Sasha-Courtney Hofisi (aka Gertrude), is a 21-year-old hip-hop and r&b artist with a love for melding melodies and rap. The origin of her artist name, Gertrude, comes from her grandmother as her “musical metamorphosis is much more tied to the people and places who have raised her.” After four years at California State University, North Ridge honing her craft, Gertrude is ready to spread her wings. Finding the perfect balance between her pop-punk roots, hip hop and rap Gertrude sat down with Returner Magazine to chat about her musical journey.
If you could describe your music in two words, what two words would you use? I would definitely describe my music as ethereal and groovy. How did you begin your musical journey? Music has always been a part of my life. I've been singing my whole life. But I think when I really started to get serious about pursuing music was middle school. I was about 12 when I picked up the guitar, and this all sparked out of an emo phase that I was in. I was really into All Time Low, Pierce The Veil, Green Day and Linkin Park, a lot of early 2000s pop punk bands. I really wanted to start a band and so I knew in order to play that type of music that I would need to learn an instrument. And so I started learning guitar, thinking I was gonna make that music. And I wanted an indie rock, alternative rock sound [...] When I started college I started rapping. I never really thought that was something that I would do. I always used to write raps when I was younger, when I would write songs, I was like, ‘Oh, you know, maybe if I get in the studio one day, I'll have [a rapper] rap this part.’ But I never really thought about doing it myself. And I think that moment when I decided I was gonna start rapping changed the trajectory of the sound of my music and what I was going for. Was melding indie rock and rap challenging or was it something that came naturally to you? Definitely super challenging. It's something that I'm still figuring out today. It was difficult for me, especially because I was introduced to more live instrument recording. So I did a lot of writing stuff on guitar and recording. Then when I made that shift to hip hop, I had to start learning how to make beats. And that was something that I was not very familiar with. During that time I started outsourcing to a lot of producers, and you can hear it in my early tracks, it's a little bit less personal. So trying to figure out what types of sounds and what types of beats [was difficult] and I was trying to get into my own flow. More recently, I just released my first self produced single called “guilty” and I'm really proud of it is the first time I really have my hands on my own production and being behind that. Before my sound wasn't super defined in hip hop and r&b. I was just taking whatever beats that I felt resonated with me but now that I'm reintegrating guitar and some of that influence back in my music, especially in my music that I have coming out in 2023. How have you found your process has changed now you're doing it all yourself? It was honestly such a huge pain in the ass. Being a woman, especially in the rap space, where it's super male dominated, I was having to deal with a lot of male producers with giant egos. I was constantly trying to track down producers and often sitting in the room and trying to come up with a middle ground for how we wanted the song to come out. And I think I was holding back in a sense, because I was trying to do what I thought they wanted to hear, because as a woman, I felt like I was trying to impress them and try to prove to them that I could rap as opposed to just seeing my own value. I think I got caught up in the semantics of trying to prove myself [...] I felt like producing with other people I was losing a lot of my ideas in that. And that is what led me into the process that I'm in now, where I make beats almost every day and if I want to make a song now I can look through the stuff that I've made, that can be what resonates with me right now. And then I can just take that be and then start writing through it. It's a faster process. There's no middleman, I don't have to ask somebody for my mixes, I don't have to ask somebody for my masters, I can just be hands-on. What’s it been like translating your music to live performances? I'm the type of person where before I find bands, I like to send them all my music [...] I want the people that I play with to enjoy what they're playing so I like to send them the stuff and I'm like, ‘Here's the vibe that I'm going for, let's just go into practice and see what you guys can come up with.’ and we'll go from there. I think my favorite part is just hearing how people interpret my notes. So for example I have a song called “situationship” and it's more of a bouncy pop song and I have gone to a band before and I was like, ‘How can we grunge this up?’ and we've come up with a completely different version! That's super cool! What was the push that led you to release “situationship” back in 2020? Funny enough, I'd been playing music for a while prior and “situationship” was my first official single but prior to that I was playing shows throughout Southern California. [...} I'd always be such a great, great, great response to it and people were like ‘I would love to hear you on streaming services.’ I feel like every musician has been through it, where it's like, ‘where's your music?’ and I never had an answer. There were a lot of studio sessions that I was in with one producer in specific where we were just trying things and he was really patient with me and helped me figure out what I liked, because I really didn't know what I was going for. Because months before “situationship” I was kind of going for a more Willow Smith, pop, more melodic and more vocally impressive. And then I wrote this weird hobo Johnson style rap where it was very rough but very honest and authentic. And it just evolved into me fully rapping and we ended up making the beat with the producer over the course of a few hours. We were really struggling because in my head I was like “What do I want this to sound like?” but once I stopped paying attention to that “situationship” came out. Writing lyrics to sing has always been really easy for me but writing lyrics for rap has been more of a journey since I'm still relatively new to it. [...] This is not what I initially intended on this whole journey, finally putting music out to the public. I think this is what I need. And it's definitely set the precedent for how my music would go forward over the next few years.
How do you feel you've learned and grown since “situationship” moving on to your latest release “guilty.” Oh, my goodness, I have learned so so much, I think I also just learned a lot business wise, in terms of working with friends. Pretty much all of my songs prior to “guilty” were all collaborations with friends that pretty much ended and those friendships not working out. [...] Most of the time working with your friends will not be the most beneficial thing because I have my own deadline and I have my own vision and timeline for how I see things going. And then other people who are other professional artists had their own projects and their own timelines, they had their own ambitions and so sometimes those perspectives and outlooks clash. [...] [I’ve learned] if I am going to work with friends, which I have been reintegrating again, I’m figuring out ways that I can properly pay them and compensate them. So being more diplomatic and working with people that I know, and I care about, especially because almost all of my friends are artists, I think have helped a lot. I have also learned to trust myself in the process. I think I was putting off releasing self produced music for a very long time, longer than I should have. Back in the “situationship” era it was necessary, because I felt like my production was not matching up with the quality of the music that I wanted to put out. But I very quickly was able to catch up and I think I downplayed myself for a very long time leading up to “guilty” [...] Now I’m owning the title of being a producer and trusting in my own sound and vision for my music. So what is the inspiration behind “guilty”? “guilty” is such a reflection of where I am now, as an artist [...] I think often as artists when time passes you can feel disconnected to your music or feel like there's not a reflection of who you are now. And one reason why I'm so proud of “guilty” is that I feel like it really resonates with where I am now. “Guilty” for me is about the sacrifices that I've had to make over the last few years between the “situationship” era to now of taking music seriously. I'm in school for music right now my senior year and I've had to make a lot of sacrifices over the last four years in college from turning music from a hobby into a job and the difficulties of that. Whether that's putting in copious amounts of hours at school, or maybe not spending as much time with my friends or putting in more hours at my nine to five to pay for my bills, or spending more time in the studio and investing in my own personal business and brand. “Guilty” for me is me confessing that I am guilty to my friends, my family, my peers, my social circles for not answering your calls always on time for you know, having 100 missed calls and texts because this is my dream and music is what I'm working for. What's the reception been like from those people in your life that this song is dedicated to? Honestly, it's been very positive. I had one of my uncle's who said that he had no idea that the song was self produced, which was really nice. And I often feel like when I would go back home and see family, everybody was like, “Oh, you're just a busy musician.”[...] Everybody brushes me off as the person who's always busy [...] now I actually have something to show for it. [...] I think it actually has the best reception of all the songs that I've had, which I think is really interesting. And someone very close to me said that they think that that is because it is hands on deck and you can tell that it's very much me. They're also a musician as well and they said that all the music that is self produced is the music that is received the best. Now I'm getting more into my sound, I'm creating more of an artist identity and people are definitely reflecting those comments back at me where I feel like people are finally starting to get it. [...] For the last few years, I've been trying to convince people, or try my best to, sell people on what I am and sell my artist brand and sell my story. But I feel like for the first time with this single people are finally starting to get it.
What was it like overcoming that underestimation, especially being a woman in the genre that you're in? It's honestly been very hard. Consistency was the thing that helped me the most through trying to keep going, taking shots in the dark and seeing what happens. Also focusing on myself and my own sound, and collaborating less and focusing more on what I want and honing in on what I want helped me have that clear identity[...] Finally releasing my own self produced song and just doing that for myself definitely has helped me a lot. Creating more of a community around people who are more like myself. Being around musicians who inspire me and who have similar stories to mine, a lot of my friends now are so much more a reflection of me, they're artists of color. They write music with similar themes as mine, we come from similar ethnic and cultural backgrounds as well. So I think finding more people that are like me, instead of trying to force a square into a round hole. I was doing a lot of forcing things to fit, forcing collaborations to fit instead of letting things go and focusing on myself. What’s your favorite line in “guilty”? My favorite line definitely is “Rude, nowhere to be found/ And she dont give a” and then there’s a pause in the music. [...] I liked that too, because now that I'm getting more into rapping. I know a lot of rappers refer to themselves in the third person, a lot of them shorten their names [...] Upon discovering my sound and doing freestyles and ciphers with friends some of the rappers I would work with would start calling me Rude, short for Gertrude. So I just thought that was an homage to that time and I want to experiment with that. I think it's very eye-opening, that lyric is super self-aware. While finding your sound, what have your biggest inspirations been? In this era of my music, my main production inspiration right now is Monty Booker and I really love Smino. Just the way he's able to mix his melodic singing vibes with the rap is something that I'm super interested in, especially his vocal production, but also the beats themselves are super great. Someone who I really liked lyrically is Tyler, The Creator, more so his older era, like Goblin. One thing I really liked about when Tyler, The Creator broke out was that he was super uncut, unfiltered and very raw and self aware about how he felt about himself. Not in a self-deprecating way, he’s like ‘Here's who I am. Here's how I annoy everybody that is in my life. Here is how I self sabotage. Here's how I fuck up in my love life’ very much trying to expose himself in a way that his audience members can resonate with. That’s what I have been leaning into with my music, with “guilty” that is definitely a vibe for me. I know that it's not super socially great for me to have 100 unread text message messages on my phone but at the moment that's not really where my priority is. Saying things that makes people uncomfortable as well and I love the way that he does it. Another song I released this year was “chick” talking about white girls versus women of color and talking about dating politics in that way. I felt really nervous because I have a very very clear lyric in the song that says “All he wants is his world/ And his diamonds and pearls and his little white girls” I was nervous about saying stuff like that, but definitely [Tyler] is an artist who's done that so freely in history, he’s been able to make a career off of it. “Chick” immediately went onto my PWI playlist, I definitely resonated with it That makes me so happy! I have another playlist called “When the white man gets you down” and I feel like it totally works Following “guilty” what's next for you? Moving towards a full-length project. Whether that be an EP, mixtape, or album but definitely something with more than one song on it. Then performing shows! I used to have a really big live presence [but because of the pandemic] now I do not. When I started rapping there was a lot more focus on being in the studio and your writing and perfecting that sound. While in the indie rock and pop punk space, it's all about your band. It's all about how well you do on stage. So I'm finally in that integration period where I'm ready to take what I have been doing onstage with guitar and playing with bands. I can take all the stuff that I've learned from rapping and being a studio and I want to see how I can combine those into creating a live experience. And hopefully, just continue growing a fan base, especially in LA because I'm originally from San Diego and I've been out here in LA for the last four years for college.
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