Brisa Fenoy:
The divine power of music

FEBRUARY 23, 2022 → WORDS ADRIÁN GOMIS EXPÓSITO

PHOTOGRAPHY ARDEN
STYLING CHARLIE DOMINGUEZ RAIDI
TALENT BRISA FENOY
HAIR & MAKE-UP ANA FLOUFLEN
STYLING ASSISTANT TERFA EL RIFAIE
DIGITAL RETOUCH XENXO

CLOTHES BIMBA Y LOLA, ALEJANDRE STUDIO, BERSHKA, LOEWE, WEEKDAY, STÜSSY, I.AM.GIA, CAMPER

Having worked as a model for five years doing commercials and campaigns for really important brands and having studied psychology, nothing stops Brisa Fenoy from chasing her dreams and focusing on music. Her songwriting for the song ‘Lo Malo’ for Ana Guerra and Aitana from Operación Triunfo, who were nominated for Eurovision Song Contest, put her on the map. In addition to all her songwriting for various artists, her own projects and her award nominations, she tells us more about the projects she is currently working on, how she prefers not to be tamed by music-producing companies, therefore taking the independent way, and how her music is provided by a superior energy to free us all from our burdens.

You are a multi-skilled artist with great talent and a great story. Let’s start from the beginning. You started working as a model when you were eighteen years old, traveling the world and doing very important projects for international brands. I would like to know the reason why you started modeling in the first place and how was this experience for you.

I started working as a model because a photographer, Fernando Gómez Rosal, asked me to shoot some photos with him in Sevilla while I was studying psychology. I thought it was a great opportunity for my grandchildren, if I ever have kids, to know how their grandmother looked when she was younger. But when we did the photos, he sent them to the best agencies in Spain and all of them wanted to see me. He convinced me by telling me that this was the best way of earning some money in a short period of time to focus on my goal, which was to focus on music. That's how I started, I signed with the agency Uno Models and I started traveling to a lot of destinations. I first went to Istanbul. I immediately fell in love with that place because it reminded me of Algeciras, a city from the south of Spain, my hometown, and Morocco, which is located right in front of it. That's why I really love the Mediterranean culture because it is similar to what I know about my hometown and all the times I went to Morocco. I also traveled to Paris, Milan, Hamburg and New York but nothing was like Istanbul so I started going there every year for a couple of months. I worked a lot there and I enjoyed that city a lot. I was only happy when I went to Istanbul. I cried when I was in Paris because I just wanted to leave, and living there for months when I was eighteen was really tough for me. 

Everyone knows that choosing a career path is really difficult. You studied a degree in psychology but you didn’t finish it because you decided to focus on music. When did you realize that music was your passion and that you were willing to do anything to achieve your dreams? Was it a hard decision to stop studying for a degree and stepping into a more risky field? 

Since I was twelve, I knew songwriting was my therapy and what made me the happiest person in the universe. At the age of twelve, I wrote my first song, and I went to music school at the age of eight where I learned to play the piano, which then allowed me to write about my feelings, my joys, and my sorrows. Music was my best friend, and I had to play every day to feel good and safe. I was in the middle of Algeciras during my teenage years, in the south of Spain in my home that faced the ocean and the Strait of Gibraltar. I was yearning to be myself, but I was scared to face what would happen in my life because in my hometown it was really hard for me to find my own path. Fortunately, my parents always supported me and I went every summer to Philadelphia to learn English and take piano lessons as well. I really had so much fun there, I really felt that I fitted in well there. Music is what made me vibrate and feel that I fitted in this world.

Once you released your first single “Ella” and your second one “Jericó” your musical career began to grow, leading you to write the song “Lo Malo” for the singers Ana Guerra and Aitana from Operación Triunfo, who were nominated for Eurovision Song Contest. You say that that’s what put you on the map. How was this process of first producing your own music (which, allow me to say, is incredible) and then working on these big projects? How did you feel when you were assigned to this project?

Nothing special because I was always asked to write songs for other artists sometimes and it was something really common for me. I just did my best to write those songs. Then it started becoming a global hit, and I couldn't believe it but I really loved knowing that I wrote a song that became a massive mainstream song that had so-called ‘critical thought’ lyrics. It didn't have common lyrics, it was determined and wholesome. I was really happy to have accomplished one of my goals that was always on my mind, that is to send messages through my songs and make people think about them, make them not feel alone or give them a purpose to start making their dreams come true, to make them feel appreciated and courageous to think differently from everybody else. So it was an accomplished goal. I have to say that I have so many more yet to accomplish: write my own music and find the best team that believes in my vision and with the same goals.

What inspires you on a daily basis to create new music? Could you share with us your creative process? 

I usually sit in front of my computer, I start touching my keyboard producing different melodies. I use plug-ins with different sounds. I get inspired by personal experiences, from what I see around me and the lost souls or found souls in this world with and without meaning. Sometimes I lose hope and other times I find it right next to the corner. It is an emotional rollercoaster full of ups and downs. When I am feeling down is when I write the most, because if I'm okay and having fun, I don't usually write as much. I guess life is like weather, sometimes it rains and others the sun shines, but change is constant, and that’s how I experiment with music and everything that I create. I like to create without fixed ideas, I just use what I feel in each moment and that’s crucial for me. The instant inspiration in the present is the best to connect with the infinite, with the nirvana, with the absolute. When that happens and that connection is established, it is unstoppable and exciting. When I finish a song I have the best feeling ever. To create and finish a song is one of the best moments for me. I feel so grateful and joyful because I feel like it is not my own gift, I feel like it comes from a superior being that channels it through me. I’ve been really spiritual lately. I guess that elevating consciousness has been part of my process and that's why I stopped after my independent era to make that progress, that evolution in which I needed to dive in and create from there. Now I've got sixty produced songs but I don't feel 100% sure about them, can you believe it? I keep creating and finding the path, a creative journey where I feel connected with that whole I talk about. From there is where I want to create and grow and expand my creation with that joy of living. I don’t want to be a product for anybody. I want to be who I came to be.

You are also an activist, fighting for women’s and immigrant’s rights. You created slogans for demonstrations that went viral and became a core element of these protests. To your point of view, how important is it to fight for “small” collectives’ rights and how can we do that? How do you use your voice to fight for what is right? You can talk about society’s main problems and how you are personally fighting them.

I use to fight more openly. For various causes, everything harmed me and everything made me unhappy, the injustice of this world mainly. However, I really loved that period because that was my goal, to make everyone think and question the reality we live in and be able to offer a utopia in them that makes us more courageous and more conscious when we hear them. Now I feel that everything is part of everything, and that each of us creates the reality in the way in which we live and we decide to accept or not some things that happen to us on a daily basis. We are slaves and it is only a matter of thinking beyond our reality to realize that we are slaves of ideas, beliefs, addictions, laws, governments, of big corporations. We are slaves of money and material things. Through my music, I want to free us all at the same time that I free myself too. Creating is my greatest state of freedom.

I believe that AMOR O PODER (love or power) is the project you are now focusing on, which started with the release of your first book with the same name, followed by the release of your new album and a booklet. Can you tell us about this project, how it originated, how it developed and how did you manage to produce it?

I did it independently. I wrote the book about three years ago with a Spanish editorial named ‘Temas de Hoy’ from the group ‘Planeta’. It was what I had in my mind in that moment of my life and I felt I had to put that into words in a book. At that moment, I left the Universal record company that I was in back then because I didn’t want to be a product, I needed to express myself in a free and sincere way, in my music, in my book and in life. I couldn’t be somebody I was not. That’s why I decided to be independent and build from artistic freedom which was fundamental for me. But of course, that had a cost. Who funds your art and your life? How do you pay your bills? Which money and time do you invest in your project? I had some savings with which I could finance a video team for which my couple Said is director and scriptwriter of. He helped me build the producer company we have together named APÁTRIDA from which we produce all the music videos from the album and the audiovisual booklet. 

I moved to Algeciras for one year and from a remote place in the countryside named Wakana I did an artist residency where we filmed fragments of music videos and songs. Then, at home, in front of the sea, I finished the whole album and it was there where another project that will soon be launched was born, a parallel project named ALTA VIBRACIÓN (High Vibration) with electronic music and electronic pop that I created with my couple Said, who is also a DJ and producer. We have been doing DJ sets in various rooms in Madrid where we live. We play House and Techno music and it’s just marvelous. I’m thrilled to present this new project. We are currently looking for the management and booking team and potential music-producing companies.

Acting is another of your talents that you want to focus on and that you are currently developing. Which are your goals in this field? Do you have any upcoming acting projects?

I am currently taking performance and interpretation courses and I find it fascinating because it is another creative facet that makes me feel really connected to a superior energy. My couple, as I mentioned, is director and scriptwriter, and he has written a script for a movie in which I would be the main character. In my music videos I like to perform well and I’m finishing a video book to send to a manager to help me get some castings. I am also excited to grow in other areas. Music and cinema go hand in hand, and life is telling me to do that, and as we are creator beings I hope to create this other really soon.

To conclude, what can you tell us about your future projects? What are you working on at the moment and when will we be seeing more of Brisa Fenoy?  

As I mentioned, I am giving birth to my parallel project named ALTA VIBRACIÓN, building up the team that will hopefully accompany us in the process of growth as a group, performing at clubs, and providing that high vibration that I feel we humans so desperately need right now. It’s a very spiritual project, very humane and profound where I mix my neutral vocals with electronic and piano sounds. On the other hand, I am settling my new project for which I have over sixty finished songs plus another finished album. I don’t know how everything will turn out, but I’m sure something magical and surprising will be out soon! 

I keep working in fashion and advertising to combine the time of creation. Fashion always helps me to achieve my dreams and gives me that time that I need economically speaking. So I am creating these two new projects, these two paths, these two parallel lines that are part of me and that are born from me. I am looking forward to knowing where life takes me with its twists, its scenes, its moments, its present that it’s the only future and the only past, in this body and in this dimension. 

Thank you so much for this beautiful and special interview. Thank you for giving me a voice and sharing each other in this combined creation. Thank you for valuing what I did and I’m sure that you will love what my new projects will make you feel.