Artist Feature: Gilanares
BY EMILY KOBREN
Boston-based artist Gilanares writes unapologetically honest lyrics about the world around her, allowing her to connect to her listeners through a unique yet familiar sound. Her debut album, Suburban Nightmare, was released in October of 2021 and is a candid look into her experiences growing up in an American suburb, dealing with “what makes us uncomfortable and human.” More recently, Gilanares has found success on TikTok through captivating sound clips and a carefully curated dramatic aesthetic. I recently had the chance to sit down with Gilanares, also known as Briana Gil, to talk about her upcoming music, identity as an artist, and social media success.
Photo By: Emily Kobren
When and how did you start making music?
I guess I technically started doing music stuff in, like, middle school, but I didn't really start taking writing seriously until high school. But I still didn't show anybody or tell anybody about it– I was just writing consistently throughout high school on my own. And then my senior year, I realized that I wanted to be a musician and it was pretty stressful. And so I eventually ended up talking to my parents about it and I transferred into the music industry program my freshman year at Northeastern, and then from there it just kind of took on a life of its own because I started posting on Tik Tok. I didn't even know if I would be able to pursue songwriting. But TikTok was cool, because it was the first thing that gave me any layer of confidence, and a public setting. It was the first actual, “oh my gosh, there's other random people wanting to hear me write songs.” And then I met Emma* and it all just became a lot more real within the past year. But yeah, I guess it started sixth grade, if we want to go all the way back.
*Emma Tatum, Briana’s current manager.
So you found a lot of success online, especially through social media like Tik Tok, which has sparked a lot of interest in the music industry lately. What is your impression of the relationship that musicians have with TikTok?
It genuinely does feel like some type of monster… it's good to be friends with them. Or it's the enemy, you know? Where it's stressful to have to feed the content beast all the time. But it's also one of the only apps that allows you to get crazy exposure in a way that hasn't been accessible to the average person before. And I know that a lot of musicians and just people who write songs in their room, they appreciate that. But it's also kind of insane how there's specific ways to be palatable on that app. And it feels very confining sometimes. And even when I'm posting now and editing videos, or thinking about videos, I'm like, “Oh, should I make it shorter? Like how can I make it more like, more like attention grabby”... because you feel like you're fighting amongst all these other videos and the algorithm to get people's attention, which is really bleak. But again, that type of exposure just wasn't accessible before.
Explain the origins of the name Gilanares (gil-luh-nare-ez) and what it means to you.
The name Gilanares comes from my grandmother’s last name Gil-linares. When she moved to the US from the Dominican Republic, it was shortened to Gil. So my artist name pays homage to her and my family name.
Photo by: Emily Kobren
Your latest album, Suburban Nightmare was released in October of last year. Have people's reactions surprised you at all?
It actually did surprise me like how many people relate to hating suburbia. I knew that me and my group of friends growing up really did not like living there, but it seemed like everybody else in our town was such a fan of growing up in suburbia and I just did not get it. But after releasing the album, it's been really cool to learn that other people had a similar experience to me and my friends… The other thing that surprised me was that nobody from my high school really made any negative comments on it or, you know, talked any shit or whatever, which was surprising– even some of them were supportive, which was really cool, but I know that that those were probably the people who also did not like growing up there. But I lowkey did expect people to be like talking some type of shit and they haven't to my face. So that's what's important.
Your music focuses a lot on societal issues of passionate and evocative lyrics. What inspires this lyricism?
Rage. At first, I was kind of just going off of my inspirations. So I was writing love songs, breakup songs… Once I started using music to talk about my opinions on everything, I started realizing that it was a tool. It was like a way of getting people to listen to me. I'm able to put my opinions into a concise and clever format, instead of just rambling the way I would with a friend. So I think that now it revolves around societal stuff because I have opinions and a lot of personal emotions about that. One thing though, is that lately, I've been trying to get away from writing about societal things in a big picture way– with “American Entitlement,” for example, I'm taking on the voice of the like, the bad guy or whatever. It's a very big picture song, where I'm not really talking about my personal involvement with that issue. I feel like the songs that I've been writing lately are very personal. And it's very much about how I personally feel affected by certain things. And I feel like that's a lot more relatable sometimes. And that's a lot more evocative. When people can personally relate to being affected by something is when I feel like a conversation can really start.
Tell us about your writing process and how you go from idea to finished song.
Honestly, it’s not really the same every time. But I usually start out with some lyrics– I'll think of one lyric in my head that I really like. And then from there, I'll try to come up with some type of chord progression. Most of my songs are just my inner monologue doing its thing. But I just make it run. It really feels like it's all in one go, unless I get to a point in the song where I'm kind of brain dead and I'll pick back up later. But even after I pick it back up later, I'm still continuing that monologue. It feels like it’s all in one go, unless I get to a point where I feel like I need to pick it back up later– even then it feels like I’m continuing that monologue.
Photo by: Emily Kobren
What have you been listening to lately?
Oh, god. Okay, that's a great question. Oh, I've been listening to the inspo playlist that we made for the album that we're about to record. Let's see. “Maybe This Time” from Cabaret– so specific, but I fucking love that song. “Creep” by Radiohead. Some Nirvana, marry gold, and dumb. And then oh, “Freefall” by Rainbow Kitten Surprise was fun grace on forever, Alex G. We've been listening to “505” by Arctic Monkeys, “Mariner’s Apartment Complex” by Lana Del Rey. “Thursday,”, Holly Humberstone. Emma showed me that song. That's basically the vibes.
Speaking of recording, you've got some new music on the way you've been most recently uploading demos on SoundCloud. Tell us some more about that and what else you have planned?
The demos on SoundCloud are cool because they're low stakes. We're kind of just getting stuff out there and getting the ball rolling again because I had taken a break from TikTok and everything since we released Suburban Nightmare in October. We promoted that, but since then we've kind of been just doing our own stuff behind the scenes. I had a bunch of songs like that I had just done nothing with. And I wanted to do something with these songs… specific ones felt like if we worked on them, we can make them a lot better. And so that's what I started doing with my guitarist. And then from there, I've just been posting those. But it's really more of just dipping our toes back in the moment, instead of full release mode. But while the demos are being put out, we're recording this new album that has 11 tracks on it. It's something I wrote almost a year ago and I've just been sitting on it for a while. It's some of my favorite pieces of writing that I've ever done. And I just really want to get it out there... we want to execute it properly. But I think that we're finally in the stage of doing it now. That's that's the plan.
Do you have any upcoming shows? And what is your favorite part about performing live?
Photo by: Emily Kobren
We do have some upcoming shows. We have one on March 25th at the Lily Pad, and then April 22nd at the Cantab Lounge, both in Cambridge. I guess my favorite thing about performing is how it feels to deliver the lines that I've written. I see myself first and foremost as a songwriter, very Taylor Swift of me, but she resonates with me so much because of how much that is the most important part of her identity. I always knew that I wanted to write the songs, but I didn't know if I wanted to be the one performing them. And even when I first started posting on Tik Tok, and getting any type of attention, I still kind of felt weird about it. Because I was like, “if I was actually asked to be a real musician, and perform right now, I wouldn't be able to.”. But we started doing some open mics and stuff. It was really just about getting me on the stage. I wasn't fully able to appreciate performing when I was forcing myself to do it… but the last show that we did made me realize how much I love it because it allows me to deliver the lines in the way that I feel like they're written because I'm the one who wrote them. I don't know who else would sing the songs because I have such a specific way of wanting them to be delivered. My favorite thing about performing them is that I get to execute that vision. My other favorite thing is that performing has made me realize how much I actually am inspired by musical theater, because I feel like even when I perform now, when I'm more genuine on the stage, me being more genuine is me being more dramatic. So that's fun for me. I love getting on a stage now and just being super expressive.
Did you do theater in high school?
I did not do theater in high school. But I was obsessed with musical soundtracks. I've been really into musicals from birth, because my parents also would just take me to plays growing up in New York. And I feel like musicals were the first place where I was really able to appreciate perfect rhyming and lyricism. It scratched the itch in my brain. Once I got into like…, middle school, high school, I was always listening to soundtracks from different musicals like Heathers and Waitress. When I'm performing my own songs, I really feel that I'm doing it in the same way that I would dramatically sing a Heathers song. I would dramatically reenact it while forcing my friends to listen. That's what I do with my own songs now, which is kind of fun. It's very healing for my inner child.
This question is a fun one. If you could collaborate with any other artist, who would it be?
Can they be dead?
Yeah, why not?
Okay, honestly, I'm not even like the biggest Nirvana fan, but probably Kurt Cobain. Or, or Amy Winehouse. I feel like those are two artists that really resemble actual artists to me, actual musicians. I feel like the industry kind of ate them alive a little bit. Those are two people that when I think of them, I'm like, “that's an actual fucking musician.”. Kurt Cobain really impacts me because I feel like he is controversial and outspoken in the way that I am. I just feel like he was a super down-to-Earth artist. I always say this when I talk about him, but my mom cried when he died. My mom doesn't even seem like the type of person that would even enjoy Kurt Cobain. She's very structured, you know, put together. But she cried when he died. He has a certain place in my brain and my heart because of that. And then, Amy Winehouse wasn't even necessarily controversial or anything. But she was just so into her music. And that's all she needed to do. It didn't even seem like she wanted the fame that came with it that badly. She could have just been playing at clubs for the rest of her life and been content. But the industry ate her alive. It's really sad. But those are two people that I would love to work with in any type of way because they are actual artists to me.
What's the difference between artist and musician to you?
I feel like they're two very separate things. An artist is somebody that has the product, they have the music, but they also have the vision and a brand attached to it. And that's all in their head. Like even with Amy Winehouse… her whole aesthetic, the way that she dressed, her whole vibe. She had that in her head and then she executed it, and that's an artist to me. And a musician is just someone who writes the songs or plays the instrument. But I think that vision is what makes an artist.
Photo by: Emily Kobren
