Meet babychaos: the post-apocalyptic Bratz doll from hell
“Babychaos, in simple terms, is a post-apocalyptic Bratz doll from hell.”
Dressed in black from head to toe, babychaos is not what you’d expect. The metalhead sweetheart layers larger-than-live charisma and charm to the fiery musical persona she’s created as we chat over Zoom: “I was actually trying to set my Zoom background to be like hell, but I couldn’t figure it out.”
Radiating girl-next-door-meets-Jennifer’s-Body energy, the newcomer packed a flamethrower-like punch earlier this month with her debut single ‘flesh’. Opening with immediately captivating glitchy industrial metal riffs, the song ignites with the singer’s utterance of the word ‘chaos’ as the sinister barrage of instrumentals unite to encase you in a musical explosion that feels like the flames of hell itself, all whilst babychaos’ vocals ring out in command, fluctuating between sickly-sweet siren melodies and a muffled mechanical call to arms.
‘flesh’ is one hell of a musical introduction to the artist, but who exactly is babychaos? “She is this wonderful avatar that I’ve created for myself over the last couple of years when I decided to pursue music and modelling full time…She is me. And I am her. Always.”
Although releasing music for the first time at just 20 years old, it’s been a long time coming for the musical prodigy, having taught herself piano at the age of 6 and now proudly boasting of being classically trained. However, the real turning point in her musical affinity is owed to her emo coming-of-age moment: “When I was 10, I began kind of running with the whole alternative thing. I dyed my hip-length red natural hair black, and I went to see Evanescence in concert here in Tampa, actually, and I remember seeing Amy Lee on the stage and being like, okay, that’s gonna be me at some point.”
This memory was further consolidated by attending the Alternative Press Music Awards aged 14, surrounded by like-minded people, which culminated in the model-turned-singer deciding to start building a following at aged 18 in the lead up to a musical career. Flash-forward to now, and this looks to have been a success as babychaos brandishes an enviable +92,000 followers on Instagram and +39,000 on Tik Tok.
‘flesh’ makes these alternative music influences apparent, and babychaos narrows it down further to a list of staple female figures with the scene that have had a personal impact on her, from Poppy, to Ash Costello, to Lzzy Hale. “Lzzy Hale is so cool because she brings back kind of an influence from, like, the 80s and the Joan Jett stuff into now, and I find that so refreshing to see.”
In a male-dominated industry, it’s notable for the singer to have gravitated, either consciously or subconsciously, towards those who most resembled her on stage, and embodied this in the art she produces, paying it forward to the generations that follow: “It is a male dominated industry and I am for sure here to bring some hard melodies and pretty vocals and pretty makeup to it.”
After falling down a Youtube rabbit-hole that led to her discovering more and more heavier artists and music, babychaos is admirably open about why the metal genre ever appealed to her in the first place: “That genre, specifically, really spoke to me lyric-wise. I had a hard time growing up with bullying and feeling very isolated. I didn’t even attend public school for more than a year collectively and I struggled with severe severe social anxiety and actually graduated from a school for kids who struggle with socio-emotional issues. So I guess, in short, the lyrics in the genre really spoke to me, along with a lot of the alternative genres discussing struggles. So I related from a really young age.”
Not shying away from now choosing to share her struggles in a similar way, ‘flesh’ is the soundtrack of someone who’s completely in control, but had to fight to get there. “The song itself is about abuse – an abusive relationship. But in the last part of it [the lyrics], it’s like, “I don’t need revenge”: here I am in the flesh, it’s about literally still being here and in the flesh, still standing, regardless of what happened, what this person took from me. I want people to know that, you know, they’re still here. And I want people to rise up after whatever it is that they’ve been through. Unfortunately, so many people – all genders and all ages – have been through such similar experiences, and I hate that so much. But I’m here to be like, let’s stand up regardless, and heal how we have to, cope how we have to, but still be the best versions of ourselves.” A particularly poignant and prevalent message in a time where the #MeToo movement continues to gain momentum as more and more survivors speak out and reclaim their agency.
Not bad for a song recorded in a kitchen and written in a hasty 7 minutes, no doubt as a cathartic outpouring of everything bottled up until that moment.
Confirming new music in potentially less than a month, the good news is that industrial metal’s new kid on the block is here to stay. “There’s so much music coming, oh my god! Genre-wise, I kind of consider myself genre-less, but I will say that for the next single to come out…it has way more industrial influence, as opposed to the metal stuff. But that kind of goes for a bunch of different songs, you know, so there’s gonna be some stuff that revolves more around the metal part of it, and others more on the electronic or industrial spectrum.”
Want to know who babychaos has been listening to recently as she prepares to make her mark on the industry? Check out her playlist here of adrenaline-fuelling songs to take over the world to.
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