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If you’re reading this PAPER is already in California.

Tomorrow is the first day of the first weekend of Coachella 2025. For some of us, the annual trip to the desert is a much-needed escape from New York’s sprawling winter. For others, it’s a shot jaunt away from the California coast and a nice break from LA traffic. And, for others — the festival experience will consist of YouTube live streams we’ll come back early from our lunch breaks to catch on Friday.

Whether you’ll be in Palm Springs applying copious amounts of sunscreen or living vicariously through content from your favorite hashtag, influencer, you won’t want to miss this year’s lineup.

From DJs we’d risk passing out in the heat for to underground indie groups we’re dragging our friends to and even RSVPing to exclusive parties before we even learn what the address is — here’s PAPER’s must-watch acts and must-hit parties at this year’s Coachella

The Charli xcx Cinematic Universe

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@Charli XCX u will always be famous 💚 the brat remix album listening party at storm king was so julia #brat #charlixcx

It’s not Coachella without some pulsing, electronic beats. The artists we’re wearing metallic bodysuits and body glitter for are consistently some of the most important to the festival’s iconic identity. And the electronic artists featured this year are nothing short of legendary. We can’t wait to see what antics the genre’s hottest names are going to pull. Multiple members of the xcx CMU are slated for Coachella 2025 appearances. Ms. Charli herself is feeling her “Hot Girl” oats more like 10 movies, she’s (reportedly) officially married. Charli’s made time to grace the Coachella stage, so something special must be in store. Maybe some of her non-musical posse will join her? Gabi? Alex? Julia?

A.G. Cook and The Dare, each of whom helped produce Brat and went on to feature on the glimmering remix album, have their own sets this weekend. If you haven’t exposed yourself to their solo work, the desert will be a good place to start (so long as The Dare doesn’t try any crowd surfing).

New Gen Noise

Charli and her minions aren’t the only electronic legends blessing the festival this year. Arca is sure to light up whichever of the five stages she lands on. When hasn’t she? She’s a loose cannon, live-performance-wise, so be ready for either dancing to your reggaeton favorites from Kick, or becoming paralyzed while she paints the stage in blood to the sounds of some unreleased work we’ve yet to hear but will definitely love.

In addition to the aforementioned goats, a new generation of ethereal, experimental divas are popping up at Coachella this year, and we cant wait to see what Snow Strippers has planned. Will the duo continue their high energy, low volume, bass-heavy, SoundCloud mumbling performance style under the desert sun? Or will they take the opportunity to switch things up and gain some new fans in the process? We vote both.

If Horsegiirl brings even an ounce of the energy she brought to her Boiler Room Berlin set, she’ll have one of the weekend’s strongest acts. Speaking of killer Boiler Rooms, Sara Landry is sure to leave fans with ears ringing, but in the good way, like the helps you fall asleep in even if you’re in a horrible car camping situation good way. Kumo 99’s punky, dancey electronica makes them another one to tune into, and as former openers for Magdalena Bay and Cowgirl Clue, they’re well seasoned to take on America’s hottest festival.

Avoiding The FOMO

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For the hardcore girls, Coachella is light work. It’s merely one stop in the “365, never-go-home, don’t eat don’t sleep,” lifestyle. And if you think the worst feeling one can face this in Indio is dehydration, heat stroke or even a bad trip, you’re wrong. Trust us, the fear of FOMO is fare more dire. But, wherever you fall on the partygirl spectrum, Palm Springs and Indio have something for you. Revolve is once again bringing their own lineup to the desert. This year, it carries acts like Lil Wayne and Cardi B. It’ll be the fashion brand’s eighth year of drawing influencer crowds from the main festival to their own, so if you’re interested in a photo opp that could get you your next brand deal, you’re gonna wanna stop here.

The unofficial Coachella afters, Neon Carnival, is back as well. We’d love to see you there — if you can get in! Kourtney Kardashian’s Camp Poosh will be fancy — and catch us turning up to Tiesto at Disko Mirage hosted at the Zenyara estate and if the Guess Compound scene is anything like last year’s, we’ll also be there, thank you very much. We’ll take the complimentary Casamigos with a smile.

The Indie Darlings

Now, let’s say you came to Coachella with no glitter adornments on your face. You’re the friend in jorts and your favorite artist’s merch. That’s cool, we love that for you. You’re looking for the more chill sets. Maybe you’re more indie-pilled. Don’t worry, the 2025 lineup is holding space for you too.

PAPER is packing granola bars and Gatorade to brave the barricade at Clairo’s “Charm-chella” set. We’re darting across the festival grounds to catch just one song from Beth Gibbons. We can’t wait to cool down and sway side-to-side with our girls at Blonde Redhead. We might just see you in the crowd for julie and Underscores, each of which have solidified themselves as staples in the new generation of alternative.

PAPER’s Non-negotiables

There’s no excuse not to be at Glorilla or Megan Thee Stallion’s performances. Seriously. And of course, PAPER’s not missing any of this year’s headliners. Lady Gaga’s Friday night slot is our Super Bowl: We can’t wait to be in a sea of little monsters, being girlfriends for the weekend, witnessing the first performance of The Mayhem Ball. Green Day will be fun too. It’ll give those of us in situationships with 40-year-olds something to talk to them about. And Posty rounds out the weekend! We’ll be sunburnt, sore-all-over, eyes stinging from being glued to our favorites and his neo-country will honestly make for a nice, sweet send-off. A farewell to the beautiful Coachella sun and stars. He might just get us to God’s Country — whether that’s back to LA, home to New York City, or anywhere else we’re escaping for the weekend.

Photography: Getty

Days before Los Angeles fled to the California desert for Coachella, the city had a festival of its own with H&M — only this one was open to the public and stationed downtown, but still packed with performers and DJs that kept the party going well into the morning.

Headliners included PAPER cover star Doechii, PinkPantheress and Jamie XX, who brought out Swedish pop icon Robyn to sing their track “Life,” before she unleashed her classics “Dancing On My Own” and “Hang With Me” onto the screaming crowd (fans were clacking, drinks were flying).

VIPs like Alex Consani, Gabbriette, Tyla, Tinashe and Lisa Rinna all stopped by, floating in-between stages to celebrate H&M’s Spring 2025 collection and kick off the new season.

Prior to her performance, PAPER sat down backstage with Robyn, who wore H&M’s exaggerated-hip mini dress over a black oversized t-shirt. We talked about her relationship to LA, collaborating with Charli xcx and Yung Lean, and what it’s like being back in the studio now as a mother.

It’s a whole festival in here, basically, but just Downtown LA. Do you come to this city often?

No, I don’t. I haven’t been here since 2020, but I’ve lived here, so I’ve spent lots of time here. I just haven’t been back since the pandemic, actually — I’ve been in Sweden.

When did you live here?

Well, never permanently, but I spent a lot of time here over the years. I had periods when I was touring, when I didn’t go back to Sweden, I stayed here instead with friends.

I feel like the pop capitals are Sweden and LA.

Yeah, it’s true, but I never really made a lot of music in LA. I always made music in Sweden and then I just stayed here because of friends. It’s maybe the city I’ve spent the most time in except for Stockholm.

Oh wow, that’s kind of crazy.

Yeah, it is kind of crazy.

Well, I think what’s amazing about you is you’re kind of an enigma. You’ll pop up and do an event like H&M’s, then disappear for a while. That’s kind of rare, especially in music today. When you’re not doing moments like tonight, what keeps you inspired?

I’m in the studio a lot at the moment working on music. That’s what I’ve been doing for the last two years, but I’ve also had a baby, so my life has been very domestic and Stockholm-based. But inspiration, for me at least, comes from my life, just living, so it’s been really good to be at home and have time to work on music. Also, inspiration is this thing you have to work for. Sometimes it happens by itself, but most of the time inspiration comes, if you spend a lot of time doing the same thing over and over, it starts taking on its own life. So I think being in the studio, actually, is inspiring, although not always. Sometimes it’s just—

Difficult?

Yeah, you just have to power through. A lot of times you get the reaction of like, What do you do? I make music. Oh, that must be so fun. And I’m like, No. [Laughs] It is fun and liberating and my favorite thing to do, but it’s also sometimes a struggle. Yeah, it can be really uncomfortable, as well. So having a routine and, you know, I’m a nine-to-five person. I have that kind of work ethic.

I would imagine having a baby has also impacted the way that you are thinking about and making music.

Yeah, now it’s vacation. [Laughs] It used to be work, now it’s like time off.

Right, like, Please get me to the studio.

It actually made me more excited about making music again because it’s my own space. It’s funny how many things become really exotic and interesting again when you have a baby, like just going to the store and having five minutes to yourself when you’re going grocery shopping is kind of amazing.

But also seeing the world through your kid’s perspective.

Yeah, all of those things, for sure.

So many people were excited to see you working with Charli xcx, because there are a lot of parallels between you two as disruptors in the pop space. How did you get connected, and what was it like working with her on the “360” remix with Yung Lean?

Well, we’ve known each other for a long time. We’ve known each other since we were on the same tour [15 years ago] doing festivals in Australia. We had this moment where we connected at an after party, hanging out. I was really young, like 30 and she was 20. Whatever little experience I’d had I was able to share with her, and she was very inspiring to me. We just stayed acquaintances. She spent a lot of time in Sweden, but we never really hung out that much. Whenever we did see each other, it was very special. I just always really loved her mind and I think it was very obvious, even when she was 20, that she was a smart girl. I was challenged by our conversations, and I always was a fan.

Then she started taking on this new energy. You could see her ramp it up over a few years. I think it’s interesting, it usually takes quite some time to get to that point, and I really recognized it like, She’s gonna do something soon, I can feel it. So when she called me, she was in Sweden and she wanted me to work on something, I was like, Yes, whatever, it just feels so exciting. I didn’t know that she was making a new album, but she asked me to do this remix for the remix project with Jonatan [Yung Lean], who’s someone that I love, as well. I think it really shows her genius that she put us together on the same track. Me and Jonatan actually have a lot in common, too.

Really?

It’s a very particular experience that we share being from Sweden and having a career from [age] 16, so it was cool.

It was such an exciting trio and you’re right, it just made sense.

I think we always knew that we liked each other and that there was a connection. It was just very obvious. It never felt constructed or weird, just very natural. We were in the studio, [Charli] came to my house and we had dinner. She told me everything about Brat, it was right before it all exploded. I think it’s gonna be called Brat, and she played me a lot of songs. She’s such a cool chick, she’s always been like that.

Doechii is here tonight. Are there any other young artists that you’re excited about?

Yeah, Doechii is amazing — super inspiring, of course. I think Jonatan [Yung Lean] is such a beautiful person and such a genuine artist and has such an advanced analysis in the world. I’m excited to see what he’s going to do. There’s a really cool scene in Denmark now with young female electronic artists that are making really amazing music, like Astrid Sonne and ML Buch. I’m blown away, they’re all collaborating and really cool.

Your Jamie XX collaboration, “Life,” which you’re performing tonight for H&M, is such a powerful but simple song. What was it like working with him and how did you arrive at the hook, “You’re giving me life,” over and over?

I was just like, Why has no one ever sung this before in a chorus? That’s crazy. It was just one of those songs that came out of my mouth as we were writing it. Jamie already had the track and he wanted to write on it, and I didn’t want to write on the horns. He was like, Can you do something with horns? We’d been working on it for a long time and I was like, No, I’m not gonna do anything on the horns, because they just made me cry. It’s one of those things where it’s so powerful and happy, the sample, but I think it has this secret sadness to it. Then I decided to work on it together with Klas [Åhlund], my writing partner, and we wrote the more ’90s, house-sounding stuff. The rapping was just me freestyling, basically.

Sometimes the best ideas are the most obvious ones, where it’s like, Why hasn’t this been done? Well, here it is.

Yeah, it’s the same thing with “Dancing On My Own.” I mean, “Dancing with tears in my eyes,” definitely that’s been made. No one had said “Dancing on my own” before. Those things, they’re just out there and if you have a good day you can catch them somehow.

That’s probably why “Dancing On My Own” has resonated for as long as it has. The simplest ideas can affect so many people and you apply your own individual experience to them. That’s really great pop music.

Yeah, I think so, too. When there’s enough space for your own experience, you don’t have to take care of the artist’s sadness. I think that’s important, even if it is a sad song. I don’t know if I’ve been able to do that before, but nowadays I’m more interested in leaving space for that.

I’m in the studio a lot at the moment working on music. That’s what I’ve been doing for the last two years.

Photos courtesy of H&M

Rising R&B star David Burke, who you may know as d4vd, started his career by making gaming videos on YouTube. Now, he’s preparing for Southern California’s hottest music festival.

The 20-year-old singer-songwriter fostered his musical talents at the request of his mom. Homeschooled in Houston, Texas, he was having trouble sourcing songs to pair with the Fortnite edits he was making and posting to YouTube. Burke’s videos were getting flagged left and right with copyright strikes; his mom’s advice to him was simple: make the music yourself.

d4vd took the solution and ran — or more accurately walked — to his little sister’s closet and got to work. It took just seven months and a handful of singles before he released the track that would change his life. “Romantic Homicide,” a moody, melancholy earworm released in July 2022, has since gone multi-platinum and led to a deal with Interscope/Darkroom.

Since then, he’s spent his young stardom opening for SZA, performing at Milan fashion week for Valentino and most recently teaming up with Kali Uchis for his glimmering new single, “Crashing,” from his upcoming debut album, Withered (out April 24 via Interscope). On Friday, d4vd will take the Coachella stage for the first time.

PAPER sat down with Burke to talk about his desert debut, his evolving relationship with gaming and the DIY recording process behind Withered.

How are you feeling about your first-ever Coachella performance this weekend?

It’s gonna be amazing. I’m hyped. I’ve got the adrenaline pumping right now working on the set, I’m making it crazy.

I heard the first concert you ever attended was your own. Then you opened for SZA on her SOS tour, now Coachella. How has live performance shaped you as an artist?

Live performances have been a crazy journey and a wild ride for me. Going from never seeing a live show to playing my own show, going on my first tour without any prior knowledge of what a live show was like from an audience perspective, it was kind of like “What am I doing?” But the fans instruct you. The fans become the background dancers, the fans become the background singers. You get to interact with your fans the most. Fan interaction was the focal point. It’s like, “How can I make this an experience for the people that came here and paid money to see me?” Learning from the greats, learning from SZA, seeing her work in such a masterful way and taking as much as I could, being an impressionable performer and taking the notes is what make it so great. It’s all translated into this Coachella set. I’m excited.

Can you tell PAPER anything about the Coachella set?

Oh yeah. I’m bringing out my boy, Jason, the streamer. He’s coming up. Everything I do, I try to merge my influences and what I came up on. I was a YouTuber and streamer first so I try to find new ways to include that in my artistry and make sure my worlds stay collided.

I love that. How has your relationship with gaming and the internet evolved over time? How has that affected your music?

The relationship is still very strong. I try to make sure it doesn’t influence the music, per se, but it influences everything around it. The visuals, the storytelling, everything like that. With my music, I want to veer away from that and become a true artist, put my life on paper and into these songs. But especially if my fans have the same interests as me and go through the same experiences I do, I want to give them that relatability. This album I’m releasing is kind of like I’m leaving my life in these headphones and speakers, and you’re playing my life with this album. So the video games have been a good launching point and foundation for what I do.

The world-building is so important. I want to talk fashion, too, since that’s such a visual element for you. I saw you at the Coperni show in Paris last month. You performed for Valentino at Milan Fashion Week a few years ago. How does fashion fit into your life and your music?

Fashion is a big part of my life now. It’s crazy because four years ago my mom was doing all my clothes. Being able to go to these shows and getting inspired, performing for Valentino, building these connections with these great designers and creative directors has been a very inspiring aspect of my creative process, especially in making music. With Coperni breaking the boundaries and adding video game aspects and bringing the eSports world into fashion, it’s super fun. I get to express myself through clothing. I’m watching a lot of A$AP Rocky YouTube videos.

Shoutout.

Yeah, seeing what he’s got on. Seeing what’s getting brought back from the past, what’s future, what’s current. It’s such a fun playground.

Totally. I want to talk about Withered. How are you feeling about your debut album?

I feel great. This album has been the lead-up for multiple years. It’s like a staircase, this project. The fans have been waiting on it, the new people are coming in from Invincible and Arcane. Blending all these worlds, these TV shows, movies, video games, it feels like all the eyes are on me right now. I want to deliver the best project.

You recorded it at home? In your sister’s closet? Tell me about the recording process. Why take the DIY approach?

I love the DIY aspect. That’s how it all started: from the closet, working on everything myself and being self-sufficient. My mom always taught me the DIY mentality: “If you could do it yourself, don’t let somebody else do it for you.” I spent two weeks in London with my friends and used that environment, too, cuz it was gloomy out there and very sad vibes. There’s no sunlight. I used that as my headquarters then spent three weeks finishing the project on my phone. I recorded songs in London but then re-recorded them on my phone just to keep the magic. I can’t give up on where I started. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

And that Kali Uchis collab, “Crashing,” just dropped. What was working with her like?

Kali was amazing. She works as fast as I do. I recorded “Crashing” by myself in Houston, but thought something was missing from the second verse. Kali came to mind, I sent it to her. She was like, “Oh my god, I love it,” and sent her verse back the next day. Her work ethic is unparalleled.

Kali’s amazing. Who else is exciting you in music right now?

All these young artists doing it themselves just like I did when I was in the closet. I love the resurgence of bedroom pop, quinnie, beabadoobee, Clairo. Those types of people that just get it and do it by themselves and set the standard for what artists can do without the studio. It’s inspiring the next generation. It inspired me to go full forward. Those are my goats right now.

Photography: Kenneth Cappello, Max Durante