Who Is Phlo Finister?

The 20-year-old R&B songstress talks about her Crown Gold mixtape, living with Teena Marie, and the Youthquaker movement.

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Image via Complex Original
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Intro

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Growing Up

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Growing Up

Phlo Finister: “I was born in Oakland. I grew up singing in church—my grandfather was a pastor, my grandmother was an English-Literature teacher—she was very strict.

“I had a very restricted lifestyle as a young child. I only grew up listening to classical music and gospel. I wasn’t permitted to listen to hip-hop and R&B as a pre-teen. I was a ballerina for 12 years.

“When I came to L.A., it was not by choice. My mom just brought me here. She wanted to relocate. I was living off in the Long Beach area—Paramount—and I moved to L.A. when I was a teenager and I was going to school at Crenshaw High School. It was like a big joke from being sheltered to being in the hood. I was living in “The Jungles” during my high school life—I lived in some really rugged places and I went to Crenshaw for a year.


 

I didn't talk to my mom for four or five years...[Living on my own] was like, 'You were born alone, you’re going to die alone, and it doesn’t really matter.'


 

“I read a lot of philosophy—I’m a low-key braniac. I read Machiavelli. Even though I dropped out of high school, I’ve always been interested in art history, education, and English literature because my grandmother was a teacher. I was always into education.

“Around the time that I was in high school I started living on my own—I was 15. I made the decision then that I had to find my career path and something to do with my life. So I got into styling—it wasn’t a job, it was sort of a hobby thing. It was something I was just good at.

“I talk to [my mom] now but I didn’t talk to her for four or five years. My mom was a wild child. She’s a wild card. I had a lot of responsibilities at a young age, which today I’m proud of because I’m more independent. But back then, you just want your mommy. You want the perfect family. You see all your friends with their parents and it was very hard. It’s fine now though, everything is good.

“[Living on my own] was like, 'You were born alone, you’re going to die alone, and it doesn’t really matter.' I took that as a harsh reality and kept going. When you come from not having a lot, you always think about your future and the success you can gain on your own. I always have been a believer and a fighter—I’m never gonna not fight.

Living in L.A.

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Living in L.A.

Phlo Finister: “My best friend’s mom took me in—her name is Teena Marie, she died last year. Then my other best friend, Raven [Diggs], she was also around and her godparents were Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston. So I’ve always kind of been behind the scenes in the music area with a lot of influential people around.


 

My best friend's mom took me in—her name is Teena Marie. Teena heard one of my songs and was like, 'You’re Morrison.' She compared my mood and my tone to Jim Morrison and that’s one of my favorite bands, The Doors.


 

“When Teena took me in, it was very fun because me and her daughter had a close connection. We had been friends but it was also a learning experience because I would wake up in the morning listening to her singing beautiful song lyrics, playing on the piano.

"One thing I remember she told me before she passed away, she heard one of my songs and was like, 'You’re Morrison.' She compared my mood and my tone to Jim Morrison and that’s one of my favorite bands, The Doors. Musically, growing up under that household put me in a place where I knew what I was gonna do with my life.

“I’ve always been popular with people in L.A.—it’s a very small community of people. I went to school with Mike G from Odd Future. It’s cool because the whole Fairfax movement and what’s going on around here—I’ve been hanging out on that block since I was 15, around that age—you would hang out at specific places with specific people and everybody was sort of a collective of friends.”

Styling Stars

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Styling Stars

Phlo Finister: “I was working with Electrik Red—I met a girl named Digit who was a stylist for The Dream and introduced me to the girls, and I just connected with them. I brought them clothes for a shoot.

"At the time, I was really good friends with Brian Lichtenberg—I brought them a couple of looks. I wasn’t the stylist that brought in massive amounts of clothes; I brought in stuff that I thought would actually suit each artist to their personality and their style. Very focused styling.

"I’m not really a stylist; I’m more of an image consultant where I can take the person, what they have already organically, and contribute to that.”

Starting to Sing

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Starting to Sing

Phlo Finister: “I was singing in church when I was growing up. My grandfather used to make me get in front of everyone at the church and sing. He used to ask me every Sunday “What song are you singing?” And I’d be mad.

"I was so scared to get in front of those people because I knew they were all judging me because Christian churches are very harsh, especially on singers and vocalists. My grandfather came up in a church called Mt. Zion, which is a church where a lot of great gospel singers came out of. He was a gospel singer as well.


 

I would cry in front of people as I was singing and then my little cousins would poke fun at me, like, “Why you crying?” and I’m like, “It’s the light. It was shining in my eye.” I didn’t want to seem like an emotional mess, so I found excuses—but I was so scared.


 

“I would cry in front of people as I was singing and then my little cousins would poke fun at me, like, “Why you crying?” and I’m like, “It’s the light. It was shining in my eye.” I didn’t want to seem like an emotional mess, so I found excuses—but I was so scared.

"Honestly, that made me more aggressive with performing and being able to sing in front of people. Because now, I’m no longer scared. I could sing in front of anyone and my voice may not be perfect, but I’m very confident that I have a voice.

“When I was 18 I decided that I was gonna go in and really make music. I just saw all of the things I was doing for other people and how I could establish that in my brand and just do the styling, do the modeling, do the music, do the makeup, do the directing, do a new film—everything. Do it myself. I figured I’d be a real independent artist.

“I kept hearing this sound in my head but no one could translate it for me. I met this guy, Daniel Luttrell, and we brought it into the studio together and it was a garage band set up. I was so into Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain and a lot of ‘90s grunge music and rock ‘n’ roll.”

Influences

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Influences

Phlo Finister: “I listened to a lot of classic rock like Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, The Doors, Pink Floyd. That’s what I got into when I was 15. It was the fashion that took me to the music—all this ’60s mod stuff going on. What’s the music going along with this movement? I just started exploring it and with that my sound started developing with my lifestyle.

“Janis Joplin. When I heard her sing ‘Summertime’ or like Pink Floyd and Bob Dylan—the Blonde on Blonde album. They were so inspiring because they were so prolific. They had a message. They had something to say and I think that’s something that our generation really lacks is a message.

"Everybody wants to not give a fuck or be a rebel. But if you really think about it, and you think about doing music, your voice has an effect for change. You gotta speak shit. You gotta talk about something. You gotta inspire people just like you. So listening to those older classic artists only made me wanna say more in my music and challenge myself.”

Branding Her Style

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Branding Her Style

Phlo Finister: “For me, fashion comes first. Music is a challenge. Music is definitely a challenge for me, so I kind of just stick to that because I never wanted to spend the rest of my life doing something that I had already figured out.

“When I was modeling, I was just taking photos of my friends and having fun and they came out really cool because I’m photogenic. I understand the whole aspect of it and I never let the weight or the pressure of trying to look a certain way take over. I just did it for fun and now it’s to the point where I take photos and it’s part of my creative vision for what I want to do.


 

When I was modeling, I was just taking photos of my friends and having fun and they came out really cool because I’m photogenic...My best friend, his name is Niko the ikon. When I was 15, he was taking photographs of me hanging out and he called me ‘Phlo’—that was his nickname for me.


 

“My best friend, his name is Niko the ikon. When I was 15, he was taking photographs of me  hanging out and he called me ‘Phlo’—that was his nickname for me. He liked the spelling of it and thought it was a very easy name. Because people with my name get confused and they’re like ‘What? Elijah?’ They didn’t get it.

“When I was sneaking into nightclubs at 15—everyone called me Phlo. From that point, I started understanding that Phlo was a brand, so I just took it to the next level and implemented it into my artistry and my lifestyle and the movement of what I’m doing. It came together.

“As of now, I’ve consolidated my wardrobe down to miniskirts, jumpsuits, and dresses. I don’t own a pair of jeans. I wear flats, I don’t wear heels. I did a shoot for this magazine called Fault the other week and they had me in heels and I was about to fall, literally. [Laughs.]

“My closet’s great—it’s color-coordinated. Like, I do either floral prints, laces, or very solid colors. My favorite color is white. I like a lot of looks that are easy on the eyes. Stuff that’s very proper and pretty. I’m trying to redefine what a sex symbol is by not taking off my clothes. [Laughs.] It’s by just giving sex appeal. That sexy iconic feel.”

Silver Hill

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Her Silver Hill Album

Phlo Finister: “I started talking about my life and growing up, so it became an outlet—a therapeutic thing. When I was in the studio, I wrote this album called Silver Hill. It was a rehabilitation for me, musically, to be able to talk about the things I had experienced with addiction, partying, and severed ties that I had with people.

Silver Hillwas the rehab center that Edie Sedgwick went to when she was a child. It’s in Connecticut. The main person that I was musing this whole album out of—like a love relationship that I had—that’s where they were born. They were born in Connecticut. So it was just this crazy story, like more stuff just started making sense.


 

I wrote this album called Silver Hill. It was a rehabilitation for me, musically, to be able to talk about the things I had experienced with addiction, partying, and severed ties that I had with people. Silver Hill was the rehab center that Edie Sedgwick went to when she was a child. It’s in Connecticut. The main person that I was musing this whole album out of—like a love relationship that I had—that’s where they were born.


 

“It was just so fun for me to do—it was more of like a pop-rock sound, but it was very free for me because it was an experimental thing that I had been having this sound in my head and I wanted to get it out.

“I know people didn’t get it at all because it’s like, ‘Okay there’s this album, called Silver Hill and there’s this kid hanging himself with a happy pill in his hand and I don’t know what this is but it’s fucking crazy.’

“[It was released] on 4/20, that’s Edie Sedgwick’s birthday. It was solely for her, I wanted to do it for her.

“I noticed the R&B style in it early on and I was just like. ‘This is not R&B as we know it.’ R&B is just like rhythm and blues, like R&B like the genre that can stand with rock ‘n’ roll. And for me, that was what it was. So I just put it out and I was happy that it was out. I was happy it was something I did on my own—it was more of an accomplishment.

“I didn’t have any management or anything at the time. I worked that and I went to Coachella and I met my manager Charlie Walk who used to be the president of Epic Records. He loved my music, he understood me, and basically ever since then, I’ve just been working hard.”

Crown Gold

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Her Crown Gold Mixtape

Phlo Finister: “The mixtape was very literal because for many years, I was so misunderstood. A lot of people look at me and they think I’m really artsy and they don’t really understand it. I wanted to make something where people could connect with me in a literal sense, like, ‘This is a girl who grew up in the hood but also had a diverse background growing up listening to the classics.’

“I wanted to mesh those two worlds together because genres are like racism. People immediately put you in this space and I kind of just wanted to break that. What’s going on with music with our generation is very revolutionary.


 

I wanted to mesh two worlds together because genres are like racism. People immediately put you in this space and I wanted to break that because what’s going on with music with our generation is very revolutionary. I wanted to  create something that didn’t allow things to be so ‘in a box.’ I wanted to fuse all genres together and show people that these genres can stand together.


 

"I wanted to create something that didn’t allow things to be so ‘in a box.’ I wanted to fuse all genres together and show people that these genres can stand together. It was something that I wanted to do to change people’s perspective. Sub culture, sub genre.

“I put 'Bang Bang' together because my manager sent me the Mobb Deep song—I’ve heard that song and we were just going through beats and he was like ‘What beat do you want to sing over if you were doing the mixtape thing?’ So he sent me that beat after I did ‘Riders On The Storm.’

"I kind of had an idea of how to match the tempos and stuff. That Nancy Sinatra song had stuck with me because at the time, I was going through a really bad breakup and what she was saying was so embedded in me. It was weird because I sang the first verse in a classic way and then I took it to the ’90s with the melody.

“When I got back from London I put Garbage '#1 Crush' with 2Pac’s 'Hail Mary' and I thought ‘Oh my god, the juxtapositions of these two things like define the image of what this is supposed to look like or sound like in making something new.’ So after one song, I was like ‘I’m getting good at this.’”

London Calling

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London Calling

Phlo Finister: “I was in London for like a month and a half. I went there to move initially because I was going to move there with my best friend Peaches Geldof. My managers were like, ‘You can’t leave your music career behind in L.A. and move to London, that’s unacceptable.’

“When I was there I did a lot of fashion press. I did an event with Dolce & Gabbana where I got an introduction with the designers and I got fitted for a gown, and I went to the offices and met all the people.

"I also did an event with this designer Mark Fast, so I was more into the fashion side of things while I was there. But I was influenced by the youth and the lifestyle and the clothes and the streets. It’s just amazing. I love it there. I’m going to eventually move—probably this summer.”

Youthquaker

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Youthquaker

Phlo Finister: “There was this photograph of Edie Sedgwick in Vogue magazine in—I believe it was 1964, 1965. And Diana Vreeland, who was the editor of Vogue at that time, named Edie Sedgwick ‘Youthquaker.’ She got a lot of press for hanging out with Andy Warhol and they were calling her ‘Girl of the Year’ and she was a very successful model.

"It was very cool to me when I read it, like ‘Youthquaker’—this term is so relevant to today. The music, the fashion, the teenager youth-pirited stuff that’s going on —even with Fairfax and stuff and just the street wear—because Mod fashion was created in the streets and not in the couture houses.

“I thought that was so relatable, and I felt like I wanted to know more about this. When I began to study these girls and how they were so different and each of them were poster girls, I was like ‘This is so cool, and if I could recreate or make this relevant again to today’s youth, it’d be such a huge thing for this generation.’


 

It was very cool to me when I read it, like ‘Youthquaker’—this term is so relevant to today. The music, the fashion, the teenager youth-pirited stuff that’s going on —even with Fairfax and stuff and just the street wear—because Mod fashion was created in the streets and not in the couture houses.


 

“The term ‘Youthquaker’ in itself is something groundbreaking. If you think about all of the power that the youth is being permitted today it's amazing. I wanted to definitely enlighten people on that. I just studied that a lot and now I’m speaking about it publicly.

“I felt like taking that whole ’90s vibe in that era when all those girls were poster girls and they were dressing the same–I felt like for me to actually show people that. It doesn’t matter if it was in the ‘60s or the ‘90s or in the new millennium or 2012–it’s still a movement of the youth.

“I put on for Edie because she was like the underdog and I think a lot of people didn’t respect her as much in fashion. She’s not a bigger icon because she was on drugs. Her fashion sense came from her psychological disturbances.

"She never once dressed a certain way or looked a certain way because anyone put certain clothes on her or gave her an identity. That was literally her tripping out in the fashion world with all these creeps. She was really bugging out. Me noticing that and the way that I dress—the way that I dress due to the way that I feel—that’s the connection.

“She was really just a girl with a lot of problems and she had a lot of money. I love that aspect that she had a lot of money and she wasn’t happy because that just shows you it doesn’t matter if you have like all this money and all these resources, it’s never going to promise you happiness or success.”

Finding Happiness

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Finding Happiness

Phlo Finister: “The happiness that I’m trying to reach is in myself. I continue to love myself and not pay attention to the press stuff. I’m very low-key. I have a lot of friends that are famous and I see how it affects their personality and their attitude due to the press and what they have to say. There’s so many opinions going around and I just try to stay humble and remember who I am as a person.”

“I do a lot of things myself and that gives me a lot of confidence in my brand and what I’m trying to do. I was pretty manic and depressive when I was a teenager because I didn’t have anyone or anything supporting me, [not even] my family. I got bullied as a teen and a pre-teen so I just have a thicker skin.”


 

I do a lot of things myself and that gives me a lot of confidence in my brand and what I’m trying to do. I was pretty manic and depressive when I was a teenager because I didn’t have anyone or anything supporting me, [not even] my family. I got bullied as a teen and a pre-teen so I just have a thicker skin.


 

“Fuck my image, let’s not think about the way I look. Let’s think about the music and exactly what we’re doing right now and the movement and the revolution of it all. And how we’re going to change the image of these genres.”

“I give most of my love to my grandmother. She’s really happy. She’s the most like proper woman and she’s from Texas so like her attitude is just so different but it’s just so dope that she likes my music. Because it’s not even her but she loves it because it’s me and she knows me and she loves me.

"She sees my videos and my music and she’s in amazement and she just is like you’ve done amazing for yourself and you should really be proud of yourself because you had a hard life and now you’re doing your thing. That’s not an excuse, you know.”

The Future

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The Future

Phlo Finister: “I don’t know a lot of things on the Internet because I have an iPhone now and I’m on Twitter sometimes. I gotta watch being on Twitter because I’m very opinionated. I’m really good on Instagram though. I’m a very visual person and I don’t need to talk that much because it’s like I give away too much information sometimes.

"I feel like fashion wise and visually, I’m one of those people that constantly, people look at. [Laughs.] I haven’t updated Tumblr in so long – I’m about to update it when we drop this “Wrong #” video—even with that, I just gotta be careful. [Laughs.] Because I’m really out here…”


 

Obviously people wanna sign me and stuff but I’m holding off. I have my own company, Poster Girl. It’s basically my own company of fashion, music, and everything. When I do a major label deal it’ll be a joint venture, it’ll be like I have my own label.


 

“[The video for “Wrong #”] is like “Bang Bang” part 2—it’s getting back to the roots with the whole mod thing. It’s very beautiful I directed it as well, we shot on Super 8 film. It was at my old apartment where me and Peaches used to live together in Hollywood. It’s kind of a little ‘90s because the way I shot this is like the way Monica and Brandy used to shoot videos back in the day. I never noticed it. But the wardrobe is very 60s.”

“Right now I’m writing with this amazing composer Jeff Barry–he did stuff for The Shangri-Las, The Ronettes, and The Dixie Cups. He’s in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. We’re just composing right now, writing songs for Youthquaker and I’m in and out of the studio with different producers.

"Obviously people wanna sign me and stuff but I’m holding off. I have my own company, Poster Girl. It’s basically my own company of fashion, music, and everything. When I do a major label deal it’ll be a joint venture, it’ll be like I have my own label.

"That’s another thing I’m sitting with these executives and all these people and it’s like I get to get into the business too. [Laughs.] It’s crazy, we’re running this thing. This is a machine that has been hand crafted by me and my team and we’re running it.”


 

I love writing original music. Doing that mixtape was a bit weird for me because I was singing someone else’s lyrics and I’m such a great writer. That’s why I was excited about 'Shades' because that was a song that I wrote on my own and with the structure. I’m a great writer because I understand writing.


 

“There’s gonna be a 4 song EP I’m gonna put it out late March, early April. I love writing original music. Doing that mixtape was a bit weird for me because I was singing someone else’s lyrics and I’m such a great writer. That’s why I was excited about 'Shades' because that was a song that I wrote on my own and with the structure. I’m a great writer because I understand writing.

"After that, Youthquaker is gonna hit this fall so it’s the same thing [how I went from] Silver Hill to Crown Gold. Spring and fall.”

"My album is called Poster Girl. The meaning behind the album is a positive female role model. That’s what I strive to be so I wanted to be the face of my music for this. It’s incorporating ‘90s R&B with a lot of fun things.

"The melodies are one way but the music is like super hip-hop and rock ‘n’ roll. It’s gonna be a great album, I think a lot of people are going to appreciate it because it’s an original piece from me. It’s like a dress that I’m designing perfectly for everyone to see me in.”

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