Village Raw - ISSUE 15

VILLAGE RAW
ART & CULTURE
Getting to know TaliaBle
The young multisensory artist with a colourful vision.
Words by Katrina Mirpuri. Photo by Casey Reddy.
22-year-old Tottenham born TaliaBle has
been making music for only two years but her
creative vision and thirst for words encapsulates
north London’s immense DIY scene.
We caught up one evening to talk about all
things music, colour and north London.
Where did you grow up?
I’m from near Bruce Grove and I’ve lived
there all my life. Like my mum has been
there for 40 years or so. I’ve never moved
and this is literally just my home town. I
filmed a recent music video in Broadwater
Farm, so I try and keep it local and I know all
the best places.
What are you studying at university?
Fashion communication. It’s storytelling
through visuals - so editorials, music videos,
film but you can even do sculpture and
illustration so it’s broad. It’s literally just creating
concepts and making it rooted within
fashion. So basically fine art for fashion.
That explains a lot, because your music
comes with visual artistry which is seen
throughout your music video work and
even social media. How did you create the
world of TaliaBle?
I interned for [fashion designer] Charles
Jeffrey and a production company, and I
really enjoyed it when I was there because
I was creating content decks for people’s
ideas and stuff. I like putting briefs together
and building ideas so I started doing that
with my music. People say that social media
isn’t real but it’s so real - and I treat it like a
business. It’s where I get opportunities and
it’s even helped me to build my persona.
Even when I post pictures, there’s a theme
and a certain style - it’s all very fantasy
based. Sometimes when people meet me
they’ll have a preconception that I’m really
boisterous but I’m really not!
I’m in love with overbearing visuals
and I like everything to be on top of each
other and love layers, so everything is kind
of boisterous and in your face. I work with
a bunch of people - usually with my friend
Sam who films my videos and Zack who
does all the CGI.
The music video for Muzzled Butterfly is
very psychedelic. Tell us more about how
you created it?
So there’s one part where I use green
screen and I was crawling on the floor and
that was put into a CGI environment. As
I mentioned before, I like to use layers so
there’s lots of visual layering too. Also with
the lyrics, I explore the area of overthinking
minds - things like anxiety, doubt. That’s
the undercurrent of every theme. I love
surrealist writing and word building.
How long does it take to create a music
video from start to finish?
It can vary. Muzzled Butterfly took two
weeks but it depends who you’re working
with. With Adorn, we filmed the whole video
as a demo, so going to locations and shooting
it as if it’s the real thing, sort of on the
day. The processes change depending on
the circumstance.
When did your creative journey start?
I’ve been making visuals since secondary
school and I’ve always written poetry, and
I’ve always kept diaries. That turned into
more serious poetry then one day I thought
“I’ve gotta make some music.” I never set
out to write lyrics, it’s always just been poetry
for me.
What gets your creativity flowing?
It’s quite basic. I just read poetry or if I feel
an emotion, it stimulates me. Even if a
friend tells me they’re feeling a certain way,
sometimes I will channel their perspective
and write something but it will be in this fantastical
world where their depression could
be a wall. It’s just putting those kinds of
topics in a surreal moving environment that
doesn’t exist but it’s kind of like a dream.
Who are your favourite poets?
I love Caleb Femi. He’s from Peckham and
the way he writes about the ends and estates
is so symbolic and beautiful. He’s
basically a roadman [of road culture] who
writes poetry, and it’s just so amazing - so
he’s one big inspiration at the moment. Kae
Tempest is also a huge inspiration.
Do you have plans to release more music?
For me, the goal is to release new music
every month then hopefully by summer I’ll
have one whole EP. I feel like I’ve been inconsistent
in terms of releasing because I
get caught up. I kind of spread myself thin
sometimes, and I get caught up with the
music and then doing visuals and there’s
not much balance. But I’ve now got like a
backlog of about 20 songs so I’m excited to
push it out one by one.•
For more information check out: @taliable
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