BUNNY MICHAEL INTERVIEW

Bunny Michael is a multi-disciplinary artist who has dedicated their work to awakening higher self-consciousness on the planet - the manifestation of love within all humans deconditioned by a hierarchical thought system. Bunny uses writing, music, visual art, and social media activism to spread their message garnering hundreds of thousands of followers, given talks and performed music throughout the United States and Europe including touring as supporting act for renowned Swedish musician Fever Ray in 2018.

Bunny is a NYFA women in TV and Film grant recipient and has written, produced and starred in their own narrative web series, What Would Higher Self Do?. Bunny’s debut book, Hello Higher Self, is set for publication by Little Brown in winter 2024. They also host a popular advice podcast called XO Higher Self and formerly hosted a digital series on Vice called Broadly Hotline.

Bunny’s new EP, Angels Everywhere, described as “a 5-track expedition about holding on to love in a world of chaos and uncertainty,” is out April 21.

Interview by Tyler Nesler

Your song “Crystal Children” has many elements that seem to contrast and complement each other - could you talk about how you manifested this song in collaboration with Bruno Coviello and backing vocalist Smokey Chocolate? What did they bring to the production that heightened your striking lyrical content and flow?

Both Bruno Coviello (also known as Bliscord) and Smokey Chocolate are dear friends that I have collaborated with for over a decade. We all share a fondness for tearing down cliches of what it means to be an artist and not getting trapped in limitations of genre or what “success” is supposed to look like. We are also interested in cultivating weirdness, authenticity, and magic to our work.

Bruno and I are both deeply spiritual people, he is a super talented tarot reader and astrologer in addition to being one of my favorite musicians. Whenever we work together, we don't plan out concepts like, “What is this song about?” I think we trust each other's fearlessness when it comes to channeling divine creative energy. This song was originally a Bliscord track that Bruno only released as a stream on SoundCloud. When I was putting together my EP I thought why not put it on there? I'm so glad Bruno and Smokey were into it.

What were some conceptual ideas behind the video for “Crystal Children”? The setting is wintry and bleak, but your outfits are colorful, and your actions have a joyfully ritualistic aspect (dancing, leaving what seem to be offerings at a fire) plus, there are rapid shifts from both day and night shots - how did you work with DP Matt Harvey to achieve your vision?

I wrote the “Crystal Children” lyrics as a sort of battle song - but not in the typical sense of physical battle - more like a battle for the autonomy of our consciousness. I'm interested in tearing down hierarchical belief systems and recreating a world of peace and empowerment. So when it came to the music video, I wanted it to be in a sort of dystopian environment of both destruction and rebirth.

I made parts of my costume with repurposed items, like old brooches and knits. I believe we can take what we want from the past and leave the rest. The bright colors juxtaposed with the bleak environment were part of that symbolism. Matt Harvey (also a good friend who DP'd the web series I wrote and produced, What Would Higher Self Do?) definitely understands me and what is important in terms of the aesthetic mood of what I like. He is also super talented, encouraging and he’s someone I feel totally comfortable being myself around.

How do you think your new EP Angels Everywhere underscores and expands on your previous music releases, especially regarding your “apocalyptic and revolutionarily transformative” messaging and transmitting the questions of “Who will save us? How do we save ourselves? Will the apocalypse be fun?”

I think my music has always been about the journey of self-realization because that is the most important journey of our lives, in my opinion. Everything that happens is secondary to the consciousness we bring to what happens. And so I am really interested in lyrically inspiring higher states of consciousness, celebration of beauty, nature, and sexuality. Because honestly, that's what I think about all the time. How can I cultivate more joy in life? How can I see the world through the lens of our inherent worth? How can I unlearn biased societal conditioning? How can I be more...me? And it ends up coming out sort of all over the place in some respects because life is chaotic and navigating being an eternal spirit and a human body is a trip to say the least.

The video for “Angels Everywhere” is filled with your animated artworks that are "reimaginings of Henry Darger’s Realms of the Unreal,” a 15,145-page work created in obscurity by him over 60 years. For those who don't know Darger's life story or work, could you talk about why his work impacts you and how his illustrations and themes influenced the art you made for this video? What aspects of his life and work do you feel also connect to your life and work?

When I first discovered Henry Darger's work I was in high school and I was blown away not only by the pure volume of it that was discovered in his tiny apartment after he passed away, but how he used what was available to him as a self-taught “untrained” artist.

He would trace old magazine illustrations, photographs from newspapers and food labels. I resonated with the label of “outsider artist” because that is how I felt - like an outsider - and hearing you could be an outsider artist was like discovering a secret power to being a weirdo that people don't understand. Darger was the epitome of that. He grew up in orphanages and worked as a janitor in a hospital but at his apartment he created a whole new fantastical world through his art. His art was his sanctuary.

Bunny Michael’s record release show for Angels Everywhere is at The Sultan Room, Brooklyn, April 26.

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