With his unique background and deeply captivating sound, New York-based electro-pop artist poptoken is someone whose music we’ve been keeping a close eye (and ear) on! He released his debut single ‘Living My Fantasy’ last year, and just recently followed it up with the incredible ‘Back Home’.
As a half-Russian, half-Ukrainian living in America, we knew he’d have an interesting story to tell. Speaking to us about the pains of the conflict, how he came up with his name, and what we can expect from him next, please give a big welcome to our friend poptoken!
Hey poptoken, thanks a lot for chatting with us! I’m really excited to introduce you to our audience! Let’s kick things off with an easy one…Who is poptoken and when did your love affair with music start?
Hello! poptoken is here to leave you amazed, hopefully… I think it all comes from my teenage years. I was a very curious kid and always loved to explore, so music felt like an endless universe to go through. It’s always been very intuitive for me, I always had that feeling that I just wanna go for it but it felt unreachable while growing up in Moscow, Russia because the music landscape there was not “it” for me. And I’m not throwing shade, just saying how I felt at that time. Then after a few turbulent years as an immigrant in New York City, I finally started seeing more clearly what I want to do with my music feeling and my creativity in general. So, this is how we got to poptoken, it’s what I feel like and what I wanna be in the upcoming years. I hope this intro wasn’t too vague…
Congratulations on your brand new tune ‘Back Home’! I’ve fallen pretty hard for it! I know it’s quite a personal song for you and I was wondering if you could tell our readers what it means to you.
Thank you! This song is a tribute to the ones who can’t go back home for various reasons. To the ones who have experienced the pain of displacement, immigration, or any circumstances that prevent them from going back home, to a family house or even a home country.
Since I’m originally from Russia with my dad coming from Ukraine and my mom coming from Russia respectively, it’s been quite painful to observe the current conflict knowing the scale of exodus from both countries. Yes, the reasoning behind that might differ but the outcomes are similar, people leaving their homes and not knowing if they can go back. Even for myself, I’m not sure it’s safe for me to go back home and see my family. And I know there are a lot of people like that not necessarily impacted by this event, people migrate one way in all parts of the world.
Also, the meaning of the song can be scaled down to a personal individual level. You might not be able to or don’t want to make that trip back home. Maybe you have PTSD after some occurrences or there’s just no one left back there.
Regardless, the feelings are here and they’re valid which made me make this song so emotional with different layers. It’s a symbiosis of love and pain relatable to each of us.
‘Living My Fantasy’, released last year, was your debut single and holds a special place as the first song you chose to make your mark in the music industry. How did you make this decision?
I wanted my first song as poptoken to be representative of how I was feeling at that moment which was me working on my stuff but at the same experiencing various effects from intense wild events that were happening in the world. Every day it felt like I was living in two parallel realities, the first was my life and the second was global events that were impacting so many people I know and myself. It felt like the worst delirium ever and ‘Living My Fantasy’ is a wild hymn that basically somehow each of us needs to live through no matter how distorted the current reality feels. So, I decided to live my life, my fantasy. This song felt like the most honest for the start of poptoken.
I’m a sucker for having to know the origins of a band or artist’s name. I just can’t help myself! How exactly did poptoken come about?
Actually, I’m very glad you asked this because people keep “inquiring” about it. This artist is literally me and my concept about everything I would like to do in entertainment. With “token” meaning something stereotypical, and myself twisting and playing off pop culture to bring something new to it.
Who would you put down as some of your biggest musical influences? And who would you ultimately credit for helping shape your overall musical soundscape?
I prefer saying that I don’t have musical influences because (unfortunately) there’s no artist to who I can really relate. But at the same time, I feel the inspiration can come from anywhere and any music genre. I especially like listening to various underground genres ‘cuz those guys really like to experiment which really appeals to me but at the same time on my end, I still lean toward making it more “approachable” for a bigger audience.
For myself, I definitely have a special place for Lady Gaga in my “artistic heart” from her very beginning. She’s so versatile and creative on different levels. Her evolution as an artist is very inspiring.
Success is such a broad term with different meanings for everyone. What would “being successful” in the music industry look like to you?
I would like to bring something new to pop music with my songs, aesthetics and personality which are the result of my quite unique background and past experiences. But I don’t want it to sound cocky, I just think music can be much more fun and experimental but still be pop. There are artists who do that but we desperately need more of them so we all don’t get bored and fall into genericism, and I hope to become one of them. For now, I just gotta keep sharing more of my songs and artistry in the future so you can get more of the poptoken.
What song do you love that you wish you’d written?
I want to only write my songs because they are the ones that show my artistic identity. There are a lot of great songs written to this date and I’m super happy for all the acts who perform them but those songs are not me and they can’t represent my experience, thoughts and feelings.
What are your goals for the rest of this year? Is there anything you’d like to achieve as a musician or, even on a personal level?
More songs coming from poptoken for sure. And also, I’m planning to continue developing my second passion which is travelling with my Youtube mockery vertical travel vlog “Wanna Trip”. Check it out on my channel. I think it’s hilarious so we’ll see how it works out.
poptoken, I can’t thank you enough for chatting with us! It’s been a treat! What comes next?
‘Back Home’ music video! We’re gonna be shooting it in a few weeks and I’m very excited. It should be quite beautiful and dramatic. So, stay tuned.
