Project Description
.
.
Interview with
BERNIE, GABBY and TAY
from
H3RIZON
(23rd August 2021)
Interview by Dave Bruce
.
H3RIZON // Photo Credit: Corinne Anquetil-Morgan
.
Have you always wanted to be a musician? When did you start writing music?
Bernie: I began exploring music at the age of 8, starting with taking lessons in instrumental music. For some reason, taking singing lessons was my last preference because I LOVE singing. Maybe I was too scared I wasn’t good enough for it! But I’m glad I eventually got to it because it helped me get through my gigging career at local events, competitions, and charities. I cultivated my singing while attending Newtown High School of the Performing arts, and immersed myself in choral and a cappella music. I even joined the Chamber choir during my attendance at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. It was there that I also discovered my passion for music production and songwriting. My musical journey led me to forming H3rizon with two other talented women, and now I’m lucky to be able to pursue a career that involves everything I’ve learnt and love about music and performing.
Gabby: My love for music began when I started singing lessons at the age of 7 and piano lessons at the age of 9. Over the years I’ve performed in various competitions, eisteddfods and also supported at charities, local and cultural events. I attended the Conservatorium High School from 2014-2019, where I became more involved in classical music both academic and in performance, given opportunities to perform as a soloist, in the Senior Chamber Choir and was also a member of the Sydney Children’s Choir. In the midst of this, I met the girls through an exciting opportunity to become a cover band without anticipating our rebranding as H3rizon. I’ve always had a passion for classical composition and vocal arrangements, and starting up H3rizon with the girls opened up a new avenue for me to explore songwriting for Pop/RnB.
Tay: I’ve been a professional trained singer since I was 10 years old and spent a few years in competitive singing. I finished school early to pursue my solo career, and plunged into my songwriting and collaborating to create RnB tracks. During the time of discovering myself within the music industry, I decided to join a girl group. I find it is the best opportunity I’ve had being able to collaboratively create great music and cannot wait for what is to come.
Which music did you grow up listening to? How has it influenced your current style?
Bernie: Growing up, I got hooked onto anything my parents put on during clean up day, and road trips! They took me through Pop and RnB sensations from each era starting from the 70s to early 2000s. And going off on my own, I discovered I have an eclectic taste in music and didn’t really get hooked onto any particular genres. But I feel like that’s a lot of people. A select few artists that I can remember listening to back then is Shalamar, Bee Gees, SWV, Destiny’s Child, B*Witched, Nelly, Nelly Furtado, Goo Goo Dolls…I’d love to write a whole essay! Of course over time my taste in music has expanded and evolved, and now I’ve just got a deep appreciation for any music that’s good. Being open to any genre allows me to explore my own music creation freely and it definitely helps in my music production and vocal arranging to tap into other styles.
Gabby: I had always been singing and listening to pop songs by artists like Alicia Keys and Kelly Clarkson, and a looot of Disney, but I also had an obsession with musical theatre. Someone who I grew up listening to and watching all the time was Lea Salonga, and especially as a Filipina icon, she inspired me to keep pursuing singing. During high school, I immersed myself in classical music and opera where my interests grew even more. I started falling in love with composers like Ravel, Debussy, understanding the fundamentals of Baroque music to atonal music, and started singing Aaron Copland songs and Bernstein musicals. When I started writing with the girls, I was able to take bits and pieces from what I learned and loved, and combining all of our individual tastes was what brought us together to create our own diverse sound!
Tay: I was influenced to listen to a lot of RnB/old school/Pop music growing up. I was so drawn to the style, the songs, and the culture. A few artists whose music inspired me back then are Neyo, MC Hammer, Beyonce, Jordin Sparks, Train, and JoJo, but I could honestly go on forever with this list! Elements of their styles stuck with me my whole life, and as you can tell, my forte now is definitely creating music that’s part of the Pop/RnB genre.
How would you describe your sound?
We work a lot within the Pop/RnB realm, and we love how broad the genre is because there’s so many ways for us to fuse it with other styles. Each of us brings a different element to our group, which we combine to establish our sound as H3rizon. We feel that we really showcase this in SERIOUS! The choir heard in our song is actually sampled from Gabby’s voice memo of her vocal composition for her school assignment. So that was a nod to her classical music upbringing! With all of us coming from different musical backgrounds, we work towards producing a versatile, and harmonious sound.
.
.
Why do you think people resonate with your music?
Like us, we think our audience sees something special in people who vibe so well with each other, banding together to create music. It’s our creative outlet, and like many other artists, we put a lot of creativity and dedication into our craft. We want people to feel inspired by our music and want to discover more about it on a deeper level, especially with our future releases. We love what we do and we believe that it shows through all of our work!
Your new single “ SERIOUS ” has just been released! Describe its origin and evolution.
This is the second song we’ve ever written together! This was around 3 years ago when we were just starting out as H3rizon. We’ve come a long way from writing this song in Bernie’s cozy bedroom with a supply of endless snacks, to being glammed up and wearing boujee outfits for our music video.
Starting out, we wanted to add our own personal touch to the beat of SERIOUS. So we got our producer to take Gabby’s voice memo of a composition for her school assignment, process and manipulate it, and turn it into this vibrant, Y2k-esque beat! Then during the writing process, we wanted to create a cheeky, saucy take on dating life from the perspective of someone just wanting to have fun through it all. It was so fun bouncing off each other to create that chorus. And we had our own verses to write which ended up being the parts we sang solo, so each verse is unique to us! With this music video, we wanted to broaden the meaning of SERIOUS, and just remind everyone of the times we didn’t take life too seriously. Getting our music out there helps us remain positive during these times and we hope it provides a little piece of happiness to our fans too.
Do you have any more new music in the works?
Yes! A lot of our unreleased songs are actually as old as SERIOUS. But we’re all passionate about our craft, so we’re still keeping busy songwriting, especially during lockdown. We can’t wait to put our songs out into the world, and Bernie is especially keen for people to hear her production skills!
Do you have any shows/tours coming up? What are you looking forward to, and what can the fans expect?
Everything is so unpredictable during this crazy time. It would be so great to finally be able to have our own live, in-person show and interact with our fans on a more personal level! So far, we’ve been blessed to have our own online live concert through zoom with Muze Music. We know shows like that are the best way for us to connect and perform to our fans during this time, so we hope something like that happens again soon! In the meantime, we’ll be keeping active with our songwriting and plenty of content and covers on our TikTok and Instagram, so feel free to check that out!
If you could perform with any music artist, Alive or Dead, who would you choose? And why?
Undoubtedly, we choose the iconic duo, Chloe x Halle. They’re one of our biggest inspirations and we just know that the harmonies we’d be able to sing with them live would be immaculate. They’ve already shared our cover of their song “Forgive Me” on their Instagram and we went crazy over that! So OBVIOUSLY, we’re one step closer to performing live with them :)
What’s next for you in the near future?
Lockdown can’t stop us from creating more content and music to put up on our socials, especially onto TikTok and Instagram! We’ve also had fun doing plenty of interviews and Q&A’s for our fans to get to know us better after our release of SERIOUS. It’s been such a fun and exciting experience, and we can’t wait for our next release!
What are your longer-term aspirations?
This might sound cheesy, but the ultimate goal for us is to be able to have our very own H3rizon world tour, and at each show, our fans would be singing along with us to the songs we wrote. We know that definitely won’t be happening soon, but to us that just means we’ve got more time to keep improving to be able to deliver a show as amazing as the iconic groups that preceded us like TLC, Spice Girls, and Destiny’s Child. There’s no shame in aiming high!
What is the best thing about performing to a live audience?
The best thing about performing to a live audience is the emotional connection you feel with them while you’re pouring your heart and soul out on stage. You feel like staying in that moment forever!
.
.
Finally, a few questions for some quick answers –
FAVOURITE:
Album –
Bernie: Chloe X Halle – Ungodly hour
Taylah: Planet Her
Gabby: Sabrina Claudio – Truth Is
Artist –
Bernie: Chloe X Halle, Tom Misch, and UMI
Taylah: Doja Cat
Gabby: I have so many favs! But to name a few, Sara Bareilles, H.E.R and Tori Kelly.
Movie –
Bernie: Any movie franchise that I can rewatch like The Harry Potter series and the Twilight series!
Taylah: Don’t have any, I love all movies!
Gabby: I know it’s pretty childish, but I love cartoons! Hercules, Princess and the Frog, Mulan are some favs that bring back so many memories for me. And the soundtracks are *chefs kiss*.
Place to visit –
Bernie: Brisbane (for a special reason!)
Taylah: California
Gabby: New Zealand or Japan!
Venue to play –
Bernie: The Oxford Art Factory would be a great venue for us to have our first live gig!
Taylah: Always dreamed of performing at The Hordern Pavillion!!
Gabby: Any Filipino party, trust me- they’re ALWAYS a blast
Food –
Bernie: Chicken Katsu Bento Box
Taylah: Everything and anything!!
Gabby: Ramen and dumplings
Drink –
Bernie: Matcha latte with pearls from Gongcha (or from any bubble tea shop)
Taylah: Brown sugar milk tea with pearls (any bubble tea shop)
Gabby: Pearl milk tea! If you couldn’t already tell, we all love boba lol
Person in History –
Bernie: Can I choose my favourite person ever instead? Because it’d be my mum (Hey dad! It was a difficult choice but she did give birth to me so…)
Taylah: My whole family! I can’t pick one that’s sad!
Gabby: Every single icon in music – Michael Jackson, Queen, Elvis Presley, ABBA, even Bach and Beethoven! Because without all of them, how would music be what it is today!?
Tattoo – (If you don’t have one, what would you get?)
Bernie: I would get my man’s name on my wrist :)
Taylah: I would get an arm sleeve
Gabby: To my parents reading this right now… I promised that I’d NEVER get a tattoo :’)
.
Stream: Serious
.
Follow H3RIZON
Website – Facebook – Twitter – Instagram
.
AMNPLIFY – DB
Press Release 11th August 2021 (below) HERE
Digital pioneers
BLOCKPLAY
announce crypto-based record label
Alongside first official signing
H3RIZON
with new single
‘SERIOUS’
.