Images courtesy of Tala Gil, with photography by Ang Tantuico

What does it take for a girl to shine? Is it sheer luck, an endless pursuit of one’s passion, powering through one’s connections, befriending time and its tragedies, or a delusional belief that things will eventually work out? 

For songwriter-singer-designer-bread enthusiast Tala Gil, it’s recognizing that it’s all of the above. “Growing up surrounded by artists is a privilege I had. I met people through my parents, and having those connections helped me forge my path. But I like to believe I got to where I am now because of certain decisions I stood by along the way.

This conversation happened over coffee, starting with a simple “What have you been working on?” until it spiraled into takes on lyricism, feelings, the presence and absence of labels, dream homes, and, unfortunately, even exes (but don’t expect to read a lot about that last bit; we’re not here for that!) 

Tala tells me she’s been doing well and keeping busy. “I recently read that the secret to life is to continue. So yes, I’m just continuing,” she smiles. Committed to an interior design day job while reviewing for interior design board exams, she’s also pushing to release an album, and somewhere between all of these, has found new love in the form of baking bread. “I’m terrible at focusing! Full disclosure, I recently got diagnosed with ADHD. You can imagine the many things that go inside my head and how much of these I bring to my hands. But the act of allowing myself to be uncomfortable leads me to create. The discomfort pushes me to find a fix. I also know myself—I have a very addictive personality, so really, doing all of these simultaneously keeps me sane.”  

In harmony with luck

Tala was born to musician parents, which made music feel like a sibling she was raised with. “I would be doing the same thing regardless. I grew up with music, and I can’t see myself getting older without it.” Still, her journey began without asking to pull strings or force connections.  

In 2017, Tala found herself signed to Universal Records’ “New Breed” roster of young artists. “That was the luck part. I won’t get into details because it’s a long story, but they first reached out to my dad and I initially said no. Then, they signed the person I was dating, then found me and signed me.” Time was on her side too, as it was the era when Southeast Asian music was climbing the charts. 88rising artists like Rich Brian and NIKI were claiming the global stage, and digital streaming was slowly becoming the norm with Spotify gaining popularity. It was a start that was undeniably on a high, one that permitted music to keep playing until it had to mellow down—the way most things paused when the pandemic hit. 

“I am still in the scene, but that time was of different priorities, and I definitely was focused on building a music career. I still do gigs now; I still write. And honestly, I’m just really glad I got here! I get to do something I love without having to convince myself that I can’t do anything else.” 

Things have come full circle so far. Her mom once taught a young Paolo Sandejas, a fellow Filipino singer-songwriter based in LA and one of Tala’s closest friends. Recently, Tala found herself teaching in Siargao alongside friends Bella and Tasha, whose organization Kids4Kids received a UNESCO grant to use island music and teach kids. Tala says the experience was “all for music’s sake,” no trauma-mining, no forced healing narrative, just letting kids be kids. “Getting to share music that way was a great reminder of why I do this in the first place. Nothing feels quite better than making other people feel.”

Left: Album cover, “Retribution” by TALA, photographed by Ang Tantuico; Right: Handwritten “Retribution” lyrics by TALA

Poetic word vomit

When we both got to our second glass of coffee, I recalled replying to one of Tala’s stories that her songwriting reads like poetic word vomit—one that I would argue is one of the highest compliments that could ever be offered. These days, her priority is to make something feel so visual that emotions appear to be something you can hold and live. “I love the poetic word vomit branding! Someone once called my music style ‘freaky folk’, which I think fits too! I want listeners to feel as if they’re going through the pages of my journal when they listen to me. That’s sort of my parameter now.” 

While she grew up writing mostly R&B, the goal to evolve came as she got a little older and was exposed to more genres. “I also introduce myself first as a songwriter now! I just love words! I read a lot of books as a kid, and I still read as much as I can now. I also feel like a lot of the songwriters I listen to, you can tell that they’re wide readers.”  

Tala points to Lizzy McAlpine and Phoebe Bridgers as her current (and possibly constant) favorites. How their plain, honest songwriting, with a handful of ordinary words, forms lyrics that feel enormous. Add to that their command of the English language without sounding intimidating, using metaphors and other figures of speech specific enough that you feel transported into the exact moment being described.  

It’s the same trick, I tell her, that the greats have always pulled. “What do you mean Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac once wrote, ‘Thunder only happens when it’s raining,’ in Dreams and it clicks so bad that people (myself included) lose their minds over that song?” 

“Exactly!” Tala exhales as we nerd out with laughter. “It’s really how they’re written from the heart. In Lizzy McAlpine’s song pushing it down and praying, for example, she sings, ‘I want to feel guilty,’ in the chorus. That’s such a simple line, but it lands because it’s so real. I aspire to stir up that magic.” 

Her process starts, without fail, with a title. “I always think of the title first! It’s been like that since I started writing songs.” She goes back to some of her first originals like nothing personal and bruised, which share the same process of baring feelings and telling stories with an occasional use of wordplay. “General ideas arrive after I fixate on a title, then I handwrite thoughts. I also keep an ongoing archive of stray lines and phrases I like, banked for whichever song eventually needs them.” The artist adds that writing with a pen and paper has always been the way to go for her, as this aligns with the vision of letting people peek into her life and the pages she instructs.  

“It’s feelings all the way, then?” I ask, to which she responds with a giggle, “It’s always feelings. They rule. For better or worse. In music, in design, in my life.”  

Dreams under construction

Tala is a design associate at the local interior design firm where she works. Her role is mostly client-facing and involves dealing with paperwork, so she is at a point where she is absorbing as much material and technical knowledge as possible.  

“When the day comes when I get to design or start my own thing, feelings will still come first. And I mean this in the sense that you have to make the user feel something. The structure and spatial additions will have to be in service of whatever that feeling is.” Left to her own preferences, she’d rather work intimate and specific, designing small-scale projects like apartments, cafés, and studios. She likes the idea of building places for natural interactions.  

Her guiding belief is that good design should be accessible, almost free, even if the labor behind it rarely is. “I know how difficult it is to design, and that’s why it’s expensive to hire an interior designer. But I believe we can be smart about certain things. Let’s invest in things that will give back more, like good wood and quality materials that actually hold up. Let’s thrift furniture and employ ‘honest pay for honest work’ when we work with local craftsmen! No need for ornaments we don’t have the budget for and won’t really change the way a person lives. It doesn’t have to be complicated.”  

She proceeds, saying this with so much passion, “I’m not a fan of spaces that look like showrooms or houses that look like hotels. Being in the industry, I understand that different people have different preferences, but you won’t ever find me building a picture-perfect home for myself.”  

Her dream house? One where she feels most comfortable. “I’ve always liked mid-century modern as a style, and I see that it’s been making waves recently. Maybe I’ll change mine in the long run, so I’d feel like the hip, cool girl,” she jokes, adding that homes should be reflective of a person’s values too. “I’m not a fan of ridiculously priced items. I don’t want to be too conscious in my own home and be like, ‘Don’t spill on this carpet cause it’s too expensive,’ or ‘Please be wary of what’s behind you; you might break it.’ That’s no way to live! I want to sit on my sofa! To use my coffee table and not just have it on display and not have to be checking for stains all the time.”  

Asked what she’d probably splurge on for her home, and she stays consistent: “The materials! I want things that last. If your question leans toward something for pleasure, then maybe I’d love a stone countertop so I can lose myself in making dough.”  

“You can’t AI taste”

We eventually got to Tala’s baking as a hobby after she mentioned dough, admittedly to Type B’s benefit as we were losing track of time and slowly veering away from the topics we initially set out to yap about.  

Tala starts with a confession: “My phone screen time is nine hours. A full shift! To be fair, I use my phone for work, so I rarely get to put it down during the day. That’s how I decided to try baking. It was a deliberate choice so I could force my hands to stay occupied.” 

There’s also defiance in her reasoning, hinting at how almost everything is falling into the trap of generative AI. “At some point I started thinking about how the things I love (music and design) are slowly having AI counterparts. It’s sad, but that doesn’t mean I’ll stop creating organically; it simply led me to search for more tangible things in my everyday. You can’t AI taste! You can’t AI food.”  

Bread, as Tala explains, is both gratifying and forgiving. Unlike a song, which can take weeks or months to find its final sound, or a floor plan, which takes even longer, bread rewards her almost immediately. “It only takes minutes or hours, and you’ve got what you’ve worked for right in front of you. It’s the perfect tactile break from being immersed in very conceptual pursuits. I also love how it’s just so forgiving! Texture and rise can be fixed as easily as adding water, flour, or baking powder. You’re allowed to adjust and that alone reminds you to breathe easy.”

Goodbye, labels!

In between being an independent songwriter-slash-musician, junior designer, and hobby baker, Tala refuses to carry a label. “I’ve never been a fan of labels, even for how I identify.” The discussion quickly transitions to SOGIESC and how finding oneself under a specific umbrella could mean the world to someone. Tala says she sees the value in this and is respectful and delicate toward addressing people the way they wish to be. 

“I just personally don’t care as long as people don’t assume I’m boring,” she says and lets out a laugh. “As a child, I saw people as people. Do boys like boys? Can girls like girls? Institutions taught us to believe NO!” She shares how she went to co-ed schools from elementary through high school and, despite good friends around her, always felt quietly drained. It wasn’t until art school in college that something clicked into place.  

“I just knew that this was where I belonged. I also find, not to be biased, that people who make the best art are often queer. Maybe it stems from experiences of holding back and then finally breathing it all out. It’s connected to how one finds self-actualization and fulfillment once we realize who we truly want to be. That level of comfort reflects in art.” It’s the same discomfort-into-creation loop she described earlier, just wearing a different name—the exhale after holding it in. 

Tala also employs the help of language to make her case. “I learned from a recent trip to Siargao that in Filipino history, the babaylan believed in bantuwing, a spiritual force or energy present in the body. Not connection, not identity, simply energy. Colonization took this away from us. Even our Tagalog pronouns are gender neutral!”

In romantic relationships, she noticed a pattern. “I’ve always been one foot out the door with men. I don’t think I’ve really liked my boyfriends; it’s not a good thing, but it’s something I’ve reflected on lately. Or maybe it’s just because they will never fully understand women? All jokes aside, I think I will never arrive at the final version of me. Just read between the lines. Real people know the real me. Every part bleeds into some other version of me, and I am in a constant state of transformation.”  

Lines to remember

“So, what does it take to continue? What would you tell people like you who are busy making things happen?” I ask Tala as we faced empty coffee glasses.  

“I once had a conversation with my best friend Sammi (a.k.a BABY FREEZE-bbyfreeze), where we talked about making the work exist first, then making it good later. As creatives, we will never be our first audience. I will never be able to hear my songs for the first time; you will never be able to read this article for the first time. We know where our work is going, and it’s sappy. But that only means we can do better every time. So don’t obsess over it!” 

Waiting for the perfect spark of inspiration, in Tala’s experience, is its own trap. “You just have to create! If you wait for the perfect inspiration, then you’ll be waiting forever. Don’t think about yourself too much!” 

Her guiding principles for living are no less firm. “Strike a balance between doing what you want and doing what’s actually good for you. And I mean this for everything! The longer you stay on the wrong train, the harder it gets to step off. My sister also once told me that it pays to be as gentle with yourself now as you’d be with the eight-year-old version of you. Kindness is underrated. Be the kindest to yourself!” 

Underneath it all, Tala believes that living means constantly creating. “If you don’t create, you cease to exist. And I don’t mean just arts or crafts, but even relationships. As much as there is reincarnation and a probable multiverse, you only get this lifetime. Might as well make something out of it, right? Create a life of your own! Be passionate about something! Anything!” 

Which is, in the end, maybe the only real answer to the question this piece opened with. Perhaps what it takes for a girl to shine is to simply live one’s truth. Tala just happens to be doing it loudly enough that it appears like glitter from the outside.  

The secret has always been out; we just forget it most days. Star in your own life! The magic will follow 🌈

P.S. Tala has officially passed her interior design board exam and is now a licensed interior designer! Go congratulate her and catch the rest of what she’s making—songs, spaces, and sourdough— on her socials: Instagram/tala.gil Spotify/TALA 

About Sapphlight

Sapphlight is an article series by Type B featuring Filipino sapphics, lesbians, bi-girls, and gender non-conforming people. The SOGIESC of featured individuals are not subject to disclosure unless openly shared otherwise. Please read with respect.