I felt like I had to prove my, at the time, lesbian-ness through being that stereotype. Drag has allowed me to embrace my feminine side but also critique the structure that says, “This is what women are supposed to look like.” By taking it to the next level and doing a drag version of it, it’s a hyper-critique of that. For example, with the single “Zuck Me Off” it’s a hyper-critique through sexualization of wanting to be fucked over by billionaires because I’m presenting this hyper-feminized, sexualized woman. And having a blow up doll, more sexual imagery, with Zuckerberg’s face on it, it’s all about that – feeling fabulous while exaggerating gender while expressing who I am – through critique.
Smol: How did you come up with the idea for the “Zuck Me Off”music video?
Feura: I was actually walking to a date and, uhh… the date didn’t go too well, because I was walking there was and listening to the song and thinking about it and right away I was like, “Wouldn’t it be funny if Zuckerberg was walking me on a leash?” From there, I kind of go into this weird head space where I’m not responsive and I kind of stop seeing in a weird way. So yeah, I kind of spent the whole day thinking about that and not listening to a single word she said, so didn’t go well [laughs].
From there I kind of just expanded the concept. I had been sitting on it for a couple months and eventually brought it to Sean and Sean was like, “I’d love to work with you on this!” We did a couple sessions where we basically sat and – I’ve always loved Sasha Baron Cohen, and there’s this one scene in Bruno where he’s being walked in BDSM gear and he’s on a leash - and I was like “That’s such a shocking image, we need to incorporate something like that into a public element.” What rooted the whole project was the concept of turning ‘eat the rich’ on its head. So, instead of ‘eat the rich’, what really is happening, and what people aren’t talking about, is the rich are eating us. So, I’m this, like, slave object that not only is sexualized and being exploited in those ways, but by the end of the video it’s implied that I’m going to be eaten. Its double; greed through lust and greed through eating. So we flushed that out. The public element, to me, choosing to do it at the corner of Yonge and Dundas Square, like wanting to do a public stunt like that is just all about, like, look at what’s going on, people in the background are looking but nobody is saying anything. Everybody kind of looks at it and then just continues with their day. Nobody is acknowledging that this person is being eaten on a table by Elon and Zuckerberg.
Smol: What do you want people to take away from this single?
Feura: It’s really about what you take away in that moment, it’s to get you thinking about what you can do in the future. “Zuck Me Off” is a starting point for a conversation that we kind of are already having, but I don’t think people understand the effect of what is going on. Everyone kind of laughs it off and I think this song is a punch in the face to say, “Yeah, this is actually a problem! We need to do something about it now!” We have to do something now and make a party of it. Because if we’re all going to die in a capitalist dystopian hell-scape; at least you can have a drink, tie yourself up with some BDSM gear and have some fun!
Smol: Do you think politics is sexy?
Feura: Unfortunately, sometimes people won’t listen to things unless you’re flashing your tits at them and then you say something academic – you need that shock element. It’s that association of politics, and I think this is a very western, imperialist, creation but in order to be taken seriously as an academic or in order to be taken seriously as a person in politics, there are all of these hoops you have to jump through first. You have to talk a certain way, you have to present yourself like in suits and ties, and you need to be of a certain status. And I think once you get rid of all those barriers, THAT’S what’s going to get young people interested in politics, not programs like model UN. Like, great, I love model UN but that’s not going to work. We need to get rid of the boundaries that are making politics not accessible in the first place. By making politics hot, making it sexy, and getting rid of all of that, making it a fun time, people will want to get involved. I think at voting stations we should just hand out free alcohol. That will get young people to vote! [laughs]
Smol: What techniques do you want to try in the future?
Feura: I definitely want to learn more about electronic music. I’m just starting to get into sound design now but I love techno and I love house and dubstep and all of that, because I DJ as well, but I would just love to learn how to make all of those things from scratch. I want to learn how to use a lighting board so bad so I can light my own shows! There are so many things! I want to do the drag king thing and put my own spin on it. I want to learn to sew. I want to learn how to use Photoshop so I can make my own graphics. It’s hard to say because I want to learn so many things!
Smol: How do you use your platform to support the LGBTQ+ community and encourage discussion of gender and sexuality?
Feura: I think just being visible and being open and outward is really opening more spaces. But also, a big thing for me is I pair all of this with actual advocacy. I do debating online, where I go on to a platform, usually TikTok because that’s what is accessible for me, and I open a request for everybody and we talk about these issues. And one of the things I’m critiqued on is not always changing the mind of the person I’m debating with, but I think the more important thing is equipping audiences with the knowledge of what is gender theory, what are feminist theories. People want to learn this stuff. People might go on my account not expecting to learn this stuff but then they’re like, “Wait, this is cool!” And it’s being presented by somebody who doesn’t look like they would talk about this stuff – I have big hair and makeup and it’s a good time!
Smol: How can artists be inclusive with their art?
Feura: The best way to be inclusive? Education! I think you will inherently become more inclusive and make more inclusive decisions if you are educated on the issues in the first place. The best thing you can do is learn about those issues, read about those issues, and I think becoming more inclusive will come naturally. Again, that’s what I hope to do with “Zuck Me Off”, move people towards education. I don’t think I need to tell you what we need to do in order to fix these systems, I think you can learn that on your own. I just want you to start learning. If you start learning about these issues you will come to logical conclusions on your own. I don’t think people need to be babied.
Smol: Education!
Feura: When you say it that way, it’s like “Ok, pre-school teacher.” Good lord. [laughs]
Smol: What is the #1 asset to emerging artists?
Feura: A willingness to learn and adaptability. A lot of people think, and it’s really sad that it isn’t the case, that pure talent alone will make you successful. Because record labels aren’t picking up people based on talent alone, they’re picking people off of business sense. I think the best thing you can do is be open to learning every aspect. If you want something to be possible you have to make it possible. Be open to doing it yourself because you CAN do it yourself, if you try hard enough. If the first try doesn’t succeed, it’s OK! Learn from your mistakes.
Smol: Perseverance!
Feura: Perseverance, yes! Now we’re going to distill everything down to one word so I come off sounding like a character chart [laughs]. Just kidding. But you want to hear perseverance? Let me tell you about my first open mic. This is perseverance. My first open mic in Toronto, my best friend decided to go out and I said, “I’ll come support you.” I used to get such bad stage fright which is weird because I used to do theatre so it should be no problem, but when it came to music, my voice would shake, I would get really nervous because I wasn’t confident with my music. So we went to The Painted Lady and they peer pressured me because my friend was like, “She’s a performer too!” So I signed up, I went up there, and I was so nervous they thought I was a rapper because I was mumbling all the lyrics into the microphone. I had no confidence. So when I went back there they were like, “Oh, you’re that rapper!” and I’m like, “Nooo, I’m a singer!” That was devastating, but you know what? I did it four more times, also terrible, but now I have fun!
Smol: Would you rather have strobe lights or lasers?
Feura: Oh I want a combo with both! No actually though, I’m trying to get light machines for some of my shows. One thing I’m definitely going to do one day is perform wearing a motion capture suit and have a projection of me as a cyborg floating in space. I would sweat so much but it would be worth it!
Smol: Would you rather have confetti cannons or inflatable toys?
Feura: I think we all know I love a good blow-up doll [laughs].
Smol: How can fans support you?
Feura: If you want to support me, first of all, stream my music, go watch my new music video, leave a comment, leave a like, message me because I love interacting with people. I just want to have a conversation! Come to my shows, I have one coming up March 17 at Supermarket, and my headlining show at the Handlebar on March 24th. Come see that because I’ll have some surprises for all you readers! And follow all my social media!
Follow Feura online and check out "Zuck Me Off"!
@feura.mp3
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