Interview

There are about as many aspiring female pop singers in Los Angeles as there are plumped lips, out-of-work actors, and medicinal-marijuana clinics. So what makes 17-year-old songstress Sky Ferreira such a special case? Everything, basically. She’s a rough-around-the-edges beauty with a sterling voice, impeccably weird taste, and an almost maniacal inability to take no for an answer. “I’ve been making music, going out, and sneaking into clubs to see bands since I was about 14,” explains the Hollywood native, who, a year after getting signed, opted for homeschooling to focus her energies on music. “I basically just bother people until they give in.” Luckily for Ferreira, two people who gave in were Swedish superproducers Bloodshy & Avant, who are providing some electropop finesse on Ferreira’s highly anticipated debut, due out this summer on Capitol. Ferreira caught the attention of said producers (and thousands of lovesick teenagers) via an angsty breakup song she posted on MySpace—“a dramatic 15-year-old’s version of ‘Careless Whisper’ in outer space,” as she describes it—but the well-trod path of semi-disposable romantic pop music isn’t what interests her. “I don’t really want to write about love, mostly because I don’t have time for it in real life,” she sighs. “It’s hard to be taken seriously when you’re so young. People want to portray you as a novelty . . . and I’m not one.”

Listen to Sky Ferreira on her MySpace page.

Photo: Sky Ferreira in Los Angeles, January 2010. Vest: Levi’s. Top: Diane Von Furstenberg. Shorts: Bebe. Necklaces: Tom Binns. Fragrance: Bebe Eau de Parfum. Styling: Moses/Margaret Maldonado Agency. Hair: Terry Millet for Leonor Greyl/Photogenics Beauty at Smashbox. Makeup: Nellie Kim for shu uemura/Margaret Maldonado Agency. Special Thanks: Milk Studios Los Angeles.