Seattle pop artist Archie (formerly PSA) is making waves with her sweet, r&b-infused tracks about love, breakups, and self confidence. After quitting her job at a restaurant in 2016 to pursue music full time, Archie quickly climbed the musical ladder, with her song, “Summation,” premiering on KEXP and performances at Capitol Hill Block Party and as an opening act for Zara Larsson at the Neptune in Seattle. As part of our work highlighting black artists following the George Floyd protests, Dan’s Tunes sat down with Archie to talk music, protests, and politics.

Q: How did you get into songwriting?

A: I’ve written songs my whole life. It’s something I’ve always naturally gravitated to, just making up melodies and lyrics. Just forever. When people talk about having an innate personality, mine has always been to make up songs.

Q: Where do you draw inspiration from?

A: A lot of my inspiration comes from lived experience. I’m a very emotional, intuitive person, and everything I write is really based on feelings and personal experience. I had a really bad breakup a few years ago, and that has been fodder for like, every song I’ve written. It’s given me enough emotions to last a lifetime, so I draw a lot of inspiration from [that] particular breakup and relationship and from general things I’m processing.

Q: Walk me through your typical songwriting process.

A: A lot of times I’ll just put on a beat and walk around with it, and the song will come to me. I’ll record it into my phone as a demo and then I’ll go to the studio and record it, and that’s my typical process. They’re all usually freestyles. It’s like catching a wave almost — or like a bird catching an air wave. I listen to the beat, and I’m gliding through the air. Then I find that pocket, and I can just ride it — and that’s when the freestyle comes through.

Q: Which artists/styles have the most influence on your work?

A: I love pop music. I always have. Pretty much any [sub]genre from any decade: pop music. Anything that gets people moving…I love it. I also really love industrial music. That doesn’t so much influence my work directly, since my music is the furthest thing from industrial, but it moves me a lot and inspires emotions that help me write.

Q: What kind of music did you listen to growing up?

A: I listened to a lot of r&b and a lot of pop country. My mom told me the country music station was the only station when I was little, so I grew up on a lot of Shania Twain and Dolly Parton. I spent a lot of time with my godparents, and they listened to basically exclusively r&b and gospel — so I listened to a lot of Boyz II Men and popular 90s r&b artists. A lot of Whitney Houston, a lot of Mariah Carey. We never had music in the house. I mostly heard music through movie soundtracks, so that was my main exposure to music.

Q: Have you ever experienced any hardships in your music career due to being a black woman?

A: People are clearly not [always] taking the time to listen to my music when they’re writing about me; I get categorized as a rapper frequently. I don’t rap at all. I only even have one song that features a rapper. I love rap, and I’m not offended by the characterization, but it’s a disservice to rap to call me a rapper because I’m not.

I think I’m not taken very seriously when I try to negotiate with venues. It’s also very uncomfortable performing for white audiences a lot of the time — not that I don’t appreciate everyone listening to my music, but it feels really vulnerable performing for people who maybe don’t see you fully. But yeah, I think I would say I’m not taken very seriously when I negotiate; sometimes I’m disrespected by staff. But I wouldn’t say it’s horrible. I’ve only performed in Seattle, so I’m not necessarily getting outright aggressive racism, just standard little micro-aggressions that I think all people of color go through.

Q: What does representation in the music community mean to you?

A: It’s hard to say, because most of my friends who make music are black and brown — so in my pocket, it’s represented, and where I put my focus it’s represented. I would like to see the people I support and identify with be compensated a little more fairly. We all have these biases, and we’re all living in a world that is pilfered with anti-blackness and founded on it, and I think that seeps into people’s devaluation of music. I see it with how my friends are valued and how they’re paid versus how their counterparts are paid. That’s one thing I want to see more of: more transparency in payment from venues.

Q: How do you feel about the protests happening in Seattle?

A: I’m elated. I’ve been marching and doing protests for so long, and I’ve never seen this level of engagement. Before, it would get so depressing. You felt like you were just screaming into the void, and it just feels so amazing to see so many people out night after night after night, willing to be gassed, willing to put themselves in harm’s way. It just feels like: finally. I feel hopeful for maybe the first time.

Q: How have you been involved in the movement?

A: I’m showing up, I’m donating, I’m trying to organize with other people and build a community — rather than building it around a leader. [We’re] building it around principles and ideas and collective goals. I think that’s really important.

Suddenly — out of nowhere — I have a small platform on Twitter, and maybe if people are afraid to say something or have a thought they think is too spicy to post, [I’m] just trying to share it out there so people know they’re not alone,  it’s okay to talk about what you want, and it’s okay to figure out together what we want.

Q: Why should people be paying attention?

A: People should be paying attention because it’s in their best interest. It’s in most of our best interest. If you’re not a billionaire, it’s in your best interest to pay attention to this. It’s in your kid’s best interest; it’s in your neighbor’s best interest; it’s in your parent’s best interest. I’m not out here just trying to overthrow the government and live in total anarchy, but what I’m saying is we’re giving a lot of money to — effectively — a military force within our communities, and they’re doing nothing for us. Black and brown people are over-policed. The white people calling defunding some terrible idea, they don’t have over-policing in their communities. They’re not just being randomly questioned on the streets about what they’ve been up to and having things escalate and being arrested or shot. They don’t know it. They don’t experience that. And if they care about their black and brown friends — if they care about communities at large — they need to open their eyes and care about this. It’s in everyone’s best interest. 

And [white people] can be casualties of white supremacy, too. Some white people do get shot; it’s not only black people. Though it is disproportionately violent and murderous towards black people, everyone can be a casualty of it. The system is about maintaining its power. We need to take some collective power back. And that’s not to say to overthrow the government, but it’s to say, “Look, we need healthcare, we need education, and we need access to a reasonably peaceful life.” And we’re not going to have that if we’re just putting all of our resources into police. It’s just not going to happen.

Q: What’s the best way for white/non-BIPOC to be allies?

A: The best thing you can do is show up and be a body, but don’t necessarily be a voice. As one of my friends said really well, we’ve been backseat to our own movements for 450 years, and they get co-opted a lot. A lot of black people have died, and our activists are continuing to be mysteriously murdered and disappearing for doing this work. We get a lot of momentum, and then someone will try to speak for us or someone will try to insert their agenda. The best thing to do is just elevate black voices, take directions, and get educated. Read up on abolition. Read up on what defunding actually is. Read black authors: Read some Stokely Carmichael, read some Malcolm X, read some Assata Shakur, read some Marcus Garvey. 

Get acquainted with the principles and philosophy, because it’s really easy to be misled if you don’t have that foundation. [It’s about] getting truly educated, not just reading articles about white fragility by white people. Read some black pan-African liberationist literature and some abolitionist literature.

Q: Do you have anything else to add?

A: I’m really proud of Seattle. It’s easy to critique. I criticize a lot, and I think it’s easier to critique than appreciate. I’m really appreciative of this moment, and I really hope this is the moment. I hope we really are the last generation to have to deal with this massive police state, and I hope we are willing to go the distance.