INTERVIEW: Ergo, Bria
With lyrics that cut right to the bone, and thrashing drums, explosive guitar riffs, and a cacophony of instruments to match, Ergo, Bria is a rock star poised to transform the genre. Her music is entirely revealing yet carefully constructed. It’s loose head-banging material, yet rife with musical references and complicated compositions. Stay with me while I stand firm in this declaration- she is the artist you are missing in your life right now. She is the one that you are currently searching for. Noisescape caught up with her to talk about her newly released single, “Can’t Wait” featuring In the Mourning, and her upcoming album, out later this month. Give this a read as you run (don’t walk) to her spotify page.
Your new song is called “Can’t Wait” featuring In The Mourning. Can you talk about the inspiration behind this song?
Musically, I really don’t know what happened there. I have been on a drop D kick playing guitar, and I have been writing a bunch of songs in drop D. All of a sudden, this fun jumpy tune just happened. I was like “oh that sounds really fun.” Lyrically, and around the whole song, I was going through a lot. It’s almost been a year since I wrote the song - I wrote it right around when I was opening for Kenny Hoopla. I was in the process of trying to graduate but I was also playing in front of 2k people for a pop-rock showcase happening at my school. I was just dealing with a lot of things coming my way, and I wasn’t handling it well at all. Everybody thought I was handling it well but I was not doing well mentally. I was like “everythings fine and I am going to keep on going and run myself into the ground- but it’s all worth it because I’m doing great and I’m making amazing stuff.” So the lyrics came from that mindset - a point where I was literally going crazy. I was like “I can do everything!” even though I couldn’t and I ended up burning myself out completely. That is the undertone of the song. It was just me being completely overwhelmed and trying to convince myself that I’m okay when in reality, I am getting so burnt out that I can’t even think straight.
Who are your musical inspirations? Are there any artists who inspire your sound/this song?
My main musical inspiration is The 1975. When it comes to their music, I kind of use them as a crutch because I love the way they do all these different genres - especially on their first album. But other than that, though probably subconsciously, I am using other things as inspiration, lots of the stuff I make comes directly from my brain. For my upcoming album, there’s this band called betcover!! They just came out with a new album and I absolutely love them so much. They’re a Japanese band that has just blown up and they’re just so good. They are also such a huge fusion of things - there’s piano, flute, guitar in their music - in the [upcoming] album there will be parts of that. I listen to a lot of metalcore too. I feel like a lot of my melodic stuff comes from metalcore. Crown the Empire - that’s a band that I love and have been inspired by.
You are a master of genre fusion. The way you play with genre in your work - is this an intentional choice that you make when you write your songs, is it inspired by artists you listen to or does it come naturally to you due to your robust musical background?
It’s very intentional, you’ll notice that on the album. I literally jump from jazz to classical to rock to everything in between. I want this whole project to be “you’ll never know what you’re gonna get- life is like a box of chocolates.” Of the artists I listened to as a child, I started out with gospel music, then I went straight into classical - to Bach. That’s where I picked up everything piano wise- which I do have quite a few piano songs on the album. I gradually ventured off and I started getting into scene, emo, all of that fun stuff in middle school. I was also into Kpop. So I listened to everything. I feel like my music is a reflection of everything I’ve listened to.
You are very open about a wide range of topics in your music. How do you approach songwriting? Is there anything off limits/too personal for you to share?
There are some things that are too personal to share. That’s why those songs often sound happy. The happy songs are always the ones where I am like “I literally can’t do life right now.” Like “Plethora,” one of my most played songs. is about me feeling outcasted at an all white school, being the only black person in the class, and just having to deal with being outcasted in this way. In general, I get very overwhelmed - I just recently got diagnosed with very bad anxiety. So all that kind of stuff - it definitely reflects in my music. Songs like “Dogs” for example, that is a very angry song that is clearly about Roe V. Wade. I wanted it to be very clear- so that’s why I was like “oh you’re a sexist pig and a trained dog.”
Has making music helped you deal with your anxiety?
I feel like making music helps me cope with it but that’s something I still deal with on my own. My anxiety actually peaks when I have band practice- it stresses me out so much. Lots of people I’ve met have been in bands before and I do everything in my room, so having to branch out and meet all these new people and do all these new things -it was a really big learning curve for me. But I’m working on it and I’m doing well with the anxiety I feel, even though it’s heavy.
What is something that we can expect on your new album that is different from the music that you have released in the past?
There’s a lot of things that you guys probably wouldn’t expect, mainly genre wise. I have some songs about certain things that I haven’t written about before. I have one song about my anxiety called “Crash and Burn” (but nobody has really listened to that one). I have another one that’s actual metal-core, featuring some really cool bands like A-OK and Open Casket Wedding. That’s another thing about the album - it’s featuring a lot of cool artists that I'm super excited to share this art with. I feel like one thing that people might not expect, like you asked earlier if the genre fusion is intentional - in the album it shows that it is very intentional. The way [the album] jumps from an indie song to a sad, soppy piano song to straight up thrash.
How important is sequencing for you when putting together an album, considering all the different genres that you incorporate into it?
It is quite important. My friend has gotten onto me about this because I used to be a single listener. I only listened to individual songs and I never listened to albums as a whole, which is probably part of the genre thing. But I literally have gone through the album I don’t know how many times, just making sure everything feeds into each other well. I think I did a good job of it. It is important, but at the same time, since the genres jump a lot, it’s going to be a little jarring. But a good type of jarring. Like “oh my god that just happened.”
You worked with In The Mourning on this song. What was it like working with them?
They are absolutely amazing. Amanda from In The Mourning is such a lovely lovely person. I ended up hitting them up because last year, they asked me to be a part of their remix on “If he wanted to he would,” which is an amazing song, I absolutely love it so much and I was super honored to be on it. Also, I was supposed to tour with them last year but I wasn’t able to. Amanda is such a hardworking person - she is a wonder woman. So I asked her if she wanted to feature on this song. I was so sad about not being able to tour and I felt like this was the best way to connect with them. She was like “yeah, I love this song, it's absolutely amazing.” So she featured on it. Working with her was super easy, super fun and she added several twists to it, gave really good ideas, and good pointers.The band as a whole is so good, they’re so talented.
What is the biggest challenge you have encountered as an independent artist?
There are a lot. I will start off with this - you always have to deal with so many “no’s”; that’s the whole industry. But I feel like as a woman in the rock scene, you’re not taken as seriously as others. That’s been super hard for me. When I first started booking shows, I would send out very professional emails with stats, all the people I could bring out to the show, everything that you would want, and I would not get a single answer from anyone. And then, I started putting a man’s name at the end of the same exact email. Immediate responses. That’s the moment when I was like “wow.. people aren’t taking me seriously.” Because I would have the same pitch with me in the email as Ergo, Bria, and it would just go so much smoother with me in there as a man. So I would say that’s a pretty big thing for me. Especially in Nashville there’s not many people like me in the rock scene, even in other scenes - people aren’t looking at me. I think that’s a hard thing - having to deal with the no’s and having to deal with people judging you beforehand. But you just have to deal with them. I feel like if you just keep on trying, eventually you’ll get somewhere and I think that’s a good thing - you just can’t give up. Eventually you’re gonna meet the right people. Eventually you’re gonna get the things you’ve been striving to get.
Is there anything you can tease about your future plans?
For the album I have a music video coming out so that’s very fun. I don’t have any plans for tour right now because I also just got a 9 to 5, so I have to pause the shows for a while which I’m sad about. But there will be a tour eventually, whether it’s playing for someone or just me going out on my own. I will be playing some festivals in different states though. So that’s something to look forward to.
WHERE TO FIND ERGO, BRIA
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