The Vampire Rockstar OBSIDIAN
OBSIDIAN describes herself as a vampire rockstar who writes music for the dramatic, obsessive, and undead. “I want other black women to see that we can and are allowed to be weird.” Our writer, Stephanie Haro, had the chance to sit down and talk about all things drama, balance, and so much more with Chicago’s very own pop punk vampire.
BY STEPHANIE HARO
Can you briefly introduce yourself and tell us how long you’ve been creating music?
Hi, I'm Hailey Brisard! My artist name is OBSIDIAN, and I'm from Chicago. I was born and raised here. Never left. Don't plan on it, because it's a great city. I’ve been creating music, like officially for about three or four years, but I've always been a musical person. I've been doing musical theater since I was in first grade. So I've been involved in music related things my whole life at this point.
Do you feel like your background in musical theater influenced the type of music you create now, or was it just like a welcoming avenue?
Theater did influence it a little bit. It was more so the media I’m interested in, like, as you can see, I have bats all on my wall. I'm a very spooky person. So I tend to make music that's darker and has a more spooky vibe to it.
If you had to pick one movie that depicted the type of music you make, what movie would it be?
I’m bad with movies, I'm definitely more of a TV show person. (It can be a TV Show too!) Okay! First TV show I would say, either the Vampire Diaries, or Interview With A Vampire. Now that I think about it, I feel like for a movie, I’d say the new Nosferatu film that came out recently, definitely something like that!\
You stay on top of your social media, when you started releasing music and identifying as an artist, did you think social media would come with that, or was it kind of something you had to learn?
I kind of knew that it came with that, from someone who uses Tik Tok and Instagram a lot, I personally found a lot of small artists through that. It's interesting though because being a small artist comes with so many other different jobs that you have to do. You kind of have to be your own manager and choreographer, things like that. Just because having a team is a lot of money, time, and resources that a lot of people just starting out don't have. You have to start all that on by yourself, and either like, involve the people around you that you know have those skills or just do it yourself.
What kind of genres do you identify with, and what is the OBSIDIAN brand to you?
I would say pop rock/alternative would be the umbrella that everything sits under. As for OBSIDIAN as a brand I would say, I've always grown up being like the weird kid. So I want to be, the one to let others, specifically black women, that liking things that aren't in the norm, or the stereotypical things that someone would look at you and think ‘Oh they would like this’, that it’s okay, and that’s normal and it’s okay to be yourself. It was interesting because picking the name OBSIDIAN was just like, my favorite color is black and I feel like people describe black as obsidian and I just went ‘That sounds cool, I’m going to pick that!’. Then I was looking at it, because it is a crystal as well. So apparently, it's a mirror crystal. Some of its qualities are meant to reveal truth or flaws in other people, like that's what it's for. I feel like I do that with my writing as well.
Where do you pull inspiration from? You’ve called yourself a ‘Vampire Rockstar, so where did that idea spark from?
I kind of got that little tagline specifically from Interview With A Vampire, because the newest season is about a character named Lestat becoming a vampire rock star. And I was like that's kind of me! So I thought that was cool and I feel like I’m trying to incorporate rock elements into the music that I create, and a lot of the themes are vampy in nature. I just thought that that tagline would make the most sense for me.
As an artist, how do you feel like you fit into the Greater Chicago music scene?
I do think (my music) stretches beyond rock or alternative. I'm not sure if there's a word for that yet. I feel like I've been saying Spooky pop rock or Gothic pop rock to identify it more. What’s your music making process like? I feel like the way I write my songs is pretty complicated. I make it pretty hard on myself. I don't know why I do that, but I'm the type of person that if I can't visualize what the music video would be for a song, then I I can't finish it. If I don't have a strong image in my brain then I can’t continue. I base some of my songs around samples I find and things like that. I'll start with a bass line from there, or like a guitar riff from there, and sing along to it. I'll kind of have a melody in my brain already, so I'll spend hours trying to find something that'll work for what is in my head. Normally I don't have the whole song done at that point. So once I figure out the music part of it, that's when I can finish the song. Like, if it gives me more information. My latest song, STUPID CUPID, I may have written almost all of it in one sitting.
Is music your main focus? Or are you juggling it with something else? And if so, how do you maintain that balance?
That is my biggest struggle for sure. I’m mainly an actor, like being a musician/singer/songwriter has always been a thing, but I was like, ‘I don't know if I can do that’. I didn't like to start working on music until my freshman year of college, but I majored in musical theater. I graduated in 2024 so my main focus is theater and acting. So it's hard to manage doing theater working on songs, just because both take so much out of you. Let’s say I’m going to an audition or something, if something comes to mind I’ll try to write down lyrics in my notes app, small things like that, to try and manage both and do both at the same time. You are your own business with these types of things. It's a lot to put my one self into two different things.
What are some of your biggest goals in music?
I would love to start performing live. I haven't done that yet. Just getting myself out there in person. I feel like I've been doing it a lot virtually. That would be the main goal, and then just going to the studio more frequently and writing more frequently, to have more content to put out and be more consistent.
Where can people find you, and then what can they expect from you in the future?
You can find me on Instagram and TikTok!
My latest song, STUPID CUPID is out. I think it would be a good galantines playlist moment. Then in the future, I want to kind of build an EP around STUPID CUPID and that type of vibe of songs that are more personal to myself and things that I've experienced. After that, I want to dive more into the dramatics, like incorporating more strings, percussive type of vibe. I think those songs will be more vampiric in nature, kind of going back to my roots, in a sense.
