TAAHLIAH on Finding Inspiration and the Importance of Vulnerability

TAAHLIAH is a Glasgow- based artist, DJ and producer. Our very own Gina Tonic spoke to her about supporting Jamie XX on tour, finding inspiration, and vulnerability.

It’s been almost a year since you released Angelica, how has the response been to  the EP? 

The response has been incredible! I honestly didn’t expect it either. It’s so heartwarming to see  the project get the recognition and love it deserves, that extends to my own artistry too. I’m  feeling very hopeful about the future and my next record and the little songs coming out this  year that I’ve been working so hard on. 

___STEADY_PAYWALL___

What similarities do you think there are between the Berlin and Glasgow scenes? 

I only lived in Berlin for half a year and I’ve lived in Glasgow for over 5 years so I don’t know  whether my comparisons will be the most nuanced out there. However, there’s a shared deep  love for durational partying - legal or not. Partying can be more conservative in Glasgow, not  due to a difference in attitude but rather the pressures and laws that are placed by the council  and the government. I don’t know whether you can place too much emphasis on a place when a  lot of what makes a ‘scene’ is human behaviour and connection. There are differences and  similarities everywhere.  

After supporting Jamie xx last year, how did you find touring compared to a club  residency? Which do you prefer? 

I definitely prefer touring, however there’s pro and cons with both. I’m quite an introverted  person so familiarity can be comforting for me. Whenever I am performing in a new place, I  experience many anxieties when I’m alone so I always try to bring someone close to me to a  show for comfort and experiential ease. And also its always wonderful to have your loved ones  next to you. 

If we were to return to virtual DJ sets, is there anything you would change about  performing at them? 

I would allow them only to be consumed and experienced once, never recorded or published  anywhere. I hate doing recorded performances.  

With your EP really honing in on expressing your identity as a Black trans artist -  and making history with making you the first black trans artist to be nominated at  the Scottish Alternative Music Awards - how do you allow yourself the  vulnerability to share so much through your music? 

I think - if the music wasn’t personal, it wouldn’t be ‘good’. Ever since I started creating art, it has  been deliberately personal to my own life experience - consciously or subconsciously. It’s the way I like to work, and - I guess, it’s the way I am able to compartmentalise and cope with  ‘difficult’ areas of my life. It’s wonderful to be able to place a joyous moment in a song and have  people connect with that moment and apply it to their own experience. Equally, it’s beautiful to  decontextualise a dark moment in my life and the same process to occur. That’s very much what  my album is about, the one that I’m currently working on. I think, as an artist who happens to be  trans, the art that we make and the experiences that we share are very sacred and perhaps  aren’t as easily identifiable, compared to a cis artist’s piece of work. I allow myself to be  vulnerable through my music because I know that there will be an understanding shared that  many will never be able to experience.  

I read that you moved into Glasgow from Kilmarnock to pursue painting at the art  school, do you still paint? 

I don’t! I think I used painting as a way to investigate my transness and internal femininity - as  soon as I began to transition, I started to pursue music and sound. When I got to art school, I  found my love for painting being subdued under an educational institutional context and  pressure. I guess, it is just an evolution of my creativity. Recently, I read an essay called ‘The  Future of Serious Art’ which explains it quite well. When discussing art or artistic practice, it is so  limiting to think we can only investigate and utilise one particular medium. Perhaps, I’ll go back  to it one day but currently, sound and music is my primary creative output. I’m in complete  creative control of all the visual elements of my artistry too. 

How important is it to you to foster creative spaces outside of London, or even  England? 

I mean, I live in Scotland so I’ll apply this question to my home rather than England. It's  important for me to place emphasis on other locations but that has developed through my  career rather than a genuine strive to be anywhere else. I don’t have so much of a taste to live  in another city as I have already experienced that. I’ve said before but I can suffer from  homesickness quite badly so Glasgow is a comfort to me - but I’m really excited to be in other  places.  

Do you think creatives are often forced into choosing a medium rather than  exploring themselves through all avenues or was music always going to be your  number one? 

Music was never meant to be my assumed ‘career path’, especially when I was growing up. I’d  be making art since I could talk and painting since I was 12 so everyone, including myself,  assumed I’d be just a visual artist. I done a little bit of piano through high school and always loved music as a consumer but thats all it was until I moved to Glasgow. I think that, not even  just creatives, but all adolescents are forced into choosing a practice or medium there expected  to dedicate their lives to. It’s an unrealistic and unhealthy pressure to force onto someone when  their minds, bodies and ideas are still developing. I’m happy I was able to explore myself  creatively, I have quite an unruly nature and a deep, genuine curiosity about things. 

Where do you find your inspirations - outside of your own narratives - for your  creativity? 

The sacred people in my life! Silly things! It depends. One day I could be making a song about a deeply traumatic experience of love, and  then next I could making a song about airplanes. Random vibes. 

Thanks so much for your time in answering these, is there anything else you want  to say to the Polyester audience? 

Thank you for having me. <3

Words: Gina Tonic

TAAHLIAH is performing at FAIR PLAY festival this weekend, get your tickets here.