You might know TAAHLIAH from that viral Boiler Room set, her Dazed 100 feature, or perhaps you caught one of her frenetic festival sets this summer. Either way, the Glasgow-born musician has made a name for herself with raucous mixes and high-energy club sets, winning various awards and sharing stages with A.G. Cook, 100 gecs, and the late SOPHIE. When Dazed last caught up with TAAHLIAH in 2021, she was on the cusp of releasing her EP Angelica. Since then, she has graced strobe-lit stages and sweltering basements worldwide. My previous encounters with TAAHLIAH have always been in these packed, in-the-know club spaces, populated with a mostly queer audience. (I recall one of her events some years ago, when a friend’s bag was left unattended all night: when reunited, she found only her Imodium missing; her phone, keys and wallet were untouched).
TAAHLIAH’s new album Gramarye, released last week, lends its name from a folkloric word related to magic and necromancy. It’s a term TAAHLIAH stumbled across while reading an essay by Terre Thaemlitz (DJ Sprinkles), in which he reveals that “the English word ‘glamour’ has its roots in the Scottish term ‘grammar’ in the sense of gramarye, or magic.” Resonating with the word’s etymology, TAAHLIAH set out to create her own kind of magic: a vulnerable and confessional 11-track album.
Although the record is underpinned by the boisterous confidence of her club sets, TAAHLIAH also leans into her introspective side with cutting ballads like “Cherish” and “Heavenrise”. These candid lyrics are accompanied by equally intimate orchestral instruments, with a sugary euphony of harps, flutes and bagpipes distilled throughout the tracks. Experimentation with these larger sounds followed a commission from London Contemporary Orchestra back in 2023, where TAAHLIAH’s compositions were transformed into a score. Her music, once stacked soundbites on Ableton, became clefs and codas on sheet music, and eventually an orchestra performance.
Even listening through shitty wired earphones, you can hear there is something intrinsically magical about Gramarye, like it was created in some mystical setting over the course of one night. However, although contributors, naafi, Tsatsamis, Fred MacPherson and Dev Hynes (Blood Orange) have each taken their turn to throw something into the flame, that vision is not too accurate. In fact, Gramarye was dreamed up over three years, scribbled intermittently into notepads at various studios, sofas and airport gates around the world. As the album is finally released into the world, we speak to TAAHLIAH about embracing vulnerability in her music, the creative hustle, and her relationship with fame.
On the track “Heavenrise”, we hear you sing for the first time. How was that experience for you?
TAAHLIAH: I’ve been taking singing lessons for about a year and a half because I knew it was something I wanted to explore, but I didn’t know when I would be ready to fully embrace it. I had always been told that I had potential. I started thinking about the idea of having a portable instrument – something that isn’t just tied to setting up a piano or using my laptop.
So your voice became that instrument?
TAAHLIAH: Exactly! My voice is something I’m incredibly sensitive about, but I’ve grown to love it. I don’t want to feel held back by anything. It just happened organically during the recording. It’s been an interesting process as someone who hasn’t had formal training as a singer. I definitely want to perform live once I find the courage to do that.
What themes does Gramarye explore?
TAAHLIAH: From the start, I knew this album would dive into emotional themes, like what it feels like to overcome challenges and regain your sense of self. I was really intentional about including those elements in the project. It’s easier to create when you’re on the other side of it. I wasn’t going into the studio saying, ‘Oh my God, fuck this guy, he’s fucking me up’. Instead, I could acknowledge, ‘Yeah, that was tough, but I’m fine now. Let’s make an album about it’. The phrase ‘the world is hard but I’m soft like an angel’ actually came to me one morning as I was waking up. I was scrolling through Instagram, thinking, ‘I really need a caption for this post’. And then it hit me, I just knew this phrase would perfectly sum up the entire record.
In the EP Angelica, you explore the body, while in Gramarye, you focus on the mind. How does this shift come across sonically?
TAAHLIAH: With Gramarye, everything was a lot more calculated and cerebral. You hear parts of some songs pop up in different tracks, and it all has this cohesive narrative. When you listen to it, at least for me, it feels like a journey. I was using so much more of my grey matter when I was making it because I wanted it to have just so much more meaning.
For Angelica, nothing was incredibly deliberate. I described it as just throwing stuff at the wall to see what stuck. It was really just a bunch of songs I made over six months, tossed together in one project. They’re both valid and authentic ways of working, but I was still figuring stuff out when I was making Angelica. This new album feels way more mature, so much more considered.
The album opens with the voice of ballroom icon Octavia St. Laurent. Why did you choose this for the opening track?
TAAHLIAH: That track actually came together while I was in Australia last year. I took a friend with me, and we’re both trans women. Throughout the tour, we often experienced being misgendered, which really highlighted the struggles of being in public spaces. It was exhausting, and while it didn’t happen all the time, when it did, we just had to adapt and keep moving.
One night, while we were sitting in the hotel, I started working on the instrumental for that track on the plane. As I was creating it, I wanted it to reflect what it feels like to fly among the clouds. The mood was really nice, but I couldn’t shake off the negative experiences we’d been having. I started watching deleted scenes from Paris Is Burning on YouTube, and that’s when I came across this incredible interview. I took that inspiration and played around with the vocal processing, and that’s how the track came to life.
You’ve become an icon in the club scene with your high-energy sets, yet Gramarye reveals a more vulnerable side of you. Do you see your DJing and your music as separate entities?
TAAHLIAH: DJing started my music career, and I love being able to make people move and have a great time in the space. I very much only interact with that music for teaching practices and maybe when I’m at a party or something but I don’t wake up and listen to techno. It’s also a very accessible way to play around with different sounds. When I’m DJing, it’s almost like making music in real time. I’ll be looking for things and chucking stuff on top of each other. And while that’s fine, it’s not like I’m using my DJ sets to express an artistic message or anything. That is just a space for joy.
Whereas when I’m making work, there’s always kind of a more calculated intent behind it. I got to a point where I was doing so many DJ sets and just not making any work, and I was actually incredibly unhappy because I wasn’t able to achieve that catharsis that I need when I’m creating. But honestly, I love doing both.
Being authentic comes across as a priority within your artistry. But do you ever feel pressure to play the game of fame, so to speak?
TAAHLIAH: Thank you! Interestingly enough, I was actually having a conversation with my boyfriend’s mum that touches on similar things. I grew up with no money, so having no money is just the default for me. I’ve always had that hustle mindset. I still have a part-time job at a gallery, but I haven’t worked in a ‘regular’ job for two years. I’ll always keep that job because you never know what’s going to happen, and I understand that being an artist in Glasgow can be tough.
When it comes to music, I came into it never really wanting to play the game. I wanted people to listen to my work, of course, but I come from a fine arts background – I studied painting. So it was never about needing to strategise to get people to listen. It always felt like a natural process, which is really nice.
A lot of the artists I’ve admired haven’t faked the game either, so having those references allows me to conceptualise things in a way that feels authentic. I believe people will interact with the work regardless, and if I start doing something that feels unnatural to me, people will feel that energy.
Gramarye is out now. See TAAHLIAH’s debut live show, Heavenrise, here
