INTERVIEW + FEATURE: BIIANCO & Chong The Nomad - "Put You In The Kitchen"
BIIANCO & CHONG THE NOMAD ARE OUT OF THE KITCHEN AND INTO THE PRODUCERS CHAIR.
Intro by Trish Hosein & Interview by Fiona Grey I walk into her apartment and she is frantically printing out pictures of victims of police brutality. The ink starts to run out and their faces begin looking... blue. It is haunting.
This is a couple days into the nationwide unrest following the death of George Floyd, and the large protest she had been part of facilitating has been cancelled. The National Guard has been called in. We are angry and restless so we decide we need to do something, anything. It is decided that we will make a large sign to hold up in a Los Angeles intersection, making commuters pause to think about the lives these faces lived, and to hand out fliers concerning the upcoming LA City Council budget vote.
Gabby’s energy might appear to be frenetic but if you watch closely, it is laser focused. I watch her work wondering how we are going to make this sign and get out of here in the next 30 minutes. Curfew is early today. Then I realize, she just thinks faster than most people. She decides what she wants to do and simultaneously executes. She equips me and our comrades for the day with gloves and passes around a sharpie for writing emergency numbers on our forearms. She is a trained organizer, and I feel safe with her. We leave on time.
We find a corner - Sunset and Vine, with about 60 protesters already holding signs and intermittently chanting.
The large red sign that we spray painted with the words “Say Their Names” is unrolled and Gabby takes a small portable speaker to read the list. So many names. Too many names. Their faces on printer paper and glued on to the sign next to the command.
At a red light, Gaby directs us and our fellow protesters to wield the sign across to cross walk to disrupt traffic. After sitting through 3 green lights someone asks, “Where are we marching?” Gabby hesitates for a moment, and then, along with another trained organizer in the group, begins leading the way down Sunset.
We march for hours and dozens of people turns into hundreds. Hundreds into a thousand. One helicopter becomes two then three then four. Throughout, she opens up space for black protesters to speak and repeatedly reminds her white peers to shield their black and brown brothers and sisters from harm. If you are looking for what an ally looks like, it looks like Gabby Wortman aka BIIANCO.
Gabby recently released a new single and collaboration with Chong The Nomad, and Valley Doll’s Fiona Grey got to pick her brain on the release.
We’re VERY excited that ‘Put You In The Kitchen’ FT Chong the Nomad is coming out. We’re into the womxn anthem element to this song and the boss attitude it has. What can you tell us about how this track came to life?
Well, Chong and I were in the studio and wanted to create a track that really exemplified the way we feel the need to over prove ourselves as womxn producers sometimes. We also recognized the way that the kitchen has been culturally weaponized against womxn throughout history (as a metaphor for keeping us out of the workplace and in the home) so we kept coming back to that concept. For Chong, who has actually worked as a cook, it also took on a meaning of overcoming a day job for a passion. So we said fuck it and made an anthem for getting out of the kitchen and into the producers chair.
How was working with Chong the Nomad? Were the sessions virtual?
We actually got this song together last fall so the sessions took place in my home studio. It was super awesome and chill. She came to my spot when she was in town, we vibed, and we wrote / produced it. We did plan all the music video shots remotely during quarantine which equally a lot of phone calls to coordinate.
How has your passion of activism inspired music? Has your musical career supported the ways in which you plan on making a social impact?
I’m such an activist at heart that it sort of spills out into my art unintentionally. I am a queer woman and very involved in the community which means a lot of my expression tends to convey that culture. I’m also a womxn producer in an industry where over 90% of songs are produced by men so closing that wage and knowledge gap directly affects my career. As a cis white woman though, I’ve been learned to hold space and pick up the emotional burden of educating my cis white peers so others don’t have to. I’ve been working on new ways to do that with my career as well. 2020 is definitely a critical time for learning the meaning of support and activism.
I think that there’s a lot to being an artist that we don’t see publicly and fans don’t fully understand. If you had your own ‘Real Life of Biianco’ reality show what do you think fans would be most surprised about?
How many hours i spend staring at EQ graphs and compressors trying to make everything sound sexy as fuck :) producing music is inherently nerdy. I think they’d also be surprised by how much i do myself - from directing videos to producing my whole live show myself.
As an artist who has been paving your way in the industry for a good time how has your past projects and releases shaped the music you’re currently making?
All the things I’ve done up to this point have helped me hone the skills that are the Epicenter of my artistic expression and technical skills. All the art I’ve created to this point in my other projects has not only taught me what i want to create but also what I’d rather not. Clear artistic expression is knowing what not to do almost more than knowing what to do.
Let’s talk the next year - how are you planning on creating, releasing and staying sane in this new pandemic world?
I used this time to finish a debut full length which is in the 11th hour of completion. It comes jam packed with features and collaborations and I can’t wait to get it out into the world. I also plan on touring because holy hell do i miss it.
Any final plugs -
Put You In The Kitchen is my favorite music video to date and an invitation for you to take your Alice on a wild trip into the wonderland of my brain.
More about BIIANCO - HERE
INSTA - @itsbiianco
Intro by Trish Hosein & Interview by Fiona Grey