Championing a kaleidoscopic aesthetic and a fierce queer identity, Jennifer Vanilla (they, them) will cause a bit of a surprise to the uninitiated: dazzling, immersive visuals meet bold, intense music, projected towards the future and not afraid to explore avant-garde territories.
Based in NYC, they are also known as Becca Kauffman, aka the human behind Jennifer Vanilla. Not just musical artists, they are all-round creatives, connecting with people worldwide and exploring various communications mediums, visual arts and social actions.
Vanilla’s latest effort takes the shape of a bubbly, exciting album, ‘Castle In The Sky’. Perhaps not for everyone, the open-minded listener will recognise it as an invaluable resource in enriching the depth of its inner flavouring. Intrigued by the project, we caught up with Jennifer to find out more about their artistry and future goals… Interview below!
MESMERIZED: Hey Jennifer, how is it going? your aesthetic is very peculiar, how would you describe yourself, in a few words?
JV: Hey Mesmerized! It’s going well, I’m on a plane to Los Angeles for the West Coast leg of my Castle in the Sky tour. Jennifer Vanilla is multivalent and crowdsourced by the collective imagination of the public. But in the words of my friend, the choreographer Tess Dworman, after a recent show I performed in New York City, the aesthetic and general aura of the project conjures “Madonna meets Hey Arnold meets Michael Alig meets Grace Jones meets infinity.”
MESMERIZED: Your current work is the result of a long journey; What first drew you to making music?
JV: One of my moms (I have two), Marcie, introduced me to a lot of good music as a kid— Blondie, Talking Heads, The B-52’s, Bjork, Steely Dan, Tears for Fears, Annie Lenox. We had a big CD collection at home and loved listening to the alternative and R&B radio stations on the car ride to school. That was highly influential to me. On top of that, Marcie imbued me with a good sense of humour and taught me how to do impressions. I really took to that. I loved impersonating the voices of old show tune belters like Judy Garland and Ethel Merman, and also the contemporary voices of singers I liked: Gwen Stefani, Courtney Love, Kathleen Hanna, Liz Phair, plus stuff that annoyed me that I wanted to roast, like 4 Non Blondes, Paula Cole, LeAnn Rimes, Billy Ray Cyrus, Alanis Morrisette (who I grew to love). Music and humor are deeply intertwined for me for this reason, I think. There’s something satisfying and innately comical about attempting the most accurate replica of another person’s voice. It can be both an insult and a tribute, a protest and an honouring.
MESMERIZED: You just released the single ‘Take Me For a Ride’, which we frankly love. The nuanced, alternative production works very well. What does the song represent for you?
JV: So happy to hear you like that track! Take Me For a Ride is the opening song on my new album, Castle in the Sky. It’s an invitation to the listener to buckle up for the adventure, for the trip we’re about to take to that castle— the castle way up in the sky, the vision, the dream that you long to get closer to— we all have one, or more likely, many. “Take me for a ride” is also a double entendre that suggests the entire notion of a magical, linear path that leads you to a singular goal may very well be an illusory one. There is an impish quality to Jennifer as a narrator and guide— they might be playing tricks on you…
MESMERIZED: Your project is performative, in the sense that the visual aspect of it takes a center role; are we right in thinking that? Is it the music informing the visuals, or the visuals informing the music?
JV: Your powers of observation are on point. For the project of Jennifer Vanilla, the music and the aesthetics are interdependent and responsive to one another, rebounding from both directions at once. Brian Abelson, who co-wrote and co-produced the album with me, and I work to translate the attitude, colors, environments, and scenarios I imagine into sound and song. Once the song is at a point where I can perform it, the performance fills out the music, the music powers the performance, and that informs the aesthetics of my costumes and the choices I make as a performer in relation to the space we’re in and the crowd that’s present. From there, everything intertwines into an experimental group experience, and the true purpose of the music, as the engine and the soundtrack to that experience, materializes.
MESMERIZED: Do you feel more confident writing music alone, or within a team?
JV: Oh I’ve never written music alone. I’m terrified of that, in fact. I wrote this whole album, as well as the EP that came before it, alongside the very talented producer and composer Brian Abelson in his home studio in Brooklyn. Without him this record couldn’t and wouldn’t exist! Before that I was in a band in New York called Ava Luna, and our writing process was very collaborative. I’ve got an editor’s brain, so I like to begin with some kind of source material (text, samples, field recordings) that I can sculpt, tweak, and add to and subtract from. That material can be a good collaborator too. But I prefer humans.
MESMERIZED: What’s the relationship between Jennifer Vanilla and Becca Kauffman?
JV: It’s so complicated! Jennifer came out of me, out of my head and through my voice. Yet I’m the one who must enact and carry out her wishes with my own physical form! We are inextricably linked. Jennifer is the extrovert, Becca is the introvert, though sometimes we swap places. We support each other and balance one another out. JV gives me courage. We’re a team.
MESMERIZED: We can now say quite confidently that the pandemic has come to an end. Artistically speaking, what challenges have the last two years presented you with?
JV: I’m not so sure about the pandemic being over part! But as far as challenges go, the lockdown and subsequent axing of live performance happened to coincide with a moment in which I was losing enthusiasm for being a performer. So from 2020 to late 2021, without the occasion or pressure to perform, I withdrew from performance as my primary artform in some ways, which was a major pivot, considering I’ve drawn a lot of meaning and identity from that my whole life. I started graduate school to pursue an MFA in social practice art, a somewhat niche form of artmaking that involves engaging with people and inviting their participation as crucial components of the work. I’ve been working to integrate this type of approach into Jennifer Vanilla by attempting to step away from the central role of “pop singer” or “pop star,” and reconfiguring myself as a facilitator of a collective experience.
MESMERIZED: ‘Castle In The Sky’ is your latest album, released earlier this summer. What can we expect from it?
JV: I think of Castle in the Sky as a subtle concept album flecked with the influences of The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland— two of my all-time favourites. The songs create a narrative, hero’s journey-type sequence that travel through states of exploration and introspection, movement and rest, safety and danger, harshness and softness, interiority and exteriority. Like I said at the top, Jennifer Vanilla is crowdsourced and powered by the collective imagination. It’s a suit anyone can wear. That’s why Jennifer asks, Am I a joker? Am I a mirror? In my reflection, do you appear? So while I may be the one voicing the story on the record, it’s the listener who plays the role of the protagonist.
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