Hi mxmtoon! What’s a lyric from your new album that best describes you?

There’s so many lyrics. It's a tough question to think of one, which one I think encapsulates the whole thing best. I think maybe the best lyric is from the song, 'rain': "Brooklyn made me young so I said goodbye, now I’m growing old in Oakland." I think it encapsulates my experience of living in New York and also growing up in the bay area, and Oakland California and is kind of about the confusion that the record is talking about.

Who inspires you?

I think for this album in particular, probably all the women in my life. I think it’s so great that I get to tell my story in the music that I make, but I also think it’s so wonderful that I get to tell their story too, and so I feel really inspired by my mum talking about her life, or my grandmother talking about her life in ways in which I can incorporate that into the work I do.

What’s a song that changed your life?

'Dancing Queen' by ABBA changed my life because it’s such a great song. Also, I feel like it’s just a perfect song. I remember listening to 'Mamma Mia', like watching it for the first time, and being totally different after I pressed play, and I think ABBA’s music tends to do that.

What has been the proudest moment in your musical journey so far?

I think the proudest moment of my musical journey is probably getting to make enough music that my younger cousins get to listen to me.  I have two younger cousins, their names are Kaia and Mona. Mona is 9 and Kaia is 12, and they are just the coolest kids ever. I feel so lucky that I get to make the soundtrack to their life. They listen to me on this Hello Kitty radio that I used to listen to music on when I was really little. I think it’s really special to see how that happens.

Earlier on in your career you collaborated with Noah Kahn, how did that come about?

I was really lucky. Noah and I work with the same management company, and I think he was looking for someone who could just be on the song. He reached out to me, and I was like 'absolutely I would love to do that with you!'. I think it was a mixture of timing. It worked out really well, we were both in separate parts of our years, and I got to feature on this song because I had time and just also having some mutual connections too in terms of who our managers were.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

The advice I would give to my younger self is to not worry so much what other people were thinking about her. I think so much of my music and the reason I’ve gotten to do music is because I was brave enough to express my interests online, but I wish that I had been brave enough to explore them with my peer group more often and letting myself be the nerd that I knew that I was that I was too scared to show people. Yeah, just to be braver and accept the parts of myself that I was really scared to show.

You wrote 'Post-post apocalyptic dance party' for LEGO Horizon Adventures, which is so cool! Were you a LEGO girlie growing up?

Oh yeah, I was a LEGO girlie til I die. Every videogame I love playing was one of the LEGO games. I remember playing them with my brother growing up, so we were addicted to LEGO Star Wars, LEGO Indiana Jones. We had a table in our house that was dedicated to building LEGO kits, so I have just been a huge LEGO fan my whole life. This is a really full circle and awesome moment to be involved in a game that’s coming up.

So it’s a matter of life and death and you have to perform your best dance move to save the world. What is that dance move?

That’s so tough! Okay, my best dance move is maybe the moonwalk. I learned how to do the moonwalk when I was 10 years old have never forgotten it, so I think maybe I’d hit the moonwalk.

You could shuffle out of danger! We hear that Stardew Valley is one of your favourite games. What are three achievements in the game that you are most proud of?

Oh my gosh. I think getting to 10 hearts with every single person was a big achievement for me because you do have to put in a lot of work in order to make that happen. I think that I also cooked every recipe that was available, so I’m really proud of that one. I can’t remember what the other ones are that exist, but it’s so cute I just like the achievement badge for the lucky cat that you get once you get to year 3. So, I think those three.

You’re going on tour soon, do you have any tour essentials?

My tour essentials would probably consist of my plushie that I bring with me on every single tour - I feel like it’s really easy to not have pieces from home, so I try to bring at least one of my plushies, and I have a lot of plushies so it’s tough to pick which one. I’ve got this one that looks like a banana, but it’s a duck, and I’ve been bringing that on tour so far, so I’ll probably bring that. And then my other tour essential would be fairy lights, I love to decorate the bus with fairy lights everywhere, because also makes me feel cozier. It’s all about coziness I think when it comes to when I’m packing for the tour.

🚪💔🌧️ mxmtoon's latest album liminal space is out now. 🚪💔🌧️

🎵 🎮Check out more of our chat with mxmtoon in the new February/March 2025 'Highlight Her' issue of Total Girl, out now in Australia (February 10 in NZ). Plus, keep your eyes on our channel for more with mxmtoon! 🤩