Q&A: Almondmilkhunni Channels Pure Femme Power in New “Star Baby” Era

INTERVIEW

INTERVIEW


☆ BY KIMBERLY KAPELA

GLOWING WITH UNAPOLOGETIC FEMME POWER — Almondmilkhunni is glowing in her own galaxy, and with the release of Star Baby, she’s inviting everyone into orbit.

The Los Angeles-based, New Jersey-raised artist—born Brandy Schwechler—has made a name for herself by blending the grit of nightlife with the sweetness of a pop daydream. On her upcoming EP Star Baby, her first EP since 2023’s full-length ENJOY THE RIDE, Almondmilkhunni dives even deeper into the dualities that define her: softness and steel, flirtation and control, fantasy and autobiography.

Leading the charge is “New Jerzey,” an electronica-infused alt-pop banger that captures the magnetic pull of a woman you can’t quite tame. “This is a song about being infatuated with a bad girl from New Jersey,” Almondmilkhunni says. “Being from Jersey myself, many of the qualities describing her in the lyrics describe myself as well.” It’s a love letter and a self-portrait all at once—an anthem for anyone who’s ever been underestimated but always knew they were the main character.

Visually, “New Jerzey” is pure decadence. The music video struts the line between girl-next-door charm and raw, commanding energy—mirroring the dichotomy that has come to define Almondmilkhunni’s aesthetic. It’s a world where hyperfemininity is a weapon, not a weakness; where fierce femme energy dominantes and rewrite the rules.

With Star Baby, Almondmilkhunni isn’t just reintroducing herself—she’s asserting her place in the pop universe with undeniable force. It’s a fearless, hyper-glam collection rooted in realness, desire, and the complexities of womanhood. And “New Jerzey” is its glittering, no-nonsense gateway.

She’s not asking for space anymore—she’s taking it, stilettos first.

In an industry that often flattens femme voices into archetypes, Almondmilkhunni reminds us that softness and power are not opposites—they’re co-conspirators. 

LUNA: Thank you for talking to Luna. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar with you yet, what inspires your artistic style and sound?

ALMONDMILKHUNNI: What inspires me sonically, I would say especially right now, it's just what I listen to and what I grew up listening to. A lot of the new stuff on the upcoming EP, there are so many nostalgic moments that you can't really put your finger on, and that's because each song has some type of element of a song I loved in middle school, or a song I loved in high school, like something from the pop-punk, emo era. Mostly just things that I listen to is what inspires me. When I say things I listen to, it's all stuff that I listened to when I was growing up. I wouldn't say anything new age that inspires me that much.

LUNA: What kind of atmosphere or emotional space do you aim to create for your listeners?

ALMONDMILKHUNNI: I don't really think about it that much when I make stuff. I think about what I'm feeling, but I think for a lot of people, I just wanted to feel like a place to escape and feel very dreamy but also a place where you can make memories. I love the idea that there are people in the world who listen to a certain song of mine and it reminds them of this time when they were really crazy and crashing out or whatever, because we all have that with music. For me, it's creating some sense of a memory with each song. 

LUNA: You just released your newest single “New Jerzey” and huge congratulations! What is the inspiration behind the single and what themes or emotions do you explore?

ALMONDMILKHUNNI: That song's really funny because we sampled one of the parts from this song called “Here (In Your Arms)” by Hellogoodbye, which was a big song in the MySpace emo era. We were inspired by this one part there, and then we flipped it and turned into something new. It feels very neon pop MySpace vibes, and that's what we were feeling for that. It just feels very nostalgic to me.

LUNA: “New Jerzey” is accompanied by a music video and I love all the femme energy that’s present. How did this concept come to life, and what story were you hoping to tell?

ALMONDMILKHUNNI: The song is about a girl from New Jersey and loving a girl from New Jersey. It was very DIY. I called up my friend Maria and she's a femme lesbian. I was like, ‘Girl, I need you to do this video with me.’ She was so down. She's the embodiment of a Jersey girl. It was me and two other people who got into my big rental SUV, and we had two different VHS type cameras and digital cameras. We just drove around and we were being crazy.

LUNA: Star Baby marks your first EP since 2023’s ENJOY THE RIDE. What new chapters or sides of yourself are you exploring on this project?

ALMONDMILKHUNNI: Star Baby is really cool for me, because in a lot of ways, it represents how I feel about myself. People ask me a lot, what is the genre of it? The truth is, I don't know. It's a little weird. It's a little pop and indie. It's so many different things and that's how I feel about myself. I don't really feel like I fit into a category. I never have felt that way. It just feels very me. It's very ambiguous.

LUNA: Did you take any creative risks or experiment with new approaches on Star Baby compared to ENJOY THE RIDE? What felt different this time around in how you expressed yourself?

ALMONDMILKHUNNI: Definitely, I would say a lot of things changed for Star Baby. I definitely took over most of the writing process for everything on Star Baby. I still had collaborators with every song, but definitely more of the direction was my own, as well as let's not write songs that we think are going to be popular or go off on Tiktok. Let's write songs that we actually want to write. Every song has a meaning that has something to do with my life. It's a lot more about what I wanted this time around, and there's one track on the EP called “Pleaser” that is a lot more grunge and a little bit shoegaze-inspired — which is my favorite genre — and that's really exciting to me, because that's leading us into the next era of my music. 

LUNA: Do you have a personal favorite song on the EP — one that feels closest to your heart or most revealing of who Almondmilkhunni is right now?

ALMONDMILKHUNNI: “Pleaser” is my favorite because of the meaning behind it. It's based on a poem that I wrote about sex workers. I have a past in sex work and I was dancing when I first got signed. I have such a big place in my heart for sex workers. I want there to always be a safe place for them and advocate for them. “Pleaser” is about how we are seen in this world, how we're seen in a world that pushes a lot of Christian ideology that demonizes us, yet a lot of these men are the reason why we have these jobs. It's my thoughts and what I went through in sex work and the juxtaposition of it all between religion and sex work. 

LUNA: Many of your listeners see you as a symbol of unapologetic femininity—what messages do you hope young women and queer listeners take away from your work?

ALMONDMILKHUNNI: I think what I would want anyone to take away from just my life in general, is that it helps them find themselves and not because they want to be like me, even though that's very presumptuous of me to say, but because I'm so me, that it makes people want to be themselves. My whole mantra is to be totally, completely yourself.

LUNA: What’s fueling your fire right now—musically or personally—that’s pushing you into this next chapter?

ALMONDMILKHUNNI: It's just my own desires are fueling me. I'm in a stage where I'm putting myself before absolutely everything else, and so that's coming through in the music. Star Baby is a new chapter. Beyond that, there's an even newer chapter that's really different and more alternative and more grunge. That's a part of me that I've always wanted to access, but I thought maybe it's not as broad or maybe it can't be as successful. I want to do it, so I'm doing it. The new chapter is about me doing what I want to do.

LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like for you that you would like to share with Luna?

ALMONDMILKHUNNI: I feel really good. I honestly am not thinking too hard about it. I've been doing music for six years, going on seven. So this time around, I would say it's just, the music career of it all is in the background. Music is always going to be my life, but what happens with the music, how people perceive it, how it's streaming, very much is in the background of my life. I'm not prioritizing it as much because I am an artist first. That's where I'm at right now.

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