Singer/songwriter Billianne’s debut album ‘Modes of Transportation’ traces the twists, turns, and emotional landmarks of a rising artist discovering her method. In dialog with Atwood Journal, the Ontario native displays on her grounding influences, the tales behind tracks like “Jessie’s Comet,” and the expansion that continues to form her voice and imaginative and prescient.
Stream: ‘Modes of Transportation’ – Billianne
Billianne is hitting her stride – sonically, emotionally, and artistically.
Along with her debut album Modes of Transportation (out now), the 22-year-old singer/songwriter from Milton, Ontario charts the shift from girlhood to grounded womanhood – and from TikTok standout to artist-to-watch. Every observe seems like a milestone, capturing moments of readability and confidence as she steps into her personal.
“I didn’t even actually dream about this till just a few years in the past,” she says. “So, the whole lot that’s taking place seems like slightly bonus – like this lovely, wild experience I didn’t see coming.”
She hopes listeners really feel that very same sense of transformation: “I need individuals to understand it’s okay to vary. You’re allowed to outgrow issues. That’s form of the guts of the entire report.”
Created alongside longtime collaborators Duncan Coutts and Nick Dika, Modes of Transportation was written and recorded throughout Ontario – from Toronto studios to distant cabins within the north. That geography formed the sound: the stripped-back vulnerability of “Jessie’s Comet” emerged within the quiet, the cinematic pop of “Child Blue” pulsed with metropolis vitality, and a track like “Let Me Run” channeled freeway introspection. Every location gave a special chapter of the album its personal environment.
Lyrically, Billianne makes the non-public really feel poetic and exact. “You couldn’t assist me anyway / God is aware of that I can’t keep the identical,” she sings within the album’s title observe – a easy line that encapsulates the album’s central message. On “Jessie’s Comet,” she captures the ache of distance: “Subsequent time there’s a capturing star / I’ll name it Jessie’s comet / And fake you’re not up to now.”
Although her rise started with a viral cowl of Tina Turner’s “The Greatest” – impressed by Noah Reid’s Schitt’s Creek model – she’s confirmed she’s greater than a second. The quilt caught the eye of followers worldwide, together with one notably mind-blowing title: Taylor Swift.
“If I might inform little Billi that Taylor noticed me singing one in every of her songs… she would lose her thoughts,” she laughs.
Now, the artist she as soon as idolized is aware of her title – and shortly, so will everybody else. A tour is on the horizon, extra music is already within the works, and Billianne is simply getting began.
Atwood Journal spoke with the rising star about discovering her voice, letting go, and the true story behind “Jessie’s Comet.”
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:: stream/buy Modes of Transportation right here ::
:: join with Billianne right here ::
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A CONVERSATION WITH BILLIANNE
Atwood Journal: I used to be simply going by way of your Instagram, and was tearing up watching your mother and father reacting to your clip on The Kelly Clarkson Present.
Billianne: That was such a big day! We’ve watched Kelly Clarkson for years, in order that was a really real video. My mother’s at all times the primary one to cry – even at commercials.
So many superb issues have occurred for you within the final yr – what’s been probably the most surreal factor up to now?
Billianne: There have been so many who it’s exhausting to choose one. I feel, too, as a result of after I was a child, I knew I might sing however I by no means actually dreamed or set objectives, so I by no means thought these items would occur. Each time one thing occurs, it feels very huge; it feels loopy, like after I’m on a billboard or what involves thoughts is when Taylor Swift commented on my video – that was one of many greatest issues for me. I feel if I have been to return and inform little Billi who was listening to Fearless and Pink that Taylor Swift commented on her video singing a Taylor Swift track, I feel that may blow her thoughts.
In each interview that you have completed up to now, you appear very grounded. It is spectacular contemplating the whole lot that is occurring in your world – the place does that come from?
Billianne: My mother was truly simply saying that to me the opposite day – she’s like, “you’re staying so grounded” and I don’t know, I feel I’m simply being myself. I feel perhaps a part of it’s that I didn’t actually begin dreaming about this life till perhaps three years in the past after I first went viral on TikTok. This all seems like little bonuses and on prime of no matter else is already taking place in my life. I additionally keep actually near my household and truthfully, I feel I wouldn’t be as enthusiastic about issues with out them as a result of their pleasure virtually issues extra to me than anybody else. Like when my mother and pop are excited, when my siblings are excited and my associates.
Talking of household, “Jessie’s Comet” is written about your sister. How did she react to that track?
Billianne: My sister’s very emotional, like me and my mother – she will be able to barely hearken to it. I wrote it when she moved out, enthusiastic about our time collectively, rising up and simply having the ability to stroll down the corridor and say “hey, what’s occurring, what are you doing at present?” – these form of little issues. Once I sing it on stage, I nonetheless really feel that method, and If I take into consideration the lyrics an excessive amount of I gotta lock in.
She actually loves it, and I feel she’s blissful to have a track named after her. My oldest brother at all times jokes about it, however I imply so a lot of my songs are about household, so I really feel like all of them have little items.
What did that track educate you about letting go?
Billianne: It was a special track at first with a refrain about outdated wounds, nevertheless it wasn’t feeling proper. After we went to revamp the track, my sister simply moved out and I used to be speaking to my writers Duncan and Nick, and I used to be like “I’m simply so unhappy; I want she was there and she or he’s not there anymore.” And what I really like about “Jessie’s Comet” is there’s that feeling of realizing that she’s at all times there – she’s simply out of attain – however she is at all times there like trying up on the stars. There was a second final summer season when there was an enormous meteor bathe coming by way of and I knew she was in her new place them and I used to be someplace up north, and we have been each them.
Some persons are clearly flattered being in a track, however is the other ever true? I bear in mind one man was nervous about courting me as a result of he thought I might write about him. Does that ever occur to you?
Billianne: [laughs] Generally I fear about that – I bear in mind there’s a scene in Tick, Tick … Growth! the place he’s in a relationship and she or he will get so mad as a result of she will be able to inform that he’s beginning to write a track about their scenario, and ever since seeing that, it’s develop into a worry in my life. I feel individuals in my life perceive. That occurs in dialog, the place I’ll be speaking to somebody after which the gears begin turning and I feel one thing would make a very good track.
Let’s discuss “Recollections,” which feels form of breezy but in addition bittersweet. What reminiscences or moments from this chapter of your life are you holding onto?
Billianne: The primary verse of this track, I bear in mind once we have been writing it, I used to be talking about individuals I look as much as in my life – my sister got here up once more and one in every of my greatest associates got here up. I additionally take into consideration my mother – quite a lot of feminine energies in my life that I can look as much as.
The primary half is in regards to the reminiscences they made, and me eager to make my very own life. It’s like watching my sister – I at all times image watching her strolling by way of a forest, and following in her path like a youthful sibling does. After which there’s the second half of that, which is a special kind of reminiscence of this man who’s attempting to benefit from a younger artist. The track is all about attempting to maintain any dangerous or damaging reminiscence and any good reminiscence in your thoughts and simply dwelling with it for the remainder of your life, so that you don’t repeat errors.
There are such a lot of totally different sounds on this album – how do you determine what track will get what kind of sonic therapy?
Billianne: I really like that phrase – sonic! Generally it reveals itself to us and I truthfully don’t even know the way it occurs. Like my track “Modes 1” began on the piano at dwelling and so we knew what that was going to sound like. After which there’s different songs, like “Recollections” – oh my gosh, the intro of that track took so lengthy to determine. I really feel prefer it’s simply spending time with the track and seeing what feels good.
It virtually appears like describing a relationship with an individual.
Billianne: Yeah, it does. This album seems like an extension of myself – generally I really feel slightly hyper conscious of how a lot I discuss music in my life, nevertheless it’s a chunk of me I’ve to speak about.
How does that consciousness form your songwriting now?
Billianne: It’s about altering; it’s about me being hyper conscious of how I used to be after I was 19 years outdated and after I began within the music business. And I’m 22 now, and each time I depart and go on a tour or I end a brand new factor, after I come again and speak to my mother and father, I really feel totally different; I really feel the change in me as I’m speaking to them. I really feel older, I really feel extra skilled, and that is taking place so quick to me that I’m maturing and I’m studying a lot in regards to the world and having these new experiences with out the individuals I’ve at all times recognized in my total life. And whereas I’m on the market, they’re staying the identical right here at dwelling, so the entire album is about that hyper consciousness.
Does it excite you or make you nervous or each?
Billianne: I feel at first it made me a bit nervous as a result of I used to be nervous as I modified and as my mother and father – they’re each of their 60s now and so they’re at that time of their life the place they’re blissful they’re at dwelling – and I’m coming dwelling after I’m consistently altering. It’s virtually like this time capsule – like they’re the identical mother and father and the totally different feeling I’m feeling have to be me.
You recorded throughout Ontario – what was the thought course of behind that; how did every location form the sound?
Billianne: I really feel like every location helped totally different chapters. After we have been up north, that was the place we spent quite a lot of our time writing songs, and a few have been written in downtown Toronto – I feel these have been formed by the hustle and bustle of attending to the studio and simply absorbing town. A superb chunk of them have been completed in my mother and father’ basement studio – that was a complete chapter, starting to make an album.
Do you assume you may proceed that form of rogue recording fashion?
Billianne: I feel so. I don’t like having an excessive amount of construction – I like construction day by day in my life, however I don’t like the whole lot to be the identical on a regular basis. I feel change brings inspiration, so a change of surroundings is unquestionably one thing that’s at all times going to be part of my writing and song-making course of.
I can not wait to see what you give you on this huge tour arising! Are there sure cities or venues you are actually hyped about taking part in on this tour?
Billianne: I’m actually excited in regards to the Highlands Competition – we keep in a cabin after which we play as an enormous band, it’s simply lovely to me. After which the Vancouver present, I’ve performed there many instances now. It’s my first time headlining, so I’m going to be bringing my band over there. I’m additionally excited to play LA – there’s quite a lot of associates I’ve met on-line now that I hope will come to that present and I get to fulfill in individual.
Your cowl of “The Greatest” was the factor that form of lit the ignition…
Billianne: Yeah 100%! Earlier than, nobody knew me – I used to be posting on TikTok to mainly no one and that video fully blew up the whole lot; with out that, I don’t assume I’d be as far alongside I’m now, so I’m at all times simply grateful for TikTok and that second in that track and Schitt’s Creek and Noah Reid. I DMed him earlier than it got here out, and I’ve been attempting to get in touch with him, however I don’t assume he is aware of.
You’ve stated that you just hope individuals perceive what you are attempting to say and get to know you – what would you like individuals to find out about you?
Billianne: There are a pair issues: I used to be this wallflower, like an observer in life. A lot of the songs are from that perspective, so I need individuals to know that facet of me. I additionally need them to know my voice and I feel this album exhibits a lot of my voice and what I can do – I feel I found that alongside the method, too, so I hope individuals dive into that and are open to it. And I hope they’re prepared for all these totally different types of music and coming together with me as I get into discovering my sound.
I really like performing and love being within the room with followers, and I actually like touring – as exhausting as it may be. I really like that have being on stage – there’s nothing prefer it!
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:: stream/buy Modes of Transportation right here ::
:: join with Billianne right here ::
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© Nadia Doss
Modes of Transportation
an album by Billianne
