Dropping the Veil: A Q&A With Uma Bloo

Twenty-four year old Molly Madden is the woman behind Chicago based artist, Uma Bloo. As she prepares to perform at SXSW, we chatted on the phone about glamour, sadness, anger, and oral.

Uma Bloo seems to be the half of you that feels comfortable performing. Do you feel like it’s part of a persona, or is it just a stage name that I’m reading into too much?

She is definitely the full character. I think that I use her primarily to have something to tap into when I’m going on stage. Because initially when I started, what held me back from telling anybody that I even played guitar, let alone wrote my own songs, was that I didn’t feel worthy as a person of doing that. But I did burlesque for about four years starting when I first moved to the city. So that was helping me work out a lot of stage comfortability. I was really angry at the time so it was definitely a way I could channel that and kind of manage the things I was starting to recognize about myself. So once I wanted to start playing music, I always felt kind of weird about playing under my own name, like I didn’t think that was very exciting. And I wanted the name to recognize how monumental of a thing it was for me to put myself out there like that. And because a lot of the songs that I wrote, since I wrote them when I initially never thought there would be an audience, I said a lot and I didn’t censor myself. And I didn’t really think about that until I started playing and I was like “oh thank god I put a different name on this.”

Is she sort of a buffer between you and the audience?

Yeah, she’s like a buffer and also I feel like it’s a name of an energy that I definitely possess that I don’t necessarily use in my everyday life. I think all character is very much based on things we already have inside of us. And so yes, she is parts of myself. But it’s, ya know, it is kind of like a shield. It’s like the same way Beyonce has-

SASHA FIERCE. Is Uma Bloo your Sasha Fierce?

Pretty much. That’s the name of this thing that exists in her that enables her to get up on stage and do what the hell she does. It’s just an empowering thing. We don’t name ourselves, so when you do get to name yourself, it’s like what does that look like? What type of person is this? How does it feel? It’s just generally empowering when so many things in this world aren’t your decision.

I feel like you take time really curating your full aesthetic. Is this just a natural part of your artistic process or is it very tactful? Or both?

I really got lucky in that I was working on my aesthetic and basic image stuff, not even knowing it was gonna go towards music at all. Doing burlesque, as much as it is abstract and movement based, it puts a lot of pressure on what you look like. Which I think a lot of musicians, they reject that kind of feeling because they wanna put the music first. But I don’t know what I would look like or if I would’ve even thought about it if I hadn’t been a different kind of performer to the public before I was a singer. The work of the image and the look is because I care a lot about being a complete artists. Not to say that musicians are incomplete. But when I think about performers, and the best shows that I’ve ever been to, and the type of stuff that I want to emulate, it’s like this full production sort of thing. There’s so much content these days that when you get the choice to mix up it’s, how do I set myself apart? How do I want to look to people? We get this choice to be whatever we want so, if I don’t take a lot of care into presenting myself, someone else is gonna do it for me. And I just want to have full control over every part that people are consuming of me.

So do you think of yourself as more than just a musician because you do bring this extra performance?

I like to focus on it becoming a more full experience in a live sense. In a sense that it’s more than me singing and wearing a certain costume. I think that I have a lot of different training. I went to school for acting, I did burlesque, and I make music, and I’ve been writing since I could. It very neatly came together. It’s hard for me to say what I identify as as an artist. Sometimes I just say I’m an artist because Uma Bloo is a full thing. I learned music very much of my own volition; it’s always been very private until the last year and a half. When people do come to my show, I do think I have a little bit of something else. I guess I would call myself very raw, I try not to hide myself at all behind it. But on top of it, I’m giving the fantasy of being a character.

With the marabou, and the silk, and the glitter, you almost use traditional femininity as a character tool. Is that just part of being Uma Bloo?

At first it wasn’t really justified by anything. It’s funny because when I was doing burlesque, what was always the hardest part for it. for me, was coming up with costumes that looked nice.

Really?

Yeah it really was. I just didn't wanna buy anything, I was a student, so the thought of buying anything that wasn’t coffee in the morning… You know. I mean it was half that and half I didn’t want to take the time to learn it at the time. It wasn’t something I was interested in really. And now it still looks like I work way harder on my costumes than I do. I honestly just go to Village Thrift and get really fucking lucky. I found a couple different pieces and a couple different shoes. But as long as I have glitter on, people tend to be into it.

As long as you have the glitter on your chest?

Yeah, they fucking eat that shit up. Which is great, it makes me feel a certain way and that permeates. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, that there’s a lot of similarities I think between extreme feminine gender expectations and toxic masculinity. On both ends of the spectrum there’s a limit on how much you’re able to experience human-ness. Obviously the route that I went with my costuming, It’s like a sluttier, sleezier version of the Old Hollywood feel. It’s annoying to me because I feel that whenever I say Marilyn Monroe is a big inspiration to me it’s an eye roll. Her whole story is so sad. She never had a happy time, I don’t think. And Uma Bloo is kind of aesthetically like that. She [Marilyn Monroe] represents sex in the fucking 50s-early 60s, JFK whatever. But she’s a big representation of every lie that a woman is told. Because she had the attention and supposed value that we’re all supposed to crave. And things ended terribly for her. She was fantasy and an example of the sadness that is behind that veil. I always wondered about her and other huge sex symbols, what would we hear if they actually said what was going on inside of them. If they stopped playing the character. So the whole idea with my look and posing as a very feminine entity, is giving an actual rage monologue that they might have. I want to give a more representation of what a woman is of a specific experience, but I think the way I use femininity is the trick that is.

Is the “trick” weaponizing extreme femininity?

Before it’s a weapon, it is my most comfortable way of appearing. It’s not uncomfortable for me, but I definitely know how to use flirtiness and sex appeal as a way of getting what I want even though I can acknowledge that’s like bullshit. It’s great that I’m cool with it, but what about other women, or anybody else who may not subscribe or be comfortable with that appearance? So it’s my way of getting through. I catch their attention with this, but hopefully my art and music and performance and personhood will be effective enough where it might have people re-considering some things.

Is it you playing the system?

It’s never anything I planned. I don’t even know if it’s working. Baseline, it’s just like something fun that I was comfortable with. But beyond that, yeah I think it’s something that happens the more people see me. But it’s a responsibility I have to be aware of. What am I enforcing? People are putting me on a stage, which is just really a pedestal. It’s important to think, “what is it that I’m representing?” I mean, that’s my face on it. I have to make sure that people are protected at my shows and that I know the kind of people who are coming to see me. I’m pretty choosey about the shows I go to. I go in playing shows at certain spaces knowing that there’s always a possibility... If I have the opportunity before I say yes to shows, I try to be conscious of who I’m involving myself with. I’m not trying to put the people who come to my shows in a place where I think any of them could get hurt. And I feel like by talking about it and letting as many people know, so that when they do come to book me they know who they’re working with. I think I’m just trying to do what I do in the same way that I go into the world knowing what my values are, and I bring that into my workspace.

Is that why you were able to yell “if you don’t eat pussy you can leave” before your New Years Eve set this past year?

Haha yeah! It was just, there were a lot of dudes there. I don’t know how the hell so many bro-y dudes heard about that show, but they showed up. I asked a few of them and was like “who told you?” They were ultimately fine from what I experienced. But I’ve been saying it more and more. In my first few years of having sex I definitely thought I was still straight and, not to be TMI, but none of those fucking dudes ate my pussy. Also a lot of the people I see coming up to me at my shows are telling me about whatever Band Boy they’re in love with. And I get it, I do. Get it out of your system. But if they don’t eat your pussy please leave him. It’s such a basic common decency thing. If you’re fucking someone who has a pussy and you’re not eating it, then what are you listening to my music for? It’s just how it goes. I think I accepted my queerness and then I was like “wait a second, maybe I hate my body because there’s a pussy attached to it and nobody ever told me to like it.” Having sex with anybody who would reinforce you to not like any part of your body, especially a part that is important to me? Just.. nah. It’s a big value.

Is that part of your booking process?

I won’t be seen at your place of work if you don’t.

Speaking of booking. You’re heading off to SXSW soon! What will that look like for you?

Right now I’m going down with Space Gators, they’re basically at this point my sister band. We tried to book like a little tour, but nobody knows us anywhere else. So we’ve got a show in New Orleans which I’m reallyyy excited about. It’s always been ultimately the only goal I really have for music- for it to take me to different physical places. I want to travel because of it. So my dream is already coming true with me doing that. I’m going there and then we have three shows on March 13th which are our three SXWS shows. We leave the March 11th, have a show on the 12th in New Orleans, and then have our shows in Austin. It’s like summer camp down there and it’s nice to meet musicians from other cities!

See Uma Bloo

3/13 Poor Boys Bar w/ Space Gators New Orleans, LA

3/14 POND Showcase at Pearl Street Co-Op 4:15pm Austin, TX

3/14 ANCHR Showcase at Shiners Saloon 8:00pm Austin, TX

3/14 Indie Evening Showcase at The Bungalow 9:45pm Austin, TX

Keep Up With Uma Bloo on Facebook + Twitter + Instagram

originally published March 11th 2019

Sage ShemroskeAugust 16, 2019