Destiny's Children & Terminators - Invaluable Experience From Unusual Opportunities

California's TOKiMONSTA, aka Jennifer Lee, is consistently intriguing. Lee may be known as a tastemaking electronic music experimentalist, but she has also been canvassed by former Destiny's Child star Kelly Rowland for cutting-edge beats - and toured with '80s New Romantics Duran Duran.

This summer, the extrovert Lee (happy to be addressed as "Toki") is embarking on her biggest Australian run yet with Laneway Festival. She'll "hang out" with her sometime collaborator Anderson .Paak ("a really good friend of mine"). 

Last October, Lee presented the poptastic Lune Rouge, her first full-length album in four years. In late 2015, the DJ/producer was diagnosed with the neurovascular Moyamoya disease and underwent two brain surgeries - something she only disclosed in September to Pitchfork (Lee shared, too, how a boyfriend "dumped" her). Subliminally, Lune Rouge tells of her remarkable recovery with its dreamy atmospherics. The auteur, who started making instrumental fare, liaised with such vocalists as her ally MNDR, Belgian soulstress Selah Sue, and rappers Isaiah Rashad and Joey Purp. "I guess, to kind of contextualise this album, it is what I would consider to be the next step, or the next iteration, of myself as an artist," Lee says of its direction. "It could be shocking for those who are very attached to my earlier work, but I would say that it has been a natural progression." Notably, the single Don't Call Me (featuring Yuna) was included in Billboard's 50 Best Dance/Electronic Songs Of 2017: Critics' Picks. 

The product of a Korean-American family living in bayside Torrance, Lee studied piano early. Later, she created abstract hip hop with the FruityLoops computer program. Lee officially became part of the West Coast glitch-hop movement when, in 2010, she released her debut album Midnight Menu on Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder. Then, in a surprise turn, she switched to the EDM-oriented Ultra Music for 2013's Half Shadows (Kool Keith cameoed!). That same year, she circulated her rejected remix of Justin Timberlake's Suit & Tie to much blog buzz. Soon after, Lee - who'd studied business at uni - launched her own Young Art Records, issuing stopgap projects like the Anderson .Paak-guesting EP Fovere.

Along the way, Lee has synced her music to movie and TV shows - Darkest (Dim) bizarrely used for Arnold "The Terminator" Schwarzenegger's action thriller Sabotage. "You know, he's already pretty elderly at this point, but it was some weird romance scene between him and someone else [English actor Olivia Williams]," Lee laughs. "But I don't remember the film actually being super-amazing."

Lee embraces unusual opportunities. Wildly, she opened for British new wave heroes Duran Duran (and Nile Rodgers' Chic) on a North American tour ("an invaluable experience"). She admits that the older audience members were "completely flabbergasted" by her. However, they weren't unwelcoming. "The Duran Duran audience base is not overly pretentious. I think that, if they have a good time, they're definitely willing to express that they're having a good time." 

In 2014, Lee was reportedly producing music for Kelly Rowland, whose most enduring solo hit remains David Guetta's house banger When Love Takes Over. Alas, the now-TV personality is yet to drop that fifth album. "She still comments on my Instagram and sends me Christmas cards. We still keep in touch," Lee says. "But I think right now for her - and her career - she seems to be focusing on 'Kelly Rowland' as a brand... I think she's going to double-back into the music and, when she comes around to that, I think we would work on more ideas together. In the past, we had worked on some music that didn't end up getting cut to... Actually, me and Anderson .Paak did a lot of music for Kelly before he blew up, but she didn't actually end up recording any of it. But maybe this next time around, when she decides to get back into singing and pushing an album, she'll reconsider those songs."

At Laneway, Lee will perform music from across her discography live. Today, she's less about emitting IDM 'cool' than connecting with the crowd. "It's not going to be a DJ set, it's going to be a journey and an adventure that I hope me and the audience can share together."

TOKiMONSTA tours from 2 Feb.

Check The Guide on theMusic.com.au for more details.