MONDAY 9:09 PM SEPTEMBER 29, 2025 DOWNTOWN
The Dragon Room at Mercer Labs was a peculiar place to find myself for this week’s installment of Smoke Break. Instead of puffing away in a dark alley against the noisy backdrop of honking yellow taxis, Doja Cat joined me on Monday evening in an intimate hall of mirrors at her album release party. As you may already know, last week the pop star dropped her fifth studio album Vie, a powerhouse pop and R&B confection dedicated to the joys of sex, love, and dancing ‘til you drop. Surrounded by 500,000 reflective twinkling lights inside in one of many installations created on site by the contemporary artist Roy Nachum, Doja was channeling the 1980s in a strong-shouldered zebra-print ensemble. As the 29-year-old Grammy winner took intermittent puffs of her vape, she snuck away with me to gush over bisexual men and burlesque queen Dita Von Teese before playing a round of “Fuck, Marry, Kill”—with her own albums.
———
ARY RUSSELL: I’m here with Ms. Doja Cat.
DOJA CAT: Hello!
RUSSELL: Where are we right now?
CAT: We’re inside of art at Mercer Labs.
RUSSELL: Can you talk me through your outfit right now?
CAT: I am wearing a shoulder-padded, highly structured corset and shrug from The Blonds. It is in the print of a zebra with some sort of faux pony hair and stitching going down the front and creating a sort of peplum at the hip, and it’s doing a V down to the middle of the legs, and there’s a blue tight. It’s very soft, and then I have a silver heel, and I don’t know who it’s by but it’s very nice. And then I’ve got a whole yellow bag and a necklace and earrings and a hat that matches the outfit.
RUSSELL: It’s full ’80s. Would you say this is your most cohesive era, where everything is in sync with the look and the sound?
CAT: This would be, like, the second time. I’ve always been pretty cohesive except for my first album. But this is very cohesive in the sense that it’s the ’80s and I just want to keep exploring that. Planet Her was a lot of futuristic and kind of strange silhouettes—like, weird stuff, bright colors, things that feel alien. And then Scarlet was sort of darker and more grungy and very strange.
RUSSELL: Scarlet is your alter ego, right?
DOJA CAT: [Laughs] Yeah, sure.
RUSSELL: How does it feel to finally have the album out and see everyone literally downstairs listening to it? Is it kind of trippy to watch people reacting?
CAT: It’s fabulous to just be able to enjoy it with other people. Because I can be in my house on the couch listening to it, but it’s nothing like hearing other people be like, “Oh my god, I love that part.” Or them knowing the lyrics even is so invigorating. I love when people know already. It’s amazing to hear people rap it back to me or sing it back to me.
RUSSELL: It’s only been like a few days and they’ve already memorized the lyrics. They were in front of their computer like, “Bitch, I’m memorizing this. Where’s Genius?”
CAT: It takes a long time for me to even remember these lyrics, so kudos. It feels great.
RUSSELL: Since this is a “Smoke Break,” I have to ask: who’s your dream person to share a cig with?
CAT: My dream person to share a cig with would be Dita Von Teese.
RUSSELL: She’s so juicy.
CAT: She’s just so that.
RUSSELL: What feeling beats the feeling of a drunk cigarette?
CAT: What beats a drunk cig? It’s Interview Magazine. Can I say anything?
RUSSELL: You can say whatever you want.
CAT: Oh, god. [Pauses] Getting rubbed. And you can define that for yourself.
RUSSELL: Okay, we’ll let our imaginations run wild. So your song “Stranger” is my favorite off the album and it kind of talks about this idea of loving someone no matter what. So to segue, do you think that unconditional love is real or, deep down, do we all have breaking points?
CAT: I think that we are programmed to feel a certain way from childhood, and there’s things that get in the way of unconditional love. And if we don’t find or pinpoint those things that help us get past those issues or those roadblocks, then we can’t give unconditional love. You have to unconditionally love yourself in order to do that for someone else.
RUSSELL: What are some red flags that you have ignored or currently ignore in a man?
CAT: Red flags that I ignore are sounding a little bit gay or acting a little bit gay.
RUSSELL: No, like, I love a bisexual man.
CAT: Yeah, I love a bisexual man! If my man is a little femme, I have no problem with that. I just think there needs to be a balance and I need to connect with them in a certain spiritual whatever way.
RUSSELL: So your album is called Vie, which translates from French to English as “life.” What’s been giving you life lately?
CAT: Korean candy.
RUSSELL: Do you have a specific one?
CAT: There’s one called Peelers.
RUSSELL: What does it taste like?
CAT: They do peach, they do kiwi, they do mango—and the mango is the best. It’s a gummy inside of a gummy. So you take the gummy, rip it open, eat the gummy on the inside and then eat the peel.
RUSSELL: If you died, what’s something that would bring you back to life?
CAT: A medium-ugly man with charm.
RUSSELL: Mm-hmm, yeah. The medium-ugly ones, that’s how they get you. I need you to have some sort of flaw or imperfection so I know that you’re human.
CAT: Exactly.
RUSSELL: In the past, you haven’t been afraid to talk about how you feel about your past albums. Are you down for a round of Fuck, Marry, Kill with them?
CAT: Oh, yeah.
RUSSELL: Fuck, Marry, Kill: Vie, Scarlet, and Planet Her.
CAT: That’s not fair. You should have put Amala in there instead of Scarlet.
RUSSELL: Alright. Fuck, Mary, Kill: Vie, Amala, Planet Her.
CAT: Kill Amala. Fuck Vie. Marry Planet Her.
RUSSELL: I love how you wanted to switch in Amala just so you could kill it. So, this album has an ‘80s vibe. Let’s play a little bit of ’80s rapid-fire questions.
CAT: Let’s go.
RUSSELL: Who’s your ’80s icon?
CAT: My ’80s icon is Gary Numan.
RUSSELL: What ’80s fashion trend we should bring back?
CAT: What ’80s fashion trend should we bring back that’s not already back? The ’80s are 100% back. Mullet? Nope, that’s back.
