Hashika had the chance to talk to @isabruder (she/her) about her debut single “close to her”. We were so excited to celebrate this with Isa and be a small part of this amazing release. 🌈🌼💞⁣⁣

Hashika: How long has this song been in the works? How did it come together?⁣⁣
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So halloween last year, i met my co-writer Jules Brave (@imjulesbrave). We got along really well. She wrote pop music and is a singer and used to go to NYU so we immediately vibed. We stayed in touch and knew we wanted to write together eventually. After break, we got together and began writing but ended up writing a very different song. We took a break, ordered some food and just started talking about life. I told her about this girl I had a crush on and she asked me “have you come out?” and at that point i sort of had, to my friends but not online. She told me “we have to write you a coming out song!” so we sat together in her bedroom and I talked and talked and told her how it felt. I said “its kind of like you’re at a party but you’re looking through a window because you’re not invited. You’re seeing everyone dancing and being happy but you can’t have that”. That’s where the concept of the song came from - I was just venting to her on her bed. and then we wrote it. ⁣

I sent the demo to Shane Patterson (@shanethp), who produced it. I had worked on a couple of cover videos with him before. I was in brazil at this point because COVID happened. I reached out to Shane literally a month ago and told him, pride month is happening and I have a crazy timeline planned out. I sent him the song and he said this is special and that he wanted to work on it. He literally produced, mixed and mastered the song in literally two weeks because he had to send it to distribution. Kelly (@kellydrake19), who did the video, lives with Shane. We just coordinated cross-continentally and planned the video for when I flew back to New York. My flight then ended up getting cancelled and things were hectic but I’m really glad that everything came together well in the end. So the song has been around for a couple of months for me but the decision to release it maybe came about a month ago which is a very fast turn around.

How was your pride month?

Everything is intersectional and with the LGBTQ+ movement being started by a black trans woman, this pride month for me was full of education. It’s been amazing to learn more and do more. But definitely an unconventional pride month and I’m happy to be able to end it this way.

How did you adapt to all the social distancing and limitations put on movement and getting together?

The social distancing limitations were an interesting to deal with. Obviously my co-writer, my producer and video producer, all of them were in new york. I was in brazil. The flights were being cancelled and I didn’t know when it was safe to come back. I had a really clear vision on how I wanted the song to go in terms of aesthetics and sounds. I made a bunch of mood boards and collages and color codes to show the color scheme that I wanted. I sent references for sound effects and mixing and all that stuff. So I was involved in every part of this release even though we were socially distancing. I sent a bunch of content that helped the people working on it to bring it in the direction that I wanted. I was obviously super lucky to have the people working on this with me. I couldn’t have done it without them.

What is next for you?

I’m going to keep writing, hopefully have some other songs coming out in the near future…maybe not in the near future…I don’t know. Hopefully once COVID’s over I can start playing live gigs again even though they’ll be small and socially distanced. This is my first single. This is one of the first song’s I’ve ever written. I’m going to keep working to become a better artist.