Last year, the New York-based artist Cute Door burst onto our radar with the track “Play Hooky,” a pop rap nugget that is catchy, funny, and mildly uncanny. Now she is back with a project that sees the artist remixing her last EP, 2024’s Perfect, and turning those trap-inflected art rap songs into pounding club tunes. Perfect Mix also features a Nina-exclusive track, a remix of “Secrets,” a collaboration with the duo 18+. We sent some questions over to Cute Door; read our interview and listen to Perfect Mix below.

How did Cute Door start? What was your history with music before this project?

Cute Door: Cute Door started about ten years ago when I was in college. It was initially a way for me to explore gender (unbeknownst to me at the time) through this long-blonde-haired persona. Before this project I was making kind of dream pop/trip hop/shoegaze music and felt cornered; I needed a fun and new project to reignite my creativity.

I studied classical piano for about 11 years, starting when I was four years old. When I got into my pre-teen/teenage years I quickly lost interest once I fell in love with electronic music, because it was impossible for me to see a connection between the two at the time. I started making chiptune music on my Gameboy using a homebrew tracker program called LSDJ. It was a great way to learn how to make music because you had to make every single sound from scratch, and because it was limited to only four tracks. After that I branched out into ambient drum and bass and ultimately landed where I am now.

Tell us a little bit about this remix project.

I originally started working on Perfect Mix with the intention of releasing it exclusively on SoundCloud as a freeform effortless thing, but then my perfectionism kicked in and I started pushing the songs further and further. It ended up becoming this thing that felt more substantial than I originally intended, so I decided to put it out everywhere. It also began with this funny frustration I feel with people only making club remixes of songs, so I figured I should just make my own club remixes of my songs ha ha.

Who is on the Cute Door Mount Rushmore of influences?

Gwen Stefani. I remember as a child throwing a months-long temper tantrum because my mom wouldn’t let me listen to Gwen’s Love. Angel. Music. Baby. album. So I would find ways to listen to it in secret at my Grandma’s house (because she had Windows Media Player), or I would harass the DJ to play songs from it at school dances over and over. I think a lot about the power music has over us and how it can completely change the course of our lives. Gwen’s music certainly did that for me, and all these years later her music still sounds just as fresh as the first day I heard it.

18+. Honestly Cute Door is just a complete ripoff of 18+.

Eartha Kitt. Eartha Kitt is one of the greatest artists of our time. Her story is beyond inspiring and the energy she exudes is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Her song “I Want to be Evil” encompasses Cute Door to a T.

Laura Dern. Laura’s performance in Inland Empire completely changed my life. I owe so much of my work to David Lynch obviously, but there’s something about Laura Dern that I identify so heavily with. There’s a really fantastic book by Melissa Anderson called Inland Empire that’s actually mostly about Laura Dern’s career (and women in Hollywood in general) and I highly recommend anyone interested to read it.

How much time do you spend scrolling TikTok and Reels? Does that inform how you write songs in any way?

Next to none. Whenever I have to post to social media I post and immediately delete the app from my phone because if I don’t I’ll get hooked scrolling ha ha.

We can’t stop listening to “Play Hooky,” even in 2025. How did that song come about?

I originally wrote a rough demo of it really quickly to use in my Subtle Radio mix with VOOR, and when I made it I was truly just trying to make the most basic early Three 6 Mafia type beat I could. But then I decided to revisit it, speed it up, clean it up a bit, and ended up falling in love with it enough to release it as a single.

What is the ideal car to be driving while listening to Cute Door?

A champagne 2006 Honda CR-V.

Who is your dream collaborator?

Vampire Weekend.

What music goes on your dream DJ mix?

Lady Gaga “Starstruck”

John Carpenter “The Shape Stalks”

Swimming With Dolphins “Sunset, 1989”

Röyksopp “Poor Leno”

Missy Elliott “Pass That Dutch”

Queen Latifah “U.N.I.T.Y.”

Gregory & the Hawk “Fin Song 8 (Orange River Remix)”

Dolly Parton “Wildflowers”

Britney Spears “I’m A Slave 4 U”

Men I Trust “Sugar”

Thomas Newman “Arose”

Ice Spice “Deli”

Merzbow “Flare Gun Part II”

Kim Gordon “BYE BYE”

Autechre Warp Tapes 89-93 “Track 1”

SWV “Rain”

Kesha “Sleazy”

Underworld “Two Months Off”

Pinkpantheress “Bury Me”

Johann Sebastian Bach “Prelude and Fugue No. 9 in E Major, BWV 854”

Soulja Boy ft. Arab “BAPES”

Main Attrakionz “Shoot the Dice”

Aphex Twin “Xtal”

Talking Heads “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)”

Malibu “Cheirosa ’94

John Wiese “Sad Pyschics”

Animal Collective “Brothersport”