One of the more interesting names on the Coachella lineup was Whipped Cream, aka Caroline Cecil. She was given a mid-afternoon Saturday Sahara-tent set, directly after VNSSA; the Canadian record producer/DJ was just fine with this—as was the decent-sized crowd, because it meant the dancing didn’t have to stop for long.
“I never like to complain in life,” Cecil said during a post-performance press-tent interview. “I think you get what you’re given, and it’s just about being grateful. I like being meditative and in the moment, and I really practiced that today while I was performing. When I got off, I was just like, ‘This is a start to what’s going to happen, and there’s going to be so much more to come.’”
Honoring 2019 headliner Tame Impala, Whipped Cream started off the set with an even more dance-y remix of psych-track “Let It Happen.” The techno-heavy beat drops had many of the attendees dancing, headbanging and waving their arms.
“Coachella, make some fucking noise!” Cecil told the crowd before powering through a few mixes of not-your-average EDM drops. Videos of horses galloped behind her.
“It’s been a dream of mine to play this stage since I started,” Cecil told the crowd. Visuals of palm trees, clouds and flames flashed behind her as she launched into her track “Light of Mine.”
Cecil elaborated on that dream during our interview. “My dream has been to play Coachella. … I wrote it on my little board in my bedroom,” Cecil said. “One day, I want to play the outdoor stage, but the Sahara tent was incredible. To prepare for that, during COVID, especially when we all had that time to be trapped in our house, I started making my vision come to reality with the music—actually sitting down and making music that’s so real and pure to me that can help maybe connect with other human beings.
“I love EDM festivals. I’m a dance music artist, but to actually be able to perform and showcase my soul today, especially this weekend, it was, ‘Oh my god.’”
As her crowd grew, Cecil shouted: “Jump with me!” Some audience members obliged after hearing her remixes of XXXTentacion’s “Look at Me!” and Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name.” Those who were bummed about Kanye’s cancellation may have felt minor relief while catching Whipped Cream’s remixes of “Fade” and “Power.”
“Kanye is definitely one of my biggest inspirations artistically,” Cecil said during our interview. “I think he’s a genius, so I always like to do a little bit of Kanye in my sets.”
As Whipped Cream’s set continued, she rarely stopped the music, but every small pause led to a riotous cheer. She brought out rapper Boslen for a guest appearance, followed later by rapper Lil Keed. The energized crowd grew through Cecil’s final moments.
“There were a lot more people there this weekend,” Cecil said. “I even saw some people wearing Whipped Cream shirts! It was so real. I was like, ‘Wow, you guys all came so early to see me play?’ It meant the world to me.”
Cecil said her weekend two set was the first time that she’d done a show that “really felt like me.”
“Right now, where I’m at in my life, I’m classified as a DJ, but I know that what I’m about to do in the next decade is so much more than just (being) a DJ,” she said. “Today was like the start of that. A great example would be when you go see like Kanye, or Hans Zimmer, or Danny Elfman: You see this intelligence that’s next level that only they, being so in tune with themselves, have been able to reach. Every human being can reach it. You can reach it; I can reach it; anyone can reach it, but it’s about being intuitive and trusting as an artist that creative genius, that inner genius, and I’ve been riding on it.
“… I really don’t want to say it out loud, but if you can picture a Hans Zimmer collab with Kanye, and then maybe some National Geographic art involved, some crazy shit that hasn’t been done before—that’s what I want to do.”