With DAMN GENESIS, BRIEL the Artist confronts all the pieces the world tried to erase or diminish—religion, queerness, vulnerability, and the murky truths that reside between therapeutic and hurt. On this full-length interview, he opens up in regards to the emotional and non secular labour behind the mission, from tearing down false identities to writing by temptation, grief, and charm.
Drawing from the richness of Black and queer tradition, his relationship with Jesus, and years of internal reckoning, BRIEL constructed one thing far deeper than a debut tape. He constructed an announcement. Should you’ve ever tried to reclaim a chunk of your self the world tried to disgrace, you’ll wish to hear what BRIEL has to say.
1. DAMN GENESIS appears like a robust declaration. What drew you to that title, and the way does it anchor the emotional and conceptual basis of the tape?
The title DAMN GENESIS got here from my religion in Jesus Christ. After giving my life to Him, I constructed a relationship the place I might carry all my ache, confusion, and errors to the altar. Whereas engaged on this mission, I discovered myself doing a number of internal therapeutic—telling tales I had saved buried inside. By means of prayer, I started to course of my previous, however I additionally struggled. I fell into temptation and sin whereas making an attempt to reside in a means that honored God. I felt misplaced, ashamed—damned by my very own habits. However even in that, I knew this was only the start. Not solely of my stroll with Christ, however of my objective, my voice, and my profession. That’s what DAMN GENESIS is—magnificence born from brokenness, and a daring begin rising from all the pieces I assumed would maintain me again.
2. You’ve spoken about burning down false identities to reclaim your energy—are you able to stroll us by what that deconstruction seemed like for you in your private life and the way it fuelled the artistic choices on this mission?
As a homosexual, Black man, I’ve needed to navigate a world that always decides who I’m earlier than I even converse. There have been so many stereotypes and assumptions positioned on me that, for a very long time, I felt like I needed to match into the bins others put me in—slightly than reside because the individual I really am in my coronary heart. That type of strain strips you of your id. However in looking for Christ, I discovered a deeper sense of objective and reality. It helped me begin specializing in who God says I’m, not who the world expects me to be. That shift pushed me to reclaim my voice, to be absolutely myself with out apology. Folks will at all times have one thing to say, even when they don’t know you from a can of paint—however God is aware of all of me, and that reality gave me the boldness to create from a spot of freedom, not worry.
3. There’s an depth in that twin theme of destruction and rebirth. How did you strategy shaping the sonics and lyrics to replicate that emotional push and pull?
That emotional push and pull got here straight from my lived expertise. Nothing about this mission was calculated—it was messy, unpredictable, and actual. I didn’t go in with an idea or construction. I simply began freestyling over beats I discovered on YouTube and jotting down no matter got here to me in my notes app. At some point I’d really feel like all the pieces was lastly coming collectively, and the subsequent I’d spiral—depressed, anxious, numbing the ache with weed, questioning if I ought to even proceed. At one level, I thought of turning the mission into a brief EP, or scrapping it altogether. However as a substitute, I let the music maintain house for all the pieces I used to be feeling—no plan, no strain, simply reality. That’s what gave it its emotional weight: it’s not polished ache—it’s lived-in, uncooked, and sincere.
4. From THE BLINDS to LADIES SONG, and now BLUR, there’s a transparent thread of peeling again layers. How has your relationship with vulnerability advanced throughout these singles, and what house did you attain inside your self to create DAMN GENESIS?
By means of these songs, my relationship with vulnerability shifted. I finished writing simply to specific ache—I began writing to course of it, to heal from it, and to attach. DAMN GENESIS grew to become an area the place I might lastly introduce myself as I’m: no masks, no filters. Simply the reality, in each shade it exhibits up in.
5. As a homosexual, Black artist from the Bronx, how have your roots and id carved out your path sonically? Do you’re feeling that DAMN GENESIS allowed you to specific that intersection extra freely or in a different way than earlier than?
DAMN GENESIS gave me a platform to specific the Queer group that lives inside me and round me. On the skit on the finish of CHEQUE, I drew inspiration from how overtly and playfully some homosexual males converse after they really feel secure with each other. In tracks like SITUATIONSHIP and BLUR, I take advantage of phrases like “bareback” and “backside”—phrases that maintain particular that means within the homosexual group, particularly in a sexual context. Together with them wasn’t for shock worth; it was about reflecting the language and reality of the world I come from. This mission gave me the liberty to be absolutely queer and expressive, to discover femininity with out dropping my masculinity—and to inform my story with out holding something again.
6. The Coming of the Yr Classes appears like greater than only a live performance sequence—it’s intimate and communal. How have these performances helped form your confidence, and has the viewers response fed into any of the alternatives you made whereas ending the tape?
I spotted {that a} reside present needs to be greater than only a replay of the studio model—it needs to be 100 occasions extra alive, extra uncooked, extra sudden. That’s after I actually understood the facility of efficiency. You possibly can have essentially the most unbelievable mission, but when the expertise doesn’t match the center you place into it, it received’t land the identical. These performances taught me that the true magic occurs once you take what you created in isolation and construct a world round it that your followers can step into. That’s the place the bond turns into actual.
7. This mission carries a heavy emotional weight, however there’s defiance in it too. Was there a second throughout its creation the place you realised you’d lastly mentioned what you wanted to say, with out compromise?
One other turning level got here with DANGEROUS. Years in the past, I went by a breakup that I by no means absolutely processed. I keep in mind catching my ex on Grindr, “internet hosting,” earlier than we had even formally ended issues. I saved it to myself—by no means spoke on it, simply pushed by. But it surely left a deep bruise. Although I’m in a loving relationship now, I knew I needed to revisit that second—not out of bitterness, however to launch it. Writing DANGEROUS let my internal teenager converse—the one who felt betrayed, who didn’t know the way to ask for closure. That tune helped me reclaim that second alone phrases, by my very own voice.
8. As you put together to launch DAMN GENESIS, what do you hope listeners will carry with them after listening to it from begin to end, particularly those that may also be navigating reclamation or reinvention in their very own lives?
My hope is that listeners discover not less than one tune that hits them so deeply, they wish to maintain it shut. I would like the music to satisfy them of their rawest place, to assist them course of one thing they won’t have had the phrases for earlier than. Whether or not it’s therapeutic an internal baby, going through an uncomfortable reality, or lastly feeling seen—I would like DAMN GENESIS to be that outlet. And later, after they come again to it, I hope they hear that very same tune in a different way—as a mirrored image of how far they’ve come.
This mission is about reclamation. Reinvention. Resilience. I simply need individuals to stroll away feeling like they discovered a chunk of themselves someplace in it.
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Uncover BRIEL the Artist on Spotify and study extra in regards to the artist through their official web site.
Interview by Amelia Vandergast