Dutch singer/songwriter Stevie Bill breaks down her spellbinding EP ‘I was a platinum blonde,’ a stunningly dreamy, achingly intimate, and beautifully vulnerable exploration of self-discovery through a young twenty-something’s lens.
Stream: “Hahaha” – Stevie Bill
I was a platinum blonde, and somewhere in this brain, between all of my wires and cables, I still remember her…
Stevie Bill is as charismatic, as charming, and as unfiltered in real life, as she is in song.
The Dutch artist may be sporting her natural dark brown hair these days, but as the title of her sophomore EP states, she was (once) a platinum blonde – and it was as a platinum blonde that she found the courage to take some major life risks, break out of her comfort zone, and find herself as a young twenty-something navigating New York City. Sometimes changes on the outside do lead to bigger changes within us, and those changes can be not only rewarding, but also important to our overall wellbeing, health, and quality of life. For Bill, it led (amongst many other things) to her debut EP Messy, a hyperpop-adjacent record that gave her the best possible crash-course on the music industry – which she was already studying day-in and day-out as a full-time college student enrolled at NYU’s prestigious Clive Davis Institute.
So as her blonde hair grew out and she became a brunette once more, a slightly older, slightly wiser Bill decided to embrace change once again, leaving hyperpop behind in exchange for the classic rock and pop music she grew up listening to. The resulting six-track I was a platinum blonde is a stunningly dreamy, achingly intimate, and beautifully vulnerable exploration of self-discovery through a young adult’s lens.
It’s a spellbinding reintroduction to Stevie Bill: A warm and inviting record whose catchy inner reckonings and candid reflections captivate and compel, bringing us ever-closer to Bill and the wondrous indie pop world she is building, both around herself and within herself, in real time.
I’ve got 5 dollars
To take me home
And I wanna know, just How much
That it would take you To stop me now
But I know it won’t
You claimed you weren’t cruel
And everything you said was true, true
You claimed it wasn’t you
But I could read the messages
You never sent, it’s evident
Hahahaha, you’re laughing at me
Do you think it’s funny darling?
My my my my
I must have been so out of it
How I thought you were everything
You were never anything at all
Released September 13, 2024 via Warner Music Benelux, I was a platinum blonde is a sonically and emotionally charged reverie: An enchanting wonderland of guts and growth, all channeled through a litany of instantly memorable, easily lovable melodies and intoxicating, infectious beats.
It’s also a massive step forward for the 24-year-old, who found herself all over again through the course of making these six songs.
“The EP is called ‘I was a platinum blonde,’ and I called it that because when I first moved to New York, I just got out of a really long relationship with someone and I moved from Amsterdam to New York kind of blindly,” Bill tells Atwood Magazine over a recent Zoom call. “I hadn’t gone to New York before, it was my first time in the city, and I knew I was going to live there for the next four years. I had this really big dream to do music there, and I went and it hit me in the face. And I was so scared, the first eight months that I was there, I definitely got hit with panic attacks, and I’d never really experienced that before. It was confrontational, and it definitely took me out of my comfort zone a lot.”
“What needed to happen was for me to discover this other part of myself that was fearless and that needed to grow a thick skin. So I got it out of this relationship and I moved back after COVID, and something switched in my head and I was like, ‘If I want to do this and if I’m going to go do this, then I need to be fearless and toughen up.’ And with that came some kind of carelessness as well. That’s what made me dye my hair blonde and just go all out, like flip the switch and say, ‘f* it, nothing matters, this is your time to explore and try new things and find out who you are and who you want to be.’”
For Bill, changing her outer appearance by going blonde had an impact on the girl within as well. It was an act of transformation, exploration, revolution, and self-discovery.
“I feel like dyeing my hair blonde symbolizes that exploration in myself, but also in my music,” she explains. “Who am I in this new city with all these new people? I think it [let me] let go of rules that I thought I had to stick to before, whether it was music genre-wise, whether it was even about my sexuality or anything that I thought was true before that I had to hold on to. I was able to flip it around and say, ‘No, I’m going to try this, I’m going to try that just because I want to.’ That’s kind of what it was for me.”
“But to come back to the second EP… I’d spent two years exploring this side of me, and slowly my blonde hair was growing out. I had gone through another relationship. I dated someone from New York, which was completely different. I’d done hyperpop stuff, I’d done pop stuff, and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with this next project. I was on a bus from Boston to New York when I realized that I had lost interest in all the music that I thought was interesting at the moment. Even though I really appreciate getting introduced to hyperpop and that sound, I was losing interest in anything that had to do with this time and what was relevant right now.”
“I was like, ‘it’s not really about that anymore, I just want to make music that I like in the core.’ If I was in a void by myself, if I was in a room by myself and I didn’t have all these people around me, what would I truly like? So I started listening to all the stuff that I liked growing up. I had started listening to ABBA, I was listening to Fleetwood Mac, all on this bus ride, and I started writing down what I loved about this music, and I realized it was all these songs. After all the context and all the relevance and all the people, what left me loving music was songs that I knew from my childhood that are still amazing and good after 30, 40 years. So it was, ‘f* it, I want to try and just be really pure with it and let go of the autotune and stuff.’ I wanted to try something really pure – to go back to me playing piano, because I used to play piano when I was really young and I used to love classical music. I wanted to show my musicianship – I wanted to be singing, without Auto-Tune, and I wanted to just write songs. ‘Hahaha’ was the first song that we wrote after I had this bus ride. I think that all the pre-work was done on that bus ride, and that decided the whole sound of the next EP. That’s why I called it ‘I was a platinum blonde,’ because it was transitioning out of that era into a new me – the old me hid me.”
“Hahaha” was initially released in September 2023, and quickly became a viral hit in the alt-pop space (it currently sits at 3 million global streams on Spotify alone). That unexpected success led to more unexpected events, including run of live support shows with Nieve Ella, Aidan Bissett, and opening at London’s BST Hyde Park for Stevie Nicks. It even paved the way for Bill’s first headline UK & EU tour, and altered how she approached her singles releases this year – quite literally resulting in the creation of this EP, in many ways – but she’s quite to clarify that she didn’t let it impact the music itself.
“I definitely learned a lot from this process, because I think I got a little bit confused when ‘Hahaha’ started doing well,” she laughs. “I thought that ‘Hurts to Hold On,’ the song that came after that, was gonna be ‘the’ song. And then ‘Hahaha’ started doing well, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, what do I do now?’ I thought, ‘Oh god, we need to make more songs like this,’ but then I was like, ‘Wait, I didn’t really want to do that. I just wanted to make my music and not care about that.’ Nevertheless, I had a reset after ‘Hahaha’ did well. And then I thought, ‘Oh my God, people really love this song. That’s f*ing crazy. Okay, let’s just keep going.’”
“There was this new reality of stuff happening a little bit, which was really exciting, but also it does something to your emotions, I think, as an artist when you’re trying to focus and stay on a path. So, yeah, after that, I released, ‘Hurts to Hold On.’ I still did release the songs that I wanted to release. And out of those singles actually did come this EP – so it kind of formed itself, I would say. It kind of created itself, and I think that what I learned from this is that I would love to create a complete project after this that is very intentional, and I know exactly why. It’s not that I don’t know why these songs are on here; every song means so much to me, and when I listen from top to bottom, I’m very proud. But I think with each project, you learn stuff and you always want to improve. Whereas this EP created itself, I think with the next one, I want to decide for it.”
Don’t come over
Don’t stroke my hair in the shower
I’m not just a controller
You push my buttons for hours
And don’t tell me you’re sorry
Cause it’s not your fault it’s ours
Sometimes..
It hurts to hold on
And I can try to tell you
That it’s all over now
But you don’t know it
Or want to understand
Yes I feel bad that you bought me
That pink snowboard for Christmas
But if you wanted me to use it
Why’d you treat me like that
But just one more night can we fall in love
I don’t wanna fight I just wanna fuck
How can I move on if you’re all I want
No, no
Nobody compares
My hands are turning red
Hold on with all my strength
I’m losing again, I’m losing
Sometimes, it hurts to hold on
This EP is all about change, letting go of the past, and the duality that constantly lives within me.
Bill candidly describes I was a platinum blonde as pure, honest, and fun.
The EP’s title, she explains, is a means of embracing her ever-changing identity, and being okay with changes within herself; looking backwards and forwards at the same time, it harkens back to the idea that we are all more than meets the eye.
“I think it’s the relationship I have to these contradictions that live within myself constantly,” she muses. “I think I struggle with the idea of accepting that, especially in this time where we are told to brand ourselves all the time and be really consistent. I don’t think I’ll ever be consistent as a human. I think there’s always going to be a new thing that’s going to excite me really fast after the other thing excited me.”
“And I want to find a way to accept that and be able to bring that into my world instead of trying to fight it and be like, ‘This is me and I know who I am.’ I’m like, ‘No, I don’t know who I am. I’m probably gonna go blonde again.’ And that should be okay. As artists, we should be okay to have these contradictions, to make a pop EP, then make an indie EP, then do something completely else because I feel like that’s what keeps the art interesting. So that’s kind of why I chose this title. It’s because I wanted to honor these changes within myself, these constant changes that probably will never end.”
Highlights abound on the journey from tender title track “Platinum Blonde” through “Hahaha,” the visceral and spirited “Hurts to Hold On,” and ultimately the cathartic closer, “Bodies.” “Lalala,” the EP’s final single (released in early August), is a definitive standout; an irresistibly catchy and carefree anthem (named after the Kylie Minogue classic “Can’t Get You Out of My Head”), it’s a a seductive celebration of music’s special ability to empower, inspire, uplift, and enrich our lives. “And it goes just like this, sing it with my lips like, la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la,” Bill sings, deep in her own sun-kissed daydream. “And I swing with my hips and I blow you a kiss like la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la.” And just like that, we’re hooked.
For Bill, this EP is home to an instant and obvious favorite.
“‘Hahaha’ literally has my heart forever,” she laughs. “That song really set so much in motion for me this year. It literally carved out my whole year, and it just feels like a present; that song feels like a present, and I just can’t believe it set two tours in motion, and now a headline tour… it’s just crazy. I feel so grateful for that song – sometimes it feels like you didn’t write it yourself. It feels like it fell from somewhere, and you can’t explain it, but I’ll always feel that way about that song and about that session.”
Meanwhile, “My favorite lyrics are the ones on ‘Hurts to Hold On’ in the sped-up part where I talk about this rose, because I struggle with throwing things away. I also have OCD, so I tend to hold on to every single little receipt that I ever had, and this particular person used to buy me a lot of roses, and I remember him leaving for the last time and I realied, ‘Damn, this is the last set of roses I have from this person. What am I gonna do with this? Do I throw it away?’ I couldn’t throw it away, so they literally dried up and shriveled in my room.”
“The second verse is, ‘Don’t buy me roses and flowers ’cause they’ll only become a symbol of everything gone sour, and then I’ll have to look at them until they wither in my room. They purposely confront me ‘cause they’re no longer in bloom. And then I’ll have to take them out the vase and throw them in the bin, and I get way too sentimental about material things.’ That’s so specific to me, so I really like those.”
Whatever change means to you, there’s no denying the pull of Stevie Bill’s irresistible new EP.
Whether you’re singing “Hahaha” or “Lalala” or anything in-between, these songs capture a young artist coming into her own sound with grace, confidence, and an unapologetic determination to share her true self through music. What more could anyone possibly want, or hope to hear?
As she unpacks themes of change inside and out, Stevie Bill dives into what it means for our most cherished relationships to evolve; for us to let go of loved ones and leave memories behind us as we grow and evolve; and, of course, for hair itself to transform.
“I hope listeners, especially musicians, take away from it that you can make what you truly feel like you want to make, and I think this is only the beginning of me saying that to the world,” Bill shares. “I think that I’m going to make more stuff that states that even more clearly, because I’m just starting out. This is the beginning of me saying, ‘No, you can be raw, you can just have your voice saying stuff on there if you want that.’
“And I think what I took away from it is also that – I’m trying to let go of rules more and more as I go. But also holding onto the ones that I like; like, I love a good chorus. I love pop music, I grew up in pop music, I also grew up in classical music. And I think some classical music is almost like pop music, like Mozart, it’s just pop music. So trying to find that sweet middle ground.”
Stuck in a photograph
All our friends at a table
You had your glasses on
In the bar, I was a platinum blonde
And somewhere in this brain
Between all of my wires and cables
I still remember her
Dealing the hand
But what is left, who is that?
Twenty tattoos and a hat
And why do I look like that?
– “Platinum Blonde,” Stevie Bill
As for her own music recommendations, Bill cites Teezo Touchdown (“he is doing really cool, out-of-the-box stuff”), Peter McPoland, The Last Dinner Party, and Nieve Ella (“she’s a rock star”) as some of her favorite artists of the moment. “I love Juliet Ivy,” she beams. “She’s my best friend, and she makes beautiful music, great songwriting. So I’ll leave it at that!”
Experience the full record via our below stream, and peek inside Stevie Bill’s I was a platinum blonde EP with Atwood Magazine as she goes track-by-track through the music and lyrics of her sophomore EP!
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:: stream/purchase I was a platinum blonde here ::
:: connect with Stevie Bill here ::
‘I was a platinum blonde’ – Stevie Bill
:: Inside I was a platinum blonde ::
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Platinum Blonde
This one started when I was in my bedroom and I picked up an old Polaroid picture, and it was me and it was on my birthday with my blonde hair. And it was me and my ex-boyfriend and a bunch of friends in a bar. And I just said to my friends who I was riding with, I was like, “Guys, what the hell? Look at this picture.” And we were all like, “Oh my God, that doesn’t look like you at all.” And that was only like a year prior. So yeah, that photo inspired like the whole concept of the song being like, oh my God, so little time has gone by and who am I now?
Girl
I always find it harder to explain “Girl” because I feel like there’s a lot of different things in there. It kind of like, there’s like an irony, like in the chorus obviously, it’s like saying that’s everything about me, that’s all there is to me. And on the one hand it’s kind of celebrating being a girl and being like, when things go wrong or when I’m having panic attacks or when I’m having difficult moments, it’s like, no, this is normal. You are just you and just a girl. Like, it’s fine. This is not all that unusual, out of the ordinary. This is just me.
On the other hand, it’s also saying like, that isn’t all there is to me. And like in the second verse, I kind of speak to, I don’t know, like people that I might be dating or something, or that I’m trying to impress or saying like, you might think you know me, but you don’t. And like, you have this romanticized version of me, you want me to be this romanticized version, but actually I haven’t washed my socks in three days. And like, you don’t even know that about me. So this whole fantasy isn’t real.
Hahaha
“Hahaha,” I feel, is more a feeling rather than like an actual story. I think it really got inspired by that image of when I was in the bus, I was looking outside and it was really starting to be full and, like between Boston and New York, I mean, there’s all like, there’s so much wood stuff going on. And I was looking at the trees and it was getting super pretty orange and brown, and I was feeling melancholy and I was feeling like I was leaving something. And I was feeling like travel. Like travel, leaving, melancholy for, that’s what that song is to me. And I feel like whether, like whatever subject matter people kind of attach that for themselves, I feel like that’s up to them. But it’s really this feeling of like, yeah, kind of this happy sadness. Letting go of stuff, you know? And also a little bit of anger and a bit of like, ‘f* that.’ Like, let it all go.
Hurts to Hold On
“Hurts to Hold On” is really special to me, because when I wrote it, I was back home in Amsterdam and I was really going through a breakup. Like I was really sad that day. And it was because I knew I had to let go of something, but it was so hard. And like all my friends knew, and I was just slowly but surely trying to let go. And I was like, I felt like I was holding onto this rope, but this rope was hurting my fingers. It was like, come on girl, just let go. And also coming to terms with that, like, sometimes it’s not someone’s fault, sometimes no one cheated. Sometimes it’s just like, this isn’t meant for you guys. And when we first wrote it, we had like a guitar demo. And then I went back to New York and we were gonna do it live and we worked with the band in the rehearsal studio and I started playing on the piano like how the intro is. And at one point the drums come in and we did that kind of naturally.
And that made me realize, ‘Oh wait, we need to rerecord this whole thing and make it live, make everything live.’ And that’s what we did. We actually rerecorded the whole song to be this super pure live recording, which was actually quite hard to do. ‘Cause there’s a sped-up part in it that kind of can’t really be tracked. So we kind of, I really sat there with the bassist, and we did it DIY-ish. I’m really proud of how the song came out, because I think it’s just a unique recording and the sped-up part is really special to me. The first time I played it to the band as well, I played it and I had already written it, but I’d never showed them before. So I just like played it and I started speeding up and then I turned around and my roommate, like he doesn’t cry, like he doesn’t cry in front of me. And he was like crying, and so was the drummer and the bassist. And so, I don’t know, I just, like, that song just felt really real to me. So that one definitely has my heart a lot.
Lalala
Basically the song is about, “La La La” by Kylie Minogue. Because, and this kind of also ties into the EP meaning, I also have a DJ project on the side, that DJs ridiculous music. The DJ project is called Poopy Poo. It’s, if you see my serious ‘I was a platinum blonde’ vibe, then that is the most ridiculous, unserious thing. And one of my favorite songs to DJ, one of the songs we always play is that song by Kylie Minogue. I just wanted to write a fun song about loving music because I also don’t think music always needs to be super deep and super heavy.
The music that I loved the most growing up was fun songs by Stevie Wonder and just dancing. And I do love to go out, as much as I’m in my bedroom with my guitar girl, I love to go clubbing at the same time. So, it’s kind of like looking for that un-seriousness, and the chorus just happened to be taken from the Kylie Minogue song, and then I was like, “What if I just called it ‘Lalala’? That would be so ridiculous!” And then I was like, “Let’s just do it, because it’s the whole point.” The whole point is for it to be like, who cares, you know? I really tried to play with my vocals in this song. There’s that pre-chorus that’s like, “I got them wrapped around my finger.” I wanted almost an operatic feeling there, and that was new. I was trying that out.
Bodies
This song’s also really special to me. And we actually took the first demo, like I sang that song once and I tried to re-track it because we wanted, I don’t know, we wanted different guitar, we wanted this. And then I was like, ‘f* that.’ Like, this first recording is like the recording. And for some reason that intention of just writing it, like I’d just written it and I’d sang it and it was true, and you can feel that. And I tried to replicate that and it just wasn’t possible. And so, yeah, we just mixed the first demo. It was recorded in like kind of a shitty environment, but I don’t think that matters.
You can just do it if it feels good. “Bodies” is about how we don’t really know anything, and we’re all just living this life for the first time. We grow up, but we’re all that same kid. We think that we know stuff, we think we’re gonna know stuff when we’re older, but I just, I literally think that when you are 70 you can still discover stuff about yourself. So yeah, just about like loving the fact that we don’t know anything and that we should just try stuff and like, take breaks and stuff.
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