When listening to Brooklyn-based artist BAYLI, you cannot help but be transported to a universe that embraces creativity, authenticity, and community. One look at the cover for her newest EP, stories 2, and you will immediately be struck by the illuminating glow and confident stance of a girl who is transcending what it means to be a pop icon, bending societal expectations and taking the music world by storm. Full of complexity and well-crafted artistry, on stories 2 BAYLI is not afraid to express who she is as a queer, Black woman, while also empowering her communities and challenging the hegemonic structures within the music industry. If one thing is for sure, everybody needs to keep their eyes on BAYLI and watch as she becomes a powerful voice for a new generation with her innovation and style.
Following the release of stories 2, as BAYLI prepares to go on tour with Magdalena Bay, The B-Side had the privilege to speak with BAYLI about her music journey, writing process, and artistic motivation.
stories II – Cover Art
Zara Koroma: Listening to stories 2 from start to finish transported me into a whole new world. How do you envision the world of stories 2?
BAYLI: So, stories 2 takes you out of the kind of city New York terrority, clubs, and all that, and literally takes you on the road. So, I hope that the world that you are transformed into when you are listening to stories 2 is… kind of more just transcendent. It’s like stories from new york (2021), you are dropped into my life in New York, or a night in New York City with a song like “foreigner” or even “sushi for breakfast.” But for stories 2, with a song like “pressure,” I was pretty sure I wrote that in the air over LA going back home in an airplane. Then there are some songs like “think of drugs” about my life and childhood in New York which I wrote in Montreal, and I think they have that colder, heavier feeling to them. So I like to describe my music as sonic landscapes.
ZK: Yes! And I noticed that a lot of your songs break this boundary created between genres—you can’t describe your music with just one singular word. Can you talk a little bit more about this complexity that lies within your music?
B: I love that and thank you for saying that! It’s so much harder for me to understand exactly what I’m doing when I am making music. There are just so many influences and inspirations that live inside of me, and they come out when I am writing or producing my stuff. So, thank you for saying that because that has always been the goal. When I was younger, I used to say that my music is based on my mood. My music—my songs are like moods to me. They cannot be confined to ‘this is pop, this is rock, this is R&B.’ I think that we as humans are just way more complex than that.
ZK: You have such a unique and well-crafted sound full of artistry! How did you find your way into this world of music and art?
B: I always studied visual art. I went to junior high, high school, and college, for a short period of time, for art. And I was in a band when I was a teenager, and we got picked up, we got asked to tour, and all that, but I was really on the path to becoming a visual artist. So it’s been a few years since my first band and I am just loving music more and more. I’ve been writing—I really consider myself a songwriter first. I love writing as a way to express myself, as a way to go deeper to understand myself more. And so I wasn’t planning on becoming a musician at all, I kind of just fell into it.
ZK: I feel like your lyrics capture the feeling of a whole generation. Specifically, I really wanted to talk about your song “TELLY BAG,” as I think the symbol of a Telfar has become so iconic for Black, alternative, and queer youth. Your song seems to be a celebration of that. I would love to know more about that song, and what it means to have these lyrics that speak to a generation and speak to these communities!
B: Thank you so much for saying that because that is the goal! Being able to reflect this generation and the beauty in youth culture, the beauty in innovation that is happening right now in our era. I really do try to do that in an empowering way through my songs. For “Telly Bag,” I am from Brooklyn and I still live here, so the impact that Telfar has had…I am still amazed at the impact Telfar has had. I was in Paris over the summer, and I’m seeing Telfars in Paris! It’s really cool! And just as much as the design, the concept behind the design: it is gender fluid. Telfar is not for one person; it is for everybody. That whole thing—I feel that! We need a song that reflects that. We need a stamp on this time and culture. So as a writer, I really like to try to be accessible with my lyrics and colloquial almost. Everybody should be able to understand what I am talking about. Like one of the bars in Telly Bag is ‘You’re so straight, I’m so gay.’ It is the most simple and straightforward thing possible, but at the same time, why haven’t we heard it? And so I am going to do it in a way that is a banger, where we live in the moment, and the girls turn up to it in the club, at the party! I always just want to be empowered about whatever message I am relaying.
ZK: Speaking of lyrics, what does the writing process look like for you?
B: I learned through one of my first mentors in the music industry, whose name is Rick Rubin who is a really cool producer, taught me all about—well he worked with Frank Ocean, The Weeknd, Lady Gaga, and the Beastie Boys, and all these different types of artists, so he’s seen artists’ processes over the decades. So one thing I learned is to really hone in on what your process is and that no artist’s process is the same. Once I was okay with being quiet and nerdy and calling my nerdy friends…it really made it easier to create. There wasn’t any writer’s block; there weren’t any insecurities. It was kind of just surrounding myself around people I trust and people who respect what I do naturally.
BAYLI. Photo by Xavier Luggage
ZK: You have collaborated with so many great people—Shygirl, SOPHIE, and you are even the lead feature on the opening track of Mura Masa’s new album demon time (2022). Who is somebody that you are still waiting to collab with?
B: I am so not afraid to say that I am trying to be such a mainstream artist as a queer person. I’m trying to get to the level of the heavy hitters. Rihanna and Beyoncé, those are my icons, and I would just love to collaborate with those legendary members.
There are also a ton of artists I already love. PinkPantheress, please come my way! There are even local artists in New York who I love. There’s an artist based between New York and London called Talia Goddess who I really really love…I’m just really manifesting the heavy hitters and bringing the underground to the mainstream
ZK: I can tell that community is huge for you, and you have this intimacy with your community. So, although your new EP stories 2 is a continuation and exploration outside New York City, I would love to hear more about how you still call upon the city you grew up in while visiting so many new places as well. Especially since you are about to head on tour with Magdalena Bay, how does this sense of home and community stay with you?
B: Community is really everything for me as a Black, queer girl. First, as a Black person, community is number one. We have survived because we have such camaraderie and such a strong community as people, as culture. And then the queer community, people who are marginalized and underrepresented a lot, at least throughout our country. I like speaking to them and being like: “Hi, Hello! I’m your friend, I’m the person who is going to tell you that you are a bad bitch, I am going to tell you that you are brilliant and you are one of one.” It makes me feel good to hopefully be an artist that does that because I always craved that growing up as a weird, alternative Black child. I don’t know if anyone can relate, but it’s like we all need that encouraging person. I really try to be empowering with my music.
And then, going on the road with Magdalena Bay, my faves, I am so excited to bring a taste of New York City and Brooklyn to each city that we stop in. So, even down to my setlist—how I am formulating the set list, certain covers, certain special moments in the set—I am trying to bring my culture, Brooklyn culture, New York City culture to new places in a way that doesn’t seem terrifying.
ZK: BAYLI, I am so excited for you and the things that are coming your way! You are definitely achieving great things right now, and I know that you will continue to. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to talk to me and The B-Side! Congratulations once again on the new EP stories 2 and the new visual that dropped for “pressure.”
Catch BAYLI’s live performance in San Francisco, CA on 10/28/2022 at The Regency as she opens for Magdalena Bay. For any updates or news, follow BAYLI on Twitter, IG, and TikTok or visit her website!
Written by Zara Koroma
Photo by Xavier Luggage