F  L  A  U  N  T

 Photographed by Zixuan Li. [Alice Longyu Gao](https://www.instagram.com/alicealice916/) is blasting through your screens and speakers, and soon to be everywhere else you turn too. Her newly released 3-D animated video for “Rich Bitch Juice” (Produced by Dylan Brady) is seemingly playful, but something tells me that Alice is really not out here to play any games. The sassy anthem is a hard-slapping proclamation for all things unapologetically fabulous – just like Alice. Easily standing out amongst an endless sea of daily releases, Alice Longyu Gao is finally the vibrant pop star this decade needs. Lucky for us, she delivers bangers with a whimsical combination of bass and genius one-liners that you can’t help but keep on repeat. “Rich Bitch Juice” is just the first sip because this “Princess of Manifestation” is here to pour it up like no other. I suggest you watch out for that “Dumb Bitch Juice” too.  Photographed by Zixuan Li. **The juice songs are your wisdom just dripping on to the listener and speaking of how to cope from Alice’s view. What’s coming next?** Right now, I’m writing the Juice EP, there’s going to be 5 songs. Nothing is finalized yet, but I do have a lot of exciting collaborations. I’m working with a lot of young and talented producers on this EP. It will be great; the party will be very good. **Can you talk about who will be on it yet?** I really hope I can work with Cashmere Cat because I just opened for his show in NYC at Webster Hall and it would be a dream to make music with him. Even if not now and in the future, I just want to put the energy out there. His music is such nice music. **Your energy output has been received.** Yes!  **When I was listening to “I Want My Hoe Time Back”, I really related to it. I felt like it is a self-care anthem.** Exactly, that’s what it is!   **Hoe time can be interpreted as so many things, it felt really empowering.** You know you can get inspiration from so many different things. With “I Want My Hoe Time Back”, I was inspired by a friend who is currently my roommate. She is a little Instagram hoe and gives a vibe. You don’t always have time to take care of yourself. Obviously, it’s very important to admire yourself and be your own biggest advocate. “I Want My Hoe Time Back” comes from that. **What is your writing and collaborating process like?**  I can’t just be like “yeah send me beats and I’ll hop on your beats”. That doesn’t really work for me. I really have to be in the studio with the team or that person. A lot of people ask me if they can send me their beats, but I just don’t work with people remotely. I have to know you. I have to feel safe to share my experience. I come up with ideas out of nowhere so working with producers I’m already together with feels really great.  All my songs are pretty personal.   **Your style is also so personal. How has it evolved throughout your career?** When I was in school in Boston, I would always dress up for my classes. When I was in China, I wasn’t really allowed to. My family is pretty conservative, and my dad wanted me to wear a button-down shirt with dark blue pants. That is the style my family holds. When I went to Boston for school, I had all this time and more allowance to dress up. A lot of my classmates said I see you 3 times a week and you never repeat an outfit this whole semester.   **That’s like the vibe pop stars are made out of.** That’s kind of the vibe. They told me this at the end of the semester. And so I had a period in fashion where I started working for COMME des GARÇONS and PAPER magazine because I thought what I was doing was fashion. Later I realized, no this is just my art, this is really not fashion. I’m not here to promote any products or asking people to follow me. I’m really just trying to express myself. That’s when I realized I need to position myself right. Whatever I’m wearing is part of my art. I love to express myself and music is another great way for me to express myself. Obviously, I love fashion, I DJ fashion week all the time in Paris and in New York. I love going to fashion shows because at the end of the day fashion designers also want to express themselves. The reason why I say this is because a lot of the times, fashion is directly related to consumer culture which I do not advocate for. I think sustainability is very important. For my shows, the whole experience is not just the clothes. A lot of my clothes are customized, and they are precious, so I wear them and evolve them into my art. It’s not about wearing a different outfit all the time.  **All these formats of expression are really felt in your output. Will you be playing more shows this year?**  This year I’m going to be on tour. SXSW and Elsewhere Zone One on February 14th. I’m doing more shows and hope that people who find me on the internet can come to my shows and see me in person. It would be a great time to meet everybody. **What’s a significant moment you’ve had recently?** Obviously Cashmere Cat at Webster Hall because he is such a legend. Webster Hall is absolutely stunning. The crowd was so kind and friendly. Everybody just loved music and that is why they were there. I love all my weirdos, we really go hard at those shows.  **That’s awesome.** I opened for my friend Remi Wolf who is super talented, and Selena Gomez came to that show. After she told me she loved “Scam” and I was super happy and blessed.  **I saw the video of her dancing to it and that is also how I feel listening to “Scam”.** She posted that video in November and came to my show in September, literally the same week I released “Scam.” She is such a great artist and she knows what’s up, that’s all I can say.   **“Scam” needs to be at millions of plays right now. That’s how I feel about it** “Scam” is a song inspired by Anna Delvey. I was in a SoulCycle class and everyone had a Cartier bracelet or multiple Cartier bracelets on, and I was like wow this just looks so perfect. That’s the illusion everyone from New York is trying to give away, I guess. But you know there is some weird shit going on underneath. **Your lyrics feel tongue-in-cheek but are coming from such a genuine place. The line about people needing to borrow your JUUL reminds me of so many of those instances out at night.** I know, it’s so relatable, isn’t it? * * * Don’t miss her 5 track Juice EP coming out soon and be sure to catch her live in person too.