1. Hi Brie! Please introduce yourself to those who might not know you. 
I usually just say I’m a multidisciplinary artist, but my friends introduce me as a creative hurricane. I’m a musician, performer, and songwriter first and foremost, but I am also an artist and author. It's challenging to introduce yourself that way because people often prefer one clear category or box to identify you with. However, I love the quote by Dorothee Sölle: “The best women I know refuse the either/or.” I think my driving value is the desire to express what’s in me in every possible creative and erotically enlivening way, inspiring and enlightening others to do the same.

I grew up overseas in Madrid, Spain, which I still consider my home culture and language, but I currently live in Grand Rapids, MI—one of the coolest and best-kept secrets in the Midwest. The key to this crazy song of mine is the fact that I have two kids, the most magical creatures on the planet (I’m biased), who are at the center of everything I do and create.
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2. How did your connection with Shira and Gritty In Pink come about? 
I had the pleasure of meeting Shira in February 2023 when I was in LA for Grammy week. My manager, Jen Fodor, introduced us at a party, and I was really inspired by everything Shira has built, as well as her commitment to advocating for equality in the music industry by protecting, elevating, and increasing our visibility as women in the industry.

A study came out earlier this year, conducted by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, which showed that women still make up only 35% of the industry—we're talking producers, performers, engineers, managers.  
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3. What's it like to be a part of the effort to create a supportive community for a set of diverse women in the music industry? 
It's wild to me that we're in 2024 and this is still the reality—and we, as female artists, see and feel it all the time! I recently saw a festival lineup where, after removing all the male performers, there were literally only 8 female-fronted acts out of over 50 performers. We hear it from bookers who say, "No, we already have a couple of girl bands, sorry." It's nuts!

And that’s not even mentioning the amount of gender bias we deal with every day in the industry, from the condescending and patronizing comments we hear regularly from sound engineers, label execs, or fellow musicians.

This is part of why it's been so important for me to have a female manager. I didn’t want to have to fight this battle both internally and externally. But it's also why I've worked within my own community to protect, elevate, and support local female-fronted bands.

One winter solstice, I gathered all the female musicians in my city at my house to help foster a sense of community and support, and honestly, it has been such a life-giving bond for us. We call ourselves the Coven. We have a group text thread and get together whenever we can. It has been immeasurably helpful to have each other to collectively process the challenges we face in the industry, as well as celebrate the hell out of every win together.
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4. When did you first realize you wanted to pursue a career in music? Was there a specific person or influence that made you recognize being an entertainer was your dream?
It's kind of funny, but I talk about this in my book: I told my mom I wanted to be a star at age 3. She asked me what I meant, and I said something about standing in front of everyone and having them love you and clap for you. It would be easy to dismiss that statement as just wanting attention, but for me, art was always about the art of relating—about the connection and relationship that beauty creates.

I didn’t actually start writing songs until I was 14, when I was processing the heartbreak of moving again, shortly after moving away from Spain. Once I realized the power of processing my pain in a way that turned the tender places in my heart into something beautiful, I was hooked. Music became my medicine, and it has been ever since.

In terms of influences, they came predominantly from my mother’s taste in music. She was a '70s wildflower hippie child, so I inherited her love of Fleetwood Mac and Neil Young. Both were huge influences on my music. Then, in the '90s, I discovered Mazzy Star when people kept referencing her after hearing my music, and Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star's lead singer) quickly became another inspiring figure as I cultivated my own sound.
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5.  You have a new EP, Like A Man, coming out on October 11. What can fans expect from it? What direction or sound are you exploring this time around? 
‍"Like A Man" is a small teaser for my new album, which will be out next year. The album centers around the formative experiences I had while living in Los Angeles in the early 2000s. Both sonically and lyrically, I feel like I’m revealing the confidence, swagger, and zero-fucks era that I’ve finally grown into in my own skin and life. There’s an unapologetic frankness in how and what I’m saying, and I’m very proud of it—it’s not easy to be this honest.

Musically, my longtime friend and producer David Vandervelde (FJM) and I have hit a real sweet spot in our collaboration, with a shared vision that's incredibly clear. You can hear the '70s classic rock and '90s indie rock influences in this new music so much more, but there's also something that feels utterly and uniquely mine that’s emerging.

"Like A Man" is the single for this EP, but I think the rest of the songs are absolute gems. For the first time, I feel I’m able to fluidly present all the different parts of myself to the world: the driven, fierce, confident side, as well as the tender, vulnerable, feminine side. I especially feel that vulnerable strength comes through in songs like "Wendy Lady," which still makes me cry every time I perform or hear it.
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6.You have a new art collection called 'Unknowing' that is being exhibited in Grand Rapids. What was the inspiration behind the art, and what does it mean to you to have it showcased in your hometown?
It's so surreal to finally be sharing this part of myself. I’ve been working on this collection for three years, so in many ways, it feels like a visual album.

It is a ten-piece, abstract, multimedia collection of acrylic and plaster on canvas (ranging in size from 4'x5' to 30"x40") that traces my journey of "Unknowing" over the past several years since the pandemic, when I decided to leap into the uncertainty of becoming a full-time musician and artist. Central to the whole collection is the feminine figure. The collection depicts the gates, weapons, and internalized stories that I’ve worked to transcend, as well as the power of my own creativity, which has helped me reclaim my erotic freedom and agency.

The plaster—a memory from my childhood in Spain and the Carnaval festivals—represents both the freedom to choose the shape of one’s own becoming and the symbolism of plaster as a healing substance, used to reset what is broken.

I absolutely cried when I saw them all up in the space, and I’m sure it will hit me hard on Thursday when I share that special moment with my city. I can’t say enough about my hometown of Grand Rapids or the amazing creative community I’m a part of here. Even though my art business partner initially suggested showing this work in LA or NY first, I was very clear that I wanted it to be shown here first.
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7.  Back in August, you announced the pre-order for your upcoming book Turned On, which is set to release on January 7. Can you share what inspired you to write it, and what message you hope readers will take away from it?
I wrote this book as my answer to how and why I have chosen to live a life devoted to love, in service to creativity, to more-ness, and in reverence to the unknown. It is the secret behind every smile, song, and sigh of hope-filled pleasure I’ve uttered in my music, art, and life.

For far too long, we have relegated the erotic to the bedroom, when in reality, it is a fundamental energy that helps us connect more deeply with ourselves, each other, the earth, and the creative potential within us. We also live in a world that equates productivity with worth, leaving us overtaxed, exhausted, burned out, and completely disconnected from ourselves and others.

In Turned On, I redefine the erotic, asserting that it is more than just human intimacy; it can be the antidote to feeling anxious, disconnected, and uninspired. By reframing Eros as the energy of life and creativity itself, I’m inviting us all to reawaken presence, playfulness, and possibility as gateways to transformation.

Just as good sex is contingent upon the right context, good communication, and embodied presence, I’m offering a similar contextual shift and the tools needed to access creativity through the body and in the present moment. I explore how the erotic has been minimized and misunderstood in modern life, and then I offer practical applications of how an erotically enlivened life is a creatively fulfilling one, in which our relationships, parenting, work, and creativity flourish. For those of us who yearn for life to be more inspired, adventurous, and sensual, I hope Turned On helps reignite that spark in all of us!

8. As both a musician and an author, how do these two creative outlets influence each other? Do you find writing music taps into a different part of your creativity compared to writing a book?
Yes! This is why I’m so appreciative of having these different expressions, including my paintings. I feel it's really healthy for me to be able to explore multiple forms of expression so I don’t become overly identified with any one of them. It helps me stay in a place of flow and openness, where I feel like I’m seducing the muse rather than demanding one singular outcome.

Because music has been so central to me as an artist, when I was writing my book, I felt just like I do when I’m working on an album: I focused on devotion (not discipline), which is a much more erotic way to create. I woke up at 4 a.m. every day for a month and a half, and it felt like I was meeting a secret lover.

I definitely think the writing of this book influenced my next album (two songs from which are previewed in Like A Man) because lyrically, I’ve never been prouder of what I’m expressing and how I’m doing it. I think getting fully "naked" in my book helped me disrobe in the same way in my music.
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9. If your life were a movie, what would the title be, and who would play you?
That’s a great question. It would probably be Unknowing, since that’s both the name of my podcast and because befriending uncertainty is such a core value for me. I’m always saying in the podcast or in my book that in life, love, and art, we have to let go of what we think we know to make room for what could be—and damn it, it’s true! I wish it wasn’t so uncomfortable to live with that kind of courage. So yes, Unknowing would be the movie. And to play me? Jesus, I don’t know. Maybe Jennifer Lawrence… I’d want someone who could pull off the humor and the sheer "what the fuck-ery" of my life.
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10. If you could pick any album to be the soundtrack of your life, which one would it be and why?
Hope Sandoval’s “Bavarian Fruit Bread” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk” both resonate deeply with me. I think with Hope, there is an unapologetic eroticism that captures so much of how I’m trying to center pleasure, playfulness, and embodied presence as gateways to my own creative freedom.

With Tusk, there are just some songs on that album that will forever encapsulate the tension of being a tender-hearted, sensitive woman in a world of men. “Storms” feels like a theme song for my life.
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11.What’s a personal achievement or milestone from this past year that you’re proud of?
I’m really proud of the courage I’m choosing to live with. I wanted a life of courage and creativity, not a life of certainty and safety. I try to remind myself of that daily when I’m scared about how to make all this crazy work or how to survive in a world that doesn’t really pay its artists. But I feel proud when I see my kids—how kind, thoughtful, creative, and brave they are. They’ve witnessed the creative leaps I’m taking in a more visceral and intimate way than anyone else.

My son, Søren, came to me earlier this year when my album came out and said, “Mom, I’m so proud of you. You're doing so much, and you’re living your dream with all this art… and you work so hard. I’m just really proud of you.” I still tear up thinking about that moment, and honestly, I’ll never forget it.

There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for those creatures, but the thing I’m proudest of is that I’m being my full self for them and being brave in choosing to be fully alive as a maker, lover, and mother.

12. What’s next?
Everything. I’m thinking of that poem by David Whyte when he says, “Everything is waiting for you.” Honestly, I still feel that. I think I have dozens of albums, art shows, and more books in me. I can feel them burgeoning inside me like little seeds. So, I’m going to keep going! I want to do this until I die. Art is a gift, and I want to respond to the gift of this life by giving myself away in every possible way.


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