Interview Class of 2023: flowerovlove

Joyce Cisse is standing in one of London’s many Prets in a white shirt, blue sweater vest and some “very well-tailored” white trousers. It may seem like a fairly standard scene for anybody dwelling in the capital but, for Joyce, she’s about to experience her first ever pinch-yourself moment.

“There was this girl and her family, and they were just wandering around outside contemplating if they should come in or wait for us to go out,” she recalls. “By the time she’d made up her mind, I came out, and she was bright red and crying and her hands were shaking.”

It was the first time that Joyce - aka flowerovlove - had been recognised in the street, but it’s a situation that’s getting more common by the week for the South London teen. In the two years since debut single ‘Kiss & Chase’ arrived, she’s walked fashion shows, appeared on dozens of hype lists, and garnered a growing legion of loyal followers. Now, with her star ever further on the rise, Joyce always makes sure to wear a fire ‘fit in case of another fan run-in. “Even going to bed, I’m in a matching pyjama set,” she laughs. “If I’m gonna get kidnapped, the kidnappers will be like, ‘She’s too stylish, we’ve got to let her go!’”

Yet while her career check-points are being marked off steadily, Joyce is adamant that she’s just getting started. In fact, she won’t settle until she achieves her ultimate goal: namely the pop equivalent of “world domination”. It’s an aim Joyce has been reaching for ever since she can remember. Growing up wanting to be Justin Bieber, she was drawn to groups like Fifth Harmony and One Direction who were playing on the radio. “When I was younger and I wanted to be a pop star, I didn’t know anything about music. I just wanted to be famous, that’s it,” she notes. “But now, [I want to be] a superstar.”

It was only around 2020 that Joyce found herself getting more immersed in music, highlighting Tame Impala as the band that truly ignited the fire within her. “It gave me this overwhelming feeling that I wanted to cry because it’s so beautiful,” she reminisces. “That made me want to make music. I was like, I want people to feel the same way I feel, because I felt like that’s what happiness felt like.”

Though she didn’t want to replicate the Aussie psych-rock outfit’s sound, Joyce got to work at harnessing that feeling, beginning to create music with her brother in his bedroom or in their garage. “It’s a trustworthy environment when he’s there. I feel like good music is being made when he’s there. It feels honest when he’s there,” she smiles.

Her early singles embraced that easy, breezy, summer-ready feeling - emboldened by the flower imagery that she’d adopted in her artist name. By the time debut EP ‘Think Flower’ arrived last year, she’d carved out a path soaked with nostalgia-laced, woozy pop gems, and this year’s follow-up ‘A Mosh Pit In The Clouds’ saw her further build on that vibe, creating a refreshing and warm project that feels both timeless and wonderfully modern. “I just make music for how I feel at the time,” she explains. “As long as it makes sense, your music doesn’t have to sound completely different because I don’t like that, it just feels forced. But it can sound like you in so many ways, and my music sounds like me.”