( ENSPIRE Music ) Bri Schilings Brings a Musical Melody to the Importance of Climate Change
ENSPIRE Contributor: Xiangxi Kong
How interesting is it to bring the thought of climate change to one’s music? Sweet Imperfection is a musical project by singer and songwriter, Bri Schillings. She uses sensual indie rock to have a sense of healing, wonder, and adventure by using her beautiful voice. This project is focused on bringing a sense of healing, wonder, and adventure.
Bri Schillings has already posted several videos related to this project on YouTube and other platforms. Her latest single “Ignorance is Violence” is a hopeful anthem that inspires change. She wrote this song because of her own experience and she wants to use this song to notice the wildfire in California during her road trip.
ENSIPRE has the chance to interview Sweet Imperfections for her creative process and early experience.
Can you tell us the inspiration behind “Sweet Imperfections” and is there anyone who has put just as much effort into making this project who deserves your thanks?
It’s Inspired by a love story. When I met my life partner, Brandon Sudweeks in 2019, there was instant chemistry from the moment our eyes met. Our connection was otherworldly and expansive and this energy we cultivated rippled into all aspects of our lives, careers and sparked the formation of “sweet Imperfections”. We spent the duration of the pandemic, building our relationship through music creation, and in 2020, I released my first album “ME is better with WE”, featuring our beautiful friend and Violinist Jamie Shadowlight. This project kept our spirits high during that challenging time and kept the music alive when everything was shut down and musicians could not gig. “Sweet Imperfections” kept us connected and inspired.
I also believe our imperfections are what make us unique and interesting. Be uniquely you, and celebrate your “Sweet Imperfections”.
BIG shout out to Brandon Sudweeks, the love of my life, co-writer, manager, and driving force behind the success of Sweet Imperfections. As a successful business owner, he has the experience and know-how to take a dream and build it into a reality. Together we set goals and task lists for the project and after four years, we are very pleased with the accomplishments that are unfolding thanks to the continued hard work. Having a partner to bounce ideas off of and learn from, has made me a more disciplined artist and a more well-rounded musician. I love you.
My otherworldly producers, Chad Shlosser and Micheal Johnson, who never cease to WOW me with their conceptual insight and dynamic instrumental arrangements. They know how to elevate the songs, and capture the heart and soul of my expression while staying true to our organic sound.
This is my musical family. We have spent the last three years on this journey together and I look forward to a lifetime full of creative adventures. “ME is better with WE” “Ignorance is Violence” is about your own experience by seeing the real wildfire.
Can you describe the scene in more detail and how you showed it using sound?
As we arrived in Medford, Oregon, the temperature was 115 degrees, the smell of smoke and gray skies had already crept in from Mt. Shata and California’s fires. I remember visiting Crater Lake, known for its breathtaking blue water, reflecting the blue sky but that day smoke obstructed the visibility, leaving a great deal to be desired.
Glacier National Park was where it really hit us. The air was thick with smoke, a blood-red sun pierced through the gray sky and trails were shut down to backpackers.
In Utah, you could see ash starting to cover the landscape, unrecognizable, no longer showcasing the beautiful contrast of red rock against blue sky.
Across the country, as we reached South Dakota, the smoke lingered.
The sonic representation used was a wailing guitar that spreads like wildfire while the drums drive and snap like flames jumping. The Hammond also gives off a sonic representation of flames swirling through the landscape.
“Sweet imperfections” is a project to connect nature’s energy. What happened that would make you think natural sounds are important?
Nature has been my medicine. Connection with nature is a connection to ourselves. In my song “Out of the City”, I speak of feeling joy again as I return to nature. I love city life but If I am in the city for too long, I feel my psychological well-being compromised. We crave nature because we evolved in it, it’s in our DNA. Nature sounds resonate and activate us because we are nature.
“ Ignorance is Violence” is a song telling people to focus on climate change Can you share a little bit about your process when writing the lyrics to this song?
The song melody and Lyrics came together while we were in Glacier National Park, looking out at smoke filled hills and a blood red sun. I sat, with my guitar, fingerpicking a riff as Brandon said “smoke filled hills covering the earth everywhere we go…feels like the whole world is getting ready to explode”. I sang that line over the riff and from there, we continued dialoguing everything we were observing. At one point Brandon said, “Ignorance is Violence”! I knew that would be the chorus.
Do you have any new ideas for this project, please? What kind of work will you bring us next?
This next year, I am excited to announce that I will be out performing live shows with my band. I plan to release more music and release remixes of some of my singles from this last year. “Ignorance is Violence”, remixed by Shawn Barry, will drop this month, on October 27th to kick us off.
Ignorance is Violence is a very powerful song that would make people start to focus on climate change. She used her beautiful voice and creativity to make this great project. Now you could follow Bri Schiling here Instagram or this project here: Sweet Imperfection . And you also could watch the video on YouTube.
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