Toronto-born musician Tilsen has a talent for producing honest, relatable and catchy songs. She joins us on Close-Up Culture to discuss the inspiration behind her new song, In My Body.
You posted on Instagram that you wrote In My Body when you were ‘feeling so stuck and unhappy with my life.’ Can you tell us more about the place you were in, and what inspired the song?
In My Body is unlike any previous singles of mine, which focus on my relationship dynamics with other people. Instead, the song is about my relationship with myself. This first in my catalogue is an uncovering of my internal battle with facing the challenges in my life that I’ve been repressing. I feel stuck in my life, and know I have to move on in order to build a life where I can find happiness. I hope that anyone struggling along their journey will find comfort in knowing they’re not alone.
In My Body has a catchy modern pop and dance production which makes you dance through the pain and leaves you feeling optimistic, believing that both you and I will find a way out of our current unhappy circumstances
I know a lot of artists find their work to be therapeutic. Was that the case for In My Body?
Absolutely, I think a big part of getting past whatever is holding you back in your life is to put words to it. When you can really pin point what you’re experiencing, it takes the anxiety filled unknown out of it and then you can face whatever it is head on. This song definitely helped me with that.
From a production side, what was the journey like to make this song?
It was really cool. Tupai reached out to me about doing a song together and they already had this instrumental. I get a lot of collab requests but this one was special. I loved it so much. It inspired me to write In My Body right away. We decided to use it as a Tilsen song rather than a collaboration because it was perfect for my project.
Can you reveal anything else about the music you’ve been working on lately?
My sophomore EP “Little Worse” is coming out June 17, and then I will begin releasing singles for my follow up album.
After in my body, I flew to Austria to write more songs with Tupai since it worked so well and there I collaborated with many other talented Europeans. Wrote a whole new body of work in the mountains of Austria last month. My recent heart break is all over the new songs. I am so excited to share them with you.
You’ve got a really strong catalogue of work and an intriguing image. How do you reflect on your journey as an artist so far?
Thank you so much! I would say that it has been incredibly rewarding to build my catalogue and image from scratch as an independent artist. I went from no following to over 230K monthly listeners without signing away my rights. Over the last couple years my work has become even more refined and personal. The songs have become more and more vulnerable and I think they speak to feelings that are hard to express. I hope listeners feel they aren’t alone when they hear my songs!
And how would you like to evolve in the future?
I am a pop artist and hope to maintain that sound which I love so much but move into a more organic sound with live instruments. After that I will explore a pop folk sound where my songwriting can flourish even more!
Lastly, do you have any plans or ambitions to share with us?
Keep an eye out for my EP June 17 with my final single “Like I Do” and then my collaboration with Canada’s Tep No this summer. Can’t wait for you to hear!
Follow Tilsen on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/tilsenmusic/
Follow Tilsen on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/tilsenmusic/
Listen to Tilsen on Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/artist/2RgfDvNnwJPMLSUu6H3kuq?si=I1-jfOsWS2iq_jE7FMkagg&nd=1
Check out this review of In My Body – https://pop-cultr.com/2022/05/04/tilsen-in-my-body/
