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London-born Sri Lankan artist Gilska dropped her latest house record ‘Up Till 5’ last month, and we had the pleasure of catching up with her about her love of music, her roots and her transition from a classically trained artist to the electronic sensation she is today.
When did you first fall in love with music?
I fell in love with music from a very early age as I was dancing at the same time as I learnt to walk. I remember seeing MTV broadcasting music videos and I would get absorbed into the songs, stories, the fashion and the dancing. I knew I wanted to be a part of that world.
What was the turning point in your life in which you knew you wanted to create music for a career?
The turning point for me was in secondary school when I realised that I enjoyed music above everything else. I had lost a little bit of my love for it after thinking that I wanted to pursue dance more seriously but I quickly found myself back at the piano writing songs and wanting to perform at every given opportunity I could. That’s when I realised music was my purpose.
How does your Sri Lankan origin find its way into your music?
I wanted to get back in touch with my culture and work on finding melodies and scales that you find in Sri Lankan music to bring that into my music. I’ve found that I like adding those melodies into creating the texture and atmosphere of my songs. In my first release, Fantasy I started to really experiment with these ideas.
Your latest release is very self-reflective, is writing from personal experience important to you?
Writing from personal experience is definitely important to me. It would bring me so much joy to know that someone listened to my song and related to it, to know that it brought them some kind of comfort in knowing that they aren’t alone in this feeling. I feel like ‘Up till 5’ is quite relevant to people who love clubbing. It’s a hard world to come out of and now I’m at a place where I’ve never been more self aware and it’s great to reflect and look back on how far I’ve come in my own journey. Each of my songs were a massive reflection of a different time and a place in my life and where I was mentally at the time.
You started out classically training in music. How does this inspire your creation process?
Vocally this has definitely helped me with ad libs and backing vocals. I tend to get a bit more experimental with vocal arranging and having that background of being classically trained allows me to do so.
What’s your biggest goal for the future and why?
I’m still evolving and experimenting with my creative process in songwriting and in the next 5 years my goals are to release more music, start performing frequently and get my music heard globally.
I don’t take anything for granted and I feel blessed to be able to follow this path at the moment and connect with people in different ways – especially through music.
