Meet Gabrielle “neptunemuse” Tola | Singer-Songwriter, Poet, Astrologer, and Creative Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Gabrielle “neptunemuse” Tola and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Gabrielle “neptunemuse”, why did you pursue a creative career?
Pursuing an artistic career was second nature to me as I had grown up heavily influenced by music and was encouraged to act on my creativity since my childhood. Culture had a lot to do with it, having watched the pepsi musica show on tv, listening to the radio, and being obsessed with music videos. My mom’s favorite story to tell is when I was in kindergarten and she got called during work by my school principal because I was dancing on a table during lunch giving a belly dance rendition of la tortura by shakira, which I think describes me well to this day. I’ve always loved trying new artistic mediums but singing and songwriting just always stuck as the thing I’m most passionate about where I don’t see it as a career, but a source of vitality. Being creative is a part of who I am.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
As an independent singer, songwriter, and growing producer, my music is the fruit of my love of neo-soul, bossanova, jazz, and r&b/soul. As an ode to my roots, latin percussion instruments sit at the heartbeat in all my music to date.

I’m excited for so many things in my future. First, the ability to finish and release more demos to the world and gain expertise in mixing and producing in order to better illustrate the inner universe that I create from. I love directing my own music videos and being very hands on the entire process of my work and getting to run free with creative reign. I’d say I’m most proud of my growth as an artist over the years, having built up the courage to put myself out there and learn and do a lot on my own. You’ll often find singing bowls, running water, wind chimes, and spoken word in my more experimental music, specifically my interludes that are the result of having trusted myself more in producing work rather than restricting myself just on the strengths of my writing and vocal performance. But I’m also super happy and proud of how healing others have told me my music sounds, which is a definite goal in the world-building of my art as a whole.

My biggest goal as a musician is to cultivate beauty and peace into a sonic and visual dreamscape through my music in which people can find optimism and comfort in, especially queer bipoc. I’m truly still my younger-self at my core, endlessly fascinated with all music can invoke in myself/others and I hope that the world feels my passion when they hear and see all I can do.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’m a museum-boba-picnic type of girl, so whenever I have friends visit or hang out with new friends I insist on seeing one of the botanical gardens here or vizcaya’s museum/garden. Food wise, I’m very loyal to aguacate sanctuario de amor as a vegan, queer-woman owned happy vegan bakery in hialeah, and 107 taste as a pad thai lover.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I absolutely hold gratitude for my family, friends, and partner for always uplifting me and supporting me through my 1005 hyperfixations and hobbies and always giving me amazing support and love, especially my mom who has been the one taking me to my dance classes, auditions, and music recitals. The love of my community moves me.

Additionally, I’m grateful for the mentorship of Catherine Kondi who I was lucky to be trained by for a semester during my freshman year of college in jazz vocal performance, the guidance of Alex Reed who guided me in developing my music production skills, and Dr. Radio Cremata’s encouragement in my songwriting and producing.

Website: https://gabrielletola.wixsite.com/mysite

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neptunemuse/?hl=en

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielle-tola-285752211/

Twitter: Twitter.com/neptunemuse

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-3vcjzHikAwp_w3QNPQK1Q

Other: bandcamp: https://neptunemuse.bandcamp.com/releases
spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5ydfmkwwXlxSYvULhroirm?si=3T8vtN3wSnWjwNgtMfroZg
soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/neptunemuse

Image Credits
Yaemi Matias Chris Ashley Frankie Walls