Creating Is Not a Selfish Act

For a while, Giselle had begun to question whether the things they loved still mattered.

“As I grew older, I drifted apart from the creative things that really gave me joy because I started to believe it made me a burden to the world.”

The more aware Giselle became of the problems around them, the harder it was to justify spending time on their own work.

“I looked at my art and thought, ‘How does this help anyone? What a waste of time.’ Yet without it I became even more paralyzed, stuck in a mindset of meaninglessness.”

What shifted Giselle’s view was seeing what other artists meant to people.

Some of their favourite musicians had changed Giselle’s own life. They also saw music bringing communities together and helping people through dark periods. Gradually, something Giselle had dismissed as unimportant began to look very different.

“When that dose of inspiration hit me, I started to create again and it brought colour back to my world.”

It also left Giselle with an idea that would become central to Laoku:

“Creating is not a selfish act.”

Laoku is Giselle’s alternative rock solo project, but music is only one part of it.

Giselle has built a world of hand-drawn artwork, recurring characters and strange otherworldly creatures, describing it as a place filled with “lush foliage” and “troubled characters.”

“I use my hand-drawn artwork and lyricism to depict the way in which I navigate the understanding of my own emotions and headspace.”

Some of those characters have been with Giselle since childhood. Rather than leaving them behind, Giselle allowed the characters to grow with them. They became a way to explore heartbreak, anxiety and fear within a more fantastical world where spirits roam.

Those characters play an important role in Forest Walls, Laoku’s upcoming ten-track album.

“Forest Walls came from the most uncertain time of my life, not knowing where I was going to end up after it all.”

Giselle describes the album as exploring anxiety, impostor syndrome, self-development and fear of the future, much of it filtered through characters they have carried with them for years.

That world is not only something Giselle writes about. They also give it a visual identity through their own artwork, and when trying to describe what the music itself might look like, the answer becomes wonderfully simple.

“It’s all very green.”

And if it had a taste?

“Raspberries with chocolate.”

That relationship between someone else’s creativity and Giselle’s own goes back to the beginning of their songwriting. Twenty One Pilots played an unexpected role.

“I picked up the ukulele because of them, learnt some of their songs, wrote some myself, and before I knew it, a friend had taken me to play my songs to a local record label.”

A record deal followed, although Giselle admits they barely understood what was happening.

“I didn’t even know what a record deal was when I got one. I was just a nerd and a huge Twenty One Pilots fan that had barely just learnt to songwrite.”

The music itself has changed considerably since then. Giselle’s first EP, Field Of View, leaned towards folk before the song “Otherwise” opened the door to alternative rock and the energy that sound brings to their live performances.

But Giselle’s approach to making things can also be considerably less conventional.

They once tore apart a speaker, put it inside a cardboard box, sprinkled cereal over it and used the whole thing as an extremely crunchy guitar amp.

“Yes I have done this. It sounded really good in context!”

For all the experimentation, Laoku has ultimately brought Giselle back to something they thought they had lost.

“It brought me back to my roots and kind of returned me to that childlike wonder I had about creating things.”

Music has brought Giselle new experiences, new people and greater confidence. It has also given them another way to express what they are feeling.

“It’s given me a different way to express what I’m feeling, and it’s very grounding.”

Giselle describes Laoku as “my creativity in one big portfolio” and something they intend to contribute to throughout their life.

The songs, drawings, characters and strange green landscapes all belong there.

And maybe that is the clearest answer to the question Giselle once asked when looking at their own work.

“Creating is not a selfish act.”