BIIANCO is all about overcoming imposter syndrome

The music video for ‘Rice Crispies’ by BIIANCO represents the precariousness of lust at first sight. Featuring choreography by Sara Stanger and directed by MK McGehee, this electro-hit dances us through the push and pull of superficial love. The track itself was self-produced by the LA artist, who overcame a case of imposter syndrome to step into the studio and take charge.

 Trailblazing through stereotypes and gatekeepers to get to the producer’s chair, BIIANCO created the ‘Rice Crispies’ track in its entirety. “I’m producing and running sessions and if you had told me that year ago I would’ve been like, there’s just no way I’m gonna be good enough to do that,” she says, “It’s hilarious how imposter syndrome immobilizes us.”

We sat down to talk about her musical background and the next fear she’s about to overcome.

Let’s start from the beginning with your musical journey. When did you start singing or writing music? What came first? 

I was classically trained on piano at the age of five. So that was my first instrument. And I just sang because I loved to sing, but I didn’t take lessons until high school. Then around middle school, I started playing guitar. I feel like the biggest turning point in my life was in high school when my parents bought me a Macbook – I don’t even think they were called Macbooks back then – but they bought it so I could play around with GarageBand. I started recording demos of the songs I would write and it totally changed everything.

What was the vision behind ‘Rice Crispies’?

The track itself is about a real person – a really sexy, non-binary person – who I met late last year and the moment we set eyes on each other it was basically lust at first sight. We’re still really good friends so that person was the first one I played ‘Rice Crispies’ to after I wrote it and I told them that they could name it – so they named it their favorite snack, haha. 

How about the video?

Dance has become a really important part of my expression. Sara Stanger [choreographer] and I wanted to use dance to replicate the push and pull of lust at first sight but we started to realise that it was more about the feeling of your lust for yourself. That’s why we styled Sara and me to look exactly alike. We blended a lot of masculine fashions and feminine fashions. We tried to be pretty gender neutral. We wanted it to feel like that lustful experience with yourself.

At the beginning of this year, with ‘Get Up,’ you mentioned there was a woman’s retreat that kind of sparked a shift in you. Can you tell us more about that?

2018 will forever go down in the history of myself as one of the most uncomfortable and transformative years of my life. I was going through so many growing pains, I was just so restless. In the middle of last year, I went to this retreat for women or women identifying people or non-binary people and we all went out to Super X ranch.

There was a real emphasis on production and when I got there I realized when I got there a lot of the skills people were presenting I already knew how to do. I just thought… “Why the fuck have I never thought of myself as a producer? I am a producer.” So debunking my own imposter syndrome in that moment was the biggest shift. Now I’m producing and running sessions myself. If you had told me that year ago I would’ve been like, ‘there’s just no way I’m gonna be good enough to do that.’ It’s hilarious how imposter syndrome immobilizes us. 

What would you say to someone, anybody who feels like they’re an imposter?

It’s all confidence. You can do absolutely anything. You can do ANYTHING! It’s also about asking questions. Finding people you trust…and you can find those people in online forums! There are some people that love sharing their knowledge! Utilize those resources!

What is something that you’re consciously afraid of that you’re trying to overcome?

My singing voice. I’ve always been so self-conscious about it. I practice so much but no matter what, what I’m hearing is different from what everybody else is hearing! I think that this goes into the rest of my biggest fear – I’m truly my harshest critic. And I have to stop that because it’s emotionally destructive.

So you’re doing everything on your own now, right? Like when you write and produce for BIIANCO, it’s all BIIANCO?

Yeah! But I have recently started collaborating. We’re doing the music video for a  track right now that has Madame Gandhi on it. I went to her house and she did all this auxiliary percussion on it.

Do you think females are are afraid to collaborate with each other?

Okay. Two things: I think that females haven’t had the faculties to do it because there are less women producers and a lot of collabs go down with a man producing; where as I eliminated the middle man, so anyone can come over and I’m the one producing so thats easier. I definitely feel that but honestly not in LA….in LA we have a really special community. All my top liners are women. I think women are fearless here, and we’re not intimated. There’s room for everyone at the top!