Gigi Perez‘s internet roots run deep. Backstage at All Things Go in New York, the singer-songwriter pulled Rolling Stone into her YouTube rabbit hole while going through her playlist on the latest installment of Song Shuffle.
“Helena” is a holdover from Perez’ childhood My Chemical Romance phase. “I kind of associate MCR with being 10 years old and one of my neighbors was really into rock and emo and punk,” she said. “I kind of associate it with being on YouTube, hanging out with my friends.” Perez adds that she was hyper-online from an early age, to a “very unfortunate degree,” to be specific. “Because the internet was so new, there was a lot of unfiltered access,” she said. “Therefore, there was a lot of things I saw as a child that children shouldn’t see.”
The 25-year-old came of age during an era of the internet that still produced incredible gems and trends without viral over-saturation. “Helena,” for example, got the Sims 2 treatment on YouTube in 2008. At the time, users often created intricately detailed music videos in the video game to accompany their favorite songs. The fan-made MCR edit has just under 400,000 views, a number surpassed by Perez’s own official music video for “Please Be Rude,” which uses the same Sims 2 edit approach.
“The music itself is not emo, but I associate it in an emo way,” Perez said about the single, “in a Sims 2, lesbian, emo, YouTube video way.”
The Sims franchise is a staple in the cozy game universe, but this fall Perez is cozy-maxing with comfy socks, warm blankets, and her new puppy. “My dog just had a dog — she just had a baby,” Perez said. “My Lola, she’s a chihuahua mixed with a Jack Russell. We don’t know how this happened because we’re on tour, my entire family comes on tour with me … she went out and had some fun. And now we have a baby.”
When her playlist isn’t taking her to the depths of niche YouTube trends, it yields entries from Yves Tumor, Saya Gray, and Sorry. “I was listening to [Sorry] a lot when I was going to the gym,” Perez said. “It’s like sexy, but it’s like a ‘fuck you’ kind of song. There’s a sense of angst and pining. ‘Sorry’ just does that.”
