The accidental artist who was signed within a year

In her short musical career TAAHLIAH has already achieved what many artists can only dream of.

One of Scotland's most exciting new talents, she has won two Scottish Alternative Music Awards and picked up Best Independent EP/Mixtape at the 2022 AIM Awards.

But TAAHLIAH acknowledged that her journey has been fairly unconventional.

She told BBC Scotland's The Edit: "I became this out of sheer accident.

"I started making music at the end of 2019 and was signed in 2020, which is unheard of.

"There are not a lot of artists getting signed within their first year of learning to make music."

But it is clear to see why this boundary-breaking producer was able to carve such a successful career for herself.

Her unique style of avant-garde pop blended with hard electronic dance has been uplifting dancefloors across Europe.

TAAHLIAH's most recent collection of music, Orthogenesis, was released in June this year.

She said she created the body of work to explore the act of repurposing songs to fit different spaces.

TAAHLIAH added: "Each track I remixed inspired me, they are all songs that have made me move."

Explaining what inspired her to make music, she said that as an artist she was always looking for creative ways to express herself.

She explained: "I have explored creativity through a range of mediums and music is the one that resonates with me the most right now."

TAAHLIAH grew up in Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, and went on to study painting at Glasgow School of Art.

It was there she discovered DJing and knew that she wanted to pursue music further.

She said: "My music is very personal, it's very reflective of what I am going through at the time."

This act of self exploration was prominent in her debut EP, Angelica.

It was longlisted for the Scottish Album of the Year Awards 2021 and it explored her coming to terms with her identity.

TAAHLIAH recalled: "I talk about objectification, being working class, being black, being trans, being a woman.

"There are so many things I speak about in that record that are steeped in identity politics."

The first track of the EP, Brave, delves deeper into her own experiences being transgender, however TAAHLIAH said this isn't something she tends to think about now when making music.

She added: "It's just something I have lived with for so long.

"When I made that song [Brave] I was in a different headspace with my identity and I was very much in the beginning process of everything.

"I think when you're in that situation of being queer and coming terms with your identity, you very much make it your identity.

"That song was created for me to encounter those feelings because they were so new, and when you experience something new you want to talk about it."

TAAHLIAH acknowledged some trans people may hear the song and identify with it in that way.

But she stressed: "Me being trans doesn't hold any artistical merit to the music at all."

TAAHLIAH said she is keen now to move the conversation away from herself and focus on how society treats transgender people as a whole.

She said: "It feels like a very fragile time to be living as a trans person right now.

"The laws and prohibitions that are being put in place that are affecting trans people today, affect us all.

"That's where I think the conversation lies - highlighting the injustices that we are facing.

"It's more interesting to talk about that than to talk about my personal experience."

TAAHLIAH is now working on new music which she hopes will be "monumental".

She added: "I do love when artists take their time between records.

"But I don't want to spend too much time in this limbo because the most exciting part of my job is releasing music.

"I want to experience that excitement all the time."