of Donald Trump. And given that Electra emerged from a distinctly internet-born musical subculture, they were already primed with fluency in memes, irony, and oversharing that’s required to truly make sense of this intrinsically net-based lifestyle. However, as fascinated as they were by the social ailments of the edgelord psyche, Electra was equally drawn to its cultural aesthetics, like fedoras and swords.
That imagery is dispersed throughout Electra’s music videos, which function like supplementary texts. An epic, digital rendering of Electra wielding a blade atop a giant pile of skulls begins the two-part visual for “Gentleman” and “M’Lady,” before they flip on a cap that floats down from the heavens. It cuts to lo-fi footage of the singer donning a trench coat and lumbering around a filthy apartment filled with video games and fast-food wrappers.
Electra is a figurehead in a scene of pop music that’s extremely queer and femme-centric. Bubbly Auto-Tune and experimental electronics create an affirming space for queer and trans artist to pitch-up their vocals and express themselves with instrumentation that challenges heteronormative pop conventions. Therefore, it can be shocking to hear Electra singing from the perspective of homophobes and misogynists — the very people their community implicitly stands against.
“If somehow somebody coming across my music had that kind of effect, I’d feel like I would be hopefully contributing something positive,” they say. “I think it’s totally worth it putting stuff out there that has ambiguity to it because you might draw people in who think it’s one thing and they’re surprised by other elements."
DORIANELECTRA As they should