‘The internet was a bad parent to me’: 2hollis and Arca in conversation

This story is taken from the spring 2026 issue of Dazed, which is on sale internationally from March 5. Pre-order a copy of the magazine here.

If two musicians define pop culture pushed to its outermost limits today, it’s Arca and 2hollis. Both are household names to a generation of art kids who will never own a house, pop unicorns whose willingness to go their own way has won them high-profile fans in Björk, Frank Ocean and Lorde, among others.

Fast becoming the internet’s favourite rapper, Los Angeles-based 2hollis is the newer addition to music; a 22-year-old whose bleached-blonde hair and maximalist sound have inspired a cult-like fanbase that hangs on his every move. With a major-label debut, last year’s star, now under his belt, the musician has found himself jokingly accused of “aura farming” for the meticulous way he has crafted his lore, from alt accounts and aliases to an early online presence inspired by medieval mysticism. Some kids online are even calling him the “messiah”.

While Arca hardly needs an introduction, her multidimensional approach to sonic experimentalism and mutant club aesthetics continues to shape pop music, which she compares to a technology that “connects with the collective unconscious”. No stranger to transformation, the Venezuelan-born electronic artist’s KiCk series (2020-2021) was a cyborgian rebirth which remains one of the most ambitious and intensely personal musical projects of the 2020s. A shapeshifter moving between styles, emotions and genres, the one thing that remains constant is her status as a cult icon.

Arca: I really think what you’re doing is awesome.

2hollis: Thank you so much. That means a lot coming from you.

Arca: I actually didn’t know much about your music until we met. There was such an excitement around Chateau Marmont [iconic LA hotel and hangout], so many people moving through that space. But there was a distinct energy to you that stood out.

2hollis: I found you online maybe six years ago. I’m online a lot. I think it was during Covid actually, when you released that project with the robot album cover.

Arca: The KiCk series.

2hollis: Yeah, I love all of it, but KiCk, I love that.

Arca: It was a very meaningful time for me, in terms of my trajectory as a musician and a songwriter. It felt like I was leaning into a more expansive kind of world-building, to encourage that ambition, you know?

2hollis: For sure.

Arca: I was also online a lot around those times. I was doing livestreams, sharing my process of making music and trying to find a sense of community through the alienation at that time.

2hollis: Yeah, I came up on the internet. I don’t know a world without it. I’ve talked about this recently: I feel like a child of the internet. The internet was a bad parent to me in a lot of ways. But it’s created who I am and I’ve learned so much from it. I mean, it gave me a platform.

Arca: I can distinctly remember what it was like before being able to find community on the internet around the music that I loved. I remember being a teenager when the internet became more prevalent and everyone started uploading stuff to Myspace, which allowed me to find audiences outside of Venezuela, where I was born and living at the time. So I can also certainly relate to that profound desire to communicate with an audience and build a community around the music you love and the music you respect.

2hollis: I’ve been actually very disconnected over the past month, and I’m writing my next project, so I’m deep in world-building and learning a lot about myself and having a lot of experiences that I feel were maybe a bit numbed when I was on the internet a lot.

Arca: Of course, it’s not perfect. It can even be very perilous and very scary, to put it frankly. But I think if you approach it with an attitude of wanting to connect from a genuine place, it can allow for something really comforting and encouraging. I’m not trying to silver-line it, but I guess there’s a part of me that’s stubbornly optimistic.

2hollis: I just want to clarify that when I’m talking about the internet, I’m not referring to my community, because I don’t want to shit on my community. I love my fans and anyone who supports me. It’s such a beautiful thing to see it go from the internet to real life. [But I do] find myself feeling a bit lost, maybe a bit lost in the sauce, when I’m too much in the spotlight, too much on the stage, too extroverted. I’m currently feeling a bit introverted. I’ve just been writing every single day. I don’t really leave my house. I think that’s where I find myself the most inspired.

Arca: There’s something kind of necessary about giving yourself that space so that ideas can then emerge in a more profound way. I feel like I glean the most important reflections when I give myself time to rest away from the stage. That’s where I usually get my most grounded reflections.

2hollis: I think we’re witnessing the idea of music change in front of our eyes. Maybe this isn’t the right way to word it, but I think pop music never existed. It was just what was popular, but it feels like we’re witnessing a change in what the ‘masses’ enjoy.

I never even think about what people will like. I just do what I enjoy and surprise myself. But I feel like more than ever people want to hear something avant-garde or abstract. There was a long time of very down-the-middle, put-together pop music. Now it feels like people want to hear something new and different. What do you think?

Arca: I think pop is as close as it gets to a technology to connect with the collective unconscious. It can be oppressive too, in a creative sense, to force something into a rudimentary song structure. But it can also bring people together, so it really just depends on how you do it. The format has changed radically, but I like to think that pop in itself is uncategorical, and resists definition in a way that remains fluid.

2hollis: Yeah, that’s what I was trying to say. It remains fluid. But I have an optimistic view on pop music right now. I think it’s reaching a place where the mainstream is going in a really cool direction, production-wise, and in terms of what people are into sonically. It’s the time to be a pop star – if you want to be one you should be one.

Arca: Oh, period, that sounds like a good mantra. I support that.

2hollis: I was just saying this to my friend, how everything should be fast. That’s how I feel right now. Everything I want to do is quick: my songs are getting quicker, the way I’m dressing feels even quicker, I want to have a faster car, I want to walk faster – I’m down with everything being a bit of a racing car, I’m down with the speed. I think it’s sick.

Arca: I think there’s something energising about that attitude.

2hollis: Now more than ever, I think [you should] take time and pace yourself, but in a fast way. At least sonically, I’m very inspired by fast, fast, fast and, of course, break. It’s all about balance.

Arca: I think the most honest thing to do is to just go towards the energy that you feel. Don’t feel like that’s where you always have to be. You can have lots of different parallels, the full spectrum is there.

2hollis: Yeah, that’s very real.

Arca: Right now, I’m kind of torn because there’s an irresolvable identity crisis between the more funereal ballads in my sad music and then an escapist joy at the other extreme. Yet they are both a part of me and [I want] the spectrum of emotion to remain flexible and open. It’s really not that easy to do honestly, but I think encouraging that in oneself is, in the end, healthy.

2hollis: This year I’ve decided to be more decisive and trust my first instinct a little more. I’m talking a lot to myself, but that’s something I wanted to work on. This in itself could be a form of quickness, in a way.

Arca: That is super helpful for me to hear, actually, because I have been emerging from an introverted period, making lots of music but not necessarily sharing it with the world as much. There’s a pendulum. If there’s too much chaos, maybe it’s good to have some structure. But if there’s too much comfort it’s good to be a bit more decisive, so as to catalyse and change and not stagnate.

2hollis: Being on tour is probably the most intense experience that I’ve ever had. It’s non-stop. I found myself having repeated nightmares – I was just passing through so many places and energies and picking up on things. I am very sensitive to where I sleep. But there’s also the physical aspect; you’re just drained. I’m jumping on stage for an hour and during the first few tours I did, I had such bad shin splints that I would be on the verge of tears after every show. So that was another thing, dealing with waking up and not being able to walk. But it’s coupled with so much. It’s everything you’re doing it for – the fans – and it’s the most beautiful thing ever. It’s just a lot on the body, the mind, the nervous system, the spirit, all the rest.

Arca: There’s also that first chapter when you are expressing all of this new energy out in the world. I can also remember times when, during my shows, there was a degree of almost self-harm. It’s not that it was encouraged, but people saw it as an expression of a rawness that I needed to express, so it was more like they allowed it.

However, you can also trust that your fans have your back and want to see you enjoy the show more. So it can change, and it can still be just as exciting or even more exciting in new ways, if you allow yourself a more gentle approach. Your fans will still be there. In fact, I think they might appreciate that you take care of yourself more.

2hollis: For sure. I’ll never forget the first concert I ever played. It was in a tiny basement in New York City, and from that moment on I never looked at what I created the same. Not in a bad way, I was just so excited to play live and see the reaction of the crowd. Playing a new song for a crowd for the first time is one of the best feelings ever. It pushes me to go harder and create more and just feel like I have an audience who’s ready to lose their mind when this one’s out, you know? That’s a dope feeling.

Arca: It’s uplifting for you and for the audience, so there’s a magic to that.

2hollis: What was the first show you ever played?

Arca: Well, the first piano recital I played, which was my first experience of having an audience, was at music conservatory when I was eight years old. I distinctly remember feeling like it was a great thing that I was able to bring my family together. So I continued [performing] as I studied classical music, because it would be the only time my family could be in the same room without arguing. I don’t think I ever fully outgrew that desire to bring people together, now that I think about it.

2hollis: That’s beautiful. The first actual performance I did was also a piano recital, when I was 12. I was so nervous, my hands were shaking and I didn’t play it that well. But I remember a similar thing: my mom and dad being there, even though they weren’t together, [so] I can really relate to that.

Arca: It’s good to honour that. Wanting to bring everyone together through art... Hollis, are you still down to make some music together? I think that would be so fun.

2hollis: For sure. I’m very down.