Rachel Chinouriri Learned How to Mosh From the Louis Tomlinson Fandom

Rachel Chinouriri’s “The Hills” was my gateway into her universe. The music video is a love letter to South London after the singer-songwriter had spent a month trying to find her place in LA’s music scene. “I was in LA having a pretty terrible time,” Chinouriri told Clash.

Chinouriri’s shoegazey, pop-punk sound, paired with her gritty, rough-around-the-edges depiction of London took me right back to my dorm room in college, watching “Parklife” by Blur for the first time. Her music evokes similar juxtaposing feelings of swagger and vulnerability, isolation and community, earnestness and cheekiness, all wrapped in one.

Chinouriri released her newest oeuvre, the “Little House” EP in April and after touring as a supporting act for artists like Sabrina Carpenter and Louis Tomlinson, she’s just finishing out a sold-out headline tour this month.

To celebrate, she visited us at the mixed feelings studio to do our Hyperspecific questionnaire. Read it in full below:

LEVEL I

1. Something you’re always hoping people will bring up in conversation when you first meet.
   Star signs…because I always end up asking it somehow. I kind of believe in it. I kind of don’t…no, I absolutely do believe in it. So yeah, it’s always interesting to see if someone’s like, “Oh, this is my style sign” versus “Oh, you’re one of those people.”

2. A positive trait people always tell you you have.
   People say I’m a bit blunt and upfront, but always for the good of the people. If there’s a girl who’s going through a bit of trauma about someone, I’ll be like, “Get your shit together, get up." We’re going outside.” I’m that kind of blunt in a loving way.

3. One destructive trait you know you possess and wish you didn’t.
   I’ve done a lot of therapy to stop myself from being revengeful because that’s actually a really horrible trait to have. When people do [shitty] stuff, I’m instantly like, “I’m going to ruin your entire life.” But that’s obviously really bad and not a good example to lead by. However, deep in my heart and core and soul, whenever people upset me or upset other people, I look at them like, you’re lucky I’m not a crash out anymore, because that is not a nice way of being to people. You need revenge for that, but I don’t do that anymore.

4. If a bodega were to name a dish after you, what would it be? (Be specific.)
   So the sandwich would have a lot of cured meat and a lot of cheese. I don’t want to call it a chopped cheese because “chopped” means ugly in slang, isn’t it? So it will have to be something like…what’s another word that’s not chopped?…Grated. Now the sandwich I’m thinking about is the cured meat is chopped up into pieces and then it’s got grated cheese on it. And it’s going to be called, The Grated Mighty Meaty Cheesy Baddie.

5. One song that makes you feel understood.
   Currently, the song that makes me feel understood is Lola Young’s “Spiders”. I’m obsessed with it. I’ve played it a million times, and I think she is such a unique and phenomenal performer, singer, and writer and she is incredibly passionate and I’ve not seen any other artists like her, and I like that she’s from South London as well.

6. Something you think is wildly underrated.
   I think Filofax are underrated because I put all my money in there, my wallet, my pen, my map, my gratitudes list…I’ve got loads of things in there. And I think having a Filofax is an underrated thing that everyone needs to bring back. And then an underrated artist who I would love to see be huge is Alemeda. I took her on tour and she is one of the nicest people that I’ve ever met.

LEVEL II

1. A movie/tv show you watch when you want to self-soothe.
   Catfish. Nev and Kamie…it’s entertaining! I used to watch lots of crime documentaries — I wanted to be a detective — then I realized that it’s actually a really unhealthy thing to overly consume. But I feel like with Catfish the way Nev handles people and his patience for people and his understanding for people I actually really love and I love how Kamie’s a bit of a “no nonsense” sort of thing. I feel like that’s something I put on to stay calm or Gangs of London, which actually gives me a lot of stress and anxiety when I watch it, but I feel relaxed when the episode is done.

2. Your problematic fave artist/actor/musician/character (dead or alive). And why?

   Have you ever seen a show called Horrid Henry? So Horrid Henry is a British TV show, and then I used to think Horrid Henry was really naughty. But then I saw a clip where someone showed his mom, and I think his mom was actually really horrible and she was actually a very neglectful mother and would blame everything on Henry. She started calling him “Horrid Henry” when actually she was the bad one. But as a child I was like, “Oh, Henry’s really naughty.” And now I’m like, “no, your mom’s actually a bit of a prick.”

   

   @rachelchinouririFrom being fan to opening his show 7 years later, thank you @lthqofficial 🥹 tour has been amazing so far 🫶🏾🌟 #fitftour #louistomlinson #newmusic #altmusic

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3. What’s the first fandom you lost yourself in…
   A fandom where I’d say I felt like I was in their community would probably be Louis Tomlinson’s fans. It’s kind of work-related, but I feel like every time I was fans of people in the past, I never really got too much into their fandoms. But then with working [and touring with Louis], I was tweeting fans before going on tour and after going on tour. And then even now when I go on tour, Louis Thomason fans are everywhere. And I feel like that’s the first fandom where I was like, “Okay guys, teach me how this goes.” And they’re showing me the ways, they’re showing me how to mosh. I had a beer which was splashing everywhere and they taught me how to seal the beer and close it so that when I’m mosh-pitting it doesn’t go everywhere. I was getting proper involved with them. So yeah. Thanks Louis. I didn’t really go to gigs when I was younger, so I like getting involved in them now.

   What fictional world would you want to live in and why?
   I [loved] playing Habbo hotel. I loved it because I feel like the design, the architecture, everything was so blocky and I was very rich. So I kind of enjoyed the levels of money I’d get for doing not really anything at all. So I’d want to live in Habbo hotel, only because I was pretty well off on it.

   

4. What the most random thing you have in your home that always requires explanation?
   I have a trophy of a knee brace. I’ve been nominated for a couple of things in my life and I’ve lost all of them. But the first thing that I won was for a competition about who has the best knees at the BRIT Awards. And it was presented to me live on TV by my friend Harriet. And it’s in my house on a shelf and whenever anyone comes in they go, “What is that?” And it’s a spray-painted knee brace, which says “champion” at the bottom because I have some pretty good knees despite actually having knee injuries all the time. I was nominated for two BRIT awards and I left with an award for having the best knees. Would like a Brit award or a Grammy, but that’s going to be my first one for now.

LEVEL III

1. What’s an anecdote you usually tell to describe how you were as a kid?
   I was unhinged. I was more quiet outside the house until my teachers actually told my mom that I was mute. But when the teachers would leave I was quite yappy. From this interview you see that I yap a lot when I get comfortable and forget this is going to be on the internet at some point. So yes, I would say quiet when I’m outside, but when I’m inside the house, she’s yapping.

2. What is your low-key hell and actual heaven?
   The gym. I hate the gym, but I love the gym. But every time I go to the gym and finish, I just have a little pep in my walk. I’m like, “oh, I’m feeling powerful today.” I am feeling like I’ve got an extra muscle. I’m always cussing out my personal trainer. So that’s my hell, but also heaven.

3. What is your most unhinged coping mechanism?
   If you asked me this when I was 16 my most unhinged coping mechanism would be rambling a lot. I feel like I just ramble and then I end up in the worst scenario possible. And then I’m like, the whole world has ended. This is the worst thing ever. That’s how I used to cope. And then I’d crash out and then look back thinking, was the situation ever that deep?
   
   It’s the circle of life. It’s also the circle of getting out of Croydon and not being raised by people in Croydon, but shouts, croydon. It made me have my fire.

4. Random thing you hate so much for no apparent reason.
   I can’t say *laughs*….I kind of have one: Butterflies, which is really horrible to say, but it’s because I’m scared of moths. I’ve been scared of moths since I was a child. I remember my cousin held a moth in front of my face when I was probably four or five and I’ve never forgotten it since. But the collateral damage is that now I hate butterflies because I feel like butterflies are moths who are wearing fancy dress and it’s the same thing. It makes me panic.

5. How you exit a party.
   French exit. The music’s going and you go, “One second, I’m just going to go and get a drink quickly.” Suddenly you’re walking past the bus while you’re putting on your jacket. Your Uber’s downstairs. One minute. Your friends are usually hammered anyways and then they’re like, “Oh, where are you?” I just went home. Sorry guys. Or you just kind of never end up leaving. And if I don’t do a French exit, I’m out in someone’s kitchen ‘til seven in the morning. So the best thing to do is get your friend and go, “We fucking off.”

6. How you wanna go (either un-seriously or seriously).
   Well, obviously if I had a choice it wouldn’t be very painful. I feel like I would have my eyes closed in a field with my feet on the ground. So I’m grounding connecting with the earth and then I just disappear like those genies who turn into pink smoke with glitter. It’s like I took so much energy from the ground, I just combust into sparkles of pink. Thank you.