{"id":1832400,"date":"2026-03-18T12:16:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T09:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1832400"},"modified":"2026-03-18T12:16:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T09:16:00","slug":"silence-is-punk-as-fuck-frost-children-and-ninajirachi-go-head-to-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1832400","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Silence is punk as fuck\u2019: Frost Children and Ninajirachi go head-to-head"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1200\/138-0-1620-1080\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/1\/1441297.png&#8221;]<\/p>\n<article class=\"main-article longread\">\n<div class=\"article-main-content article-wrapper has-media-but-its-an-image\" data-status=\"loaded\" data-primary-article=\"true\" data-url=\"\/music\/article\/69870\/1\/frost-children-ninajirachi-hyperpop-interview-post-skrillex-world-sisters\" data-article-id=\"69870\">\n<header class=\"article-header has-landscape-image no-media\">\n<div class=\"wrapper dg-max-width\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<figure class=\"main-img has-figcaption\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.78\" data-template=\"Longread Article\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"16x9\" class=\"img\" height=\"1080\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1400\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/1\/1441297.png\" width=\"1920\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"inner\"><span class=\"credit\">Photography: Passive Kneeling (left), and David Milan <span class=\"nowrap\">Kelley (right)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"meta\">\n<div class=\"inner\"><time datetime=\"2026-03-18T12:16:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"18 March 2026\"><span class=\"month\">DateInMeta<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"18\">18,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div class=\"titles\">\n<div class=\"tags\">\n<div class=\"sections\"><a class=\"category vertical vertical - music\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\">Music<\/a><br \/>\n\/<br \/>\n<a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/head-to-head\">Head to Head<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h1 class=\"title\"><span>\u2018Silence is punk as fuck\u2019: Frost Children and Ninajirachi <span class=\"nowrap\">go head-to-head<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n<div class=\"standfirst\">\n<h2>The trio of pop interlopers meet up to chat about their recent collaborations, the term \u2018hyperpop\u2019, and where their trailblazing sounds are <span class=\"nowrap\">headed next<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-03-18T12:16:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"18 March 2026\"><span class=\"month\">March<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"18\">18,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tags\">\n<div class=\"sections\"><a class=\"category vertical - music\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\">Music<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/head-to-head\">Head to Head<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-03-18T12:16:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"18 March 2026\"><span class=\"month\">March<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"18\">18,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/p>\n<div class=\"providers\">\n<div class=\"contributors\"><span class=\"contributor\" data-contributor-role=\"Text\"><span class=\"contributor-role\">Text<\/span><a class=\"contributor-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/user\/solomonpacemccarrick\">Solomon Pace-McCarrick<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article-body-container\">\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>In an interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/arca\">Arca<\/a> for his <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/article\/69802\/1\/2hollis-arca-in-conversation-dazed-spring-2026-issue\"><span>Dazed spring 2026 cover story<\/span><\/a><span>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/2hollis\">2hollis<\/a> declared that pop music is currently undergoing a transformation. \u201cThere was a long time of very down-the-middle, put-together pop music, [but now] people want to hear something more avant-garde,<\/span><span>\u201d the \u201cJeans\u201d singer announced. The same day that these words were published, however, two architects of this new era joined a call with Dazed for a head-to-head of their own: Australian producer-vocalist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ninajirachi\/?hl=en-gb\">Ninajirachi<\/a> and Missouri-born sibling duo <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/thefrostchildren\/\">Frost Children<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>At the time of the call, Ninajirachi and Frost Children had swapped places. Frost Children\u2019s Lulu and Angel had just touched down in Sydney for their Australia leg of their <\/span><em><span>SISTER <\/span><\/em><span>album tour, while Nina found herself in LA for a writing session. \u201cI feel like that\u2019s how our lives have always been \u2013 on opposite sides of the world,\u201d shrugs Angel. In fact, the trio have only met in person once, but they still describe themselves as close \u201chomies\u201d, having supported each other\u2019s music for years, and, most recently, exchanged remixes of the title tracks on each of their previous albums: Ninajirachi\u2019s \u201cFuck My Computer\u201d and Frost Children\u2019s \u201cSister\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Still, it is precisely these distance-collapsing digital friendships that has given rise to the changes that 2hollis speaks of. Much like hollis, Ninajirachi and Frost Children describe themselves as having been \u201craised by the internet\u201d, and the trio laugh at the idea that, just 15 years ago, \u2018brostep\u2019 pioneer Skrillex was shamed for treating a laptop like an instrument \u2013 today, it\u2019s quite literally impossible to find a chart hit that a laptop <\/span><em><span>hasn\u2019t<\/span><\/em><span> touched. \u201cWe\u2019ve only ever known the post-Skrillex world,\u201d says Nina.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It\u2019s a world that the trio, each with their own laptops in hand, are thriving in. Raised in a golden age of electronic music \u2013 from the birth of dubstep and EDM right down to the rise of so-called \u2018hyperpop\u2019 \u2013 all three of these artists are uniquely poised to bridge the dance underground with the mainstream. Skrillex-like drops and glitched-out transitions abound throughout Nina\u2019s recent \u201cSisters\u201d remix, for example, but it is also underpinned by an unmistakable pop flavour that even retired parents could get behind. Together, along with names like Underscores, Umru, Mechatok and more, Frost Children and Ninajirachi are realising a world in which pop music is fast, DIY and, above all, digital.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"Oyct_cZvYiY\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"900\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Oyct_cZvYiY\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"1600\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Below, the trio of pop interlopers speak on their recent collaborations, their thoughts on the term \u2018hyperpop\u2019, and what they describe as the \u201cshifting relativity of what is hyper\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>How did you first meet?<\/strong><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angel:<\/strong><span> I guess we\u2019ve only technically met once in person. We did a session in LA, but, for the remixes and stuff, everything\u2019s just been remote, over Twitter and Instagram DMs, Google Meets\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>How did you first encounter each other\u2019s music, then?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angel:<\/strong><span> I saw Nina\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/girledm.com\"><span>Girledm.com<\/span><\/a><span> website and I was like, \u2018That\u2019s such an awesome website name!\u2019 Obviously, I started listening.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ninajirachi:<\/strong><span> I first saw you guys play a show back when we didn\u2019t know each other. I was just a fan. It was the Fool\u2019s Gold show in 2023. I was with my friend Bible Money, and she was putting me onto a lot of music.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>You\u2019ve all been described as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/hyperpop\">hyperpop<\/a> at one point. What do you think of that label?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lulu:<\/strong><span> It was a name given by Spotify, but that also doesn\u2019t mean that it wasn\u2019t and isn\u2019t real. It\u2019s not like I don\u2019t claim that community because I feel that all three of us were really built up online through it over our first couple of years. But I also think that it doesn\u2019t have much shelf life because the moment that people like Spotify want to try to put it into a bottle like that, it becomes less fun for the actual artists to manage that title and that sound.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angel<\/strong><strong>:<\/strong><span> It is funny how hyperpop retroactively went from editorial playlist back into artists self-identifying with it. Like, you don\u2019t hear indie artists saying, \u2018Oh, I make [Spotify-coined term] lorem music!\u2019 But, yeah, I really don\u2019t feel anything about that label anymore. It used to piss me off a lot, but now I\u2019m just like whatever. People will say what they want. In the end, I think it pushed us to make stuff that we wouldn&#8217;t normally have made. It\u2019s a net positive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Ninajirachi:<\/strong> In Australia in 2020, where the scene was a lot smaller than the US or the UK, I kind of liked it. I thought that this word was the broader music community\u2019s way of understanding forward-thinking or interesting music. But I would never introduce myself like, \u2018Hi, I\u2019m Ninajirachi, and I make hyperpop\u2019. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lulu:<\/strong><span> Before the pandemic, people would call Sophie hyperpop. I think there were certain eras where the term was being misused.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angel:<\/strong><span> You wouldn\u2019t call Sophie hyperpop now.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lulu:<\/strong><span> No, I would just call it PC music, even though she definitely bred hyperpop and directly caused it, I don\u2019t know if she would claim [hyperpop].<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>\u201cI think that there\u2019s only really two genres: pop music and texture music\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Do you see yourself more as pop music, then?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angel:<\/strong><span> Yeah, we\u2019ve always said pop music. I think that there are only really two genres: pop music and texture music. There\u2019s pop music which has arrangement, catchiness and some sort of cultural gel that makes it digestible to the average Joe. Then there\u2019s texture music, which is like ambient or like jazz, which is supposed to be more free and also represents something about the human spirit. That\u2019s how I think about music. I never think about hyperpop. I don\u2019t think anything\u2019s out of bounds to use in a song.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ninajirachi:<\/strong><span> It\u2019s also a generational thing, in the sense that a sound might be \u2018hyper\u2019 to someone, but, to a baby born today, that\u2019s just music. The charts have all been permeated by experimental producers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angel:<\/strong><span> That\u2019s very true, though, because what was hyper in 2020 is now the base layer. Imagine a 13-year-old whose first song that they memorised from the radio is \u2018Gnarly\u2019 by Katseye. They\u2019d be like, \u2018That\u2019s not hyper, that\u2019s just how songs sound\u2019. Then, imagine they listen to SOPHIE. They\u2019d be like, \u2018That\u2019s just normal music, it sounds like Katseye\u2019. <\/span><span>Now, you have people like 2slimey and shit who are really pushing the boundaries of<\/span><span>how much you can distort an 808 and how much you can be indecipherable. I think it\u2019s really cool, actually.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"gs-KGzm8rZs\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"900\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gs-KGzm8rZs\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"1600\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><strong>It\u2019s funny because 2slimey clearly comes from more of a rap lineage than PC Music, yet seems to be ending up at a similarly maximalist destination.<\/strong><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angel:<\/strong><span> It\u2019s crazy, the shifting relativity of what is hyper. I remember listening to \u2018Die Lit\u2019 by Playboi Carti when I was in high school and I was like \u2018You can\u2019t go any harder than this, this is the hardest rap music I\u2019ve ever heard!\u2019 Now, it literally sounds like lo-fi hip-hop.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lulu:<\/strong><span> I still need to be sold on 2slimey. <\/span><span>I\u2019ll like it for like three seconds<\/span><strong>, <\/strong><span>and then, halfway through the song, I\u2019m like, \u2018I need to kill this with fire\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Why do you think music might be tending towards more hyper sounds?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Ninajirachi:<\/strong> It might just be the advancement of technology. Even with the Beatles, weren\u2019t there songs where they would be like \u2018Fuck it, pan that whole track to the left\u2019? Like, that was so edgy for the time. <\/span><span>There<\/span><span> were such vast limitations on recording back then, and now we have Ableton, and we can literally do anything. It\u2019s almost like the most hyper thing to do is to restrain and be silent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angel:<\/strong><span> Yes, that\u2019s what I was going to say! That was the exact realisation we had that made <\/span><em><span>Hearth Room<\/span><\/em><span> our softer album. We were like, \u2018This is punk as fuck!\u2019 Like, having a really beautiful guitar song is punk as fuck. I think <\/span><em><span>Sister <\/span><\/em><span>topped it, but we always think about this: cap the Ableton project at a certain amount of layers. A song doesn\u2019t need to do everything.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lulu:<\/strong><span> One of my friends called it DAW [Digital Audio Workstation] slop. Songs that are full, like 110 tracks on Ableton plus like four OTTs [effect] on everything.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>\u201cHatred and love are the same thing. That\u2019s a universal human truth\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Ten years ago, EDM was looked down upon by music critics. But now, through artists like yourselves, it seems to find itself at the cutting edge of music. Where do you think this cycle came from?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lulu:<\/strong><span> I\u2019ve seen people saying this, too. I feel like people, especially critics, don\u2019t hold electronic dance music to the same tier as rap music or indie music. There are so many amazing albums that we grew up with that got completely dismissed as just a \u2018random club tape\u2019. Like, Avicii can have the best written song ever, and a really cool drop, and both things can be true.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angel:<\/strong><span> People\u2019s hatred and love are the same thing. That\u2019s a universal human truth. If you\u2019re like, \u2018I fucking hate that thing\u2019, it actually means that you have a soft spot for it. I found this with myself too. I think that&#8217;s why it becomes a cycle, because I don\u2019t think anyone ever truly hates something their whole life.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Ninajirachi:<\/strong> It\u2019s also a generational thing. Us three weren\u2019t born into a world without Skrillex. He has always existed for us. I see memes that are over a decade old where it&#8217;s like \u2018No, Skrillex, a laptop isn\u2019t an instrument\u2019 [Laughs] It\u2019s like, wow, I can\u2019t believe people used to be for real about that because, now, we don\u2019t know any different. Also, when you\u2019re a kid, you don\u2019t care about cultural cringe. You just listen to music that makes you feel good, and you don\u2019t care why. Like, you hear a super saw or a build-up and a drop and you\u2019re like, \u2018Wow, that makes me feel epic!\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Maybe it\u2019s also because the critics reviewing our music now were also born into the same context that we were. Some of them are our age who\u2019ve only ever known the post-Skrillex world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angel:<\/strong><span> It\u2019s true. I felt really cool listening to Deadmau5. To a 28-year-old at that time who was into dance music, they probably saw how certain elements of electro house and techno were fused and sensationalised as some sellout shit. But, I\u2019m a 13-year-old in St. Louis, Missouri, and so this is the coolest shit I\u2019ve ever heard. I\u2019m only learning his references now.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Ninajirachi:<\/strong> Interesting, maybe it\u2019s a small town thing, because I\u2019m also from a small town. Maybe your access point has an influence on your tastes, too.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"instagram-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-instagram\" data-script-depends=\"instagram-embeds\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><strong>Turning to the \u201cSisters\u201d remix you did, Nina, childhood plays a key role in the lyrics, too.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Ninajirachi:<\/strong> I just thought \u2018sibling love\u2019 was such a cool prompt. Lyrically, it was just pouring out. I have a little brother, and I love him. He was my sister in the song.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angel:<\/strong><span> Obviously, Lulu and I grew up together and we\u2019ve always been pretty close. <\/span><span>So, when we were making the album <\/span><em><span>Sister<\/span><\/em><span>, it felt natural to us to talk about those themes. It\u2019s this source of communicative power that we have through music. When you\u2019re a kid, you don&#8217;t know that other music is out there, so everything\u2019s like the coolest thing ever. That is what EDM achieves for people of all ages; it\u2019s this beautiful gel that makes you feel young, you know? There\u2019s a universal human appeal to it. If you\u2019re not too snobbish and let yourself be taken by it, it\u2019s really powerful. It\u2019s vulnerable, it\u2019s emotional, but it\u2019s also intense and dancey. That\u2019s what childhood is like.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Also, we never said this in the press, but we just asked for a remix of anything on our album, and Nina sent back a fully-written verse on \u2018Sisters\u2019. I was like, \u2018Wait, this is amazing\u2019. I was shocked to hear such prescient and cool melody writing. Do you want to explore that side of yourself more, Nina, or are you more like, \u2018Fuck it: DJ mode\u2019?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Ninajirachi:<\/strong> Oh, thank you. I was so nervous to send it to you. I really want to keep making music that works for shows. That was something I focused on a lot for my album that I was really happy with. What about you? Are you going more maximalist after <\/span><em><span>Sister<\/span><\/em><span> or more restrained?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lulu:<\/strong><span> I think <\/span><em><span>Sister<\/span><\/em><span> was a bit more of an ode to EDM than our other music. We are just now starting all the music for the next era, and I don\u2019t want to just be like, \u2018OK, now every song we make has to have a buildup and a drop\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angel:<\/strong><span> I love buildups and drops\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lulu:<\/strong><span> Yeah. But we\u2019ve had an entire career before that album of things that didn\u2019t necessarily even have those at all. So, I want to save the buildups and the drops for things that really matter and then explore faster tempos. We\u2019re working on this thing right now that\u2019s 165 BPM. It feels a bit fresher because I\u2019ve been existing in 130 for a couple of years now.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angel:<\/strong><span> We played it last night, actually. It was our second time ever playing it, and people were like, \u2018Woah!\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lulu:<\/strong><span> It\u2019s more like hard style.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angel:<\/strong><span> It reminds me of our early shit. We\u2019re going back to our roots.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-series header article-series tags\"><span class=\"heading\">More on these topics:<\/span><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\">Music<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/head-to-head\">Head to Head<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/hyperpop\">hyperpop<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/pop\">pop<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"image-navigation\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/news\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img one\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">News<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/fashion\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img two\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Fashion<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img three\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Music<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img four\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Film &amp; TV<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/article\/69870\/1\/frost-children-ninajirachi-hyperpop-interview-post-skrillex-world-sisters#features\" class=\"image-navigation__img five\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Features<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/beauty\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img six\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Beauty<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img seven\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Life &amp; Culture<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/art-photography\/\" class=\"image-navigation__img eight\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-navigation__wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"image-navigation__title\">Art &amp; Photography<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>In an interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/arca\">Arca<\/a> for his <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/article\/69802\/1\/2hollis-arca-in-conversation-dazed-spring-2026-issue\"><span>Dazed spring 2026 cover story<\/span><\/a><span>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/2hollis\">2hollis<\/a> declared that pop music is currently undergoing a transformation. \u201cThere was a long time of very down-the-middle, put-together pop music, [but now] people want to hear something more avant-garde,<\/span><span>\u201d the \u201cJeans\u201d singer announced. The same day that these words were published, however, two architects of this new era joined a call with Dazed for a head-to-head of their own: Australian producer-vocalist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ninajirachi\/?hl=en-gb\">Ninajirachi<\/a> and Missouri-born sibling duo <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/thefrostchildren\/\">Frost Children<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>At the time of the call, Ninajirachi and Frost Children had swapped places. Frost Children\u2019s Lulu and Angel had just touched down in Sydney for their Australia leg of their <\/span><em><span>SISTER <\/span><\/em><span>album tour, while Nina found herself in LA for a writing session. \u201cI feel like that\u2019s how our lives have always been \u2013 on opposite sides of the world,\u201d shrugs Angel. In fact, the trio have only met in person once, but they still describe themselves as close \u201chomies\u201d, having supported each other\u2019s music for years, and, most recently, exchanged remixes of the title tracks on each of their previous albums: Ninajirachi\u2019s \u201cFuck My Computer\u201d and Frost Children\u2019s \u201cSister\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Still, it is precisely these distance-collapsing digital friendships that has given rise to the changes that 2hollis speaks of. Much like hollis, Ninajirachi and Frost Children describe themselves as having been \u201craised by the internet\u201d, and the trio laugh at the idea that, just 15 years ago, \u2018brostep\u2019 pioneer Skrillex was shamed for treating a laptop like an instrument \u2013 today, it\u2019s quite literally impossible to find a chart hit that a laptop <\/span><em><span>hasn\u2019t<\/span><\/em><span> touched. \u201cWe\u2019ve only ever known the post-Skrillex world,\u201d says Nina.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It\u2019s a world that the trio, each with their own laptops in hand, are thriving in. Raised in a golden age of electronic music \u2013 from the birth of dubstep and EDM right down to the rise of so-called \u2018hyperpop\u2019 \u2013 all three of these artists are uniquely poised to bridge the dance underground with the mainstream. Skrillex-like drops and glitched-out transitions abound throughout Nina\u2019s recent \u201cSisters\u201d remix, for example, but it is also underpinned by an unmistakable pop flavour that even retired parents could get behind. Together, along with names like Underscores, Umru, Mechatok and more, Frost Children and Ninajirachi are realising a world in which pop music is fast, DIY and, above all, digital.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"Oyct_cZvYiY\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"900\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Oyct_cZvYiY\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"1600\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Below, the trio of pop interlopers speak on their recent collaborations, their thoughts on the term \u2018hyperpop\u2019, and what they describe as the \u201cshifting relativity of what is hyper\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>How did you first meet?<\/strong><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angel:<\/strong><span> I guess we\u2019ve only technically met once in person. We did a session in LA, but, for the remixes and stuff, everything\u2019s just been remote, over Twitter and Instagram DMs, Google Meets\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>How did you first encounter each other\u2019s music, then?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angel:<\/strong><span> I saw Nina\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/girledm.com\"><span>Girledm.com<\/span><\/a><span> website and I was like, \u2018That\u2019s such an awesome website name!\u2019 Obviously, I started listening.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ninajirachi:<\/strong><span> I first saw you guys play a show back when we didn\u2019t know each other. I was just a fan. It was the Fool\u2019s Gold show in 2023. I was with my friend Bible Money, and she was putting me onto a lot of music.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>You\u2019ve all been described as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/hyperpop\">hyperpop<\/a> at one point. What do you think of that label?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lulu:<\/strong><span> It was a name given by Spotify, but that also doesn\u2019t mean that it wasn\u2019t and isn\u2019t real. It\u2019s not like I don\u2019t claim that community because I feel that all three of us were really built up online through it over our first couple of years. But I also think that it doesn\u2019t have much shelf life because the moment that people like Spotify want to try to put it into a bottle like that, it becomes less fun for the actual artists to manage that title and that sound.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angel<\/strong><strong>:<\/strong><span> It is funny how hyperpop retroactively went from editorial playlist back into artists self-identifying with it. Like, you don\u2019t hear indie artists saying, \u2018Oh, I make [Spotify-coined term] lorem music!\u2019 But, yeah, I really don\u2019t feel anything about that label anymore. It used to piss me off a lot, but now I\u2019m just like whatever. People will say what they want. In the end, I think it pushed us to make stuff that we wouldn&#8217;t normally have made. It\u2019s a net positive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Ninajirachi:<\/strong> In Australia in 2020, where the scene was a lot smaller than the US or the UK, I kind of liked it. I thought that this word was the broader music community\u2019s way of understanding forward-thinking or interesting music. But I would never introduce myself like, \u2018Hi, I\u2019m Ninajirachi, and I make hyperpop\u2019. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lulu:<\/strong><span> Before the pandemic, people would call Sophie hyperpop. I think there were certain eras where the term was being misused.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angel:<\/strong><span> You wouldn\u2019t call Sophie hyperpop now.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lulu:<\/strong><span> No, I would just call it PC music, even though she definitely bred hyperpop and directly caused it, I don\u2019t know if she would claim [hyperpop].<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>\u201cI think that there\u2019s only really two genres: pop music and texture music\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Do you see yourself more as pop music, then?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angel:<\/strong><span> Yeah, we\u2019ve always said pop music. I think that there are only really two genres: pop music and texture music. There\u2019s pop music which has arrangement, catchiness and some sort of cultural gel that makes it digestible to the average Joe. Then there\u2019s texture music, which is like ambient or like jazz, which is supposed to be more free and also represents something about the human spirit. That\u2019s how I think about music. I never think about hyperpop. I don\u2019t think anything\u2019s out of bounds to use in a song.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ninajirachi:<\/strong><span> It\u2019s also a generational thing, in the sense that a sound might be \u2018hyper\u2019 to someone, but, to a baby born today, that\u2019s just music. The charts have all been permeated by experimental producers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angel:<\/strong><span> That\u2019s very true, though, because what was hyper in 2020 is now the base layer. Imagine a 13-year-old whose first song that they memorised from the radio is \u2018Gnarly\u2019 by Katseye. They\u2019d be like, \u2018That\u2019s not hyper, that\u2019s just how songs sound\u2019. Then, imagine they listen to SOPHIE. They\u2019d be like, \u2018That\u2019s just normal music, it sounds like Katseye\u2019. <\/span><span>Now, you have people like 2slimey and shit who are really pushing the boundaries of<\/span><span>how much you can distort an 808 and how much you can be indecipherable. I think it\u2019s really cool, actually.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"gs-KGzm8rZs\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"900\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gs-KGzm8rZs\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"1600\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><strong>It\u2019s funny because 2slimey clearly comes from more of a rap lineage than PC Music, yet seems to be ending up at a similarly maximalist destination.<\/strong><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angel:<\/strong><span> It\u2019s crazy, the shifting relativity of what is hyper. I remember listening to \u2018Die Lit\u2019 by Playboi Carti when I was in high school and I was like \u2018You can\u2019t go any harder than this, this is the hardest rap music I\u2019ve ever heard!\u2019 Now, it literally sounds like lo-fi hip-hop.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lulu:<\/strong><span> I still need to be sold on 2slimey. <\/span><span>I\u2019ll like it for like three seconds<\/span><strong>, <\/strong><span>and then, halfway through the song, I\u2019m like, \u2018I need to kill this with fire\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Why do you think music might be tending towards more hyper sounds?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Ninajirachi:<\/strong> It might just be the advancement of technology. Even with the Beatles, weren\u2019t there songs where they would be like \u2018Fuck it, pan that whole track to the left\u2019? Like, that was so edgy for the time. <\/span><span>There<\/span><span> were such vast limitations on recording back then, and now we have Ableton, and we can literally do anything. It\u2019s almost like the most hyper thing to do is to restrain and be silent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angel:<\/strong><span> Yes, that\u2019s what I was going to say! That was the exact realisation we had that made <\/span><em><span>Hearth Room<\/span><\/em><span> our softer album. We were like, \u2018This is punk as fuck!\u2019 Like, having a really beautiful guitar song is punk as fuck. I think <\/span><em><span>Sister <\/span><\/em><span>topped it, but we always think about this: cap the Ableton project at a certain amount of layers. A song doesn\u2019t need to do everything.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lulu:<\/strong><span> One of my friends called it DAW [Digital Audio Workstation] slop. Songs that are full, like 110 tracks on Ableton plus like four OTTs [effect] on everything.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>\u201cHatred and love are the same thing. That\u2019s a universal human truth\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Ten years ago, EDM was looked down upon by music critics. But now, through artists like yourselves, it seems to find itself at the cutting edge of music. Where do you think this cycle came from?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lulu:<\/strong><span> I\u2019ve seen people saying this, too. I feel like people, especially critics, don\u2019t hold electronic dance music to the same tier as rap music or indie music. There are so many amazing albums that we grew up with that got completely dismissed as just a \u2018random club tape\u2019. Like, Avicii can have the best written song ever, and a really cool drop, and both things can be true.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angel:<\/strong><span> People\u2019s hatred and love are the same thing. That\u2019s a universal human truth. If you\u2019re like, \u2018I fucking hate that thing\u2019, it actually means that you have a soft spot for it. I found this with myself too. I think that&#8217;s why it becomes a cycle, because I don\u2019t think anyone ever truly hates something their whole life.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Ninajirachi:<\/strong> It\u2019s also a generational thing. Us three weren\u2019t born into a world without Skrillex. He has always existed for us. I see memes that are over a decade old where it&#8217;s like \u2018No, Skrillex, a laptop isn\u2019t an instrument\u2019 [Laughs] It\u2019s like, wow, I can\u2019t believe people used to be for real about that because, now, we don\u2019t know any different. Also, when you\u2019re a kid, you don\u2019t care about cultural cringe. You just listen to music that makes you feel good, and you don\u2019t care why. Like, you hear a super saw or a build-up and a drop and you\u2019re like, \u2018Wow, that makes me feel epic!\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Maybe it\u2019s also because the critics reviewing our music now were also born into the same context that we were. Some of them are our age who\u2019ve only ever known the post-Skrillex world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angel:<\/strong><span> It\u2019s true. I felt really cool listening to Deadmau5. To a 28-year-old at that time who was into dance music, they probably saw how certain elements of electro house and techno were fused and sensationalised as some sellout shit. But, I\u2019m a 13-year-old in St. Louis, Missouri, and so this is the coolest shit I\u2019ve ever heard. I\u2019m only learning his references now.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Ninajirachi:<\/strong> Interesting, maybe it\u2019s a small town thing, because I\u2019m also from a small town. Maybe your access point has an influence on your tastes, too.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"instagram-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-instagram\" data-script-depends=\"instagram-embeds\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><strong>Turning to the \u201cSisters\u201d remix you did, Nina, childhood plays a key role in the lyrics, too.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Ninajirachi:<\/strong> I just thought \u2018sibling love\u2019 was such a cool prompt. Lyrically, it was just pouring out. I have a little brother, and I love him. He was my sister in the song.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angel:<\/strong><span> Obviously, Lulu and I grew up together and we\u2019ve always been pretty close. <\/span><span>So, when we were making the album <\/span><em><span>Sister<\/span><\/em><span>, it felt natural to us to talk about those themes. It\u2019s this source of communicative power that we have through music. When you\u2019re a kid, you don&#8217;t know that other music is out there, so everything\u2019s like the coolest thing ever. That is what EDM achieves for people of all ages; it\u2019s this beautiful gel that makes you feel young, you know? There\u2019s a universal human appeal to it. If you\u2019re not too snobbish and let yourself be taken by it, it\u2019s really powerful. It\u2019s vulnerable, it\u2019s emotional, but it\u2019s also intense and dancey. That\u2019s what childhood is like.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Also, we never said this in the press, but we just asked for a remix of anything on our album, and Nina sent back a fully-written verse on \u2018Sisters\u2019. I was like, \u2018Wait, this is amazing\u2019. I was shocked to hear such prescient and cool melody writing. Do you want to explore that side of yourself more, Nina, or are you more like, \u2018Fuck it: DJ mode\u2019?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Ninajirachi:<\/strong> Oh, thank you. I was so nervous to send it to you. I really want to keep making music that works for shows. That was something I focused on a lot for my album that I was really happy with. What about you? Are you going more maximalist after <\/span><em><span>Sister<\/span><\/em><span> or more restrained?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lulu:<\/strong><span> I think <\/span><em><span>Sister<\/span><\/em><span> was a bit more of an ode to EDM than our other music. We are just now starting all the music for the next era, and I don\u2019t want to just be like, \u2018OK, now every song we make has to have a buildup and a drop\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angel:<\/strong><span> I love buildups and drops\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lulu:<\/strong><span> Yeah. But we\u2019ve had an entire career before that album of things that didn\u2019t necessarily even have those at all. So, I want to save the buildups and the drops for things that really matter and then explore faster tempos. We\u2019re working on this thing right now that\u2019s 165 BPM. It feels a bit fresher because I\u2019ve been existing in 130 for a couple of years now.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angel:<\/strong><span> We played it last night, actually. It was our second time ever playing it, and people were like, \u2018Woah!\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lulu:<\/strong><span> It\u2019s more like hard style.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angel:<\/strong><span> It reminds me of our early shit. We\u2019re going back to our roots.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-series header article-series tags\"><span class=\"heading\">More on these topics:<\/span><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\">Music<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/head-to-head\">Head to Head<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/hyperpop\">hyperpop<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/pop\">pop<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/article\/69870\/1\/frost-children-ninajirachi-hyperpop-interview-post-skrillex-world-sisters&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1200\/138-0-1620-1080\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1440\/1\/1441297.png&#8221;] Photography: Passive Kneeling (left), and David Milan Kelley (right) DateInMeta\u00a0 18,\u00a0 2026 Music \/ Head to Head \u2018Silence is punk as fuck\u2019: Frost Children and Ninajirachi go head-to-head The trio of pop interlopers meet up to chat about their recent collaborations, the term \u2018hyperpop\u2019, and where their trailblazing sounds are headed next [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,76],"class_list":["post-1832400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-dazeddigital-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1832400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1832400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1832400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1832400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1832400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1832400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}