BAD HABIT: I wanted to ask about the mindset of Chiffon Magnifique. Watching the clips there's this feeling of self-awareness that isn't ironic but still leans into the dramatic and the theatrical of the goth tradition. It feels like a very mature or modern way of carrying yourself with it. I wanted to ask how you came to where you are? 

Chiffon Magnifique: You could use the word “pageantry” to describe this method of presenting myself this way, through the musical atmospheres i create, and the aesthetics i present in photos, music videos and onstage. My mum enrolled me into speech and drama classes at a young age to target the overall shyness and introversion that kinda screwed up my adolescence a lot. Childhood is just full of such extroverted environments, and I do thank her a lot for recognising this and finding something that I could gain confidence with and enjoy. Always getting up onstage and performing poems, prose and mime - it all helped me out of my shy shell and that has carried through to adulthood. Putting on the makeup, jewellery and clothing inspired by trad goth style to perform just makes sense to me. 

BH: Was there much trauma from being a freak through the teenage years? Was home life supportive?

CM: Home life was supportive to a certain point but growing up in the 90s and early 2000s, there was not enough awareness and literature around generalised anxiety disorder and Highly Sensitive People (HSPs). So I guess hormones plus the constant hurt of being belittled for wanting to be different really made teenage years a little sucky. However discovering music in high school really changed a lot, and I tapped into these other weird individuals who also played in the school orchestra and we started making noise together, and there was finally a sense of community and belonging.

BH: Is CM part of a process of overcoming obstacles? 

CM: Yes, it has always been that, as has anything I’ve written in the past with bands. Every song is either about a shitty breakup I went through or some really dark mental health times or simply just not fitting in. I think there will come a time when I write about the world around me like politics and injustices of the world, but i am not quite ready to be a Bob Dylan claiming everything’s fucked. I’d rather just sing “i’m fucked” at the moment.

BH: Why would a person make this sort of music over other styles out there?

CM: Because subgenres like goth rock, post-punk, coldwave, darkwave, industrial and EBM are those genres that always feel like home, whenever I queue up a playlist with them all. Taylor Swift and Harry Styles and other pop shit just sounds like white noise to my ears and I can’t find one bit of enjoyment from it, so I guess I create music that I would want to hear, not what the general population want to hear. Pretentious, I know, but there it is.

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