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Who are your style heroes?
"My mom in the '70s and '80s! She was a bad bitch. Sex and the City totally jacked her steez on the camels. I have a pic of her on a camel ride in Egypt in the '80s serving the hell out of that desert! Also, Diana Ross, The Fela Kuti Queens, Björk, '70s-era Chaka Khan, Chloë Sevigny, '90s Erykah Badu."
You've got such unique style, would you ever consider being involved in the family fashion business, House of Deréon?
"Why thank you very much! It's funny you ask because I initially was involved as the spokesperson, but the clothes just didn't reflect my personal style and I decided to hand that over. That's the great thing about my family. We work together so closely that if something's not working out, we can be honest about it and there won't be any grudges or issues. I wrote a couple of songs on my sister's last album and if there's a line she doesn't like, she changes it and we keep on moving. I will say though, they did just do a bedding line that I am extremely in love with and I was like, 'Can I model that... in my house?'"
If your style were a song, what song would it be?
"For sure Q-Tip's 'Vivrant Thang'."
What inspired the bold new 'do? You mentioned you can no longer hide with that hair, has it changed the way you see yourself?
"When I was recording, I was staying in a house with five guys and two showers. I knew there would be a shower wait everyday and with my natural cropped hair, it's mandatory that I wash it otherwise it gets stuck to my head like glue! I wanted to get something that I could literally roll out of bed without looking nuts. I watched so many Chaka Khan YouTube videos and became sort of obsessed with her during the process. I went to my stylist and said 'Give me the fro.' I walk differently now, sing differently; This hair has spirit and soul."
Tell us a little bit about working on the new album.
"I went up to Santa Barbara, found this house on five acres in the mountains and invited a bunch of amazing musicians to come live there with me for a month and just experiment. We woke up around 10 a.m. and made music until midnight, all of course while drinking good wine, picking avocados from the trees outside to make guacamole, and maybe enjoying a joint or two. I left the process a little crazy, but I really feel like I came into my own."
You're friends with lots of Brooklyn bands—Grizzly Bear, Dirty Projectors—how do you see those bands inspiring R&B and Hip Hop?
"Well, to be honest, I think we inspire each other. Want to know who re-introduced me to "My Boo"? Edward Droste [of Grizzly Bear]. Who played TLC's "Creep" when I totally forgot what a jammer it was? Caroline Polachek [of Chairlift]. MGMT played Bone Thugs in Harmony's "Creepin On Ah Come Up" backstage after one of their shows and I had total junior high flashbacks. I think so many hip-hop artists are now jumping on this weird electro bandwagon thinking it will broaden their audience instead of doing what made them them in the first place. There's definitely a group of folks in hip-hop like Kanye, Q-Tip, and ?uestlove who know how to appreciate an album like Bitte Orca and see the beauty in it. As for R&B, I'm so bored with it. After being an R&B junkie for years, I actually turned to a lot of indie music because I was just so uninterested. I grew up loving Missy Elliott, Destiny's Child, SWV, Aaliyah, Carl Thomas, Melody... nowadays that substance and style are kind of dead with the exception of a few."
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