Creating A World Just for Her: The Charismatic Spellling comes to Songbyrd

So often, there will be an article out in the world that touts an artist as being groundbreaking or revolutionizing the music world around them. And while that acclaim is great and gives merit to a plethora of new and experimental artists, what really struck me about Oakland artist Spellling is how she doesn’t try to revolutionize this existing world.

If anything, she works double time to invent her own.

“My father had a really eclectic music taste and my mother grew up totally on soul music.” Spelling points out.

Making her way over to Songbyrd Music House on the 13th, Tia Cabral (better known as Spellling) has been causing a tastemaker’s uproar with her brand of experimentally-versed music that refuses to define itself.

Coming out in 2017 with her debut “Pantheon of Me” and capitalizing on its acclaim two years later with the universally-appreciated successor “Mazy Fly,” Cabral now finds herself pushing the envelope even further with 2021’s “The Turning Wheel,” an unapologetically plural album that reconciles her darker affinities with a growing appreciation for ethereal chamber and lounge.

“Björk was incredible with this idea of worldbuilding. [My worldbuilding] is usually about spiritual inquiry and feeling alienated as a queer POC,” Cabral conveys.

With grand and genre-spanning world-building being such a large part of the new album’s message, it’s almost inspiring to think of the incredible live show this artist will put on, especially when you consider how her Oakland-born songs are so indicative of the city’s rich music scene.

“I grew up in Sacramento, but I always had a base in the Bay Area. There’s this authenticity to it.”

“In 2018, I played this DIY show at Black Cat. Can’t wait to see what Songbyrd is like,” Spellling resonates.

And within Spellling’s sound, you can hear that Bay Area authenticity come through in such a heartfelt, but largely momentous manner.

In tracks like “Always” where the concept of lovers is played upon with genuine sincerity, it takes on new life when the lyrics conduct an internal reflection of the singer and how opening up emotionally is more of a personal hill to climb, rather than a romantic one.

Spellling’s “The Turning Wheel” is this appreciative send-off for music that is deep yet wistfully light.

If anything, I get this uncompromising Brian Wilson quality in the sense that a tried-and-true musical formula is being subverted to create something more “within itself.”

Although this album has an ethos that puts forth a baroque presence, subject-wise it has the tendency to be deeper and introspective, like the artist is analyzing herself as the chords progression continue on autonomously.

Aesthetically pleasing and totally cognizant of its own limitations, “The Turning Wheel” is yet another stellar addition to Spellling’s discography.

Spellling performs at Songbyrd Music House on October 13th. “The Turning Wheel” is available for streaming on all music platforms.

Spellling: spelllingmusic.com // @spellling

Songbyrd Music House: 540 Penn St NE, DC; songbyrddc.com // @songbyrddc

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Mela Rodrigues-Oliveira