A decade into her career, Poppy is still an enigma. Her journey over that time has been one of reinvention. She’s a chameleon who transformed herself from a surreal YouTube sensation with a robotic persona to an experimental pop star, to her current status as one of the most in-demand new artists in metal. Every step in that evolution has been more unexpected than the last, and every step has made it harder to pin down exactly who Poppy is… which is exactly how she likes it.
Case in point: the singer’s first ever Metal Hammer cover shoot. Taking place at a nondescript New York studio, she has an array of outfits to try on. Tellingly, every photo, so disparate in look and feel, could be of a completely different artist. Shifting between tone and texture, she cycles between aesthetics; hyper-femme in soft luxurious suede, fashion icon in overly structured leather with heel-less shoes that look viciously uncomfortable, and, in the spirit of Halloween and October, when this issue is on sale, an homage to Edward Scissorhands.
