So TaliaBle. First can you tell us a bit about yourself? Where are you from and how would you describe what you do?

I’m an Aries kid, for 21 years I’ve been raised in a castle in the heart of Tottenham. My current studies of Fashion Communication and Promotion at Central Saint Martins allows me to nurture my bipolar creative interests; I take on the practices of photography, videography, creative direction, styling, upcycled costume making and graphics, as well as utilising lyricism and music to narrate my visual outlet.

So you’re clearly multifaceted. Let's start with the music. How would you describe yourself as an artist? On Soundcloud you say you’re a ‘dichotomy with a tongue twisted in poignant lyricism.’ This rings true with your alliteration and lyrics that explore race, identity, and even darker themes. Incorporating this into the production, it sounds a bit like a fusion of Alternative UK rap and Industrial Hip Hop?

I’d say I’m an elastic artist honing in on dysfunctional rap which exists on a cloud of london-infused surrealism; or high art grit my mentor told me. I like the uneven, the juxtaposing, the playfulness of descriptive writing. I problem solve through poetry, unravelling and revealing the diverse nature of my character with an intention to be very raw and honest with my word, expanding to an absence of preconceived ideas.

Sick. So on the back of this, who are your musical influences? Which artists inspire you? 

Little Simz, Rico Nasty, Young M.A, Kojey Radical, Slow Thai, Lauryn Hill to name a few. Alicia Keys’ autobiography is a big inspiration for me at the moment too, her story is so pure. I wrote a line from her book on my wall the other day: ‘what you focus on expands’.

I’ve seen your live sets and sessions. In these weird times your energy is something we need. What can people expect from your live shows when Covid eases up? Or do you have any shows planned, with perhaps seated and socially distanced crowds?

I live for the live shows man, in our past performances we’d have these costumed characters come out on stage and play a role in the lyrics I was delivering, we also recently performed on top of a galleries roof top which was exciting until we got locked off on our third track. I’m definitely all about creating a visual experience as well as a musical one, so I hope to soon get booked for a show where I could have creative control over the set design, that’s one thing I haven’t fully explored yet. Every show we come with a new track too, since I haven’t released a lot of music, I think It’s definitely become a part of the ‘live’ experience to not expect what our whole set will sound like.

Let's talk about the entire creative process. Whilst sharing elements of the process with others, you do a lot of this yourself. On BORE US, you are credited with writing, filming, editing, and joint costume design. On GLORY DAZE with Osquello, you are credited with editing and filming. And on your most recent track MUZZLED BUTTERFLY, you are credited with the writing, styling, production, and with joint direction.

The videos are hella trippy. How would you describe your editing and filming style? What techniques and softwares do you use and why? I’ve seen some cool 3D rendering and usage of the Hype Williams Fisheye Lens, but there’s a whole lot more.

Personally I’d describe my editing style as Bric a Brac honestly, I don’t know what I’m going to get and I kind of just want everything happening all at once, I’ve always worked like this, I like a lot of textured and dynamic detail. I binge watch music videos so I’m always noting down little effects I like and then I’ll watch a bunch of youtube tutorials on how to do similar things eventually combining 4 or 5 found techniques into one using premiere pro. A lot is left to chance. In terms of filming that’s usually planned to ensure the story is progressive. When it comes to creatively directing a team I definitely try to combine people I know who I feel like may not necessarily cross paths, yet touch on similar notions within their work. I also like to work with people who are heavily experimental and allow the process to also craft the outcome, not every day premeditated. Zach Bleach is a good friend of mine who did the CG rendering and brought a lot of my ideas to life, he’s definitely a wizard and has set the bar very high for my next music video hahah.

Is it imperative for you to be in control of the creative process? Do you see a clear picture or vision before embarking on a project?

Definitely. I know how I want people to experience my work, and I know what my intention is. I couldn’t explain it to you completely in word form but within myself, when I’m creating, there’s something that knows what it’s doing. I’d say my world is offering this concrete royalty, black Alice story. When embarking a project I usually know how I want to make it different to what I’ve seen before if I think it’s been done in a similar way. I’ll have one element in mind that needs to be involved differently for me to know I’ve tried to push this thing forward. The word innovation rings loudly in my head when creating. With the music, my lyrics are usually a blueprint of my vision. Every line I want someone to be able to create an image from.

Aesthetics. Some of these costumes are mad. The Bally; Im fucking with it, what’s your reasoning? An androgynous subversion of streetwear?

I like the feeling of being sheltered, in a cocoon, the bally started off as being something that made me feel at ease when performing, this music was so raw and open and emotional it wasn’t the everyday ‘Talia’ people knew, it had to feel like an extension of self. As times gone on, the bally is starting to definitely feel like a social symbol to me, I can’t quite put my finger on it yet though. But yeah it’s a Bally with a Ruff I got when I did my Tate Late show. The subversion of a bally associated with streetwear and gang culture married with a mid seventeenth century ruff, connected to wealth and status I hope communicates an urban renaissance type energy, where my staple crown of afro then sits upon.

Onto yourself as a designer too. I’ve seen Guap do a feature on your ‘Our People’ T-shirt designs that you did in collaboration with Keep Hush a couple months back. The designs are both powerful and visually engaging. How did this come about? How was the curation process?

KeepHush hit me up! I used to intern with them so they are incredibly supportive of my work and are for many other underground artists. The idea sprouted from not knowing what to do with myself amidst the BLM protests, I was attending weekly protests but that started to really diminish my mental, I wanted to create something that solely focused on celebrating black excellence and uplifted people around me who I felt were channelling their voices in an inspiring way. With the social media black out at the time it stopped a lot of people from creating due to focusing on the protest, yet it couldn’t stay like that forever, I was nervous to release both my live session which featured Bore Us and a poem addressing current issues and then the T-shirts because everybody put art on hold. But I dropped both projects in the heights of everything because creating was what was keeping me sane, it’s what I was born to do, and I wanted fellow creative’s to realise that art is also a form of protest and a way to inform and inspire change. Art has to work alongside the civil movement in my opinion, with hope intentions stay pure.

Awesome. And finishing up, what have you got planned for the next year or two as the world hopefully starts going back to normal?

A visual EP is definitely in the works, I’m aiming to release about 7 songs by the end of the year all with narrative based visualisers. It’s going to be a lot but releasing a project is well over due with me. My long term goal is to appear on a colours show, that’s what I tell myself I’m working towards to remain focused. I’d love if they gave me some kind of creative control over the set. Imagine If I had one of my massive imaginary friends (costumed character) next to me as a prop in a dark red coloured room, Bally on, Karl Binarj mixing the set next to me. I can see it so vividly man and it’s going to happen. If not I’m sure I’ll contour up a warp version of that.

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Interview by Soheil Rahimi