8 minute read
CULTURE
STEPHEN DOUGLAS
PRINCEAUS ON CHAOS, SEQUINS AND THE JOYS OF BEING A CHOIR KID.
BY CORRENE SPERO
PRINCEAUS: She's repping "for the choir kids who are afraid to step out of their choir."
Princeaus \ Pronunciation: Prin - see - aus \ A performance persona created by Nora B., 26, of Little Rock, Arkansas.
Princeaus, brainchild of Nora B., was hatched in 2017 and released their debut album, “Unni, I’m Sad,” that same year. Their genre-straddling compositions include treks through jagged electronic soundscapes, intimate confessions that careen from whispers to screams, and cinematic instrumentals like 2022’s “Keanu Reeves’s Puff Cereal.” (Nora uses they/them pronouns and asked that we only use a last initial for privacy reasons.)
Cutting a grungy glam figure on stage, Princeaus is a little bit classical, a little bit punk, and most likely the only musician in Central Arkansas citing in the same breath “witch house, ambient horror, and Asian instrumentals” as inspiration.
Nora B. has survived congenital cancer and been diagnosed as schizoaffective bipolar, which they have addressed in songs such as “Medicine.” They have also been open about their diagnosis of functional movement disorder, which causes tremors and frailty, showing up on stage exactly as they are for each powerful performance. Wielding honesty and vulnerability, Princeaus is ever the diva in their own ambient opera.
Nora B., the Clark Kent behind Princeaus, sat down with the Arkansas Times along with their feline “grumpy mascot” Yoshi to discuss life as an affable choir kid with an affinity for “nasty, harsh beats” in a music scene that can be challenging at times, even for a superhero.
MAGNETIC:
Princeaus' stage show is always compelling.
TJ DEETER
Nora, I’m always impressed by the theatrics and drama of your show. You are just one person up there, but you command everyone’s attention. Where does that confidence come from?
A lot of the energy and the passion I bring to Princeaus is based in my music education. I grew up in amazing madrigal choirs at Little Rock Christian Academy. The people in the music program cared. … My piano and voice teacher and my choir director were two of the world’s greatest eccentrics. My choir teacher stomped a lot when she got really into it, and she had the most amazing energy. A lot of what I do with my hands onstage I think is conducting, really. The conductor holds the whole orchestra’s attention … I just consider myself a product of strong choir directors.
Are there any specific influences that come to mind in terms of your vocal style?
I love Yoko Ono. I think her ability to make wild sounds come out of her little body is just amazing, and her ability to belt. She thinks of doing things with her voice that other people would not think of. People say she sings off key, but I see her as someone who skirts in between notes with her vibrato.
I also listen to a lot of rap. BROCKHAMPTON songs are my warm-ups because they have so many different vocalists, so I can do each part in different voices.
Walk me through the beginning of the creation of a Princeaus track. I know you work with a collaborator, Andrew McClain?
Andrew gives me drum parts and we work on them together, and I do everything else. We’re good at bringing out the best in each other. He likes things that are softer and poppy and I like things that are way darker.
I'm a bizarre perfectionist. I purposely make chaotic music, but I like refined chaos.
There are certain things about being a pianist where, if I let this note slide, I'll think about it for the rest of my life. I’m trying to prevent as much future cringe as possible. I have to remind myself to take breathers, because after a certain time, I'm only hearing what I want to hear and not hearing the whole.
It feels brave and important to me to see you up there making electronic music in Central Arkansas while representing for trans and Asian folks in the South. Do you feel that way?
Yeah, there are certain moments in my life where I have to take a step back and be like, “Not only did you do this, but you did this in the South.” After I got home from getting the (Idle Class) Black Apple award, my friend was like, “Do you realize you're the first Asian and trans person to win that?” I put my Black Apple award in a shrine, which I realized later is such an Asian thing to do.
At the [Arkansas Times’] Central Arkansas Music Awards, I was about to go onstage and thought, “You are the only Asian or trans person to go out there tonight. A year ago you would have been terrified for them to introduce you with your pronouns. This has grown bigger than you in your bedroom just beepin’ around.” That was a turning point.
I saw a post on your Instagram a few months back that said something like you were not wanting to play music live in Little Rock anymore? I hope that’s not true?
Sometimes I do get frustrated because I’ll go through periods where I’ll try to book places and won’t get answers, but whenever I get in little moods like that I remind myself I’m working on music other than just playing shows. I'm working on soundtrack stuff and other stuff.
A lot of people tend to put me on bills where I can tell the reason they are putting me on there is because I’m trans and not because they think I'll be a good mix. Or, like, when I'm on a bill with all white performers, I feel like maybe I was the lightest shade of a person of color they felt comfortable putting on this bill.
I have to keep in mind when I go places, “Are they going to respect my pronouns? Are they going to say things about the China flu?” I am done having people misgender me in the arts. I am done with people acting like my identity is a burden. There are certain things you have to keep in mind for your own safety or mental safety. If a booker at a venue continuously misgenders me, that's a place I'm not gonna play again.
I’m so curious about how you pull together your stage looks. What’s the vibe in Princeau’s dressing room before a show?
I tend to pick out something the night before and when I wake up I'm like, “NOOO!” My room before a show sometimes looks like a fashion montage, all this stuff with sequins thrown about the room.
With Princeaus, I try to be sure to go with things that are comfortable. If I can’t have full range of motion with my arms, then I don't wear it. The type of songs I’m performing will inform the outfit. For an ambient night, I wore a pink velvet cape. For Halloween, black mesh.
The makeup is basically: I’m in my bathroom and I have three minutes left and that’s why it's always so colorful. I put colors on three fingers on each hand and just [makes smearing motion across face].
I wear things to Princeaus shows that I would not wear in my day to day life, and that feels like a healthy separation. Princeaus is a glittery glamorous grungy creature. Nora is in a big sweater and slippers. The first time I made over $100 at a show, the first thing I bought was a $75 pair of L.L. Bean slippers.
I know you are a congenital cancer survivor, and that you’ve been diagnosed with functional movement disorder. How do these challenges show up in your creative work?
Well, my scar being visible onstage is very intentional. I'm a prenatal cancer survivor so I went YEARS not showing my midriff because of my scar. That was the part of me I hid the most. I didn't want to be “the cancer kid” growing up. When I posted the song “Reach Out,” I didn't realize my scar was visible in the album artwork and when I saw it, I texted my mom, “My cancer scar is on Spotify.”
The fact that I hid it for so long felt like I was hiding a piece of myself. So me having it out was me telling myself, “You can be honest about this, and also this is a thing of beauty. This scar is the reason you exist.” It’s hard to explain survivor's guilt when it starts the day you were born.
A lot of the things I was scared to share about myself and felt shame or stigma about, as soon as I get that mic, I don’t feel shame, I don't feel stigma. I feel freedom. I don’t feel like a survivor. I feel like a warrior.
There’s a power in not hiding, especially in a place like Arkansas. I love Arkansas despite the issues that people like me face, and whenever I think about who I am really representing, I think I'm repping all the Arkansan kids who feel they have to hide things that could make them feel beautiful and powerful. The choir kids who are afraid to step out of their choir.
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