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CULTURE
Slayyyter may be a rising star living in L.A., but she’s still an Imo’s-loving St. Louisan at heart. | PROVIDED
[Q&A]
Slayyying St. Louis An interview with Kirkwood native and rising pop star Slayyyter Written by
JACK PROBST
S
layyyter looks downright intimidating online. The pop singer has an immense following on Twitter, which is a place that makes it hard to see where an artist’s persona starts and their authentic self ends. Add in a popular new album
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RIVERFRONT TIMES
and an international tour on the calendar, and you might guess the rising start had all but left us commoners behind. Originally from Kirkwood, Slayyyter got her start producing music on her laptop during her sole year attending Mizzou. She was first noticed when a short clip of her track “Mine” went viral on Twitter, amassing over 200,000 views. The title track from her new album has hit over 2 million streams on Spotify. Now, living in Los Angeles, she describes her music as -in uenced dancepop,” but it’s that and so much more. The songs on her new album, Troubled Paradise, are sometimes funny, but others are heartbreaking. She has a song called “Throatzilla,” about, well, you can probably guess. That all feels so overwhelming and distressing. Turns out, though, Slayyyter is still a Midwesterner at heart, loves her hometown and is a joy
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riverfronttimes.com
to talk to.
town?
RFT: I was concerned you might not want to talk about St. Louis at all.
I think downtown Kirkwood is such a cute little area, but when I turned 21 and started to drink, I started going to the Grove quite a bit with friends. I think if I would have stayed living in St. Louis, I probably would have lived in the Tower Grove area because I think all the apartments and everything is so cute over there.
Slayyyter: No, oh my gosh, I have way too much hometown pride for my own good, so I’m very excited. You grew up in Kirkwood. What was that like for you? It was a very suburban upbringing. My family has lived in the same house my whole life, in a little suburb of Kirkwood. Me and my sister did the classic St. Louis Catholic school thing for grade school, and then I ended up going to Kirkwood High for high school. I feel like being from such a suburban place and not a major city made me really crave pop culture and things that kind of led me to doing music later on. Do you have a favorite neighborhood to hang out in when you’re in
Is there anywhere else in town you like going to? I feel very nerdy to be proud of the history of St. Louis. I think the whole 1904 World’s Fair thing is so cool. My grandparents took us to the Muny a lot, and I always loved the paddle boats. I spent a lot of time going to the art museum in high school. I feel like the Forest Park area is just so beautiful. People don’t get it, but I feel like as soon as you get some Imo’s Pizza in their mouths, they’re like,
