We're so excited to premiere up-and-coming 19-year-old indie pop artist, Wallice's, new music video for "Rx"- the first single from her upcoming EP, Big Sugar. We are obsessed with her dreamy sad girl sound waves and the dreamy sad girl visuals that go along with it. It was shot by fellow teen and female cinematographer, Taylor Fitzgerald, who brings the song's melancholy pushes and pulls to life with her directorial debut! This video explores a young lover's disassociation from reality as she falls deeper in love. We had the pleasure of chatting with Wallice about her upcoming music, her inspirations, and her unintentionally intentional misspelled name. Prepare to get lost in the romance that unfolds in this dreamy Los Angeles suburban neon landscape.

Written and performed by Wallice
Director/Cinematographer: Taylor Fitzgerald
Edited by Taylor Fitzgerald and Vincent Marinelli
Song Produced by David Marinelli
Guitar: Callaghan Kevany
Bass: Caleb Buchanan

@DOLESCENT: Hi Wallice! Congratulations on your new video for “Rx”. You’re based in Los Angeles. Did you grow up here?

WALLICE: Yes, I was born and raised here. Last year I moved to NYC for college but it wasn’t for me. I moved back and now I’m here in LA. I loved it and I miss it, but I know that this is the place I should be right now.

@: When did you start writing music?

W: I’m 19 now and I started writing probably when I was in middle school. I played a few instruments in the school band, but I started really loving music and wanting to pursue that when I was 12 or 13. That’s when I started singing. I wrote songs about the boy I liked not liking me back and my mom was like “these are really good!”, and that inspired me to keep going. *laughs*

@: That’s so sweet. Do you still have those recordings?

W: They’re on my old computer somewhere. They were like really low quality recordings on GarageBand with a computer mic.

@: That will probably be really fun to go back through in a couple of years. How’s your experience of being a young indie-pop artist so far? 

W: I only have 2 songs out on Spotify and iTunes and a few more on SoundCloud. On January 19th I released “Rx” and that’s the first success I’ve had with my music. Before, it was just my friends and a few random people who listened to me on SoundCloud. My friend and producer, David, who I’ve actually known since 6th grade, works at this place called Headquarters Music, so he’s way more into the music business than I’ve been. He sent “Rx” to Jason Kramer and he played it on KCRW in the middle of the night! His biggest audience is in Europe and this Spotify playlist in The Netherlands ended up putting “Rx” on it. Just yesterday we hit 22,000 plays which blows my mind. I now have like 10,000 listeners in Amsterdam just because a Spotify curator put me on their playlist and that’s really exciting to me, because this is like my first foot in the door. 

@: Do you have any new music coming out?

W: Right now I’m working on 4 new songs that we’re going to be slowly releasing on Spotify as an EP. “Rx” is the first single off of it.

@: Cool! Do you have a name for it yet?

W: Yeah actually, this weekend I’m shooting the album art for the EP with the cinematographer of “Rx”, Taylor. I got this pink cowboy hat and this pink jumpsuit and was on Google looking through this cowboy glossary and I saw the term “Big Sugar”. It means "The Ranch Boss" and I just fell in love with it. So now it’s called “Big Sugar EP”.

@: I want to talk to you about the styling in the music video. Did you style yourself? Who are some of your style inspirations?

W: I’ve always been into fashion and follow a lot of models, photographers, and online and physical magazines on Instagram. Taylor [cinematographer] and I would send each other pictures that we found that were like “This is the vibe we want!” and she sent me this whole mood board and I was like “that’s exactly what I envisioned!” with the red lights and the green lights and just like and the darkness. Clothing and styling wise it was all me and mostly pieces I already had... I knew I wanted the clothing to be bold with bright colors.

@: The music video is so dreamy and colorful but at the same time very dark. You kind of feel like you’re in this weird dream world.

W: Yeah, that was exactly what we were going for!

@: The song itself also matches the video in that way. What are you listening to right now?

W: Lana del Rey is my main music inspiration. When I heard Video Games in 2012, it made me want to be a singer. I’ve also recently been liking Big Thief, which you can’t necessarily hear in “Rx”, but you can hear more of the indie influence on the other songs on my EP. I like to mix indie and pop together.

@: Yeah, I can definitely hear some similarities in your voice and Big Thief’s voice. Like, it’s very full, but gentle at the same time.

W: Thank you- that’s a huge compliment! 

@: I read somewhere that you’re a self proclaimed “sad girl?”

W: Oh yeah, that’s on my Spotify. *laughs*

@: Haha, I love that! It seems like a lot of people of our generation are embracing being “sad”. Being a sad-boi, being a sad-girl. What does that mean to you?

W: I think it’s very important, for me at least, to be genuine with my emotions. It sounds so cheesy and cliche, but everyone is sad at some point and it’s not everything is going to be happy, so embracing the sadness, especially as a songwriter, allows me to create genuine music and lyrics. Without that, you wouldn’t have much in music without the different emotions. I think that “indie-sad-girl” is such a vibe. Sometimes it feels so good to listen to a sad song.

@: What inspired the song?

W: I first heard this line in this old sketch comedy “The Carol Burnett Show” and in this scene, it’s this guy’s first time at the dentist and the dentist has this big needle and says, “There will be pain, but the numbness will settle in.” And I was just like… "THAT IS A LINE." And last year, when I was in NYC for school, it took me a long time to make friends and to really appreciate that I was in New York. I was just so down and so lonely. I would go into the basement where they had a bunch of piano rooms and I would work on this song. It sort of just flowed to me and I think relating the novocaine aspect and relating that to love, I feel like so many people could connect it to their heartbreak and loneliness. 

@: Is there a favorite place you write?

W: I feel like I write the work I’ve become most proud of and excited for happens when I’m playing my guitar half asleep at like 2AM. I’ll scribble out some words on a notebook and I feel like when I look at it the next day, I’m like, okay, this could actually make sense. When I’m half asleep or when I’m really tired, I feel like genuine emotions and thoughts come out. It’s like my filter turns off in my dimly lit bedroom. 

@: That’s definitely sounds like a movie scene.

W: It probably doesn’t look as cool in real life as it does in my head. *laughs*  

@: I wanted to ask about your Instagram bio “My parents misspelled my name”.

W: Oh! Most of the time when I sign up for classes online and I come in, they’re like “Wallice?” This lady literally said this last week, “I was expecting this big burly man to come in!” I’m so used to people thinking I’m a man since it’s a masculine name, but I’m actually named after this woman named Wallis Simpson. The man who was next in line to be King of England renounced his crown to be with her, because she wasn’t royal. Madonna actually made a movie about this called “W.E.” My mom actually didn’t want to name me Wallice, but my dad let his friend name me, and he was like “Wallis” and my mom was like “NOOOOOOO PLEASE NO THEY’RE GOING TO MAKE FUN OF HER”. Anyways, I was named after her, but her spelling is W-A-L-L-I-S and Wallace and Gromit’s spelling is W-A-L-L-A-C-E.  My dad put “Wallace” on the birth certificate and my mom was like “I don’t think that’s right, I think there’s supposed to be an “I” somewhere.” So they put “I-C-E”, which I’ve come to appreciate the uniqueness of it now that I’m older. But yeah, it was misspelled. 

@: That’s hilarious! 

W: My middle name is misspelled too! It’s H-A-N-A, which I thought was “Hana” after flower in Japanese (I’m half Japanese), but my dad was like “Oh no, it’s after that Rolling Stones song”. Like, Dad, what are you doing, you don’t know how to spell!

@: That’s so funny. It’s super unique, though! What advice do you have for young creatives pursuing their passions? 

W: This is so cheesy, but just keep working on it and don’t give up. Last year I was studying vocal jazz and that wasn’t what I wanted to do. I guess I’m technically like a college dropout, but this year I’ve been able to work on music more than ever and it’s because I really set my heart to it and that’s genuinely what I want to do with my life. Whether you love photography, music, whatever, if you really put your heart into it, other people will see that and appreciate the art that you do. 

@: Is there anything else you want to say about your music video release for “Rx”?

W: I guess that I’m just really proud of the product that’s come out. It was basically just me and Taylor who produced it and paid for it. We started in November and filmed in December and it took a while to edit and color and I’m so proud of the hard work that people have put into it. Especially Taylor. She’s put so many hours into it and she goes to college as well and is so busy, but that’s what she wants to do as well and you can see her passion through that.

You can find Wallice's music on Spotify & iTunes!

Wallice interviewed by Richelle Chen