We do not exist, and yet we’re real. Enough to present ourselves as whomever we’ve chosen to be. A steady rotation keeps its sway revealing the exact replica of Saturn’s pull. Her recognition thrusts beyond the 82 moons and back allures the presence of others living far into infinity. Singer, Tanerélle gives reasons to her unique solar eruption by encouraging no boundaries held in space and time. By owning her raw talents, Tanerélle has shown promise to her definitive love language as an overall creative. Never to remain stagnant on planet Earth, her reach lives far beneath the darkest days, Mama Saturn ignites stability as she circles past the galaxy finding the awaiting alignment starting from what was left behind.
Who is Tanerélle? Tell me about her journey.
I’m that girl. I am Tanerélle, I’m from Atlanta, Georgia. But I’ve been living in Los Angeles, California for the last 10 years. I moved here when I was 18, and I am a creative. I’m trying to think like a multifaceted creative, I guess you would say I’m a singer, songwriter, actress, screenwriter, creative director, director, producer, and composer. Just any way that I can express myself and you know, tell my story or tell a story is what I fall into. I’m an only child so that’s always been my escape is storytelling, or, you know, watching movies, listening to music, reading books, the whole nine. Um, and yeah, I’m an independent artist, I have my own label mama Saturn Enterprises, and I’m the only artist at the moment. But hopefully, you know, in 10-20 years, it’s a whole different story, I really look forward to being able to help other creators and other artists live out their dreams without being exploited, which is a really huge thing for me. And it’s why I’m independent at the moment because I’m waiting for the perfect situation where I’m able to just create and make my art without it having to be a matter of being pretty much like what Jordan Peele said about being exploited is pretty much being less valuable than you were when someone found you. So that’s really an important thing for me to be able to just create art freely while being able to, you know, make a living off of it, which I feel are polar opposites. But, you know, I feel like we deserve to be able to make this art that helps heal the world and be able to be comfortable doing it.
How did you know singing was something you were destined to do?
Growing up music was just a huge pillar in my life. Again, being an only child, and kind of spending a good chunk of your time alone, that was definitely something I would just lean into a lot. So, it was just something I wanted to do. I felt it. I’ve always felt held by music and seen and heard by music and film and TV as well. And so, it was just something that I was like, “I’m gonna do this,” I felt very drawn to it. And I had been in chorus since I was like, five years old, I started writing songs when I was eight years old. I would write parodies and stuff like that. When I became a teenager I would write more like angsty stuff, more real stuff and how I was feeling but yeah, I guess I have known my entire life that storytelling and you know, through those mediums was kind of my calling.
How would you describe your sound to people who are listening to your music for the first time?
I would describe it as the left of center, imperial galactic space, age, cinematic, r&b, pop music. It’s all over, It’s so many different things. It’s kind of like, a hard thing to even genuinely put words to because I do feel like my music is more of an experience. It’s more of a feeling. It’s like less of the descriptions and more of just sitting back and closing your eyes and listening to this. And then it’ll be whatever it feels to that person you know?
What is your overall focus when releasing music?
I always say that my mission with my music is for people to be able to heal, feel and celebrate. It’s more about just people facing their humanity, being able to sink in it and not run away from it, whether it’s sad stuff, toxic stuff, and then be able to lean into the happy stuff and the spirituality of it all and being able to just like, celebrate everything that we do go through, and that we do feel. And just be happy in that and be happy in this experience of just being alive. Just celebrate it, just feel it and then celebrate it instead of trying to like run from it, you know, I could make like, really happy music all the time. But life isn’t like that, because you need something that’s going to be able to reflect the times, reflect what it is you’re going through. So sometimes, you know, being a black woman I’m gonna have to write about what it’s like to experience the world in that way. And then also just being a woman what it is to experience love what it is to see love through a different lens when you weren’t taught love the right way and navigating that, but also what it feels like when you do get it right. So, it’s just it’s everything.
What about the name Mama Saturn resonates with you?
So Mama Saturn, as much as it would be great to have a really deep story to go along with it. It was quite simple, which is the most exciting part because I do feel like the things that are meant kind of come to you easily. I was just writing that song. And I wanted to find a beautiful way to explain how I was moving my hips. And then I was just imagining like if I were hula hooping in a sexy way, and I was like, what’s the metaphor for this? You know, this image I’m trying to get across and I thought of Saturn thinking of me in space. When I put the song out, it was just something that my supporters just started calling me and I was like, Oh, so that’s like a little alias. It’s like my Sasha Fierce, so it just was one of those things that stuck. It wasn’t intentional, but it did and it feels very true to me. So, in that side of myself, when I am creating, I kept it.
Based on your previous album (11:11) and your recent EP (82 Moons) what shift did you want to make between both projects?
Well, I was a baby when I did 11:11 That’s like, first and foremost, I think I was like, 23 When I did 11:11. I recorded that around eight, nine months, I was going back and forth to Long Beach with my friend Dustin, just getting it done. So that was my first time ever being able to complete an entire project and find the continuity throughout the story that we’re trying to tell even how it sounds I sound so young, but my ears are different now in terms of if I had heard those mixes today, I would have had them done differently. It’s, you know, just recording in a garage, all those vocals where I was in a garage, it’s that. And even when there have been times when I’m like, gosh, I want to take it down. It’s like I have to honor that time in my life in that moment and her. It actually has become such a nostalgic thing for me every now and then to just hear where I’ve come from. At this point now, I’m older, and I’ve matured not only musically but as a woman, I’ve evolved not only musically but as a woman. I think that what you hear is just my ears sharpening, me being more able to discern the sounds that are calling out to me, or what I do and don’t like, and staying true to that. Having more of a voice and speaking up on like, what I want, what I want to keep what I want to get rid of, and being able to continue to become a better and better storyteller as the years go by. So, I think that’s probably the difference that you hear.
As an artist you seem very fluid In terms of your persona, do you feel that the way you carry yourself is important no matter what role you choose?
Yeah, I feel like it is very important for everyone to just be true to themselves. I always say that she’s just a version of my higher self. So, when I kind of like tap into her, I could always tell when I am because even when performing I can tell when I’m not tapped in because I’m more like self-conscious, I’m more insecure, I’m more in my head and thinking about other things that that are not important like how am I being perceived, and do they like it. When I’m talking to my higher self, she’s like, you’re doing what you were put here to do, your vessel, you’re channel, and this isn’t about you. So, I feel more grounded in that, I definitely think it is important to just be true to that and to just be true to myself. When it comes to the other side of me and just being goofy and funny and stuff like that, I do show a lot less of that online. I think that’s just more so in a way of having something sacred for myself, and the people that I love. It feels like as soon as you put everything that is you out there and then you give grounds to everyone to judge every part of you. And so I do like to keep my worlds as separate as I can. Not to a point where I don’t like to have a little fun. But I do like to have a bit of a degree of separation.
What were some of your most influential thoughts when becoming a playmate for Playboy?
I was just very excited. I have always been in this space of wanting to show. Especially going through certain things throughout my childhood and through my adolescence, being able to take my power back and show that our bodies are not inherently sexual, that is something that we have been socialized to think. I think it’s very powerful to take back what your body means to you. But I know a lot of people don’t like that. But it’s, you know, a big relief that I don’t live for other people. That was the first thing like, wow, this is going to be a really amazing way and a huge platform to be able to continue this narrative and tell the story for not just me, but other women, and them and their bodies and women who have bodies like me, who were told that their bodies are wrong, or their bodies or this or that because it’s not snatched here or lifted here you know what I mean? And it was exciting to kind of be able to tell this narrative in a publication that was originally kind of the genesis of it was for the male gaze, and for mainly the white male gaze. So being like the 40th African American playmate, that was incredible for me, and it was historic, you’re talking about out of like, over 800 women, it’s 40 of us. So that was incredible, as well. And it just felt like an important story to tell. I didn’t feel scared in the least I felt really honored and really proud. Like, look at this other thing you get to add to your legacy. But yeah, I was very honored, and I’m still very honored about that. And I’m happy to have that as part of my legacy.
What stage would you say you are in currently? What do you plan on pursuing as you continue to grow?
I’m never comfortable. I’m constantly pushing. For the last three years actually, I’ve been heavily auditioning and pursuing my acting career. That has been a very big thing for me, and I’m very excited because I know that huge things are on the way that God has etched out specifically for me. So, when people go like, “What do you love more acting on music?” It’s like, I never can choose because both are storytelling. That’s what I got my Bachelor of Fine Arts in when I went to college, and then I took a moment back so I could focus on the music, and I’ve been focused on the music for almost nine years now. So that is definitely at the forefront mentally as well as my acting career.
As a woman who is aligned with herself, what message will you hold onto when life becomes too much sometimes?
That everything is already worked out.
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