Artist Spotlight: Singer Supercoolwicked Interview!

Written By: Philip Johnson

Supercoolwicked’s name is not the only thing great about this artist! She is a Detroit singer with soul, stage presence, vocal excellence and more. With the release of her debut EP, “High Gloss”, multiple performances and various other achievements, Supercoolwicked is stamping her artistic mark on the world. I had the pleasure of interviewing her to dive deeper into the creative mind of Supercoolwicked. Enjoy and check out her music!

CLICK HERE to listen!

You’re from Detroit like me! What do you love most about the city?

Yesss, D-Town! Haha I doubt anybody calls it that anymore, but yes. Born and raised. Hmmm. I love the amount of space that we have to exist, the lushness of the summer greenery here, and our creativity as a people.

When and how did you discover your passion/talent for singing?

It’s definitely one of those things that has always been with me. There’s never been a time where I’ve been without music. My earliest memories of singing were with my mom in the crib. This story is so played but it’s the truth. She used to rap the nasty food verse from “Rapper’s Delight” x The Sugar Hill Gang to us and sing “Tomorrow” from the musical, Annie. I just started singing along and haven’t stopped since!

I see you Performed at the Kindred Music & Culture Festival twice! What is it like being a part of a festival celebrating Detroit artists?

V, v awesome. V, v amazing. I really enjoy and appreciate what Leah [Hill] did, which was create a space that’s FUBU, yknow? I feel that the needs of a place can only truly be accurately perceived by one who is active in the community. That perception coupled with some sponsored coin makes for an immaculate happening. It’s quite awesome that young people like Leah and others like Adrienne Ayers of Afrofuture Youth are crafting spaces from the ground for us to enjoy each other and share our gifts.

You were 1 of 14 artists selected for residency by Detroit’s Assemble Sound this year! What have been your highlights of that experience?

My favorite part’s gotta be the artist dinners that the residency puts on. The directors of the program get some dope ass artists who have found success within the industry and they’re always so insightful. Now that Miss ‘Rona came around, we have the meetings online. Still great. I also really enjoy that residents have access to funds via a grant provided by Stroh’s Beer - it’s extremely helpful.

Your debut ep, “High Gloss”, came out in 2019. I first heard it from 1 of your photographers, Ian Solomon, and instantly LOVED it! Can you talk us through the creative process of creating the album?

LOOVE HIM! Thank you!! High Gloss is a concept I brewed for about 3 years. It’s my debut EP, and also a feeling. When something is vibrant, unique, and futuristic it’s #HighGloss. As a child, I grew up fascinated with fashion magazines. I lived for the days I got to bring a Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, (you name it) home. I am a huge fan of beauty-for-beauty’s-sake, and the pages were stocked full of it. Stories of beautiful places, beautiful people, beautiful happenings, and beautiful pieces abounded. I was enamored and would mold my life after such fashionable fiction, making low-budget versions of the outfits splayed across the glossy pages, and googling the names of the who’s who mentioned in the articles.

High Gloss echoes the sentiment by being packaged well and done beautifully (think cute, sonically diverse, sleek, futuristic, cute, and fun) with mostly light music. I wrote this collection of work during different points of myself over the span of 3 years. I grew into myself as an artist and performer from that point until now. This project acts as my magazine - the perfectly packaged chronicle of all of my work.

The songs came to me in waves, the first one being “Beautiful” which I produced on my phone and wrote while I was living on the river, watching a thunderstorm, and feeling less-than. I wrote those lyrics as an empowerment tool. “Messy” was written with inspiration from a sneaky-sounding cop show clavinova loop on Logic (im off that now), which I then crafted a story around about a side piece that wanted to be the main, but knew she could never be that in reality. Overall, I just wanted High Gloss to be out so that I could create a solid artistic foundation and to showcase all of the different sounds I was able to create at that time. It was certainly for myself, but also very much me trying to show people what I was capable of.

What is your favorite song off of “High Gloss”?

They’re all my kids. I love them dearly. Haha. Currently, “Flappy” is my favorite because of the drums that make the ass SHAKE.

You seem to be a natural at not only making music, but performing it as well. Did you have coaching, or does the performing art flow naturally from you?

Thank you again! I have classical theater training, but I like to think that that’s only a piece of my puzzle, which is mostly my desire to achieve ultimate freedom onstage. Theater school definitely gave me the technical terms to name what I’d been studying all of my life. My brother Caz Aglets (who is also an artist) jokes that this life chose me and even when I act like I want to quit, I never could. C'est la vie!

Who are your biggest creative inspirations for your soulful, one-of-a-kind art?

Fasho Stevie Wonder. Allll the way. He does every single genre well. The way his music is so transcendent of space and time?!??! I just----- I also love Minnie Riperton, Parliament Funkadelic for the entire world they created, Solange obviously, Beyonce, Mariah for her musicality, Esparanza Spalding for being an amazing being of light, Stephen Sondheim for his pen and and complex way of writing melodies, and Stereolab. Other than that, black music in general is an endless well. Anything that is a baby of the pentatonic scale, which our ancestors crafted is a gift to be respected and used to generate new ideas.

What has been the highlight of your music career so far?

It hasn’t happened yet. Being on the cover of the Detroit Metro Times and working on a song with Esparanza Spalding alongside some other dope Detroit artists for the Allied Media Conference weren’t too bad though. ;)

What artists do you dream of collaborating with in the future?

Whew chile, every person I listed previously along with The Neptunes, Kelis, Tyler, The Creator, Nikki Giovanni somehow, Terrance Nance, and more that I can’t think of at the moment.

What impact do you hope for your art to have on Detroiters and people globally?

There is no difference for me. My goal with my entire artistic practice ( I am also an actor, teaching artist, and sound bowl therapist) is to find personal freedom and imbue that same sense of freedom in the people that interact with my work. I want to make media with a healing vibration. Media is such a powerful tool that shapes society and it’s important that we use it to uplift our world.