How Does One Become Lord Pusswhip?

Þórður Ingi Jónsson, or Lord Pusswhip, is definitely an oddball when it comes to music. He is one of the rising stars in the electronic music world. He also once interned at the Grapevine. Here, Lord Pusswhip told us what made him the artist he is.

Mommy—or Ozzy?
My older brother, visual artist Þórarinn Ingi Jónsson, was definitely a big influence when it came to weird music and art, and esoteric aesthetics. The first word that I ever spoke was either “Mommy” or “Ozzy”—my brother tried to teach me that word really early on and he would draw it on my knuckles.

The Mixtape
Around the age of six, Þórarinn showed me how to make a mixtape for my walkman—assorted music from my Ice Cube, Eminem and Limp Bizkit CDs. When he’d go abroad, I would go into his room and stay there for hours, literally just staring at the backs of CDs or the strange pictures on the walls of Jim Morrison, Alfreð Flóki, Alfred Hitchcock, revolutionary figures and naked women. In retrospect, it was almost like a form of meditation for me, contemplating this mysterious and alluring world of art, music and magic. Some of the CDs he had that had a big influence on me were Snoop Dogg’s ‘Murder Was the Case,’ Beck’s ‘Loser’ EP, Miles Davis’ ‘Bitches Brew,’ Ham’s ‘Dauður Hestur,’ etc.

Mom and dad
My parents, sculptress Steinunn Þórarinsdóttir and TV personality Jón Ársæll Þórðarson. My mom had to struggle for years as a sculptress and now she’s very successful, so that’s definitely an inspiration. Aside from being a dope artist (I like her early, creepy, Cronenbergian stuff), she is a really cunning networker and businesswoman. I think a lot of the tricks of the trade has “osmosed” from her into my psyche—she’s very ambitious, but always very sweet and professional.

I think my dad instilled a lot of interest in me when it comes to my thirst for knowledge—he studied parapsychology and used to be a hippie, so I kinda wish I could go see what it would be like to go back in time and hang out with that version of my dad, although the current version is really cool as well. I’m living in Los Angeles for the moment and I’ve recently been on a big ‘60s psychedelic trip, so that would be groovy as tits.

The tail-end of the analog generation
The internet is my third parent, I’m of the last generation that caught the tail-end of the analog generation but that has also roamed the pastures of the internets for years and years. The palette of musicians and artists that came up before the advent of the internet is totally different. We’re living in a strange moment in cultural history where the super accelerated evolution of culture in the 20th century kind of came into an impasse, partially because of the internet and the wealth of archives and information we have on there. The schizophrenic, jittery, ADHD is palpable in the music I make as well as some other underground artists I’ve been listening to recently, for example; JPEGMAFIA, Reptilian Boyz Club, Teejayx6, Rozz Dyliams, Anti-World, and more.

Check out Lord Pusswhip on his Soundcloud. You can read more about Lord Pusswhip here.

Correction: A previous version of this article stated that Lord Pusswhip played at Berghain. This is not the case, as much as we would love it to be true, and the article has been amended.