Gilliana Gaines

Honestly, I think getting to be in a band with my best friend, my bandmate is my best friend and, you know, my roommate or housemate or whatever, and for me, getting to not only do this honestly, more so getting to do this for someone I care very deeply about, because there are emotes, you know, where you don't really care about yourself sometimes, but having to and driven because someone I love as a part of this is something that you keeps me going growing, even when I feel like I should otherwise, and I think for me, that's just really meaningful experience to get to do this with someone I love and care about so much, and it makes me very happy to get to share that with them and see the ways that, like, they're happy for the experience, too, and, see our project through their eyes in certain ways.

It's better to receive some kind of answer back, like a no, better than nothing because I know it can become a not yet, rather than nothing at all, and I think that kind of outlook and mentality has also influenced some of the ways that I try to live in my life by. I think that it's very meaningful to try to see the world is something where connection at all matters, no matter what kind it is, and it's all just such a great foundation for growth, either in yourself, or in other people, or growing together.

It is hard, inherently, to be a woman in music. I think you shouldn't necessarily look at it as someone you look up to. I think that is a way you can look at it, but someone that, like, you can look to for growth. I have to remember that people that I look up to, like, they are still just people at the end of the day, and they still, you know, they were me 10 years ago, and I have to recognize that, when I feel down about where I'm at in my career, in my life, whatever. I really have to remember and ground myself in that notion that, like, we're all at different points in our music careers, and we're all at different points in our careers of existing as human beings, so I can't really compare myself to someone who's, you know, in their mid to late 30s to my career now, and I've really had to accept that, and I think as a woman in the music industry, you are inherently, you know, entering a field where you are seen in less prominence sometimes. I think just recognizing that, like, just because you don't see yourself doesn't mean you're not wanted, and doesn't mean that you're not there. I think also for young women entering the industry, I think one thing that's really key and been key to me continuing to come back and continuing to share and to care is, finding collaborators that I care about and who care about me.

I believe that creative arts is a very necessary tool for healing, for processing, and for growing in life. I really like to see my music and songwriting as a canvas for catharsis, I like to say, and to me, it's very meaningful to get to talk about the hard things I've been through in life, I am, you know, a survivor of a background with, like, domestic violence and abuse, and in my family when I was a child, and I have several disabilities that definitely influenced how I see the world, and how I interact with the world, and how I interact with myself. So I think getting to utilize creative arts as a manner for sharing myself, and I think one of the most natural ways I've been able to share myself and connect and communicate has been, just an experience that has not only helped shape the way I see the world, but helped me more meaningfully and digestably understand the world, and try to convey myself to the world around me.