Glüme Talks About Album The Internet, Italians Do It Better, Marilyn Monroe, and More

Glüme has been on our minds (and playlists) of late. Indeed, L.A. native Glüme has fueled our curiosity and been a recurring topic here at WMF HQ, aided in no small part by a recent string of highly-recommended singles and videos, including "Don’t @ Me”, “Body”, and her brilliantly unorthodox take on “Santa Baby”. As luck would have it, Glüme was able to pop over for the following in-depth conversation about her album The Internet (out April 30 via Italians Do It Better), Marilyn Monroe, overcoming health challenges, and much more.

Bobby Weirdo: Your album The Internet is out April 30th. How would you explain your vision of the album and the concept behind Glüme, for those who may not already be familiar with your work?

Glüme: I spent about a year in bed after I was diagnosed with my heart disease, and I felt like I stopped living. When I slowly started recovering, I figured out which drugs worked and which ones didn’t, started going back to the grocery store and the coffee shop, and I started making a lot of pictures. I joined TikTok, and had this kind of presence.

I hadn’t fully grieved what I couldn’t do, as a person. I still wanted to see it sometimes, so I would make it visual [and] online for myself – a personal scrapbook for me to look at, like, “look at today – you were at the park smiling and having fun with your dog.”

There are moments when I can’t get out of bed, [and] that doesn’t really feel like me. As a kid – as anyone does – I had this idea of what my life would be when I grew up. It was exciting, and involved a lot of activity and a lot of freedom. Ironically, I think the thing that makes it hard for a lot of people on the Internet – portraying something that isn’t authentic – is actually a lot more authentic for me and what I intended to be on this planet than what my disease lets me be.

Because a lot of who I am is very energetic – I have a lot of spirit and life in me. But sometimes my arteries just don’t want to let me do that. So I have a character that I feel is more me than me. I still make music videos with choreography and a lot of movement. It’s hard, and I take a lot of breaks, but I feel like what I do and how I exist online is the real me, and the body I wish I could inhabit regularly.

BW: Speaking of movement, you’re a trained tap dancer with something like seventeen years of tap experience.

G: I wanted to be Ginger Rogers. Tap is hard if you have heart stuff, and we had to take a lot of breaks on the [“Get Low”] shoot. It hurt.

BW: Did you take lessons when you were doing work on Broadway [as a kid], or was it here in L.A.?

G: I started when I was three. At six, I decided I wanted to perform, and watched a Judy Garland biography on PBS. It showed how she knew how to tap dance and sing. When she was little, her name was Frances Gumm and she would audition [until] she eventually was signed by an agent, got picked up by a movie studio, and was able to help support her family. That was my main goal at six, because my family really struggled financially. I thought I’d make money like Judy Garland did, since I’d been tap dancing half my life.

I was homeschooled for acting, and was out of touch with what made you able to have a career. So I thought that would help if I did that, and also just wanted to be Ginger Rogers, whether or not that was financially [helpful]. I remember Ginger studied for sixteen years, so I said I was going to do seventeen.

It’s not useful for anything. I told that to Johnny Jewel one time, and he said we had to put it in a music video so that I did it for a reason. I asked my doctor if I could tap dance and he said I could if I took breaks. I emailed a choreographer and didn’t tell them I had heart disease because I didn’t want a bummer routine. They sent me this whole thing in double time. I thought I was going to die, but it worked out.

When you watch an old movie with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, it looks light, simple, and fun. But it’s like an Olympic sport at that point. When I was doing the double time routine, I was lying on the floor afterwards. You look at it in the music video, and it [doesn’t look that difficult], but it really wears you out. You’re not leaping and doing ballet or a hip-hop routine, but your feet are like little hummingbird wings, and your calories and heart are still going. So it was a long shoot day, but we got it, and it looked like I was happy.

*Glüme, 2021. Photo: Cameron Murray for WMF*

BW: Going from tap dancing to roller skating…

G: Awesome!

BW: You skated in the “Santa Baby” video you recently did.

G: Yeah, I like to punish myself doing really active things. I don’t like to create my art under the rules of heart disease. I like to think [in terms of] “what does it mean? What do I want? What would I do?” and then, “Will that make it hard? Yeah? Ok.”

BW: You rented out the whole rink for that video.

G: Yeah, Moonlight Rollerway. It was so fun. The lady who works there was super helpful, and [there was] popcorn and pizza. It was the first time I’d eaten anything like that in a year, but it was for art, so I did it.

BW: Can you give some background to that track? Two things about it: we love it, but also…it’s not that Christmasy, which is part of what makes it so cool. Did you have the idea of making a Christmas song that sounded like that from the outset?

G: Yeah. I did a little poll: “If I did a Christmas song, which one should I do?” and it was just flooded with “Santa Baby” because I do the Marilyn Monroe thing. That’s what I figured [would happen], but here’s the thing: so many people I know hate Christmas music – especially “Santa Baby”. I annoy the heck out of my friends when I put on the Eartha Kitt [version], which I love, but I love Christmas.

Most of the people I know just hate Christmas songs, so I thought, “How could they digest ‘Santa Baby’?” I met with one of my friends in Nashville who equally loves Christmas songs, but hates the song “Santa Baby”. I said, “OK, make it so you like it.” I had synth ideas, and he asked if I wanted jingle bells on it. I said, “No! We’re not reminding people of Christmas, unless they’re listening carefully.”

There are the Italians Do It Better fans, and I don’t know that they’re mega Christmas people, so I didn’t want to freak anyone out. We were really pushing it, because a lot of Italians Do It Better people are semi-goth. The people I know who are hardcore Chromatics and Glass Candy people wear all black, are a little gothy, and you’d never catch them listening to “Santa Baby”. My friend messaged me and said, “I can’t believe that you got Johnny Jewel to agree to a Christmas song and to wear a pink Santa outfit. That’s blasphemy at that label.” And I said, “He loved it; it was half his idea!”

So we were really careful with the song because [Italians Do It Better] had never done a Christmas song before, and I didn’t want to go Karen Carpenter on it, giving the full Christmas experience. It was like pulling teeth bringing “Santa Baby” to life until we had a cool version where if [you] tune out, you don’t feel like it’s “Santa Baby”. Everyone on the comment section of the video wrote, “I never listen to Christmas music, but I like this.” We did it – the whole thing was getting away with Christmas music, so it was carefully plotted.

BW: I also wanted to ask about the color red, which is repeated throughout your work and social media posts. Is that a conscious aesthetic and decision, and is there a meaning or intent behind it, or is it just a matter of picking a color you like and staying consistent with it?

G: It’s always been my favorite color. It reminds me of Marilyn Monroe, but it also reminds me of good circulation.

BW: You’ve mentioned Marilyn Monroe a couple times, and you’ve used “Walmart Marilyn” as a tagline on social media. What does that concept mean to you?

G: Well, I don’t want anyone to freak out. If you say you remind people of Marilyn Monroe – the most iconic and gorgeous woman on earth – then you need to put something self-deprecating before it. Otherwise, people are going to get mad, so I put “Walmart Marilyn”.

I grew up in my teens looking up to her a lot. My therapist gave me a biography of hers. We had some similar things in our upbringings and dating lives, and [my therapist] said that we had a similar brain, but [to] look at all the things she did. As a teen I didn’t feel like I had the tools that I needed. I was mostly raised by my dad, and didn’t know how to be a womanly person when I grew up. My therapist told me that the most womanly person of all time didn’t have a mom – she was never there. That was really helpful, so I read a lot of her biographies.

I think that’s why it’s so overdone – she basically turned into a little kid putting on her mom’s heels, because she didn’t have that [in her life], and I relate to that a lot. All that she went through growing up, and how strong, powerful, and brilliant she was with her career choices and what she did made me feel really hopeful when I was sixteen. I’ve always been pretty attached to her.

BW: The name you go by – even with your family – is Glüme, and then you’re inspired by Norma Jeane who becomes Marilyn, so there are a lot of layers here.

G: Yeah, even down to her dating. I open the album with a song called “Arthur Miller”. He was a good writer, but not a good partner, and I feel like I’ve dated a lot of Arthur Millers, so I wrote that song.

I saw My Week with Marilyn – a really good film with Michelle Williams and Eddie Redmayne – and I felt like I was watching my dating life. I was like, “the therapist was right!” I just hated Arthur Miller after that film. That makes some people mad, because they like his plays. They’re fine, but I don’t like him as a person.

I looked into him a lot for the “Arthur Miller” music video, which will be coming out at the end of May. We cast an Arthur Miller, and I had to make all [the Marilyn Monroe] props. We randomly chose a year during their marriage – 1957 – so I had to try and figure out what drugs she was taking in 1957, what doctor prescribed it…Schwab’s Pharmacy...because people who love an iconic figure are so crazy if you get it wrong. I remember people were in an uproar over [what they thought] was wrong in My Week with Marilyn – that’s all they notice. So we were very careful – the seat that we picked at Canter’s is where they used to sit, and everything is historically accurate.

She had such a tragic end, and there’s speculation on that, but I see myself and I see that I had a lot of challenges growing up, and now I have this disease. I try to think of inspirational people each morning to get my butt out of bed and do things, because sometimes it feels like I really can’t move.

It’s hard too with dating, because I’m drawn to similar men to what she was, and we know that didn’t go well. I’m trying to figure out with my therapist right now how to redirect that. It’s hard to have chronic illness and keep dating narcissists, and I just keep doing that.

A lot of the Internet is about the fantasy – you create this thing that’s not real…[at least] part of it. So people form an idea of you before they even get to you. Then they run with it, whether or not you’re that. Eventually, you’re bound to be a disappointment.

I’ve always had a really strong sense of self since I was a kid. It’s drawn a lot of people who don’t, and they find self in me. I don’t [initially] get that, and just think that we have everything in common. There’s a narcissistic supply that’s met, and then once it’s met, you’re not really useful anymore, and it’s not really about your humanity. That’s what Marilyn kept running into.

Now that I’m getting past a lot of boyfriends, [I realize] I keep doing the same thing, but it’s hard to see it coming. It just looks like a nice, charming person who has everything in common with you. You don’t realize that they’ve developed this thing to win you over, and once they’re tired of playing that role…like once Arthur Miller was done with the Marilyn Monroe fantasy, he didn’t want Norma Jeane. He didn’t want someone in his house taking lots of barbiturates and dealing with that. It was inconvenient.

BW: Do you have a favorite Marilyn Monroe movie?

G: How to Marry a Millionaire and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes are probably my favorites…and Seven Year Itch.

BW: I like Let’s Make Love as well.

G: Oh, that one’s good!

BW: Have you ever read Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos?

G: No.

BW: It’s great – you’d probably like it. On a total different topic, do you play the harp?

G: I’m learning. I just got it and I intend to be very good at it in a year. I want to play it when I go on tour. I’ve always wanted that, and I thought it was just one of those stupid ideas, but Johnny [Jewel] and Megan [Louise Doyle] said, “Get a harp!”

BW: I’m sure every song is a bit different, but do you sit down with one particular instrument or program when you write new music? Is there a method you have?

G: Generally, it’s a voice memo from my bathtub at 2:00 in the morning, which I then go find chords for the next day.

BW: On a guitar or…

G: Guitar. Well, I have an MS2000, and sometimes I’ll just press a bunch of buttons and write to that. But normally it’s a melody and vocal, and then I find the chords I want for it. I’ll make a rough thing on Ableton and then show it to someone and ask if I should continue with it. I have a bunch of things going right now, now that this album is done, and life is happening. I’ve been having a weird month with dating and heart disease, so I’ve just been churning out music.

BW: Do the Twin Peaks references in the “Don’t @ Me” video come from the song itself? Did you always know the song and video would go together? Or maybe it’s more of an unconscious thing?

G: Everything I do is probably unconsciously inspired by something David Lynch did. I love his work so much.

BW: And I shouldn’t jump to conclusions – that’s just what I see.

G: No, it is! By the end, it was very clear that’s what we had.

BW: Is it ok to mention that’s your car in the video?

G: Yeah!

BW: Because that’s one of the cars we consistently see around here, along with the old jeep with the dogs in it…

G: Yes! With no top, right? I’m glad it’s “one of the cars”!

Suzy Weirdo: “Dating and heart disease” sounds like an album.

G: Yeah, I mean that was the whole album. It’s hard, unless you find the perfect guy that understands you need a lot of caretaking and a village of people coming in and out, because I’m not supposed to be left unmonitored. That’s why Ryan [McBride] is here [right now]. If I fainted, you’d be stuck. I don’t know when I’m going to have an episode.

BW: Where did you record The Internet?

G: At home, in the living room.

BW: How do you see yourself spending the rest of 2020 and 2021?

G: We’re going to be doing tons of music videos until we figure out how touring looks. We might make a short film. [We’re just] looking for ways to get it out there when you can’t be on the road.

BW: In 2021, what is a record label? It seems like Italians Do It Better is a big part of your story.

G: Whatever that is in 2021, they’re great. The way that they work is like a family. They seem too good to be true, [but] they’re not. They’re so supportive, and don’t sign something unless they really believe in it, are obsessed with it, and put their all into it.

When they first signed me, they thought that I would never be able to play shows. They said, “That’s fine – we’ll figure out how to promote it a different way.” I got to the point recently where I was doing better, and said we could try to plan on [playing shows].

Our visions are so in sync, and then they just helped get the word out, putting up a billboard, and the PR. If I had just put my music up, I wouldn’t know what to do – that’s not the way my brain works. It’s a lot of work, so having a whole team of people has been a dream.

I was in shock, because I’d been looking up Johnny Jewel since high school. Megan said on a phone call that Johnny loved my music, wanted to put out the album, and was obsessed with it. I was like, “Johnny Jewel? Glass Candy? Chromatics? Oh, my god!”

Now we work together a lot, and he said, “Wow – we really have the same brain.” That was so cool hearing one of your idols say you have the same brain – it was like, “Oh, it’s good in there!” It’s very cool.

And Johnny’s wife is a fighter; she goes to bat for you. I’d never get in her way; she can make anything happen. They’re such a good team, because he’s a musical genius, and she’s…they call them The Quebec Maffia. Both she and her assistant are from Quebec, they speak in French, and they get shit done. When you’re in the office and you hear them [speaking] in French, you think, “I guess this is why good things are happening in my life,” because I would totally not mess with them. But they’re the sweetest people, and are very cool.

[Johnny] did an animation for my shirt, and said it was the first face he’d done on merch since Ida [No] and Ruth [Radelet]. So it’s been pretty surreal. I thought I was going to garden and crochet, and I quit music when I got sick. Then it totally took off. It’s a good surprise, and I’m very grateful to be alive and doing exactly what I hoped to do.