Interview With R&B Artist BJRNCK

What does authenticity feel and sound like to you?

BJRNCK: It is whatever is true to you. But for me personally, for example, people will send me demos and I'll just take the hook. Usually, it has to feel like something that I've been through or a place that I have been. A lot of times, I'll have my friends in the session, and we will just be having girl talk. Those are kind of the stories I end up writing about. Once we all land on that one thing that we all feel like. Clearly, women as a whole feel like that, that is the story i want to tell. My music tells a story that all women want to say. It doesn't matter what type of woman you are, I try from the emotional aspect, even though we might not always be vulnerable or are scared to say it, but relate to it.

What did the process look like for creating your new song "Safety"?

BJRNCK: So this song wasn’t supposed to be on the album. It was really one of the last songs we did at the writing camp. I had a group of songs, but I felt like I needed more. I needed inspiration from different writers and producers. I am usually a person of habit, if I work with one producer and writer, I'm locked in. So on the last day of the camp, this girl Ariel, we were vibing, and I did say something about the beat. They were making it for two to three hours, and I didn’t like it. I was listening to Beyonce and Aaliyah, and I loved the beat on their songs, but you can’t just recreate the beat; someone will be like they sound the same. So after tweaking it so many times, Ariel came in and freestyled the hook, and I was like, Oh, I like that and then we wrote the verses together.

How did you come up with your stage name BJRNCK?

BJRNCK: Well, my first name is Gennae, and there’s already Jhene Aiko, so she kind of took my name. I used to be a huge fan. Then I went by Tiahna Gennae. Tiahna is one of my middle names. It felt really R&B. I didn't want my name to have a box. I wanted something that felt like a brand. I didn’t want someone to make assumptions when they saw or heard the name. Also, my last name always got made fun of so haha to you kids, now the world is saying it.

You released three singles for your new project, "Crazy," "Safety," and "Club," which one is your favorite and which was your favorite to create?

BJRNCK: I keep asking myself that. The most fun to create was "Crazy," I think 'Safety" and "Crazy" were made on the same day. My producer Tiggy was playing these loops, and I was like, That sounds good. He was making the beat, and by the time he was finished, I wrote the song. I wrote a song last year called "Espresso Martini"; only those two songs are songs I wrote top to bottom, and I didn't have to go into the booth. "Crazy" was the most fun to make, and the video is my favorite. My favorite song out of them all is "Safety." It's a song you can put on at any time.

What did you allow yourself to do creatively that you hadn't in the past?

BJRNCK: I would say completely write my songs. Most of my songs on the project I wrote by myself, which was new to me. I've been doing this for a long time, my confidence shrunk for a little bit over time. I was trying for so long, and I was like, maybe I wasn’t doing something right. I felt like I needed to have a writer or a certain producer. I had this traumatic experience where I had all my music taken away from me. Someone gave me really good advice: make songs that no one can take away from you. It's songs that I searched for the loop or started myself, learning how to record myself and write myself. Not really caring if people are gonna like it or not. Being genuine in my music. I gained my confidence back; it didn't come till after the music came, and the reactions were like it's the best music we've heard. And I was like Wow, I should have been doing this. The confidence in me and completely writing songs and believing in BJRNCK was different.

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