We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Bria McCollum. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Bria below.

Bria, appreciate you joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

When it comes to music, I feel as if I’ve always taken small risks. Since I started out playing classical and gospel piano, I felt many people always tried to put me into a box because of my looks. In reality, I always had a different sound in mind for myself. My first real introduction to music outside of classical and gospel was metalcore. I always liked how melodic yet intense it was and since then, that is always what I strived for my music to be (despite none of my released songs being metalcore). The main risk I am taking with this project and staying true to myself which many people don’t know. My favorite colors change monthly so why can’t the music I release or perform do the same as long as it’s coming from my own brain you know? I don’t have a manager to tell me to not release a song so it might be a risk to release an alternative shoegaze song, follow it up with a thrash metal song, and then release a radio-friendly rock song. I’m just doing it because I want to and simply can. So far, this risk has helped me reach many people who enjoy music as an art form rather than just something to passively listen to. I believe as long as one person has felt an impact from my music, I have served my purpose. For example, I released an… interesting song called “I’d Put a Hamburger In a Blender for you” about blending food for a friend who was talking about how if they got surgery, they would need blended hamburgers to survive. It’s essentially about unconditional love to an extent where I’d blend an entire hamburger for someone. Although this is clearly not my most popular song, several people with TMJ (Temporomandibular joint dysfunction) actually reached out to me saying that, that song touched them. Each song and project I’ve released has been a huge part of where I am in life. I’m still clearly learning and want to grow, but I still do not want people to forget the fact that I enjoy taking risks with my sound.

Bria, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, session musician, and producer from Atlanta, Georgia. I am now currently based in Nashville, Tennessee where I graduated from Belmont University as a songwriting major and legal studies minor. My main goal is to break the typical barriers of an “artist” because I am a songwriter before an artist in my opinion. Because of my unique voice and style choices, I’ve been able to grab some people’s attention but I want to stress the fact that this isn’t a brand or anything like that. My passion is for songwriting, genre-bending, and playing live. I also will occasionally play keys, bass guitar, and viola for artists’ and band’s tracks or live. Most times this is done remotely with a deadline, but I also play in studios if planned accordingly.

When it comes to writing songs, I use different methods to create such polarizing sounds and differences in my music. Sometimes I will originally write a song on the piano and then change it to guitar (or vice versa) for different sounds. Other times I will write poetry and turn it into a song or start off with a melody. The different methods I use to write songs are infinite considering I have about 250 songs written right now. Since I went to college at Belmont, I was able to meet a few people who knew what they were doing with open mics to start playing those. This helped me start my journey for playing live shows with a band. Since I never played in or for a band prior it has been super rocky learning how to play with other people since I am so used to only playing music by myself and even producing music by myself. Kaleb Kinyon (drummer) and Miles Noseworthy (lead guitarist) have helped tremendously in the journey and the dynamics of playing in and orchestrating a full band.

I started gaining traction since my release in 2020, with “Comfort Zone”. Bria has played numerous live shows at venues in major cities like Brooklyn, Manhattan, New York, Atlanta, Georgia, and Nashville. I was chosen to play the POP/ROCK showcase performed at the Curb Event Center with top-ranked sponsors including Lighting 100 (Independent Radio Station). Since then, I have been mentioned and featured in several magazines, zines, and articles including: “NASHVILLE SCENE MAGAZINE”, “ALT PRESS MAGAZINE”, “FT PUNKS”, “PUNKAGANDA PRESS”, “Tear It Down Zine”, “UCLA’s Cultural Affairs”, “JUKEBOX TIMES”, and “MUNDANE MAGAZINE”. With dedication and determination, I will continue to produce, promote, write songs, and book shows in order to live out her passion for music.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish I knew about audio interfaces and fuzz pedals earlier on. I didn’t know anything about sound recording until the pandemic pretty much and I was struggling so hard to convert the sounds I wanted with other producers until I just learned how to do it myself.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I believe in creating safe spaces for all types of music. Buying merchandise and songs can always help support an artist and their endeavors, but, continuous encouragement and lifting each other up will always help build and keep a longstanding community for artists.

Contact Info:

• Website: ErgoBria.com
• Instagram: ErgoBria
• Facebook: ErgoBria
• Twitter: ErgoBria
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFSrvQGbPKg

Image Credits
Ryann Bauguess, Cori Schimko, Britney Buckwalter