The streets were saying it was the album of the summer. In certain crowds, on Instagram stories and in DJ sets downtown, Cece Natalie’s debut album Miss Behaves was the “iykyk” summer soundtrack for pop heads and SoundCloud deep divers alike.

At least for me, the album was a goldmine for the kind of mid-2000s random pop sound that I live for. Natalie’s music has the Y2K girly flair of Heidi Montag and Brooke Hogan records, with the slight manic episode-esque tinge of Farrah Abraham’s My Teenage Dream Ended. Throw in her R&B vocal inflection that garners visions of Christina Milian or Jhene Aiko, and you have a record that is wholly unique and firm in its standing as a bubbling under masterpiece.

But really, there isn’t much out there about the artist known as Cece. Real name Mia, the 19-year-old lives in Connecticut in a studio apartment with her mom. She puts up a divider covered with a blanket to produce her music, and she records her vocals in her mom’s Kia. She worked at a trampoline park, and then in a food court, before dropping Miss Behaves in late July. “That was the best decision ever,” she tells PAPER.

Since then, Natalie has built up a cult following that is only growing bigger and bigger. Inspired by Drain Gang artists like Bladee, she initially got her start in the hyperpop online communities around the pandemic. “I knew I wanted to be one of them, so I kind of capitalized off my appearance,” she says. “I befriended them, and I got some of them a little bit attached to me. They were like my little maids.”

This initial music was made under a different alias, which she is weary to disclose. The Cece Natalie persona, she says, was born in 2022. Visually, it’s a mix of early Myspace E-girl selfies and grainy Photobooth edits with a sonic blend that alludes to the 2010’s era of heavy bass EDM pop — “Carnival music,” as she describes it herself.

Having just dropped another collection of leftover tracks, Recycling Bin Collection 2, it’s clear that the Cece Natalie reign could be incoming. Below, we sit down with the artist for a first-ever interview where she gets deep into her music making process, swimming while high in front of hot lifeguards and competing with past versions of herself.

How are you?

My cat is sneezing, sorry. I’ve been really restless today, but other than that, pretty good. It’s been up and down. I’ve been more social lately. How are you?

I’m good, I’m home in Texas right now.

I’ve never been to Texas. I’ve never been off the East Coast, actually. Well, that’s not true. I’ve been to Minnesota, but other than that it’s only been East Coast states.

How old are you?

I’m 19.

Well, your music is popping off and I’m sure you’ll be touring the country sooner rather than later.

People always tell me that. “Oh, you’re gonna be famous,” but I just don’t see it. I saw it in my visions when I was four, but I don’t see it now. I mean, that’s awesome, but I don’t see it.

What were those visions when you were four?

I’ve been making songs in my head since I could literally think. When did I first start thinking? Probably like three or four [years old], when you start learning what the world is. I did what other kids do, where one minute they’re like, “I wanna be this, I wanna be that.” I did that, too, but most of the time I would envision myself being a singer. I felt famous in my head as a kid, but that kind of wore off.

I feel like that’s every kid. Every kid wants to be a pop star, right?

Kind of? I don’t know. At least from what I remember, all my friends just said that they wanna be a mom or a dad. We would play house, and they would try to make me be the mom and I would throw shit at them. But I don’t remember what my peers said about what they wanted to be when they grow up. All I remember is the mom thing.

I think I found your music when my friend DeSe Escobar posted you.

Oh, DeSe!

Shoutout DeSe.

I think she is the reason for everything that has happened in the last two months, basically. Month and a half. I said in my song, “I’m the queen of the city, hoe,” but she is the queen of the city, hoe. She found my music somehow. I don’t know how. But she always plays it a lot in her DJ sets and stuff, and it put other people on. It kind of spread like Cece COVID. All over the city.

She’s the queen of Downtown New York.

Yes. So I’m really grateful. I DJ’d for her birthday opening at a sushi bar, and that was so amazing. I got to meet her. That was fun, and I’m really thankful.

I feel like you’re sort of this enigma right now.

Really?

Can you tell me about yourself? Who you are, where you came from, etc.

I used to kind of overshare. I think it was because I was lonely. Not too much. I wasn’t vlogging my life, but I would just post a lot of random shit. But looking back, it wasn’t really personal. I remember in the middle of the summer, someone left an Oreo ice cream cake sitting in their car next to me, and I thought it was funny. So I posted this whole paragraph about how I thought it was the funniest thing. I would post a lot of little bits of my life. But looking back, it wasn’t really that personal. So I kind of get it now.

Your debut album Miss Behaves came out in July. How long had you been working on it, and how did you get into making music in the first place?

I actually started four years ago. How did I get into it? In 2019 and 2020, I was a big Drain Gang fan. I was a little Bladee teenager fan. I was very into Bladee. Similar to that was the hyper pop digicore community back in 2020. It was really different. It was a little bit inspired by that back then. So I got into that scene just off of SoundCloud recommendations, literally. I was always making songs in my head and knew that I wanted to do it, but I didn’t really think that I could. So I never thought of actually going and doing it.

But I got into that scene and met a lot of those artists. And this is so embarrassing now, but I wanted to get into the scene and I knew I wanted to be one of them so I kind of capitalized off my appearance. I befriended them, but I got some of them a little bit attached to me. So when I made my first song on GarageBand on my phone, it was on a Bladee type beat. It wasn’t great at all, but they all reposted it. They were like my little maids. But I went under a different alias. I was kind of just making what was being made in the scene, but I didn’t really connect to it. It was just what was accessible to make.

So that was 2020?

Yeah. So then I took a really long break because I wasn’t great at producing, and I couldn’t get the type of beats that I wanted anywhere. So I didn’t know what to do. I kind of stopped for a while. I didn’t know how to use FL Studio back then. So from 2021 to 2022, a whole bunch happened completely unrelated to music. Then in mid 2022, I decided to change my name on Soundcloud. That was when Cece was born. I spent a year just listening to music and getting inspired, not really forcing myself to make it. By then, I had so many ideas. I had this grand idea in my head. That’s when Cece was created in my head as a different persona, just as this kind of armor for Mia underneath.

I made my first Cece song called “I wanna be the star.” As a concept, it was really good. So… yeah sorry, I think there are like parasites in my brain. I really do. I hear them talk to me, it’s crazy. Okay, so Cece makes the one song, and then it’s lights out again until November [2022]. I had no social life at all back then. I saw this post of my peers at this Halloween party, and I was just like, “Fuck it, I wanna go to the party, so I’m gonna pretend to go there.” I thought, If I was at the party, what would it be like? So I had this grand vision and then I just ended up making a song about it kind of pretending that I was there. That was “Fashion Baby,” which is still up. That was the next Cece song.

Then it was lights out again until October 2023. A lot of stuff happened. My life kind of got fucked up, flippy flopped upside down. So I was kind of like, fuck it, I’m just gonna put everything into music. It’s gonna be my soul. Then I made “Miracle,” which was my comeback. I made that in the span of two days, and it dropped on Halloween. When I think of that song, I just picture Cece rising from the dead, coming out of the ocean like a statue. Ever since then, I’ve been me.

Do you produce everything yourself?

Yeah, unless I say otherwise. There are a couple songs that I co-produced. And there are one or two that I didn’t produce. But most of the time I just do everything from scratch because with music I’m a little bit of a control freak.

Well, that’s amazing. The beats and lyrics are so good. Your music reminds me of those days of Heidi Montag and Brooke Hogan or something, like random pop girls from the early 2000s. But very futuristic, as well.

It’s really interesting hearing how you describe it because I never really know what other people hear. I don’t know other people’s perspectives on it. I think those 2000’s artists were definitely my influence in the early days of Cece. Back then, it wasn’t really as popular of an aesthetic. It wasn’t unheard of as an aesthetic in the modern day, but it wasn’t as common as it is now. That was when I was, like, 17. When you’re 17, you just wanna be different. So when something gets popular, I would just be like, Oh my God something is getting popular so I can’t like it anymore. Which looking back is ridiculous. It’s dumb, but that’s what you think when you’re 17.

Yeah.

So that sound was an influence, but it wasn’t the only influence. I still like that sound, but I kind of tried to stop making that very 2000’s clubby pop sound when I started Priscilla 1234, my side project/alter ego/spam account. I started making different things. I’d make house, rock songs, just branching out. This was early 2023. Until Cece came back. I think that was a good thing. So then I started planning the return of Cece, but I kind of wanted to make a statement, which is what I did with “Miracle.” I was planning it out, and I was like, Who cares if something is popular? I can just make my own version of that sound. So I went swimming that night. I saw a hot lifeguard at my pool. I used to go swimming high all the time. It’s kind of therapeutic.

Swimming in general is so therapeutic.

I went swimming high, and I kind of get a lot of song ideas when I’m high. Most of them come when I’m high. I sound like such a loser stoner, but who cares. So I envisioned the song in my head. The songs just make themselves. There are some where I do take the ideas that my brain spits out and I edit them, but really the songs just make themselves. So the song is just playing in my head and I’m swimming around. Then I went home, and the next day I made the beat. I recorded the song in my mom’s Kia. We live in a studio. So she comes home from work at 6 PM. And I wanted to record. My car was parked all the way up the hill, so I was like, “Can I record in your car?” So I made the song.

Tell me about the process of making Miss Behaves.

I realized how much I just went on a tangent. I’m gonna try to not do that. I’m just chatty. So I wasn’t planning on making an album. I started Miss Behaves in September 2023 with “Gymnastics” and then “Like a Taxi” in November. I think it was in February of this year that I decided that I’m gonna commit to this. I’m gonna make an album. But my ideas were totally different at first. It was supposed to be more dancey and house-y. I wanted it to be house R&B, more like the songs on Priscilla. Those were my early ideas, but my vision changed so much. I’m like time traveling right now.

Do you make it all alone? You said you’re not that social. Is it just you in your room making music?

I don’t even have a room. That’s my wall. That’s my divider that’s covered with a blanket. Those are my minion pajama pants. But yeah, with my mom’s old job I had free time from 8 AM to 6 PM. Morning to sunset. I would work on the weekends.

Where did you work?

I worked at this indoor trampoline park. I quit because the job was draining the life out of me. If I didn’t quit, I wouldn’t be here doing this. I didn’t have the energy to talk to anybody. I couldn’t even talk to my own friends. I couldn’t reach out to anybody. People would reach out to me, and I just couldn’t even talk to anyone. I was so drained. I have sensory issues, and I don’t like kids.

Me neither. And trampoline parks are all screaming kids, right?

Yeah, and they have crazy lights everywhere. I couldn’t even imagine going there off a shroom. And I didn’t get breaks. I worked at the food court. We were understaffed at the food court. I was the register girl, but I had to do a bunch of others things, too, besides cooking. I didn’t do that. So draining. So many things about that place were horrible, so I quit a month ago and life honestly got exponentially better ever since the day I left. I’m trying to think about how I can summarize how I made Miss Behaves.

So I went on this mental journey of getting back to who I was. I start getting into more fun, dancey moods. I made “Ambulance,” which is basically about me coming back to myself. I made “I get mad” before that. I made that song in February or March when I was in the dark winter darkness, you know? That cloud of sad, horrible.

In Connecticut, the winters are probably bad, right?

Oh yeah. There’s also nothing to do here. So slowly towards the summer I started getting into the more fun mood. The energy in my life was changing from this deep, dark sadness to this fun vibe. This summer was amazing. The best summer I’ve ever had. Most fun, interesting summer. The whole energy was just changing, changing, changing. “Exitin,” “Limit,” “Romeo,” and “Lovely” were all made toward the summer when the weather started getting warmer. More sunlight. I was in a much better place. I think that’s why I like them so much more than the ones that I made earlier in the year.

So the album slowly started coming together. I didn’t wanna be too harsh on myself because I was overthinking it at first. I wanted to drop it, but to me a lot of the songs still weren’t done. I was listening to “Limit” one day, and I was like, Yeah this is the shit. It’s so good. I was like, If I’m feeling confident in this one moment right now, I’m gonna make the decision tomorrow to randomly drop it. I don’t care if it’s unfinished to me. People aren’t gonna know that. So the next day, I was running on the treadmill then I started walking on the treadmill. So I was playing on my phone. And I decided to drop the album. I was like, Yeah, I feel fun right now. Let me drop this shit. And that was the best decision ever. There’s Mia, and then there’s Wisdom Mia. And I was like, Wisdom Mia, tell me what to do. Sorry, I got lost in my head. When I think about the process of making music, I just get all these memories of what it was like because it was like an adventure to me. That’s why it means so much to me.

Your aesthetic is very Myspace girl, or this sort of lo-fi early internet vibes. Photobooth type shit. What inspires your aesthetic?

That’s hard to describe. Well, you are right when it comes to the 2010’s. Pictures from the 2010’s are at the base of it. I love the 2010’s, even for music. It’s a big inspo. Anything with that 2010’s feel.

Same. That was my favorite era. Kids nowadays don’t have that. Pop was so good then.

They always say, “Every generation says that, blah blah.” But I don’t know, even if you look at it objectively, it’s still true. The 2010’s were just better. I understand now that I have these visions in my head when I listen to my songs and when I think about songs that I wanna make. They’re kind of like music videos in my head. A lot of the times, it’s very fantasy, in another world. When I take pictures, it’s my attempt at emulating that in the complete opposite circumstances. I’m all alone, and I only have my phone camera. So I’m like, what would my attempt at executing this grand vision in my head look like with no means of doing so?

What are your plans for the upcoming months? Are you working on new music?

I have started working on my second album, but I want to devote a lot more time to it. You know, I haven’t blown up or anything. I think I blew up on the most miniature scale that’s physically possible. I think that happened. But even with that, I feel this kind of anxiety about being in front of an audience and wanting to please everyone. I don’t wanna be a people pleaser, so I need to snap out of it. But I do want it to be good. I want it to be better than Miss Behaves. I’m very competitive with myself. I feel like I’m competing with past versions of me.

You said you were struggling with if the songs were finished or not, but as a listener, I love that “unfinished” sound. I feel like after their first album, a lot of new artists get lost with trying to make it perfect, but I want artists to just drop things and not overthink it. I feel like people are attracted to that sound and that energy, anyway.

Thank you. That actually makes me feel so much better. I’m an overthinker. I overthink everything. I’m even trying to let go right now. But thank you, that will stay in my mind. Because you’re right. Especially since 2020, this super clean, crispy mix and these crazy over-produced reverb tunnels of wind with crispy, fried vocals — I hate that. It sounds like shit. I think subconsciously, I was like, I need to have the best mix possible, just because of that general feeling of needing to be perfect. But really, that overproduced sound is terrible.

I saw that the rapper Ian follows you, which is a pretty nice co-sign. What’s the craziest follow or DM moment you’ve had so far?

So with Ian, I don’t really know him that well, but we became mutuals before he blew up. This was when he had a different username. This was December 2023. I was supposed to perform at this one underground rap thing, even though I’m not a rapper. They still invited me. But my set got messed up. I guess there was something with the venue that got fucked up. It wasn’t anybody’s fault, but I got to do a two minute thing. That was fun. But I met him from that. It was from the group chat at the thing. But I think it still counts as a co-sign because he is talented. He is a good artist, even though back then he wasn’t a big artist.

You mentioned loving Bladee. Who are your other top three artists that had a huge impact on you?

I’m trying to think because I know we only have a couple minutes left. I pull inspiration from everywhere. It’s hard to remember what I listened to growing up because I do block out most of my past. But definitely, the 2010’s was the main inspo behind Miss Behaves. A lot of the bass sound, especially on “757,” that heavy bass sound EDM pop that was on the radio. Like carnival music.

Carnival music?

Yeah, that’s actually how I would describe most of Miss Behaves. Like, the music that plays at a carnival when you’re having fun. Even with “Like a taxi” or “Exitin,” it’s like carnival music. So it’s inspired by the 2010’s, but it’s hard to remember my exact inspos because it’s so random. My brain just generates this shit.

Maybe it’s better that you don’t compare yourself to anyone. You’re your own thing.

I do know one thing, though. The reason I layer my vocals like crazy sometimes is because throughout middle school, I only listened to Lil Peep all day every day. I think his music still holds up to this day. I don’t listen to him as much anymore, but he’s always gonna be good. I love that layering.

Well thank you so much for talking to me.

Thank you. I’m sorry I was so chatty.

No, it was all good.

I’m trying to be more of a listener. I have ADHD and I took my meds too early. They wore off. Yeah, that explains a lot of my behavior.

Photos courtesy of Cece Natalie