TEI SHI

BAD PREMONITION

The evolution of a musician can often run into diverse sonic directions, though it is imperative if not truly a lifeline when they transcend the momentary musings to really add and subtract from the eternal narratives which they abide. Valerie Teicher Barbosa aka Tei Shi, the Colombian-Canadian musician carries on this artistic path in her sweet angelic vocals which have been cultivated lately by darker musings and their pronouncement as well as paired down play with digital instrumentations. Her latest EP release BAD PREMONITION explores negative sonic movements and an overall darker reaction to life and her ongoing means of expression. We spoke with the songstress about her personal merch, graphic style and experimental sounds.

I know you made your own merch for the tour what was that like?

It was really fun actually, it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time it’s just like playing around with the merch I’m doing and just kind of get more hands-on with it like  I wanted to just do something different this time and and I started playing around with just like old shirts I had lying around and spray painting. Just started having like a lot of fun with it and I figured I thought it would be something that like fans at the shows would be into and honestly it was just a really fun thing to do. I just like in my backyard making shirts, I like the idea i’ve making something handmade look like one of a kind.

Have you, previously had more graphic and visual type of work in your past?

No, not really it is something I have been getting more interested in. I’ve always been very hands-on when I do get Merch made. with designers and such I’m always part of that process and have ideas and such. I have never really done anything like that myself. It’s some thing I know I like doing just for myself, customizing things that I have just for fun. it was really an exploration of what I can do with just a few tools. I like things that feel handmade and DIY. I thought that my fans would like that too.

You also recently walked in the past season for Elena Velez how did you guys get involved with each other?

I’m trying to think about how we originally got connected. I mean I became aware of her work just through fashion, and seeing what she was doing probably a couple of years ago and I know at some point we became Instagram friends. She had asked me to do a performance at an event of hers that didn’t end up happening, but it was the first time that we spoke over DM. I just love her work. I think she was a fan of what I’ve been doing. I invited her to my show last year in New York and then she just asked me to be part of her show. I was on tour so I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to but then it just so happened that I had a day off in Philly. I took the train into the city, did the show and then back to Philly and hopped back onto the tour. It was pretty crazy but it was my first time walking in a show I had never done it and I just thought that this is the best possible first time. She has been so sweet and supportive towards me and I feel the same way towards her so it’s just been a really nice organic mutual respect I think. I had her come out to my show in New York a couple weeks ago. I told her I walked in your show so now you had to walk in mind so she did a little cat walk on stage behind me which was fun. it was just such an organic kind of thing out of being aware of each other’s work, we really got along.

I’m actually quite shocked. It’s the first time walking a fashion show I’ve noticed you’ve always been very aligned with zeitgeisty brands. what has your engagement been in that song and dance?

I’ve definitely done a lot of stuff in the fashion world. Whether just wearing and supporting designers that I love and doing performances and events. I just hadn’t been asked to actually walk. I’ve been asked a few times but I just never really worked out. it’s something I’ve wanted to do and wanted to see what it’s like. To see a fashion show come together, and to be part of it. One of the people out there strutting the clothes. it felt like this was the right first experience. there’s just so much to discover in New York and especially with fashion everywhere, being lucky in that space where in music and fashion can meet and play with each other. I really love that space, so definitely I want to do more in that world. I just am figuring it out and taking my time with it.

Your latest EP, BAD PREMONITION’s image is veering towards what Elena’s work is about the dark, strong and aggressive vibe. Along with the visuals I found the songs and production to be so much more sparse and beautiful in the way that they use negative space in the production. how did you go about setting the tone and aesthetics?

The sound definitely always comes first and always dictates everything else. And yes, I think what you said about the music is super spot on. It is something I really wanted to try to achieve, the most minimalistic production in a lot of ways using like what you said, negative space, and not really filling things up too much with noise, but letting every sound and every part of the production really just be there for a reason. To leave a lot of space for my voice, and for the words and melodies to have room to fly around. It really just came  together over probably like a year and a half of gathering as I was writing more songs, and finding more of a direction with what I was singing about.

Picking up little bits of references and inspirations here and there. I definitely pulled a lot of inspiration from the minimalistic production at the early 2000s production I like Timbaland, some of the Max Martin stuff. Just a lot of really pop music from the early 2000s that was just super dry and minimalistic. It was very clean and clear cut and that was one of the things I knew I wanted, the visuals came after and it is some thing I am still crafting this world. It’s a little bit more stark a little more classic, the EP cover. know it’s not necessarily an era you can pinpoint the tutu and the look has existed. In visuals, and in fashion for a long time. I like this kind of brutalism. The photos in the shapes and the shadows. it is something I am still carving out and I feel like I haven’t really established the visual tone until I nailed The EP cover. It’s some thing I’m still expanding and working on because I feel like I still have my music in my back pocket that is definitely to come so that visual world will keep growing with that.

In this moment you’re having a renaissance in your career cause you’re able to have that type of autonomy. In doing so the creative is so wonderful you look like you’re almost a praying mantis. Do you feel like it has a lot to do with having the record industry who are the ones in charge and dictating?

I’ve been going through the process of getting back to myself creatively after being through a lot of situations. Different labels, different teams, different management, just a lot of different surrounding noise for a long time of opinions and ideas of what I should be making and how I should be presenting myself. That is definitely something that has surrounded me for a number of years. I still feel like I managed to make myself hard, and still do my thing through that but I definitely do feel like I lost that connection to my own inspiration and excitement. I feel like it’s really easy to get removed from that kind of impulsive feelings that you have to follow as an artist and as a creative, it’s really easy to get separated. Once you have a team of people that kind of have to approve what you have to do and once you can’t just put things out there however you want.

I feel like the last couple of years has been me getting back to this place where I am fully independent, and doing things very much hands on, getting back to trusting myself and following my creative impulses. Even with the merch making the t-shirts was some thing I wanted to do for a long time but it just letting myself be playful with things like that, and not really overthink things. In the past someone would say,. “don’t waste your time doing things like that we will just do this instead.” it’s giving myself the room to explore whatever I want and that’s really what I feel. You can hear in the music and I feel like you could see that and everything I do now in the shows and tour. I am doing just really having fun and not over thinking things, that’s what’s really guiding me into the next chapter.

The colors and tones that you have been wearing lately has been great in framing you compared to previously being so muted.

I think in the fashion side, the visual side, the musical side all of it I just feel like in my skin it’s that feeling it’s cool to hear that resonate from the outside.

Let’s talk about your vocals and the background in your training in the way where are you brought up in any vocal traditions or talk any that you leaned into?

I would say, I think I had a lot of different bits of influences. when I was young and growing up, there was always a lot of pop diva vocals. My dad is a huge Whitney Houston fan, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, and all the vocal divas. My older sisters were obsessed with Madonna, so there was always that kind of music surrounding me. I kind of making trying to mimic those incredible singers of the late 80s and 90s, but then definitely loosely some jazz. When I went to  music school there was a lot of jazz around. I did not study jazz vocals, but it was some thing I had always really loved and would dip my toe in. Picking up little things from around me at school. I also loved Bossanova Latin, jazz and specifically Brazilian singers like Astrud Gilberto and Gal Costa that was music that would be around playing in my house, so I kind of drew from that.  I love vocalist to do interesting things with their voices and who write and create really interesting music, like Kate Bush and Imogen Heap. these artists that I discovered more on my own when I was a teenager and in college. Latin music like salsa and cumbia stuff that I grew up around me all the time. I think all these things when you listen to my music you can be like this. Sounds like this or that, but there is definitely a lot of loose little bits of inspiration that I think has shaped my approach.

I never really trained properly. I did a little bit of that at music school. I always kind of shied away vocal training because I always felt that it limited my creativity when people tell me this is how you sing. Now I appreciate it a lot more technique and training and now that I am performing an on tour professionally. I definitely appreciate that much more, I would like to explore that actually more.

Shop the latest custom Merch at Teishi.World

Photographed by David Simon Dayan.

Written and Styled by BJ Panda Bear.

Hair by Nathaniel Dezan at OPUS Beauty using Oribe.

Makeup by Carolina Ballesteros at Exclusive Artists Management using Hourglass, Kosas, and MAC.

Photo Assistant: Trevor Paul.

Location Slip Studio.