With DAMN GENESIS, BRIEL the Artist confronts every thing the world tried to erase or diminish—religion, queerness, vulnerability, and the murky truths that reside between therapeutic and hurt. On this full-length interview, he opens up concerning the emotional and religious labour behind the undertaking, from tearing down false identities to writing by temptation, grief, and beauty.
Drawing from the richness of Black and queer tradition, his relationship with Jesus, and years of inside reckoning, BRIEL constructed one thing far deeper than a debut tape. He constructed a press release. When you’ve ever tried to reclaim a chunk of your self the world tried to disgrace, you’ll need to hear what BRIEL has to say.
1. DAMN GENESIS looks like a strong declaration. What drew you to that title, and the way does it anchor the emotional and conceptual basis of the tape?
The title DAMN GENESIS got here from my religion in Jesus Christ. After giving my life to Him, I constructed a relationship the place I might carry all my ache, confusion, and errors to the altar. Whereas engaged on this undertaking, I discovered myself doing a number of inside therapeutic—telling tales I had stored buried inside. Via prayer, I started to course of my previous, however I additionally struggled. I fell into temptation and sin whereas attempting to reside in a means that honored God. I felt misplaced, ashamed—damned by my very own habits. However even in that, I knew this was only the start. Not solely of my stroll with Christ, however of my objective, my voice, and my profession. That’s what DAMN GENESIS is—magnificence born from brokenness, and a daring begin rising from every thing I assumed would maintain me again.
2. You’ve spoken about burning down false identities to reclaim your energy—are you able to stroll us by what that deconstruction appeared like for you in your private life and the way it fuelled the inventive choices on this undertaking?
As a homosexual, Black man, I’ve needed to navigate a world that usually decides who I’m earlier than I even communicate. There have been so many stereotypes and assumptions positioned on me that, for a very long time, I felt like I needed to match into the bins others put me in—fairly than reside because the particular person I actually am in my coronary heart. That sort of strain strips you of your identification. However in looking for Christ, I discovered a deeper sense of objective and fact. It helped me begin specializing in who God says I’m, not who the world expects me to be. That shift pushed me to reclaim my voice, to be totally myself with out apology. Folks will all the time have one thing to say, even when they don’t know you from a can of paint—however God is aware of all of me, and that fact gave me the arrogance to create from a spot of freedom, not concern.
3. There’s an depth in that twin theme of destruction and rebirth. How did you method shaping the sonics and lyrics to mirror that emotional push and pull?
That emotional push and pull got here straight from my lived expertise. Nothing about this undertaking was calculated—it was messy, unpredictable, and actual. I didn’t go in with an idea or construction. I simply began freestyling over beats I discovered on YouTube and jotting down no matter got here to me in my notes app. In the future I’d really feel like every thing was lastly coming collectively, and the subsequent I’d spiral—depressed, anxious, numbing the ache with weed, questioning if I ought to even proceed. At one level, I thought of turning the undertaking into a brief EP, or scrapping it altogether. However as a substitute, I let the music maintain house for every thing I used to be feeling—no plan, no strain, simply fact. That’s what gave it its emotional weight: it’s not polished ache—it’s lived-in, uncooked, and sincere.
4. From THE BLINDS to LADIES SONG, and now BLUR, there’s a transparent thread of peeling again layers. How has your relationship with vulnerability developed throughout these singles, and what house did you attain inside your self to create DAMN GENESIS?
By the top of 2024, I noticed I had constructed a catalog of songs that had been all deeply weak in their very own means. Every one revealed part of me I had both hidden, ignored, or simply began to know. I used to be intentional concerning the rollout—THE BLINDS got here first as a result of it felt like a comfortable opening, a technique to ease into the reality. LADIES SONG got here subsequent, throughout Ladies’s Historical past Month, as a tribute to the ladies who’ve formed me and held me down. After which BLUR—that was the emotional intestine punch. It set the tone for DAMN GENESIS and opened the door to the sound and spirit of the undertaking.
Via these songs, my relationship with vulnerability shifted. I ended writing simply to specific ache—I began writing to course of it, to heal from it, and to attach. DAMN GENESIS grew to become an area the place I might lastly introduce myself as I’m: no masks, no filters. Simply the reality, in each shade it reveals up in.
5. As a homosexual, Black artist from the Bronx, how have your roots and identification carved out your path sonically? Do you are feeling that DAMN GENESIS allowed you to specific that intersection extra freely or in a different way than earlier than?
I feel what actually carved out my path was studying to embrace and admire the tradition I come from—not simply present in it, however recognizing it as highly effective. DAMN GENESIS is the story of me getting into that totally. The liberty discovered within the queer neighborhood—particularly ballroom tradition, the celebration of femininity past gender, and the unapologetic spirit of self-expression—taught me how you can personal each a part of who I’m. The identical goes for being Black—our language, our fashion, our affect on popular culture and music—it’s all deeply ingrained in my sound. I’ve all the time had these roots, however I used to be afraid to point out them.
DAMN GENESIS gave me a platform to specific the Queer neighborhood that lives inside me and round me. On the skit on the finish of CHEQUE, I drew inspiration from how overtly and playfully some homosexual males communicate once they really feel secure with each other. In tracks like SITUATIONSHIP and BLUR, I take advantage of phrases like “bareback” and “backside”—phrases that maintain particular which means within the homosexual neighborhood, particularly in a sexual context. Together with them wasn’t for shock worth; it was about reflecting the language and fact of the world I come from. This undertaking gave me the liberty to be totally queer and expressive, to discover femininity with out shedding my masculinity—and to inform my story with out holding something again.
6. The Coming of the 12 months Classes looks like greater than only a live performance collection—it’s intimate and communal. How have these performances helped form your confidence, and has the viewers response fed into any of the alternatives you made whereas ending the tape?
DAMN GENESIS was already completed earlier than The Coming of the 12 months Classes kicked off in February 2025, however these reveals modified every thing for me as a performer. The viewers suggestions didn’t form the tape itself—however it reshaped how I take into consideration bringing it to life. It jogged my memory that individuals don’t simply need to hear music—they need to really feel it. They’re craving connection, storytelling, an actual expertise. And that pushed me to assume larger.
I noticed {that a} reside present needs to be greater than only a replay of the studio model—it needs to be 100 instances extra alive, extra uncooked, extra sudden. That’s after I actually understood the ability of efficiency. You possibly can have essentially the most unimaginable undertaking, but when the expertise doesn’t match the guts you place into it, it received’t land the identical. These performances taught me that the actual magic occurs while you take what you created in isolation and construct a world round it that your followers can step into. That’s the place the bond turns into actual.
7. This undertaking carries a heavy emotional weight, however there’s defiance in it too. Was there a second throughout its creation the place you realised you’d lastly stated what you wanted to say, with out compromise?
The second I completed PRETTY and determined it will shut out the tape, I knew I had lastly stated every thing I wanted to say. Unusually sufficient, that tune was the best to write down—however the hardest to swallow, as a result of it got here from the deepest wounds. My greatest insecurity has all the time been tied to my magnificence—my brown pores and skin, my options, desirous to be beloved and referred to as lovely even after I didn’t really feel it myself. Rising up, I didn’t see individuals who appeared like me being affirmed that means, and I internalized that. PRETTY grew to become a tune to myself, a second of softness I had by no means actually given. It healed part of my inside little one who had been bullied, dismissed, and by no means actually seen.
One other turning level got here with DANGEROUS. Years in the past, I went by a breakup that I by no means totally processed. I keep in mind catching my ex on Grindr, “internet hosting,” earlier than we had even formally ended issues. I stored it to myself—by no means spoke on it, simply pushed by. But it surely left a deep bruise. Although I’m in a loving relationship now, I knew I needed to revisit that second—not out of bitterness, however to launch it. Writing DANGEROUS let my inside teenager communicate—the one who felt betrayed, who didn’t know how you can ask for closure. That tune helped me reclaim that second alone phrases, by my very own voice.
8. As you put together to launch DAMN GENESIS, what do you hope listeners will carry with them after listening to it from begin to end, particularly those that may also be navigating reclamation or reinvention in their very own lives?
What I hope greater than something is that individuals actually take heed to DAMN GENESIS—not simply stream it, not simply play it within the background—however pay attention. This undertaking was designed to be skilled from begin to end, so as, like a journey. Each tune is a chunk of the human expertise—love, loss, therapeutic, temptation, pleasure, confusion—and I poured my coronary heart into ensuring every monitor might communicate to somebody on the market navigating life in their very own means.
My hope is that listeners discover not less than one tune that hits them so deeply, they need to maintain it shut. I need the music to satisfy them of their rawest place, to assist them course of one thing they may not have had the phrases for earlier than. Whether or not it’s therapeutic an inside little one, dealing with an uncomfortable fact, or lastly feeling seen—I need DAMN GENESIS to be that outlet. And later, once they come again to it, I hope they hear that very same tune in a different way—as a mirrored image of how far they’ve come.
This undertaking is about reclamation. Reinvention. Resilience. I simply need individuals to stroll away feeling like they discovered a chunk of themselves someplace in it.
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Uncover BRIEL the Artist on Spotify and be taught extra concerning the artist through their official web site.
Interview by Amelia Vandergast
