The Glitch and Glamour of Hybrid Rose
by Liam Hansen (they/them)
associate editor
You guys remember 2010? I remember 2010 – sort of. I was only five, but I swear I remember being aware that it was 2010. I had just gotten glasses, and I spent all of my time dancing and singing to High School Musical, crying at Charlie Brown and Snoopy cartoons, trying to explain why I wanted the girl toy in my Happy Meal and eating shit every time I remotely tried to move my body. I must’ve been immediately queer and enby coded from the moment I exited the womb. This is probably the fault of 2010 being, well, 2010, and the radio playing a constant repeat of Kesha and Lady Gaga. Shimmery shiny pop music was pumping through the stereo in primary school, and although I didn't want to admit it - I ate that shit up. I was so fucking girlypop, dude.
Thankfully, I’m not the only one. On the other side of the country, the same electro-pop anthems were playing throughout Blenheim, influencing the very, very early work of the artist now known as Hybrid Rose, of the most seminal psychotic bimbo pop (as she would call it) musicians coming out of Aotearoa. She combines the progressive attitudes of 2023 towards gender and sexuality with the glitch and glamour of early 2010s pop music. Her self-produced, retro game-esque chiptune synths and bitcrushed vocals sound like the feeling of spending too much time on the internet, yarning with under-developed chatbots, and falling into a digital wormhole of strange videos and communities that make you question some things about yourself.
After releasing her fantastic fifth album HyperKunt last year, Hybrid Rose has been tinkering away at a follow-up that builds on her previous experiments with her vocal ability and range, forming herself into an ever-changing popstar that five-year-old me would have gender-envied. We're now fresh off the release of Mutation (which was leaked, more on that later), which is the culmination of 18 months worth of writing, recording and producing, making up Rose's most developed and grandiose work yet. I sat down with her last month to discuss her musical journey so far, her identity, and what the future holds for an already forward thinking artist. We also accidentally brainstormed an Elon Musk diss album. This was a very fun interview.
Liam
How long have you been making music for?
Hybrid Rose
God, my whole life? My first ever memory of making a song was producing on a computer when I was five years old. I was at a Catholic school, St. Mary's, of all places, and I was a misfit. They didn't know how to figure me out until they were like, "We're just gonna give her a laptop, open up GarageBand and see what happens." So I gotta thank the Jesus-loving ladies for that. Fast forward five years, and I discovered you could plug SingStar USB microphones into the computer, so I started experimenting more with my vocals.
Liam
Holy shit, that's genuinely the exact same way that I record music. It's shocking how good the quality is on those SingStar microphones.
Hybrid Rose
It's just a dynamic microphone! It's literally the same as what you would use on stage.
Liam
And they were just giving it out for $20 with a video game. So when did you start as Hybrid Rose, your current moniker?
Hybrid Rose
I started with it when I was 17. I had just put up my first song, ‘Video Games’, under a different name. It got some good buzz that motivated me to continue, but I didn't like using my real name. Adding on the hybrid bit kind of gave me the space to change later on - now people think I'm talking about the car.
Liam
So the music is just being made for car bros?
Hybrid Rose
Exactly! That's my audience. Although I don't have a car... or a licence.
Liam
I hope to god in some future Fast and Furious movie, Hybrid Rose is playing in the background during a high-energy chase scene. Same energy as ‘Vroom Vroom’ by Charli XCX.
Hybrid Rose
Yes! I am the straight peoples Charli XCX.
[We both break into hysterics. There's a lot of this.]
Liam
(through laughter) Specifically straight people who would use a hybrid car?
Hybrid Rose
Exactly. All of my gigs are at car dealerships now.
Liam
So did it go from ‘Video Games’ on to HyperKunt, your most recent album?
Hybrid Rose
No, oh my gosh, it's been such a long journey. ‘Video Games’ came out in 2016. And then maybe a month and a half later, I put out another song that isn't on streaming platforms anymore called ‘Pixel’ - that's when I started off with the Hybrid Rose name. Over the next few years I put out a bunch of different albums, but usually instrumentals and stuff like that. I eventually took those off streaming - they don't really speak to what I'm doing now. HyperKunt was sort of my rebrand, which put an emphasis on the vocals, and was a bit more hot girly pop stuff.
Liam
Do you reckon your sound has developed a lot since those albums?
Hybrid Rose
Absolutely, yeah. In terms of production, in terms of quality, in terms of new experiences which lead to me developing more technical skills. When I did my first couple of albums, I was just at home, in my room, graduating high school in a small town. But after being at uni in Wellington, I learned so much and elevated super quickly. I think now, I'm really happy because I'm doing everything I've always wanted to do and being everything I've always wanted to be.
Liam
What does it feel like to be reaching that stage?
Hybrid Rose
AMAZING! I mean, my breasts are coming in - no, just kidding. It's great because I've built up the confidence and courage to just be careless about it.
Liam
A lot of your persona and music is very internet focused. Were you telling people at your high school that you were doing music?
Hybrid Rose
Well, they saw it on social media when I posted about it, but I wasn't doing gigs or out collaborating with anyone. I mean - I'm from Blenheim. At least now, there's venues and stuff there, but during my time there was just nothing. I was always on the internet, being introverted and quiet in my room. Then with HyperKunt, I was out gigging and playing at festivals and doing all these things, sometimes several times a week, even though it's not what I'm naturally good at. I have a lot of internet friends that I've collaborated with on this album, which was my first time taking a step back from being the main producer. A good friend of mine mixed a lot of it, which was kind of a way for me to trick them into releasing their music. But yeah, I just prefer to have further creative control. I'm very specific about what I want, and it's very rare when I meet people who are good at helping me articulate the image I'm looking for.
Liam
I guess that's like a mix between video game music and stuff you'd hear on the internet in 2006.
Hybrid Rose
Fuck, why does everybody keep coding me as a gamer girl when I'm not? Haha, no I see what you mean. I took a lot of influence from glitch pop in my earliest stuff. I guess a lot of early hyperpop was just glitch music.
Liam
I remember the switch a few years ago, when people stopped calling that style bubblegum bass or experimental pop and started calling it hyperpop.
Hybrid Rose
Hyperpop isn’t a genre in my eyes. It's more of a vibe. I think the only person who really did hyperpop properly was Sophie. She's the only one who really gave you that next level, futuristic type of pop that you just can't reproduce.
Liam
You couldn't find a single person in the scene nowadays that wasn't to some extent, influenced by Sophie. She was definitely my introduction to experimental pop. Beyond her and her contemporaries, who has influenced you and your work?
Hybrid Rose
100% Lady Gaga and 2010 era Kesha. That was a very specific era for her as an artist, as a character, and as a musician, when she utilised that chiptune style that made everything sound like it was coming out of a Casio keyboard. It was contrasted against such grand mixes and masters. I was like nine or ten when it came out, so its sound tracked a lot of my development as a kid.
Liam
Combining lo-fi production with a grandiose atmosphere and mix goes pretty hand in hand with combining the campy visuals with the tone of the song. What is it like trying to combine these two opposing vibes?
Hybrid Rose
Visually, I'm always trying to portray what I envision the song to be in my head. There is a song off Mutation called ‘Mama’, which is basically a MILF anthem. But Hazel, the rapper on the song, has this lyric "You gutta drink these udders like it's tea time". So I thought the single cover should be a picture of a female's body, but the tits have udders on them. And I executed it perfectly.
Liam
You designed it yourself?
Hybrid Rose
Wait, I'll show you (Rose pulls out her phone). It's probably gonna make you vomit.
Liam
Oh, it's fine. It's art.
Hybrid Rose
That's what I mean. I'm always striving to give the best version of something, and especially with music, I always want it to be the closest to how I envision it for myself so that I can be like, "This is my work. This is everything that I am and that I can put into my art. Take it or leave it." Oh, here we go. (She shows me the cover art.)
Liam
Oh that's so good. I expected it to be super cartoony, Doja Cat style, Nah, that's fucking incredible.
Hybrid Rose
I just took a picture on my phone of my real tits, and then I just found some udders on Google Images and used Photoshop. I did that here, at this very cafe!
Liam
Do you do much other design work like that?
Hybrid Rose
No. I'm not sure if people are ever gonna flock to me for my graphic design.
Liam
Did you go into any of these songs on Mutation with a plan of what you wanted to make? Was there any point where you went "HyperKunt sounds like this, so Mutation will sound like that"?
Hybrid Rose
Not really. After the last album came out, I was in a really dark, chronic burnout phase. Actually, from when the lead single for HyperKunt ‘Dial Tone' came out I was pretty gone, but I thought "I can't take a break now, because everything's already been put in place to be rolled out." I barely took care of myself over those few months, so I just wanted to take some time to focus on myself and do gigs every now and then. Eventually, I got the energy back, and I had this idea of calling the album ‘Purge’, which was gonna be really dark and gothic, with all of these really screamy, aggressive tracks since I just wanted to get that feeling of frustration and upsetness out. I finished it, but I only kept a few songs from it on this album. It was very physically demanding to put together, so I figured I would next try to do some softer stuff that felt really pussy. After I was just like "Well, now I have 50 songs. Let's try compile this into something more put together." And that was Mutation.
_
Liam
It goes really well with the ‘hybrid’ theme of everything - Fuck, now every time that I'd say "Hybrid" I just think "cars, cars, cars."
Hybrid Rose
No, absolutely not! Well, my follow-up is now gonna be called "Tesla", so thanks. (We both break into laughter).
Liam
Fucking Tesla Rose?
Hybrid Rose
No, Hybrid Musk.
Liam
Is the album cover just an X?
Hybrid Rose
No, it's me in boy drag. Title track called 'X', which is just a diss track to Threads.
Liam
The main point of music just needs to be just, like, making Elon Musk as angry as possible.
Hybrid Rose
And have a collab with Grimes?
Liam
All the lyrics are just excerpts from the Communist Manifesto. I still think about that image so often.
Hybrid Rose
Yeah, I'll re-enact that picture for the single cover.
Liam
New ideas are just coming in and out. Hybrid Rose God, look at this creative machine right now.
_
Liam
A lot of your music is quite tongue-in-cheek, but it's not comedy music, or anything like that. How do you balance those two sides of it?
Hybrid Rose
My usual coping mechanism in general is using Gen Z mannerisms. I'll be telling a really tragic story to my friends, and then just be like, "Ah, well, you know. (Rose pulls out the killer peace sign/ tongue out combo) That was weeeiird." It just makes it easier to be vulnerable without darkening the tone of a conversation. It's just how I deal. It feels personally a bit played out to have sad songs that are gut wrenching all the time. It's good to have songs that are like that, but not constantly. Then you just sort of look like a sad bitch. Oh my god, song title, "Sad Bitch!" Let me write that down actually!
Liam
The creative machine keeps on going! Do you have more vulnerable songs coming up on Mutation?
Hybrid Rose
Yeah, but they're made in a way so it retains the essence of Hybrid without sacrificing a bit more emotional depth. For example, my favourite song on the album is called 'Blackout'. Here, I'll play a bit of it. [Rose played me a portion of the song, which is definitely an inch darker than her previous material. The catharsis came through the mix - and as I listened we chatted about the situation that inspired it and how she was able to let go of it through the song's production.]
Liam
What was it like to have that experience of breaking through your past while producing this track?
Hybrid Rose
Well, a lot of this album was made in a studio. I'm usually a bedroom producer, so I do everything at home in my space with flatmates around. There's some sort of limitation in terms of how much I want to scream, or how much noise I'm gonna make, or how honest I want to get with the people around me. There's a few more songs where I talk about my trans identity, about my neurology, et cetera. It's been the most stressful thing I've ever done, but it's also the biggest, most high production thing I've created.
Liam
Were you working with anyone in person in the studio?
Hybrid Rose
No, there was a lot of collaboration but it was all done digitally. For example, I worked with Ariki on a song called ‘Frankenstein’. And it is crazy. But we never met, even though they're literally up the road. We just had this really cool song idea, and we were still able to bond and connect over it.
Liam
You talked earlier about exploring gender and sexuality. Do you think there was a correlation between transitioning and music? Or were they more separate things?
Hybrid Rose
Eh, for me, I don't even think about my transition anymore. I just feel so confident in my gender euphoria right now that I don't even think about it. I'm just a woman. I got makeup on. I got titties. I'm just too busy enjoying that and doing what I want to do. I've already had my period of time where I was hyper-focused on it. Now I just get to sit back and be a woman.
Liam
Was that a long process for you?
Hybrid Rose
I mean, it's always gonna be a journey. There's always gonna be pockets of time where I think about it, and question if I'm where I want to be with my transition. But even when I first came out, I was so sheltered. I didn't know about hormones, or surgeries, or that you could change your name or legal gender. I just tried to openly identify as a woman, and figure everything else out later. I just slowly developed a much more fully realised feminine ideal of myself. Now I just get to show up. It took a few years for that mindset to start developing on its own. I want to say it was just before lockdown when I really started to figure it out. Now I get to live my life, but people don't want me to live my life. Because, for some reason, we can't be happy with who we are.
Liam
Are you planning on doing any gigs for Mutation?
Hybrid Rose
Nah, after experimenting with it I've figured that I'm just not a gig person. But I want to test out digital experiences and listening parties. I want to allow people to experience the project in multiple mediums.
Liam
After 18 months of work on this album, how does it feel for its release to be around the corner?
Hybrid Rose
I am shitting my pants. Because, look, last week when 'Hugs N Kisses' came out, I was having a ball doing all the interviews and press, but by the end of the day I was feeling postpartum depression. I've sat on 'Hugs N Kisses' for 13 months, and the video took three months to create. I invested a lot of time, energy, money, resources, and myself into this project - and then it's no longer mine, just like that. I definitely know that I'm going to be anxious when Mutation comes out because it's so personal. I've never done something so from the heart. But I think the people who know me, the people in my circle, the people who follow my music, deserve to know a little bit more about me as a person so that I don't have to present myself all the time. I'm finding myself as I get older, slowly dissociating from social media. I'm forcing myself to be a presence because I have music coming out, but I don't want to do that. I just want to be in my space and let the music speak for itself, and for the people who connect to it to find it and enjoy it.
Liam
Are you wanting it to reach a big audience, or do you prefer it being local and underground?
Hybrid Rose
I don't really have an answer because I don't get to choose. It might not even reach as much as 'Hugs N Kisses', or it might go beyond and get streamed millions of times. I just want to put it out as a statement to everyone and say "This is who I am. This is my personality. This is where I'm at. This is who I want to be, who I want to present myself as, and you decide how you want to interpret it, how you want to take it, how you want to deal with it." I don't know what the release day is gonna look like. I don't know what the reception is going to be, but the people who have heard it are happy about it, and are excited for everyone else to hear it.
Liam
Was there anything else that you wanted to plug?
Hybrid Rose
I'm gonna plug this dildo in my ass.
Liam
Fuck it, I’ll just cut it there.
~
Okay, quick update: Rose leaked Mutation! It's great, but it's also a buzzy move. So, I reached out to her to ask why. This is what she had to say:
“I leaked the album, that’s right. The most prominent industry support I had behind this record were not looking out for me, and were more focused on making money off me without my best interest at heart. I’m an artist, not a brand, you don’t deserve my art.”