Tilsen

Photo Credit: Tim Myles

Tilsen’s infectious pop music is sure to keep you listening. Based in Toronto, the recording artist and songwriter layers her immensely catchy melodies and powerful beats with personal lyrics about her experiences with love. Having written songs for ten years now, Tilsen’s played at venues throughout Toronto, opening for a multitude of artists to get her start. In 2019, she released her debut single, “Hurts”, and now has over 470k streams on Spotify. The artist reached yet another milestone in May 2020 with the release of her first EP, the self-titled Tilsen. However new to the scene she may appear though, her music is the product of professionalism, displaying striking honesty and grandeur, Victorian imagery. We recently spoke with Tilsen about her aspirations, unique relationship with opera as a pop artist, and more!

How did you get started making music?

My mom is an Opera singer and so I’ve been singing since I was a little girl. I was in choirs and arts schools growing up, but I was 16 when I started to write my own songs. I was introduced to a songwriter who encouraged me to write my own music, and after receiving affirmation that they thought the songs were good, I kept going with it. I always enjoyed creative writing and performance so as soon as I started writing songs I knew I wanted to pursue a career as a recording artist. 

Has your relationship with opera impacted your music in any way? 

Growing up with exposure to Opera, theatre, and classical music definitely encouraged a love of all music and drama. I want to tell stories through my music, like Opera and build my live shows to be an experience. For my EP, I went for a modern Victorian/fantasy theme for the visuals, hopefully transporting my audience to a world not dissimilar to one of Opera. 

Describe your music in 3 words. 

Personal, catchy, honest. 

How do you unwind after a long day’s work? 

I usually cook and then watch film or tv to decompress. My favorite show right now is called “The Great” on Prime video. It’s hilarious. 

If you weren’t an artist, what other career path would you choose? 

I’ve thought about this often and I wouldn’t want to do anything else. However, if I hadn’t gone down this path, I imagine I would’ve become a psychologist. I love exploring human nature and helping people to understand themselves. 

Since we’re delving into the world of hypotheticals, who would be your artist of choice for a dream collab? 

My dream collab would be with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, I would die to sing with any orchestra. So many powerful females in music whom I would love to collaborate with but I choose... Marina, who started as Marina and the Diamonds. 

What future projects can Tilsen fans keep a lookout for? 

I have a collab with Midsplit coming out on his album in October. It’s called “Out of Here”!