The teenage artist spoke with Mission to discuss her latest projects, creative processes, and balancing newfound stardom while still in school. Taken from our Sustainability Issue.
In a digital age where everyone is exposed to everything and anything, musical influence blends freely across genres. And as a result of this so-called digital revolution there have been an increasing number of young artists creating music that lives between any predefined genre lines. Among this new generation is flowerovlove, a 16-year-old artist whose lyrics speak of young love but also of care for the Earth.
“The main message I want to push out with my music is to love yourself,” flowerovlove shared from her bedroom in the United Kingdom. She had just come back from school and was ready to talk about anything outside of biology or mathematics. “I think good artists know themselves. They don’t give a damn and they just make music. That’s all I care about and what I’m trying to do.”
Flowerovlove, whose real name is Joyce Cisse, is the epitome of a cool girl. She wears thrifted button-up shirts, loves Tame Impala, and creates songs from her bedroom as soon as class gets out. Her face may have graced your Instagram page or you may have recognized her from a Gucci campaign or from i-D’s “Ones to Watch” list. But at the same time, she’s your typical teenager. She’s finishing her classes, hanging out with friends on the weekends, and trying to make sense of young adulthood (and all the conflicting feelings that come with it).
“My brother and I were just having fun. We didn’t intend on making a song, but we did and it’s just about rolling around in your bed on Saturdays.”
One of her most popular songs, “Saturday Yawning,” is a pop single that reflects on just this. From her bedroom, she shares the song formed from a longing for simpler times, when you just got out of class on Friday and had the whole weekend ahead of you—time you could spend lounging and nothing else. She created this song during the pandemic in March 2021 with Isaac Levine and her brother, Wilfred Cisse, and the result is sonic perfection.
“It’s literally about good vibes,” flowerovlove laughed. “My brother and I were just having fun. We didn’t intend on making a song, but we did and it’s just about rolling around in your bed on Saturdays.” And while her lyrics are warm and inspirational, they often touch upon larger, heavier topics like Earth preservation.
Her latest EP, Think Flower, is a product of this conscious thinking and exudes the utmost care for the planet, urging listeners to think of the Earth in relation to themselves. She encourages her cohorts to live in line with sustainable and ethical values and to think specifically about how their actions impact the Earth. Drenched in flowerovlove’s syrupy vocals, Think Flower is incredibly infectious, establishing its tracks as some of the sweetest in the game. It’s bits of dream pop, trap, and indie rock tracks all blended into one.
A homebody at heart, the young artist spent a lot of time in her room absorbing different artists in various genres. It was then that her musical sensibilities started forming around two distinct poles. While flowerovlove is steeped in Tame Impala’s indie affinities, she is equally inspired by pop icons such as ABBA. Both genres play an essential part in her musical identity and subsequent artistry—and it is this seamless blending of pop choruses and lo-fi beats that makes her music so intoxicating. And while she’s stretching the boundaries of her sound, as she does in several places on Think Flower, you’ll uncover beautiful youthful euphonies and nostalgic beats. “I want people to know it’s good to prioritize your mental health and be in tune with your mind and body, she elaborated. “It’s tough, especially if you’re doing a lot of things. But you need to make time for yourself.”
Flowerovlove is masterful at crafting stories and getting listeners to relate to them on an intimate, personal level. Speaking of her latest track, “Will We Ever Get This Right,” she navigates the complexities of a crush under the guise of painstakingly relatable lyrics. And after a few listens, you’ll find yourself unraveling a cross-genre love story that’s eerily familiar. Expect chance encounters, missed phone calls, and young gushy love. This song follows her nostalgic single, “I Love This Song,” which has almost a million streams.
Flowerovlove is wise beyond her years. Not only is she a wiz in the studio, but she is also a socially conscious genius. In addition to spreading love and mindfulness through her creative pursuits, she’s also big on putting the planet first. Perhaps before many adults, flowerovlove realized the correlation between music consumption and what young people care about. By singing about the fragility of our environment, she is able to get young people involved and care about our planet (if they didn’t already). “Songs really impact people,” flowerovlove reflected. “If you hear something in a song, you start to think about it. When you sing it, it has you constantly thinking about the theme and what it means.”
“Songs really impact people. If you hear something in a song, you start to think about it. When you sing it, it has you constantly thinking about the theme and what it means.”
Just last year, she curated a Spotify playlist for the second edition of EarthTones, which features one of her favorite songs, “Mrs. Magic,” by Strawberry Guy (the whistling in the beginning reminded her of birds and being alone in nature). Like many in her generation, she is determined to advocate for issues surrounding sustainability, which for her starts on an individual level. Flowerovlove pushes these themes of sustainability beyond her music and into herfashion consumption; she’s a huge advocate of sustainable fashion. When we spoke with her earlier this year, her entire outfit was sourced from thrift stores in her area. She believes that we can love fashion, but outside of the extractive cycles of consumption. “Fast fashion is so bad,” flowerovlove elaborated. “You can try and thrift something instead of buying from fast-fashion sites. If we don’t initiate the change, who will? I want to be able to bring our children into a beautiful world.”
Even her moniker, “flowerovlove,” is rooted in nature. When the Instagram handle “Flower of Love” was taken, she decided to go with the latter, which she finds inherently rooted in womanhood but also in the act of blossoming and growing as a person. The young artist wants everyone to see themselves as a flower, specifically in how people need to take care of and tend to themselves. She uses the symbol of a flower to touch listeners’ hearts, take over their headphones, and draw attention to sustainability and preserving the Earth around us. But she notes that it’s not always easy in this day and age—with the climate crisis and social media pressures.
“If you’re on social media, you need to be on it frequently,” she explains about the everyday experience of many young adults. “Sometimes you’re not even in the mood, but you have to post this one thing, especially as an artist.”
“I want my listeners to be able to fall in love. Not with the actual song, but with each other.”
But that’s where music fits in. Flowerovlove feels like music is very important to this process and has helped her imbue feelings of self-love into her everyday life. These themes of love, and more importantly, self-love, are deeply entrenched in her artistry. With every verse that she writes or every music video she creates, she hopes to spread this kind of deep love.
“I want my listeners to be able to fall in love,” she said. “Not with the actual song, but with each other. I want them to be able to connect the song with a person and be like, ‘This is our song.’ I want someone to play my song at their wedding. I think that’s my biggest goal and then I’ll be complete.”
And while we eagerly await that day, we’re closely following flowerovlove’s musical journey and can’t wait to see what blossoms from here.
Homepage image taken from video “I love this song,” Top image photo By Morgan Eve Russell
