Listening to Bunny Michael’s new EP, Rainbow Licker, with all the lights off, I can immediately imagine the darkness around me is something like The Stud or The Darkroom in San Francisco, or likely even Club Fist! at the Stork Club in Oakland. The EP is a riot grrl, lo-fi witchy rave that lyrically follows fluidity of identity. It makes me question what it is to be human, if the dark room around me could be anywhere in the universe, and if screenglow is really just the internet looking back at me. Want to see what happens when you experience Bunny? Read on, watch some of her videos, and look out for Rainbow Licker dropping tomorrow.

Browntourage: Hi Bunny, can you tell us about yourself?
Bunny Michael: I’m a Nature Slut Telepathic Goddess from the Future channeling the spirits of my ancestors. I am so grateful to share my art with whoever is open to receiving it. I am interested in how art can foster consciousness expansion and I believe my work will inspire self expression and inspiration in others.

B: Does your self-expression draw from where you live or can you channel that anywhere?
BM: My self expression is drawn from every encounter past, present, future. I’ve lived in NYC since 2001, and for over a decade my main inspiration was the energy and movement of the city. But now I look to Nature for inspiration. I look at the grass growing between the cracks of concrete. I look at the icicles hanging from scaffolding. I look at the dead pine trees thrown out after Christmas. And the feral stray cats in Bushwick. This is what gives me strength to be me.

B: Do you have any musical influences?
BM: So many!!! How could I possibly name all of them? Maybe more interesting is I draw a lot of influences from sound scapes, like traffic or birds chirping or drunks on Manhattan ave. yelling to themselves. I like to think about the sounds of our environment and how they can affect our moods.

B: You use the term nature slut a lot; can you describe the meaning behind it?
BM: Nature Slut is a term I came up with about a year ago. I wrote a love poem about my longing to have sex with a beautiful woman in a natural environment (somewhere outside in a flower bed to be exact). It was then that I realized that it wasn’t just a fantasy but also an important part of me that was missing. I wanted to run naked in a field and bathe in a waterfall and climb trees. The “beautiful woman” in the poem was actually myself. She was my natural being free from the material and artificial world humanity has created. She was pure beauty. And a completely free sexual being. She was a Nature Slut.

B: What form did your music have before it was transformed into the Rainbow Licker EP?
BM: All the songs on the album started as freestyles. So they were created from me being silly with myself. I don’t like to work on anything if its not a fun process.

B: You did a cover of Gasolina – why that song?
BM: Because that song rules.

B: You have two versions of your persona, Bunny and ʎuunq, in the music video. Bunny is the one that goes to this special place in nature dressed in pure white and ʎuunq is dressed in grey camo with boots giving a very industrial city vibe. Do you prefer one persona to the other, & why?
BM: Those two characters in the video illustrate both sides of myself feminine/masculine and ofspirit/ofearth. I’m always looking to master the balance between them. I think balance is the hardest thing to find sometimes. But once you do you are your most powerful. So I need both and value both the same.

B: What’s coming up next?
BM: So much!!!! Rainbow Licker E.P. dropping March 25th on Separate Reality. Which is a record label and production company I started with my partner, Lane Sanders. We are interested in working with artists who seek to inspire consciousness expansion through their work. E.P. Release party on April 4th at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn. Nature Slut Web Zine, Video Zine and Mixtape coming very soon. Full length LP after that!

B: What does Browntourage make you think of?
BM: It makes me think of inclusion which is so important in culture right now. I’m so over art scenes being about exclusiveness. We need to stick together and help each other. I believe there is room for everyone to self express. By limiting others, we are limiting ourselves.

Bbspondent: Maryum Q
Photographer: Sabina Miklowitz