photos / Tim Black Story / Karla Solarte
Los Angeles artist Ollie Stone, the creative force behind problemas, turns emotional wreckage into something transformative on “Prototype.” Born from manipulation, deception, and abandonment, the fractured electronic-pop single isn’t about escaping heartbreak through another relationship—it’s about learning how to rebuild on your own terms.
“Prototype” begins in the rawest stage of a breakup, when distance feels less like a thoughtful decision and more like an act of survival. The narrator loved someone who ultimately destroyed the relationship, and her first instinct is to run—to reclaim control, redirect her attention, and begin constructing a new version of herself.
But problemas isn’t interested in presenting healing as graceful or linear. Here, recovery is imperfect, strange, and occasionally absurd: crying, exercising, making art, learning yourself again, and resisting the temptation to disappear into another toxic situation.
The accompanying visual sharpens that idea. Loosely inspired by Stone’s experience of being manipulated and cheated on by what she describes as a “closet incel,” the video refuses to center the person responsible for the damage. Instead, its focus remains firmly on the aftermath—and on the deliberate, sometimes messy work of returning to oneself.
“When they break your heart, make art” becomes more than a clever phrase here. It captures Stone’s ability to turn private devastation into creative material without pretending that creation automatically cures it.
Produced by Luigino Salvatore Bonasera and Olivia Stone for Space Sangrita, “Prototype” balances emotional intimacy with warped electronic structures and a refreshingly unserious edge. Dreamy indie textures collide with fractured pop production, creating a space where grief can exist without becoming overly polished or precious.
Alongside previously released singles “Emerald” and “Oblivion,” “Prototype” offers another glimpse into joymaxxxing, problemas’ forthcoming album. The follow-up to her 2023 debut, Doomscrolling, examines post-pandemic capitalism, grief, digital deception, and the alienation of attempting to feel connected in an always-online world.
The album was written in the aftermath of the death of Jack, Stone’s drummer, collaborator, and close friend. That profound loss exists alongside reflections on relationships marked by emotional distance and dishonesty, giving joymaxxxing a wider understanding of grief—one that encompasses not only death, but the people, futures, and former selves we are forced to leave behind.
Within that landscape, “Prototype” emerges as a declaration of what growth after emotional damage can look like. Recovery isn’t framed as returning to who you were before someone broke your heart. It is an opportunity to gather what remains and build someone entirely different.
Before launching problemas, Stone fronted The Oohlas alongside former Everclear drummer Greg Eklund. The band released its debut album in 2006 through Stolen Transmission, an Island Def Jam imprint. She later formed Hustle Roses before moving toward the more intimate and self-directed world of problemas—a project shaped, written, and produced from her own distinct perspective.
With “Prototype,” problemas makes heartbreak feel less like an ending than an early draft: painful, unfinished, and ready to be rewritten.
