Tokimonsta Talks Reality Shows, Festival Style, & Headlining Splash House

Jennifer Lee isn’t new to the competition scene. The Grammy-nominated musician and founding father of Young Art Records, whose songs and mixes often rack up a whole lot of hundreds of views on YouTube, has performed her fair proportion of crowded venues.

“I’ve performed Splash House sufficient instances the place I’m beginning to lose depend at this level,” Lee, professionally often known as Tokimonsta, tells Bustle.

The 33-year-old producer and DJ is gearing up for one more look at Splash Home, a competition collection in sunny Palm Springs, California that showcases home and disco music. This 12 months, it’s going down over two weekends in August, and Lee is among the many headliners for the primary weekend.

“I simply actually benefit from the vibe,” Lee says. “As a lot because it’s a vacation spot for lots of the attendees, it’s additionally a vacation spot for me. I even have enjoyable on the market.”

Whereas the California desert is certainly euphoric, in the midst of August, it will also be scorching scorching. Lee takes that into consideration when prepping her wardrobe for competition performances.

“There’s all the time this stability of, ‘I wish to look actually dope, however I can also’t put on sweats or a leather-based jacket if it’s going to be 110 levels outdoors,’” she says. “I wish to be snug and as stylish as I can, however in purposeful style.”

That would imply an outsized silk shirt, silk shorts, and even lengthy robes. “Matching units are one thing that I’m additionally actually into proper now,” Lee says.

Currently, her total fashion consists of funkier prints and pops of sudden colours. It’s a departure from her early days arising within the music scene, when she wore quite a lot of black and went for extra muted seems to be.

“Now, I’m making an attempt to go for a psychedelic skilled,” she says. “That’s the place I’m at in the intervening time — just a little fringe of a tiny mushroom journey. How can I do colour in a enjoyable method that can also be stylish and has some element of construction to stability out the wildness?”

Get to know Lee — from the TV present she acquired obsessive about throughout quarantine to what’s inspiring her these days — within the Bustle Sales space Q&A under.

In The Bustle Sales space

What’s your espresso order?

No espresso. A matcha oat milk latte.

What are the saved climate areas in your cellphone?

Los Angeles; Seoul, Korea; Fairfax, Virginia; and Palm Springs, for now.

What’s your signal?

Aquarius.

Favourite overused film quote?

Possibly “I’ll be again.” In some unspecified time in the future, that’s one thing that all the time comes up in my vocabulary.

What was your favourite cartoon as a child?

The Simpsons.

What’s one film or TV present you are presently obsessive about?

90-Day Fiancé. I’m so obsessed. It’s so bad-good. I acquired into it throughout the pandemic. Me and my boyfriend would simply sit at house, watch 90-Day Fiancé, and take photographs. It was fairly enjoyable.

Who’s your celeb idol?

Björk.

In the event you needed to be on a actuality TV present, what wouldn’t it be?

Possibly I might do Chopped.

Go-to karaoke track?

“No Scrubs” by TLC. I simply did karaoke with my buddies the day earlier than yesterday.

What’s one thing that’s inspiring you latterly?

I’m impressed by being current and going out just a little once more. Clearly I’m very conscientious about COVID as a result of it’s particularly dangerous over right here. However simply being outdoors and having fun with summer time has been inspiring to me, being across the out of doors power. Everybody else being outdoors has put me in a inventive house.

What’s one thing you’d need folks to say about you?

I might hope they’d assume I make good music. That might be my main primary. Actually, I strive not to consider different folks’s opinions an excessive amount of. However hopefully, if folks like music, that might be the nicest factor I might hear from somebody.