Briar Blakley: Creating a World of Her Own

Briar, the Mississippi-born and raised singer-songwriter, never wants to fit the mold. Blending alternative and electronic music with her soulful church background, she hopes to build a niche, intimate community that gets into her world. “I grew up in church. At a very young age, my mom pushed me to lead the choir. At that point, I’m five and not really singing, but then eventually this little voice started to kind of take shape and she's like okay we might have something here.”

From then on, her parents would continue to pour into and help cultivate her sound through the church. “All of my musical insight, and kind of like what propelled me to artistry, was developed in the church. I didn't realize just how influenced I was, even in the music I make today, which is more secular.” 

By teaching her how to play piano, the church helped her pay attention to how emotions were shaped through music with instruments and chord progressions like drummers, bassists, and keyboard players. 

It wasn’t until starring on “The Voice” that she began learning how to shape and discover her own sound. “That TV show was a lesson within itself. It was super surreal, and after being eliminated, that's where I was like, okay, who am I as an artist, and what do I like?” 

From there, Pandora helped shape her music taste. She discovered a world of electronic-alternative, indie music. Listening to artists like Active Child, Tame Impala, and Blood Orange.  “Something about it just kind of moved me in a way where I became a production-first listener. I would listen to producers and beat makers and people that kind of were in the instrumental world, like the Kaytranadas of the world.”

On the path of discovering her own style, she spent time learning production on her own, collaborating with friends in Mississippi and New York while keeping fun at the center of it all. “I was all over the place, just having fun, making stuff. A lot of it didn't see the light of day, but I did actually make a really cool album.” Her first album, ‘March Badness,’ was a collaboration between her and producer Will Pope, released during her sophomore year of college. While she would describe it as more pop now, it was her first shot at leaning into the world of creating alternative music. “I would go to class [and] try to do my best to focus. But at night, I'm like, we're in the studio, like we're at his house, somebody's house, working on this album.” 

Her sound now is a mix of everything she loves, from the smoothness of R&B and the gospel to the movement of house and electronic. Her sound will never be easily defined. “I wouldn’t say I’m genreless, but I try not to limit myself and stay in that alternative space.” There's always going to be this element of soul there. It's just my unique spin on it. So I'm really excited to continue down that path and then share with the world where I am musically.

The sci-fi-inspired artist spends time merging the scientific with feelings of romance and longing that can be heard in her latest single Server Farm. “Server Farm was inspired by a picture I saw of a Google server farm while studying digital media strategies. I was fascinated by the idea of data collection and imagined it romantically, like being trapped in someone's mind or memories.” 

Server Farm, a twist of dark fantasy and romance laced with the ideas of longing and being disregarded, will accompany three other songs on her latest EP, RAM or Random Access Memory, which aims to continue exploring these themes in a small package. 

“Then the other songs on there, like there's one upbeat song called More Than Friends. Again, just exploring the nature of romantic relationships and how they can be. It could be a good thing that can be toxic and then become a bad thing, you know?” 

Releasing her new EP did not come without struggle. Her chronic overthinking, accompanied by the reality of life, has hindered her from releasing music in the past. “Ram, it's a short project, but it was important for me not to overthink it anymore and just release it to the world. I've been trying to balance working full-time jobs and focusing on music, so life in general just sometimes gets in the way, but I've been in a space lately where I'm just kind of trusting my gut intuition and literally pouring myself into my work, lyrics, production.”

With her music, her goal is to build and cultivate an intimate and niche community, providing a unique experience through her music. “I like when people just are like, ‘hmm, what is this?’ and then kind of get into my world, get into my head, and then bring people into my space. I'm not a super take the whole stage projecting out to the crowd [performer]. I'm more of an intimate performer, and I try to lean into that and bring people into my space. I do have those moments where I'm engaging the crowd, but for the most part, it's a very intimate, heartfelt performance. Same with me recording music, and that's what I hope people experience.”

Briar doesn't just want to transport her audience to another world, but she also wants to define a genre for herself. By blending the music of her childhood with the sounds of adulthood, she's on the way to being a pioneer for a new generation of musicians.