CDM: I love that you've been super outspoken about not only representation, but also about public conversations to encourage and inspire younger girls to become musicians. Why is that so important to you? BEABADOOBEE: I guess it's one of the most important things humans create. Memories are really lovely and really nostalgic, but I think it's important to make memories, instead of just dwelling in memories because I do find myself getting lost in them instead of focusing on the now and the future. BEABADOOBEE: It's been hard at times. I actually haven't been alone at my house at all. If it's not my friends, it's my boyfriend, or my dad is there. And I really appreciate the people around me constantly helping me. I do feel a sort of independence, but it's an independence where I'm confident enough to let people help me instead of just pushing them away, because that was definitely a problem for me.

BEABADOOBEE: Beatopia is a made-up world by a girl called Bea and it is crazy and smells like pancakes and mushrooms. Beabadoobee can pinpoint the moments in her life that have proved pivotal; the events that represent a fork in the road, from which turning one way or the other might have led her on different, perhaps darker paths. One such turn might represent her “villain origin story”, as she, the comic book fan, puts it.BEABADOOBEE: Not really... I guess I write a lot of music now, so I think it's just replaced that. And my poetry when I was younger was just so straightforward. BEABADOOBEE: I'm totally that bitch to be like: this means something. I try not to dwell on it or else I just go insane, but I honestly just can't help the fact that if you're dreaming about that shit, it probably means something. Everything is kind of linked to something in your brain. BEABADOOBEE: Totally. It's weird doing up my house and thinking about it like it feels normal. I live in my own house! I cannot believe I own a house! I'm like: 'Oh, I am cleaning MY kitchen!' That just sounds so stupid, but from living in my parent's house to never living on my own even once at all to suddenly living in my own place, is a massive jump for me. CDM: In 'Beatopia Cult Song' you say: "Is it me or recently time is moving slowly." Do you still feel like time is moving slow?

BEABADOOBEE: I don't know why my head goes straight to romantic relationships with this question, but I could probably only answer it with this: I think it's just having two people actually wanting to communicate with each other. Two people have to want to talk to each other. It can't just be a one-sided thing. That's the hardest part. CDM: If you wanted a dream interpretation of your lyrics in '10:36' ("Saw you in a dream last night / You looked like a ghost")... apparently if you see someone you know in a dream and they look like a ghost, it means that you feel like you have unfinished business with them. BEABADOOBEE: I'm still definitely on the road to self-acceptance, but I definitely appreciate my existence more than like two years ago.

Following

CDM: How much of dreams do you think are messages from our unconscious self to our conscious selves? PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT A FULL MAGAZINE ISSUE - THIS IS A MINI MAGAZINE THAT FOLDS OUT INTO A POSTER] True wisdom (the kind that usually has to be learnt the hard way, alas) is knowing when to draw strong emotional boundaries around yourself to keep you safe, and Kristi has survived it all - the bad ( "You don't need me, as much as I need you"), the good ( "I see my reflection so much clearer"), and everything in between ( "It’s easy if I pretend") - within the warm embrace that is 'Beatopia'. Homing in on the hard-won knowledge that the universe usually delivers with good reason, Kristi nestles up in her safe space, inviting listeners to share in portentous dreams about unfinished business (take heed of anyone that looks like a ghost in a dream), feeling at odds with other people but knowing that you've got to put yourself first, and being self-aware enough to want to remove yourself from toxic situations (which is usually easier said than done). BEABADOOBEE: At times, it's quite scary to face the truth. And for me, especially, I'm conditioned to just not face problems when they come to me and push them under the rug for so long. I mean, i.e. Beatopia. It's really hard because it's something that I just don't want to be my problem until it becomes a really big problem, if that makes sense?

She already does. Young girls of Asian origin have told beabadoobee she’s inspired them to do exactly that. “I was itching for someone to look up to who looked like me,” she recalls – and where once, she put her energy into playing a character instead, in being herself beabadoobee has become that figure for a younger generation, too. She’s also ready to collaborate with more Asian musicians moving forward.BEABADOOBEE: A little bit overwhelming, but while I was writing the record, I realised that the whole idea behind Beatopia was just a way for me to escape a lot of things that were happening at the time. So it was a sad thing I had to think about, but it was also really empowering, trying to uncover a lot of the feelings I had long repressed - like, very repressed feelings. I just had to face them, write about them, and get over them, and then it made me grow as a person. CDM: There's a lot of emphasis placed on how we think about ourselves in relation to other people and how we communicate with others, but it can be really hard to be deeply honest with yourself and be self-aware. Why is the hardest person to communicate with sometimes your own self?