Hi Gisy, I’m excited to talk to you today! Can you start by introducing yourself and what you do?
My name is Gisy Mohamed, I am a 20 year old artist, singer songwriter, rapper, actor, all around artistic disciplined individual from Hamilton, Ontario.
How did you get your start in music?
Music has always been something I had a passion for ever since I was young, I loved to dance when I was little and being around music grew into the love for the actual creation of it.
In 8th grade I was in a group with some friends and we started a little rap group and that was my first shot at jumping into music. From there it led to exploring the other fields of art, and now I’m here.
Aside from rapping I know you also do some singing, which did you start off with?
I started with rapping, like I mentioned before in 8th grade I was a part of a rap group and we performed at a talent show, just for fun. In grade 9 I found that I loved to perform, but I didn’t think singing was a thing, I would do a little skit here and there but I was really into rapping. I auditioned for my high school glee club as a dancer and a rapper and then I ended up developing my singing skills, now I’m a triple threat.
Who or what inspires your music?
A big inspiration for me is Michael Jackson! I just love to perform and I think watching him when I was younger was the seed that was planted into me, which ended up growing into the performer I am today. Now, I find that I’m inspired by everything and other artists. A big inspiration for my work are the stories that people have to share, whether it’s visually, through music, writing, film, photography. Everyone has a story or vision to tell and that’s what inspires me and is the reason why I do my work.
You have a single called Is That Okay? coming out February 28th, what has it been like working on this song?
Is That Okay? is a very special piece, it’s been two years since I’ve released anything. With the year that we’ve had that included major changes to everyone’s lives, I obviously had goals and things that I wanted to achieve; with everything that happened the year before and even as the world was dealing with all of these things, us as artists feel a need to be the vessel for people to express and be a reflection upon the times that we’re going through. I found the song, while I was in Toronto and I heard the beat early in February of last year. At first I really wanted to get something out to people. I wanted to share my perspective of the experience through acting, I was in a production called Blackberry, that kind of focused on the experiences of young black youth in today’s society, but I really wanted to release music. With what had happened this past year with the Black Lives Matter movement, there was a lot going on in the world that had affected me and I wanted to express some of the things I was going through. Considering the world was hit with event after event, it was almost too difficult to cope and go through the process of understanding, creating and expressing it. The first six months of the year was really like "push, you got to get something out, the people need art right now" but then I started to take a different approach. I think I was in such a rush because I haven’t released music in so long and this would have been the perfect opportunity, but instead I decided to take the whole year as a space to be inspired, to really indulge in the moment and live in it. I trusted that creativity was going to hit me when it hits me so I focused on one song for the entire year. I ended up writing it over the summer then I recorded a draft and from the end of the summer until now it’s been a steady process of creating that body of work that people would need right now. There’s a lot of the elements to the song that I thought about while making it, like if you’ve seen the cover art, I specifically chose to have a woman of colour to really highlight what I had been experiencing that year. Instead of focusing on negative emotions that might trigger people I wanted to go with the message of love, understanding and human connection with someone, which we lacked so much of this past year. These were all these things I picked out that inspired me throughout the year that are now coming to life in this piece.
I know for a lot of artists, finding motivation and inspiration to create bodies of work has been very difficult during this time, so how do you find motivation to create?
My creative process is an ongoing thing, as we grow as people we also grow as artists and we might do things one way and do another thing a different way. I think how I do it is to make sure I’m really in tune with myself, being able to separate myself from the work, live life and experience the stories that I want to bring to life. When I created this piece it was a different creative process that I took and it worked, something beautiful came out of it. Now I’ve come to an understanding that I don’t always have to be motivated, with the year we’ve had there were times where I was like “I’m too sad to write about what’s going on right now” or “I need to do some healing.” I learned that I don’t necessarily have to be in creating mode all of the time, my inspiration should come from the feeling of “man I am too sad to create” and write about that experience. I think I’m coming to realize, for me as an artist, I am inspired by many different things, I am inspired by the experience of life and all that entails. I think this is the new creative process I’m now taking, where I can create from anywhere. I’m not necessarily running into writing blocks anymore but writing blocks are good because sometimes you have to have a block. Sometimes you need to go out and get some bubble tea and it might be a rainy day. You might see the rain trickling down the window at the bubble tea spot and now you’ve got inspiration to write about how your life reminds you of a tide. Once I realized that I could draw inspiration from many areas of life, it’s been my thing.
What are your goals for your career?
I love building human connections and I do that with my art. Art is a universal language and I just find that so amazing. I really had that experience after attending Randolph College for the Performing Arts, working with people from different artistic backgrounds while being able to connect on the same levels. That’s what I fell in love with and as for goals I want to be able to connect with as many people across this world and across this lifetime as possible, I feel like that’s my purpose in life. I want to inspire people to do the same as well, this wasn’t my first thought of what I wanted to be doing with my life. I want to run into the younger Gisy who might have wanted to jump into the arts but didn’t want to get picked on or was getting different opinions from parents or friends. I want to bring a positive impact into the world through what I do and inspire that younger Gisy to do the same, once I’m gone and I’m out of here. Those are my three biggest goals really, I want to create change through the things I do, I want to connect with the world through the work that I do and I want to inspire someone else to do the same.
Interviewed by Darnie Tran.