Oracle666 Steps Into the Spotlight with Debut Music

Julia Sinelnikova, a self-identified nonbinary queer femme who goes by Oracle666, recently released their new single, “Celadon Haze.” This is the debut single from their forthcoming EP.

A Bjork-inspired ethereal trance pop tune with a crystalline glaze and sense of upbeat nostalgia, “Celadon Haze,” was written and recorded while New York City remained in dark quarantine. The song represents a hopeful fantasy world fueled by beautiful memories, and the accompanying music video depicts a contemporary queer love story in the time of COVID, with ORACLE666, depressed and lonely because of the pandemic, reminiscing over a lost love and what could have been.

Born in Jerusalem, living in Russia, and growing up in Texas, Oracle666 eventually made her way to New York and is now a Brooklyn-based artist who is inspired by holograms, Eastern European folklore, and underground art communities. Working across mediums to create immersive worlds, Oracle666 found ways to keep their creativity alive during these unprecedented times of COVID and has been helping showcase fellow independent artists who are out of work and struggling.

OFM had a chance to catch up with Oracle666 to talk more about “Caledon Haze,” what it means to be a nonbinary queer femme, how she began connecting with the art and LGBTQ community.

Hi, Julia! Thank you for taking some time to chat with me about your music. Can you begin by telling us the meaning behind your name, Oracle666?
Around 2012-2013, I met this artist who has gotten out there quite a bit in the queer art community, JJ Brine. We started working together on his Vector Gallery project, which was a traveling performance art installation project that had multiple venues throughout lower Manhattan, L.A., and Miami for about five years. Within a couple weeks of hanging out together, JJ was like, you are The Oracle! You must perform as The Oracle! He is very studied in political science and religion, so it is kind of coming from his mythology, but it was also a joke, and it stuck. People started calling me The Oracle and putting me in their phone that way. The art gallery, at one point, was also called the official art gallery of Satan, the official art gallery of Jesus Christ. JJ would change it. We were interested in nonbinary principles as applied to religions.

You recently released your first music video as Oracle666, “Celadon Haze.” What do you hope listeners take away from it?
I hope that they take away a new electronic sound and vibration. Something that is inspiring love and connection. Also, through the video, I hope they take away validation of queer love under this pandemic.

Can you talk more about the song’s concept and inspiration?
I started writing with my production partner in May 2019, Mevius Music, and we spent the most amount of time on this track. A couple months of laying out the beats and me writing lyrics and recording vocals. The inspiration, I just wanted to make something new that fuses our underground electronic interests with pop aesthetics. Something that carries a lyrical pop melody structure in a different way. The song does not have a chorus, breakdown, or hook in a traditional way, but I think it is catchy.

The video depicts a contemporary queer love story in the time of COVID. What made you want to tell this story?
I wanted to lean into the sense of loneliness and isolation we have all been feeling, especially for queer artists in New York City who have built the local concert and art gallery scene and stayed. Opposed to a lot of people who work in tech companies and firms who left. Also, I wanted to help showcase my favorite co-creators and all the amazing unique effects that we came up with. We pulled together all our energies in this time when everyone is barely hanging in there. For people in art, media, culture, and performance, we won’t get bookings until way after COVID gets more under control. It is a good time for artists to come together and create something integral. Even though we do not have as many resources as we would during a more prosperous time for our country, this is the time where we have less noise in a way. We can use the space ourselves to create culture.

The pandemic has obviously taken its toll on millions of people, but do you think it may have had a greater impact on LGBTQ people?
Definitely. As far as I know and living in New York for 13-14 years, LGBTQ people tend to be marginalized in cities, and in general. There is a lot of religious conservatism in this country. During the Trump era, we had a push and pull on laws that allowed transgender people to serve in the military, for example, and allowing them to get their benefits under this pandemic. I feel like some of those steps backwards are just starting to be addressed, let alone the steps forward that we need to gain consistent funding for our projects and access to health care resources. I definitely think the LGBTQ community does not have direct access to important health care resources, and that has always been an issue. That has been exacerbated by COVID when healthcare resources are so tight, and then of course there’s housing, jobs and everything after that.

“Celadon Haze” is from your forthcoming EP. What can you tell us about it?
Yes, there is an expected release date of summer 2021, and there will probably be 4-5 tracks and a couple remixes. We are almost done recording them, and we are just getting started on the remixes. I am trying to figure out what the genre is myself [laughs]. It has been hard to pin down. I am drawing from a lot of new wave, goth pop aesthetics, and I have been doing performance art, poetry, and spoken word my whole life. I am very lyrical and filling in a lot of the space with storytelling. Overall, the tracks are upbeat and danceable. There may be a tiny amount of dubstep influences and electronic beats. I am very excited for it.

Related Article: OFM New Music: March 2021

What is the overall message you hope your music conveys?
The overall message would be of futurism, experimentation, surrealism, love, melting, blending, mixing, and just hyper interconnectivity to raise the human consciousness to a healing plain.

Have you always had a passion for singing-songwriting?
Totally. I have made most of my adult career in visual arts, but as I am turning more towards music now, I started out when I was a child. I was in this touring choir called Austin Girls Choir, which I have to always credit because during that time, I was trained very thoroughly on a lot of church songs, Christmas songs, popular pop songs leading up to that era – the classics. Also, learning that I am a second soprano and how to sight read, I became discouraged and unconfident. I was comparing myself to rising singers like Beyoncé and all the huge pop stars that started to come out.

I was seeing how people with a powerful voice would take over, and I was like, that is not for me. I have a soft voice; I am never going to cut it with that. So, I never even thought about it, but regardless, I have always been in and around the music industry. I started DJing when I was 17-18 in Austin and New York City for maybe five years, and I have always been making designs for performers. Stage designs, costume designs, and visual videos for music artists. All my best friends are musical performers, producers, and very directly in the industry.

I was even in this residency called Electronic + Visual in the Banff Centre of Canada, which was a one-year special thing curated by MUTEK. I feel like that was the most time curators homed in on me because I am very at the intersection of these things, and it is kind of hard to fit into either because the gallery world wants me to be more toned down, and the music world wants you to be as crazy as possible.

You describe yourself as a nonbinary queer femme. What does that entail?
I don’t love dissecting identity so much because it is so propagated in the media now, but I have always had a bisexual approach to relationships and in terms of being found. In a way, I think it is like a form of drag, just exaggerated feminine features. Then I also feel like I am not leaning into that, and just when I don’t accentuate my features like that, I feel like I am not a part of a gender. I am in an ambient space and feel masculine tendencies, things like that. I have always felt that way since I was young, but growing up in Texas and being an eccentric presenting person, I definitely felt like all of these thoughts and feelings had to be packaged and cordoned off. Not necessarily hidden, I have never been good at being secretive and hiding.

It was hard to be very direct about these aspects of myself in the way that I present myself as an artist up until the last few years because I did not really feel like there were outlets for it. If you are in any way queer or femme presenting, you know that the art and fine art field, which is what I have worked in, the percentages of us being represented is very low. So, do you want to play that up or not? I guess I have always been on a luminal border with presenting my identity, and I have only kind of become more comfortable with presenting my nonbinary identity in the last few years.

When did you start to discover the LGBTQ community? Living in Russia and being raised in Texas, you grew up in some conservative areas where LGBTQ people were looked down upon and considered sinners.
I was lucky to be surrounded by some people, like in Austin, Texas, because there was a little bit of a queer community there, but mainly in New York City after I moved here when I was 18. I was being asked to help produce and curate, and eventually host and promote underground queer raves. I have formed friendships and relationships with so many amazing people through queer event spaces and cultural curations. They helped me be comfortable with myself. I honestly believe that everyone probably has a queer identity on some level, and it is a matter of discovering it.

Will you always incorporate LGBTQ themes into your music?
I am not sure. There is no focus to my music other than the poetic storytelling and uplifting ethereal vibes. Being a member of this community, I think I will naturally work with people who are in it.

What more do you hope to accomplish with your music?
It would be amazing to become a bit more established and put out recordings to the point where I can incorporate a lot of my visual art and the amazing creators I have worked with over the years. A lot of LGBTQ creators who are innovators with video, generative art, and I have a lot of people that I know who are administering some of the new online club spaces since quarantine that are super artistic and starting to get a bit more attention from curators and stuff like that. As with all my art, I want my music to serve as a platform to elevate those around me and create more of a spotlight on this particular underground art community that has come up.

Before we wrap up, are there any other upcoming projects or anything else you would like to mention or plug?
I think in terms of upcoming projects that I can solidly say exist that I am excited for, I am doing this installation for the Contemporary Art Museum of Houston, and I am going to perform there too. That is going to be in June. It was supposed to be in April 2020, if you believe that [laughs]. It will be my first solo project inside a contemporary art museum of that scale. I am very excited. With my EP coming out, I may perform a few songs there, like an indoor-outdoor kind of possibility, and hopefully build a new audience.

To stay up-to-date with Oracle666, follow them on Twitter and Instagram, or visit their official website.

Photos Courtesy of Haley Varacallo