2hollis: “I am an object — view it, watch it”

AD ASTRA PER ASPERA. Rising star 2HOLLIS is the cover boy of our current Summer issue available HERE. Below you can find the full interview by Cassidy George, as well as the editorial including unpublished images.

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Almost a century ago exactly, F. B. Nightingale erected a 35-foot wooden star in his back yard in Altadena, a mountainous part of Los Angeles County. He covered the structure with 40-watt light bulbs and first illuminated the “Star of Palawoo” around Christmas in 1926. “Very little may be seen of the star by day as it is colored to match the shrubbery,” Nightingale wrote to the Altadena Chamber of Commerce a few decades later. “But at night, it may be seen from many miles away; the star, gleaming out of the night, is the only visible light in the great mountain space.” Best known for his pioneering work in outdoor lighting design, Nightingale worked as a touring vaudeville magician before accepting a job at General Electric. He signed his letter to the Chamber as “F. B. Nightingale, The Magician of Light.”

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Nightingale’s creation is just one of many stars that the Altadena-raised musician Hollis Frazier-Herndon – better known as 2hollis – and I discuss before his show at Kesselhaus in Berlin. Ten people, as well as large racks of designer clothing, are crammed into the venue’s small and strangely shaped green room while Hollis prepares for a last-minute promo shoot for his next studio album, star.

Perhaps in hopes of alleviating some of the stressed-out energy in the room, Hollis begins playing an ambient track via a portable speaker. The sounds of a thunderstorm and crackling campfire fade in and out over a chorus of soothing New Age synths. “Rainforest spiritual enslavement,” Hollis tells me. Assuming I misheard one of those words, I ask him to repeat himself. “Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement!” he says again, precisely enunciating each syllable. “That’s the name of the artist I’m playing.”

Towering at 6 feet 6 inches, Hollis whizzes around the room, trying on Rick Owens jackets, fur coats, and palmless (you read that right) leather gloves. His chest- length, platinum-blond hair floats behind him like a wind-blown cape, moving with a life of its own. Although I find the tense environment and Hollis’ intermittent state of undress to be overwhelming, Hollis is unfazed. Anyone familiar with his discography already knows how adept he is at multitasking.

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Born in 2004 to a musician and a music publicist, Hollis was given Ableton software when he was 11 and, as a teenager, started releasing music under the moniker “drippysoup.” After building an enthusiastic following with a series of “medieval trap” songs, 2hollis released three full-length albums – white tiger (2022), 2 (2023), and boy (2024) – which are already cult classics in certain corners of internet music fandom. Whereas his fusion of hyperpop and SoundCloud rap has long appealed to Drainers, Snow Strippers fans, and PC Music lovers, Hollis has additionally won the hearts of rage-rap lovers and devotees of Opium-label artists after touring with Ken Carson last year.

Although often masked by a playful surface, Hollis’ music is extremely complex. His tracks tend to reinvent themselves over the course of their running time – during which they frequently change in terms of tempo, melody, and overall mood – but also with each additional listen. “That’s the hallmark of my life,” he says. “Just changing everything, all of the time.” Every time I revisit a 2hollis song, I notice a new Easter egg or musical magic trick, such as the repurposing of video game soundbites as instruments.

Even as his wackier choices bring the artist SOPHIE to mind, his voice is in a constant state of artistic mutation. In the span of an album, Hollis transforms from a mumble rapper into a sensual singer-songwriter and then a millennial pop-punk lead, then back again. In far more general terms: Hollis makes music for people who find beauty in chaos.

Rather than annoyingly follow Hollis around while he hovers from rack to rack backstage, I position myself strategically opposite the full-length mirror, which Hollis returns to regularly as he tries on different outfits. As we delve into such topics as vanity, avatars, and the increasingly “severed” self (analogue versus digital, artist versus persona, public perception versus reality), the conditions of the interview setup feel more and more surreal. Sometimes, Hollis turns around and looks me in the eyes to answer a question. Other times, I speak to his reflection in the mirror – which makes me feel as if I were literally in dialogue with two Hollises.

Weeks later, when I finally hear star, I recognize echoes of our conversation in many aspects of the record: Thunderdome-appropriate hardstyle kicks, ambient raindrops, and the glowing mandala on the cover. Hollis continues to showcase new sides of his musical fractal, as he leans into his poetic voice and reveals his rawest self on a stripped-back, acoustic track. The song “flash” proposes an answer to the question that had been looming most in my mind: is Hollis aware of the cosmic parallels between him and the magician who built the Star of Palawoo? “A lot of the things I’ve shown you,” Hollis whispers in a spoken-word interlude, “have been illusions.”

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CASSIDY GEORGE: European club music shows up in your discography quite frequently, and you’re throwing an after-party tonight at the club OXI. Are you drawn mostly to the sound, or are you also interested in the culture around it?

HOLLIS FRAZIER-HERNDON: I don’t really go out to clubs, but that’s because I find clubs in LA to be a lot less enjoyable than places here. I mostly just go clubbing in my own head, like in a fantasy. I have these visions of what it would be like to play my music in crazy-ass clubs and during these epic nightlife moments, but even when it does happen, it never quite adds up to how I imagined it.

CG: You just announced that you are releasing a new album called star. Your last album was called boy. Is this record about what it seems to be: your transition out of boyhood and into stardom?

H: I think star is very cohesive and more mature than boy. It’s much more put together, in my opinion – but they are both unique in their own ways. I’m very proud of this one, and the concept is a little bigger than [that of] boy, which was basically a coming-of-age album.

I made almost the entire album [star] in my childhood home in Altadena. I grew up on this mountain, and right above my house on this big mountain, there was a giant metal star that would light up at night. It had been there forever. As a kid, we would always hike up there, and as I got older, [friends and I] would go up there and smoke and listen to music. It’s a ... unique place in LA, and no one really knew about it. I basically grew up “going to the star” – that’s what we called it.

Separately, I am becoming a bit of a star myself. Chasing stardom is one of the weirdest, most special and unique ... yet also completely terrible experiences ever. You’re chasing and living a dream that is, in many ways, very empty, meaningless, and egocentric. There are two sides of the coin, which is very much like a real star. It shines so bright, and it’s gorgeous, but it’s burning. It’s this fiery, gassy thing that explodes, and then dies.

In the fires in LA this January, my child- hood home burned down, along with the star.

CG: I’m so sorry.

H: The whole thing is really insane, because I had just been making songs with fire sounds in them. I was talking about burning and the concept of stars exploding and dying on the album’s last track. The next day, we woke up and evacuated. When my mom went back to our house, the only thing that survived the fire was a tarot card called The Star. My mom sent me a picture of it, and I started sobbing. I couldn’t believe it. She framed it.

CG: Okay, I believed everything you said up until the tarot card.

H: I swear on my life. I can show you the photo. Once I saw that, I was like, “Okay, this album is called star.” And that’s why this album means so much to me. The worst part of all of this is that I couldn’t even go back to visit my house. I left for tour two days after the fires started, and suddenly my house was gone. I never even got to see it again. All I have is a photo.

Thankfully, I’m in a position where I can really help my family. We are so fortunate to be able to recover from something like this, but my heart hurts for all of the families who don’t have much and truly lost it all.

CG: Should I read the meaning of The Star card to you right now? Biddy Tarot says: The Star comes as a welcome reprieve after a period of destruction and turmoil. You are realizing your core essence, who you are beneath all the layers. With The Star card, anything is possible, and the magic is flowing around you. Allow your- self to dream, to aspire, to elevate in any way possible so you can reach the stars. They are right here waiting for you.

You are making some significant changes in your life, transforming your- self from the old you to the new you and, in doing so, you are bringing about a fresh perspective: “Out with the old and in with the new!” Strip back any limiting beliefs, façades, or deceptions, and live in your authentic nature. Be open to new ideas and growth, and listen to the still voice within.

H: That’s the most surreal thing of all time.

CG: I was just in LA and drove through some of the parts of the city that burned. The physical landscape seemed to eerily align with the current political landscape in the States.

How does it feel to be a young person in America right now?

H: It’s extremely scary – these are very, very scary times. It’s also weird for me, because I haven’t even had much time to process everything. I’m so on the go, and I’m doing a million things. My life isn’t even in the States right now. I haven’t had the time to understand where I am in my life .... I haven’t thought about home in months.

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CG: While I think people have an idea about how alienating stardom can be, the kind of stardom you are experiencing is truly unprecedented, based on the way that internet culture and social media platforms have evolved. How are you navigating these new realities? Do you have a mentor or anyone to turn to?

H: It’s almost a Frankenstein situation. I spent the last five years envisioning my exact fan base and music trajectory – and all of it is happening. I wanted a fan base that was cult- like, rabid, obsessive, and almost parasocial – because that’s how I was with the artists I looked up to. But now that I’ve got it, it’s kind of fucking scary.

It’s a very rare experience that not many people can relate to. I have great friends and a great family, but there are certain things that come with fame and attention. No one in my life has been through anything like this. I’m grateful for all of them, but in this case, you need someone to relate to, and no one can. Not to sound dramatic, but I’ve never felt as lonely as I have in the past half year of my life.

CG: You’ve been extremely vocal about how influential artists like Salem and Drain Gang have been to you, but is there anyone else ... you haven’t mentioned [whom] you had this almost parasocial relationship with? Perhaps someone that people might find more surprising?

H: This is way more recent, but when I was visiting Australia, I really locked in on K-pop. I got extremely obsessed with certain K-pop idols – but it was less about any specific artists than it was about the concept of the K-pop idol. It’s so fascinating to me, just the idea of worshipping a person to that extent – you know, the fan cards and the stan accounts. Dedicating your life to someone like that? It’s so beautifully dark and twisted, and so unique to this time in history. It’s gotten to a level with internet culture ... that is just insane. When we were in Korea, I got to meet some of the idols in person, and seeing how all of this manifests in real life was totally mind-blowing.

Without even really trying, I think the 2hollis character is sort of an idol – you know, that feminine, androgynous character that’s almost unreal. I always wanted 2hollis to be a separate identity from myself and somewhat angelic. As time goes on, it starts to become harder to balance fantasy and reality. People begin to treat you like you’re not real, which is cool – because you’ve reached your original goal – but it can feel scary at times, too.

CG: Does this [experience] begin to alter your perception of yourself ?

H: For sure. It’s made me hyper-analyze everything I do.

In my head, I’ve really been battling the concept of perfection in 2hollis because I want to be perfect so badly. I know perfection doesn’t objectively exist, but I want to be my own idea of perfect. I have always looked at idols – famous artists, models, Instagram people, even kids at my school – and thought: “I’ll never be perfect like you.” I’ve always wanted to be so fucking picturesque, like a boy in a high school football show. I used to be so jealous of Tim Riggins, from Friday Night Lights. How can you look like that? I’ve never been perfect, because no one is, but recently I feel like I’m almost able to reach where I’ve always wanted to be. And this is what’s making the balance between Hollis and 2hollis harder.

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CG: How do you feel about the fact that high schoolers are now looking at images of you and thinking that they will never be that perfect? Even though I think it’s transgressive to engineer such a genderless avatar, you are establishing a new beauty ideal. The cycle of inferiority and aspiration continues.

H: To be honest, I haven’t even really thought about it until now, like the idea that some kid might be seeing my shit and thinking, “Damn, I’ll never be that guy.” Yeah, it really is a cycle. All I can say is that it is really... bizarre. I know me so well, but no one really knows me. No one knows Hollis, the same

way that no one knows the guy who played Darth Vader. They just know Darth Vader.

CG: Have you always been driven by a desire to correct yourself, in a way? Or has this perfectionism been inflamed in recent years?

H: Actually, for the longest time, I didn’t care what I looked like at all.

CG: Was this in your “GREEN SPORE VALLEY” era?

H: This was literally the “Green Spore” era, yes! I guess all of this has to do with the concept of ego. When I was young, I was meditating and practicing magic – and I had little to no ego back then. I was just experimenting. I also took a bunch of mushrooms and generally just didn’t give a fuck! But then I grew up and had more eyes on me, and life does its thing. Shit gets hard, and people judge, so you judge yourself – and then judge others. That’s just the story of adolescence to adulthood for everyone. I think I’m finally coming back around again, though, because I’m at least self-aware.

I haven’t said anything about this publicly yet, but the music video for “style” was me putting everything we’ve been talking about into a little pill. Everyone is judging me, viewing me, perceiving me, commenting on what I’m doing, speaking about me, objectifying me. Every single thing in our world seems to be about objectification right now – we scroll, we see, we consume.

I was like, “Okay, bet.” I am an object. Here you go – judge it, watch it. I’m just go- ing to fully serve it to you, and you’re probably going to hate it. But this is what it is, this is my body.

CG: Wait, you were practicing witchcraft as a teenager? So, the alleged tarot card that survived the fire was from your personal deck?

H: Both my mom and I have them. I wouldn’t say it was witchcraft; it’s not dark. It was magic, light and high shit.

CG: What is the difference between the two, in your opinion?

H: There’s a big difference, but I definitely don’t want to get into this too deep because there’s a huge community around it who are very knowledgeable, and it’s really not my place to comment. In my very personal definition, magic is just the use of energy. Everything is energy. Everything we touch and interact with is energy, and we ourselves are energy. Magic is about using the energy around you to get what you want, whether it’s good or bad. But I was doing good, I promise!

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CG: You recently tweeted, “All I want is true love.” Are you just stoking the flames of your pining fan base, or were you being sincere?

H: No, I very much mean that. Sometimes, I wonder if I actually want that more than anything else, like everything we spoke about and music in general.

CG: Have you ever been in love?

H: I have.

CG: Was it “true” love?

H: I think all love is true, but I also think love is kind of like a tide. You know? Love is similar to an emotion but much bigger and deeper. Once you love someone, you will forever love them, but that love can grow and shrink, or rise and fall.

CG: I think the average person would assume that being in your position makes the process of finding love much easier because you have infinite options. In reality, though, isn’t it the opposite?

H: It is extremely isolating. There have been so many moments when I tried to really get close to someone or open up to them, but then I discover that they have all of these predetermined ideas and fantasies about me that they’ve created after seeing the character online. They want to be with that person, but that’s not who I am in reality. It’s hard to find someone [who] truly just wants to know me. Ideally, I would meet someone who has literally no idea who I am, just a random without a clue. That’s my dream.

CG: Last question before you go on stage: do you use the operating system Windows 7?

H: No, that was just a skin that I used for that Twitch stream. Wait ... actually, cross that out and rewrite it! My answer is yes. That’s funny.

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