At least twice a week, Mette Towley will take herself to the dance studio alone. The music comes on and the emotions release – maybe through voguing to Charli xcx or pairing stage-ready pop-star moves with Stevie Nicks. Sometimes the movements are soft and meditative; on other days, it’s more akin to a private rave. This is how the artist figures herself out, “above any static,” she says. Think of it as a physical brainstorm. “I’m at this point where I want to embody and feel the parts of me that are elusive unto myself. When I dance, I can really get in touch with that.”
Up until she became Mette (pronounced Meh-teh, she does it in all caps), this was the language she used to communicate with the world. As a professional dancer, she worked alongside everyone from Jennifer Hudson to N.E.R.D., touring with the latter for five years. But it was always contributing to someone else’s vision. This solo studio time, then, is as much about tapping into her creative autonomy as it is catharsis. “It’s all about stepping into authorship,” she says, on a Zoom call from the back of a car that’s currently winding its way through the streets of Cannes. “I discover things by watching myself dance freestyle.” Often, she’ll record the sessions and play them back, watching her subconscious reveal itself through movement. “I see the history of my embodiment and I learn that, even after all these years and phases, it’s all inherently within me,” she says. “It’s like an archive.”
We’re only eight minutes into our conversation and we’ve already gone deep. Towley, I’m learning, is quick to get philosophical. Perhaps that’s because, for the past few months, the musician has been getting her head down in Los Angeles, where she lives, diligently fine-tuning her songs as she prepares to release her debut album later this year. It’s been an introverted process – so much so that her friends are starting to notice her lack of socialising. “I took a break from just going out to feel something,” she says. “I wanted to prioritise rest and writing this album.”
From left: SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO, jacket and boots by GIVENCHY BY SARAH BURTON
This quick trip to the French Riviera is a complete gear shift: tonight, she’ll attend a non-profit event supporting women and the LGBTQ+ community in film, and over the weekend she has a private performance. Over the course of our video call, the singer moves from car to hotel lobby to her final destination, a make-up chair where, in the background, a flurry of stylists organise tables of brushes and lipsticks. She politely requests a bold red – no gloss – then turns her attention back to her phone screen. “I’m really self-assured in imbuing myself in my work,” she says, easing seamlessly back into the conversation. “I’m not interested in being metabolised quickly.”
It’s a novel approach in an industry that sustains itself on algorithms and manufactured virality. Two-and-a-half years ago, when Towley released her debut, seven-track EP, Mettenarrative, the focus was on creating an impact by arriving, fully packaged, as pop’s next big thing. “You know what’s funny? I’ve done so many interviews where it’s like, ‘This is going to be Mette’s year!'” she says. “But I don’t even know what those markers of success would look like.” To many, it may surely appear as though she’s already achieved them. Her 2023 single Mama’s Eyes was nominated for an Ivor Novello. She supported Taylor Swift on the London leg of The Eras Tour at Wembley Stadium in 2024. She’s appeared in countless magazine spreads and even in a few movies, such as Barbie and Hustlers. By no means is Towley still in the process of arriving. She’s already been around the block.
From left: dress by CHLOE, coat by DOLCE & GABBANA
And yet, in a way, she feels brand new. Her most recent single, Coming of Age, marks something of a spiritual rebirth. “This time when I’m born / I won’t be crying,” she sings over a propulsive electro production that feels simultaneously retro and modern. Towley believes in reincarnation and is adamant that this is her first cycle through life. “I feel so fresh to everything,” she says, explaining her thought process behind the new single. “I think that this is my first time, so I’d be much wiser obviously on the next go round.”
She’s talking about life and death, but that statement could just as easily apply to her music career, too. After amicably leaving her record label, RCA, two years ago, Towley is now navigating the industry as an independent artist. “Now I feel like I’m able to be so creative,” she says. “I mean, I could crash and burn. But cool, it’s all on me. I actually love that.” A flicker of excitement flashes behind her eyes. “It gives me a sense of electricity.”
From left: JEAN PAUL GAULTIER, VALENTINO
Towley was born in Owatonna, Minnesota, but spent the first half of her childhood in the Maryland suburb of Severn. She was a shy kid, self-conscious about a now-resolved speech impediment. “Language was really hard for me,” she says. “Dance was the way I felt like I could express myself and garner affection from others: to entertain them.” By the age of 10, her parents – a Swedish father and a Ghanaian mother – had uprooted the family again, moving back to Minnesota, but this time in the small town of Alexandria. There, she felt painfully misunderstood, but her inner world was expansive. Take, for example, the poem she wrote for an English assignment at age 12. Listening to Rachmaninoff in her bedroom, a young Towley was flooded with emotions and penned five stream-of-consciousness pages. “When it came time to present the work in class, I went up on stage and took up the entire rest of the hour,” she says, smiling affectionately. “That was one of the first times I realised when music is present, I really open up.”
From left: TOM FORD, GUCCI
A career in music was always a lingering ambition, but dance felt like the safer way to be seen. Not that the industry is any less brutal. When she moved to LA after studying dance at the University of Minnesota, the level of competition was a culture shock. At some auditions, she was cut before she’d even had the opportunity to dance – an arbitrary decision that was usually based on appearance. “I had to adapt pretty quickly,” she says. “I spent so many years condensing or expanding certain parts of myself to get cast or be adored by other artists.” It was tough, but in retrospect, the experience taught Towley an important lesson. “My identity is always going to be fluid, but my growth demands motion.”
And Towley has always found a way to push forward, even when she’s “wanted to shrink”. At one point, she quit dancing, burned out from the industry’s demands. But she still turned up for a week-long audition for N.E.R.D. and Rihanna‘s Lemon music video. On her legs, hidden beneath her leggings, she wrote the mantra one of her dance professors had passed on: “Nothing to prove, only to share.” She booked the job and her life changed overnight. Dancing solo throughout the entire video – the only other person featured being Rihanna, who shaves Towley’s head in the opening sequence – suddenly, everyone wanted to know who she was.
From left: RALPH LAUREN, PRADA
“I think there was something within me that was trying to channel its way out during that time,” she says. She found that shaving her head was even more transformative. “It was one of the most liberating things I’ve ever done. I’d never felt exceptionally feminine in my appearance. For me, femininity was something that I equated to how my hair looks, the make-up I wear and the height of my heels,” she says. “When the hair was off, I just completely embraced my own identity beyond those reductive descriptions. I felt this expansive quality of self for the first time in my life.”
Ever since, she has been a firm fixture in the fashion industry, from attending Saint Laurent runway shows to performing at The Fashion Awards in 2023. A shapeshifter by nature, she has fun with it. But day to day, she’s settling into a personal style that endures beyond trends. “I’ll wear the same outfit three days in a row,” she says. “I know that sounds unhygienic, but when I find something I feel good in, I’ll cycle through it constantly.” At the moment, that includes a structured COS trench coat and character shoes typically reserved for musical theatre performers. “I love the pop of a heel. It tilts my pelvis in a particular way and makes my shoulders roll back in an instant. I just feel so elegant.” She’s quick to clarify: “It’s not ‘soft girl’, and it’s not ‘clean girl’.” Towley’s definition of elegance is instead rooted in intuition. “I just believe in this poetic way of living right now. Nothing feels incredibly concrete, but it feels sure of itself, and that finds its way into my wardrobe as well.”
From left: BALENCIAGA, FENDI
Part of this evolution comes with growing older – coming of age, you might say, but over and over again. As Towley acknowledges, this is her fifteenth year of being a professional artist in some capacity and yet, somehow, it seems as though the journey has only just begun. Her debut album, also called Coming of Age and out in September, promises to be a record that reconciles the loss of innocence with the reclamation of youth. She’s refined her sound and sharpened her pen. On one track, Boil the Ocean, she turns the titular finance bro phrase about undertaking an impossible task, which is often used to deter ambition, into a subtle dig at world leaders. “It’s about how you can dress up in a suit, but still be the phantom in the mirror,” she says. “It’s more of a critique on some of the world’s power players at the moment.” On Anxious to Love You, which dropped in February, she slows things down and speaks to matters of the heart. The connecting thread between each song is an unrelenting drive to make the most of every single second, whether she’s pouring her emotions out or standing up for what she believes in.
“I’m never going to have another chance to live this life, and that’s what this album is about,” she says. “That’s why I’m seizing this moment for myself.” Often, that looks like soul searching. But a lot of the time, it’s simply about play. The other day, she ate soft-serve ice cream on the sofa just for the hell of it. When she attended the No Kings protest in March in LA, she crafted anti-Trump and anti-ICE signs with glitter.
From left: dress by LOEWE, coat by KARL LAGERFELD
“Those things make me feel like a kid,” she says. “I love giggling, I love laughing, I love being silly.” When we speak, her thirty-fifth birthday is fast approaching. But the artist doesn’t seem the slightest bit fazed by the passing of time. “Many days have gone by, and I didn’t see this one coming, but what a pleasure to be here – and what a pleasure it is to be self-authoring my journey.” Mette Towley, the all-caps, no-pretence pop star METTE, smiles knowingly. “Who gave me this authority in my own life? Oh, I did.”
Issue 77 of 10 Magazine – FUTURE, LEGACY, HERITAGE – is on newsstands September 18. Pre-order your copy here.
FREESTYLE
Photographer JOSEPH KADOW
Fashion Editor TOBY GRIMDITCH
Talent METTE
Text OLIVE POMETSEY
Hair GREGOR MAKRIS using Hair By Sam McKnight
Make-up ISCHRAK NITSCHKE using Dr. Barbara Sturm and Tom Ford Beauty
Manicurist TRICIA C. PAHL using Chanel Blue Satin Le Vernis, OPI Infinite Shine and Essie Without a Stitch
Digital operator MARTIN FOERSTER
Lighting assistant MASSIMILIANO CORTESELLI
Fashion assistants GEORGIA EDWARDS, LENA LAUER and FRANKA DEHMEL
Production SONYA MAZURYK
Sunglasses throughout Cartier, stockings throughout Falke
MIU MIU
