Interview: Tiarra Girls and Self-Appreciation Through Music
The Austin trio meshes their musical talents with strong familial ties to develop an empowering message alongside their ever-changing sound.
Written by Katie Karp
Photo courtesy of @tiarragirlband on Instagram
Music has always been a core value for each of the Baltierra sisters. With Tiffany on the bass, Sophia on the drums, and Tori on guitar and lead vocals, the three sisters joined forces to create the Tiarra Girls. Their genre-bending music serves as much of an outlet for their own self-exploration as it does their fans. Like the other three incredible female-led/LGBTQ performers to look forward to at Afterglow’s Nov. 13 show at The Mohawk, the Tiarra Girls are sure to uplift.
Afterglow: Will you guys introduce yourself to me individually, and tell me a random fact about you?
Sophia: My name is Sophia, and I am the drummer of the Tiarra Girls. And a random fact about me is that I love to weightlift in my free time.
Tori: I'm Tori, I'm the lead singer and guitar player of the band. I'm the youngest of the three, and I am in school for audio engineering. I'm really interested in that kind of stuff.
Tiffany: I'm Tiffany, and I'm a bass player. I'm the oldest sister, and I'm going to graduate from nursing school next month.
Wow, you guys are impressive. Can you tell me about when and how you guys formed?
Tori: We’re sisters, so we have obviously known each other all our lives. But individually, we are interested in music because of our dad; he introduced us to different types of music through his DJing. We always followed him around. And we just really liked how people would react to different songs and how music just made everyone feel really cool. But Sophia had gotten into percussion. She took some lessons. Tiffany got into piano, and was taking lessons. And I was into guitar. And we kind of all just realized that we play instruments that go together pretty well. And just started playing different covers together and seeing how it felt. Then we started writing our own stuff, and our parents educated themselves about the industry and booking and all these different things that come with being in a band and being in the music industry. So yeah, we all just joined forces and just learned music together and created music together. And it's like a family run thing.
Well that works out perfectly!
Tori: Yeah, it's really convenient to have sisters in a band because we're really close and know each other very well. We're very aware of our relationship: it’s ride or die.
You said that your dad was a DJ, what kind of music did he put you guys on to?
Tori: He exposed us to so many genres, and I think that's what helped us form our own genre for our band. We didn't want to just be pop. We didn't want to just be like Spanish. We wanted to just have a combination of everything because that we loved, and that's what we always heard. I think we have like a mixture of everything in our setlist when we play which is so fun for our audience too. We try not to put ourselves in a box, even though we do align ourselves with a certain community in the music industry, or like the live scene, I guess. But, yeah, whenever we're writing or in the studio, we won't go through a certain recipe. We will keep an open mind.
How did you guys settle on “Tiarra Girls” for your band name?
Tori: It's kind of like a play on our last name “Baltierra.” It's stuck around. We named ourselves that when we were younger, and we did kind of go through the crisis of where we thought it was such a childish name, but we're trying to evolve with it and have evolved with us.
Sophia: We're reclaiming it.
When did you decide to form the band?
Tori: We all went to the same music school back in the day. And we started playing different songs together, transitioned Tiffany onto the bass, and started doing recitals. Through word-of-mouth people started to hear about us and ask us to play it at different venues. Our parents then educated themselves on the inner workings of Austin and what it would be like for a young band to go out and play, which was hard and we have a lot of stories with that. But I would say I was probably 10, Tiffany was 14, and Sophia was like 12.
Tiffany: We were all doing our own thing. I was playing the keyboard and piano for a while, but then when my sisters started playing music, we talked about doing songs together like different little covers and stuff. Playing the keyboard didn't sound as nice as a bass sound. So I was hesitant about it for a little bit, but then I kind of just was like, falling in love a little bit with it and how it sounded with my sisters, so it just stuck.
Sophia: Everything kind of just worked. And it's easy to play with each other because we can communicate with our minds. Like, we will have a bad show, quote- unquote, and we'll know what the other person is kind of thinking during the show. And it's really fun to share and create memories with the people that we love the most.
Tori: Music is a very ethereal thing, like it's really big. But when you have people that are really close to you, that you can be your full self without having to worry about money, relationships or trying to learn more about the person you're creating with. It's a really like, like, it's a puzzle, like we all fit together really well.
Would you mind telling me about one of the most memorable shows?
Tori: A pivotal moment for us was when we were playing at a lot of community festivals- either at churches, or just family venues. And we would be on lineups with like, older men and bands that have already made their name in the community. They kind of just noticed that we had a flair to us, and we like to bring that with our music. When you're young, you're just showing up to the venue to have fun. There was one show and we realized that the crowd likes us, people are like listening, and they're paying attention. We didn't give ourselves as much credit as we should have, but that was the first moment we realized that it's really cool that we're doing this.
Do you think being a woman or Latina initially impacted the way you guys sort of saw yourself?
Sophia: It wasn't really like the Latina part, but more like the female part just because of the instrument I play. It's very male-dominated. At gigs, I just felt like I was never good enough. I always said that I didn't deserve to be up there because of the men that were before us who were playing. I thought I just looked childish up here, and you don’t see girls on the drums often. Overtime, I've found women in Austin who are playing percussion or, you know, drumset, and they've talked to me. I've learned to love what I do and to appreciate that what I'm doing is amazing. Just because I'm a girl does not mean that I'm any less of a drummer. If anything, it's more because I set the stage for other girls.
Tori: I would say, for me, it was I remember the first memory I had of like a girl playing guitar I saw on TV when I was younger, and it was like otherworldly. And I was like, wait- girls can play instruments too! With the whole Chingona Movement, we're learning a lot about empowerment, the balance of not latching yourself onto identities, and making that your whole purpose in life. We also want to represent others who might be trying to understand their place in the world and in their community. It's kind of difficult to be a voice for everyone and be the right voice. So we kind of like to say that in our music. We’re just showing our true selves, and we hope that inspires other people.
What message do you hope your music delivers to your fans?
Tori: There’s a lot of intention behind every song we make and play. It's like from our hearts, our minds, and our hands. It's just an expression of us and our different stories. The song “Let Love Free” is the song that I wrote when I was coming out to like, my family as gay and so I brought that to my sisters who lifted me up. Their commitment to play it on stage and to help me live out my younger self dream to, like, scream what's meant to be you?
Sophia: It's really just a form of expression of culture and celebration and unity. And we just hope that people can take that and implement that into their own lives.
What’s your favorite thing to talk about in an interview?
Sophia: Being able to give our fans something that they need, or like something to listen to when they're in need, or to educate them. And just be there for them. Because music really is that for all of us. I feel like I'm just like that thing you can always have by your side or listen to you and they're always there for you.
Tori: When you are a songwriter you can make a lyric that's really personal to you. And you know, exactly like how you thought of that lyric, but then you can have a listener interpret it completely differently. I just want people to take what they need from our music and to just have fun and you know, because we bring that intention everywhere with our music.
You can follow the Tiarra Girls on Instagram @tiarragirlband and listen to their music on Spotify.