vanitypl8.lax’s Anastasiya Bobrova grew up in Yakutsk, the coldest city on Earth, on the fourth floor of an apartment block surrounded by a thick layer of Siberian permafrost. Her paternal grandpa was a German P.O.W. sentenced to hard labor at a nearby gulag, while her maternal grandfather was a well-known poet. Placed in his care as a toddler, she spent her childhood in the cold until her mother returned when she was nine, with her new Ukrainian step-dad and a one-way ticket to suburban Utah. At this point, the VANITY PL8 songwriter can’t help but laugh at the absurdity of her own upbringing, recalling an adolescence spent mud-trucking, riding motocross, and going to the rodeo. Her expression softens when she talks about those years, thinking about the “nostalgia of that fucking reckless, suburban, haphazard, sun-soaked, fun environment,” and how it was “complete Woodstock ‘99 vibes.” She deepens the connection even further by mentioning her teenage love of that festival’s headliners...