Music Event

We know it’s important to diversify our revenue streams and adapt to the new digital economy as artists, but how do you know where to start? At our next LAUNCH // GRO Digital Speaker Series session, we’ll be speaking with two artists who exemplify creative entrepreneurship and resiliency. TiKA and Alysha Brilla are multi-faceted creatives who have never limited themselves to the traditional definition of an artist. At the start of the pandemic, they quickly pivoted to find new ways to connect with their audiences. TiKA began her TiKA Circle virtual performance series to showcase emerging artists. Alysha Brilla offered virtual music production workshops and recently announced her Frequency Portal membership subscription. On top of this, both have continued to create and release original music!
In this LAUNCH // GRO session, TiKA and Alysha will share their stories of how they selected new revenue streams and how they made them profitable. We’ll talk about how you can craft a vision for a resilient career that allows you to maintain a cohesive brand and increase your impact as an artist. Don’t miss this important conversation!
ABOUT TiKA
Montreal-based, Toronto-grown singer-songwriter, film composer, model and curator, TiKA has been honing her craft for just under 5 years, after stepping onto a stage at the Milk River venue in Brooklyn, to cover for a singer who was running late. She sang Prince’s “I will Die For You”, and the wheels of musical creation haven’t stopped since.
The homage to Prince is interpreted as a ballad on her debut full-length, ‘Anywhere But Here’ (2020). Embracing the genre rightfully coined as “futuristic nostalgia”, TiKA draws from the legacy of Black Queer women of the 1990s: Meshell Ndegeocello, Tracy Chapman, Dionne Farris and Diana King - artists who she observed to have “rawness and grace in what they were saying through music”. TiKA’s compositions offer “ethereal sounds that wrap around you, reminding you of other memories”. The vibe remains current, and like the artist herself, evolving. With production work from friend and fellow artist, Casey MQ, and a duet with r’n’b artist, Desiire, the album’s themes address deeply personal relationships to ones’ inspired by TiKA’s Jamaican roots to others that are sonic representations of conversations with the self.
Her first two EPs, ‘Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid’ (20150 and ‘Carry On’ (2016) garnered attention from platforms like Noisey, The Fader, CBC Music, Afropunk and others. And that kind of buzz naturally led to song placements on CBC TV shows Diggstown and Kim’s Convenience. Opening for RnB greats like John Legend and Nao set the tone for the potential of her career as a live performer. And from SXSW (Austin, TX) to NXNE (Toronto); from A3C (Atlanta) to Redbull Music Festival (Montreal); Luminato in Toronto or SonReal in Vancouver, Pride in Toronto and Montreal, TiKA is an undeniable headlining act showcasing not only her soulful and powerful voice, but an overall unique artistic expression. Most recently TiKA completed the intensive film scoring program at the Canadian Film Center (May 2020). And expect video directing and co-directing credits for the releases of her latest project, “Anywhere but Here”.
Amplifying Black creative communities is a core value of TiKA’s identity as an artist and cultural producer. She spearheaded events like Known Unknown, where now award-winning artists like Haviah Mighty, Jesse Reyez, Daniel Caesar and Clairmont The Second first showcased their talents. The work in artistic milieus, has widened the lens on TiKA, as well. In 2018 and again in 2019, she was a featured model in Sephora campaigns across Canada. She agreed so that, as she put it, “...little chubby black girls could see themselves”.

ABOUT ALYSHA BRILLA
Alysha Brilla is a 3X Juno Award nominated artist and music producer currently working on her fifth self-produced full length record, 'The Body'; blending global roots sounds with expansive lyrical themes and meditative undertones.
Brilla's music, blogs and spirituality are inspired by growing up with parents from two different cultural and religious backgrounds; a Muslim Indo-Tanzanian father who immigrated to Canada and a Christian European Settler-Canadian mother. Raised in Brampton, Ontario, Brilla's rocky adolescence and intersecting cultural influences encouraged a reflective and existentially dissatisfied mind needing to channel thoughts and feelings. Writing became a haven for the young artist. Brilla would skip school to sit by the creek and fill journals with questions, insights and eventually, songs. The spiritual traditions and energies passed down through her Dadima have swirled their way around Indian and African rhythms into acoustic echoes of intimate storytelling of her soul, itself.
Brilla has performed internationally including across Australia, Singapore, Tanzania and Chile. In addition to live performances of music, Brilla has conducted arts education workshops in schools for the past ten years; promoting storytelling through music and mentoring in self-expression through the arts with a focus on developing skills in songwriting and music production. A special focus on encouraging and promoting the voices of youth and young women across the world for their valuable perspectives on environment and social awareness.

Thank you to the City of Ottawa’s Diversity in the Arts Fund for supporting this event.