“I just really need to walk today for some reason. I hope you don’t mind, we’re going to take a little stroll,” METTE says, logging onto our call with an effervescent smile, breezy but precise. Against the backdrop of sunny mid-morning downtown Los Angeles, she sports black sunglasses that cover most of the top half of her face, and dons a jacket to protect against the autumnal wind. For the next hour or so, the dancer, actor, and now artist guides me on her journey towards a seemingly undecided physical destination; and also on her odyssey to releasing one of this year’s finest EPs as the relentless and multi-faceted new queen of Pop. 

Growing up primarily in small town Minnesota by way of Maryland, the LA streets that she is currently roaming are a far cry from METTE’s early years. “It was a supportive yet sheltered environment, everything was filtered through my parents,” the 30-year-old reflects. “There wasn’t a real root of culture where I grew up, so that was a bit disorienting.”

Rather than finding it at her doorstep (presumably, instead, finding a foot of snow), METTE had to seek the influence that would usher her into the entertainment world. “I would cover my walls with fashion magazines and make collages,” she remembers. “This is before the era of content being fed to us in the way that we have now. I was craving these inspirations and I had to go find it, get it and bring it back to my room. I still do it now. I’ve always had to curate my immediate ordinary life with these relics of inspiration.”

She amusingly parallels herself to Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up, with her ideological refusal to accept the banality of adulthood. “Sometimes it’s like we get coerced into it. It’s like, all of a sudden, the things that we are curious about become fragmented by this notion of milestones, like ‘now I’m 30 I have to have X, Y and Z.’ I think we’re in an era where we’re being fed this idea that you have to be super high functioning to be successful. But to me as an artist, feeling everything is so much a part of the work.”

METTE’s fanaticism for the arts metamorphosed into ambition, mastering her youth’s primary craft, dancing, throughout her teenage years. Her work ethic and belief paid off, proceeding to be plucked from obscurity into the giddy world of fruition as a member of Pharrell’s dance group The Baes, starring in the music video for Rihanna and N.E.R.D’s 2017 smash hit, “Lemon”, and moving into the acting world with turns in Hustlers, Cats and most recently Barbie. 

The glaring pressure of the spotlight comes with unspoken difficulties, but METTE matured through her experiences, and built her wider career through her opportunism when the right time arose. “I came fresh out of Minnesota to LA,” she divulges. “I was so malleable and naïve in so many ways. There have been certain times that I’ve gotten burned and had my heart broken, whether it be professionally or personally. Those things have stuck with me. I’ve had to work through those moments.” 

Having witnessed the glamour of notoriety through the eyes of industry titans, I question if the idea of being famous herself galvanised her appetite for success. “Infamy is more interesting to me than fame is,” she offers. “Fame is like a blip. I’m making works of art that will live on. Art, music, these things can’t be destroyed. I have ambitions for my art to be well-known. And thus, I will become more known as a person because we as humans are interested in the narrative and the person behind the art.”

When a creative rises to prominence, they often dismiss broader relatability; the core of who they are behind their reputation. On her trajectory to stardom, however, METTE is dedicated to avoiding this. “I think what I’ve learned, just from orbiting around certain circles, is a core group of friends is very important,” she pinpoints. “Having folks around who challenge you and tell you what’s up. Being well-liked and adored is amazing, it’s enticing for an artist. But I’m really interested in maintaining my humanity. It’s about connecting through the art and the performance, and upholding a sense of self-awareness so that I don’t lose my essence.”

The road to artistry was never easy for METTE, she was clouded by self doubt for much of her early 20s. She consolidated that with her dancing, something that she was known for, was good at and loved. Until she reached a moment of realisation, an epiphany of resolution.  

“Dance became my identity. I had these other things that I was interested in, but we’re talking about making a major pivot. At one point, I just realised that I can’t wait for the confidence or the experience – time is slipping away. I woke up one day and I was just like… [exclaims] Enough! Enough hiding, enough compartmentalising parts of myself. I’ve got nothing to prove, only to share. That’s what I’ve been doing ever since.” 

METTE has spent a considerable portion of the last five years this side of the Atlantic, finding London –  like so many of us – an ideal breeding ground for creativity and individualism within innovation. “London for me is like this beautiful nest. I’m like a little nest egg in this gorgeous city that wants to explore,” she says nostalgically on her love affair with the city. “People [in London] want to collaborate and take the time to express themselves in a new way.”  

Eager to drown out the white noise of consumerism, London became the inception of her true musical form; the city that birthed her debut EP. “I had a fear that if I was in LA when I was first starting to find my sound, I would become aligned to what was cool at the time or what was a successful sound in Pop music, which is one of the reasons why I started my journey in London.”

Following the meteoric success of visually-backed singles “MAMA’S EYES” and “VAN GOGH” earlier this year, the release of her September project, “METTENARRATIVE”, was highly anticipated, and undoubtedly lived up to expectation. You can feel the dance within the music of METTE; rhythm flows through her sound, shepherding listeners down a groove-laden estuary towards open waters of emotional depth and triumphant reflection. Vivacious and visceral, it’s an incredibly assured body of work, especially for an artist characterised as a newcomer. 

I call the EP cohesive, which the polymath laughs at and says that I might be the first person who’s labelled it as such. I re-evaluate my compliment: sonically it’s eclectic, with the Hip-Hop influence in “PSYCHO (NAH NAH)” and the bubblegum Hyper-Pop tendencies of ”ACID RAIN”. It’s also diverse thematically, with topics ranging from her mother to climate fears and existentialism. It is in fact METTE herself, her essence as a narrative and performer, that makes the body of work feel so condensed. 

“I just collect songs like people pick flowers. They’ve got different shades, and they’ve got different pedals. I look at the tapestry and think – what goes together? What am I trying to say with this EP? I was trying to explore my own humanity. The ego and the darkness and the psyche, the feeling of lineage and ancestral heritage.”

Perhaps subconsciously collating the necessary traits to excel in whatever aspect of creativity that she chooses, the longer our conversation goes on, the more I’m struck by an overwhelming sense that METTE is simply destined to be a star. “My discipline from my dancing era gave me the knowledge to say, here’s how many rehearsal days I need, here’s how I need to show up to rehearsal to get the most out of rehearsal so that when I’m on stage,” she offers on her comfortability and readiness to perform, an example of how her experiences have augmented her artistry. “I’m living the moment. I’m not dancing, I am the dance.“ 

She continues: “I remember when I was 22, walking through to auditions, and being so bright red in the face and sweating out of my dress because I was so nervous to be looked at. Now it’s just like, this space is mine, I‘m claiming it for myself. We’re talking about a decade of garnering the skills and competence. Looking back now with this conversation… Yeah, I have transformed. I’m not new to this. That’s why I welcome even the notion of a debut. It’s a debut, yeah, but that doesn’t mean that it happened overnight. But it is the debut, so there’s so much room to grow, there’s so much space for possibility. I love fluidity. I love dichotomy. I love androgyny. I see both sides – I’m a Gemini after all.” 

It feels like the best days of METTE’s career await her. She’s touring with Jessie Ware this autumn, and promises me a new single at the beginning of next year with further music poised for release. As the sun climbs higher in the sky behind her, and the calmness of night closes in for me, we prepare to part ways. 

“It’s a very daunting endeavour, wanting to be successful,” she concludes. “I just follow my heart. I’m a living, breathing manifestation of ‘keep on keeping on’. Even losing gives me confidence. I truly know, for certain, that self love is the most important thing.”