The highest I felt was when I started making music and talking about myself and my feelings and experiences for the first time, turning my pain into something positive. It’s inspired me to go deeper into that time.” The response from many of your younger fans who were going through similar was overwhelming… “I do feel like I’m more comfortable now with letting fans into more real-life issues that have happened to me. Sometimes, I do still feel like that little girl hiding from people. I’m already resilient and thick-skinned but I experienced something really cruel, and I wanted to have a place where I could go and unpack these things so I could fully evolve into the adult version of myself. I felt I needed to be more equipped to deal with them. “I started therapy just a few months ago because I realised that I didn’t want those memories to keep affecting me.
#Bree runway missy elliott skin
I bleached my skin and ended up having to have professional treatment to repair all the damage it had done. I was bullied a lot for being the darkest girl in class and once I discovered skin lightening creams, I decided that I was going to get rid of my dark skin. I tried to erase my darkness when I was growing up. “It was my biggest fear revisiting that time. Was it difficult revisiting that time? Did looking back help you to deal with those issues more? Your second EP, ‘Be Runway’, sees you emotively exploring the bullying you experienced at school. Eventually, it just became more apparent to me that music was a calling and I decided to go for it.” I was so scared to show my talent because of how I was made to feel growing up: it was the biggest obstacle I had to overcome. That reminded me of school and how much I got bullied. When you make music, there’s a chance you get famous there’s a chance you get seen and that exposes you to everyone saying whatever they want about you.
But it was always a fear thing when it came to me thinking about pursuing this as a full-time career. “I got to a point where I started to wonder about what else I loved as much as this and there wasn’t anything. It taught me a lot about being a self-sufficient, DIY artist who knew exactly what kind of sound she wanted. Later on, I bought a £200 home studio set-up with my first pay cheque and I recorded my first ever EP, ‘RNWY 01’, entirely at home. Music technology was the only subject I cared about: it taught me the basics of music production and I started making beats and freestyling with my friends. “In school I was interested in music, but I never saw myself being a musician at that point. They weren’t afraid to get ugly for their art, and that kind of non-conformity drives what I do.” When did you start making music? When these guys performed, they gave a major middle finger to the industry and didn’t give a fuck. It was through MTV that I started discovering artists like Lil’ Kim, Britney Spears, Madonna, Missy Elliott, Pharrell, Kelis, The Neptunes: those artists helped me to evolve my sound into what it is today. My dad was a drummer and would always have music on around the house. “Artists from my native Ghana got me into music and genres like High Life, that my dad would play constantly. I’m always asked if I’m a soul singer and I say, ‘No, actually, I make very in-your-face, destructive pop that is all genres and everything at once.’ I try to study a genre I don’t really listen to on a day-to-day-basis because there is honestly inspiration everywhere: it’s best to go digging in places you don’t normally go.
#Bree runway missy elliott Pc
It’s pop, trap, dance, R&B, rock, PC music - hell, it’s even sometimes country music too! Black women in music are always expected to sing R&B or soul: we are always boxed in. How would you describe your sound?īree Runway: “It’s genre-bending and genre-fluid. NME: Your music has earned you a cult following online because of its varied and fearless style. NME caught up with Bree to talk about her challenging start to music, the process behind writing her brand of “destructive pop” and how she learned that Missy Elliott was a big fan of hers in the middle of the night.
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