HILLARI on New Beginnings, Deeper Roots, and her second EP

HILLARI is a confident, upcoming force, shaped by her Norwegian-Filipina roots and grounded in purpose. With a sound that expands across R&B, Soul, and Jazz, the 20-year-old artist has built a musical identity that resonates with the soul. Her debut single ‘Desperate Soul’ to her debut EP ‘How Is Your Soul’, a collection of introspective ballads that was a gentle yet striking introduction of the sonic world that HILLARI‘s voice exists within.

Her single “Loyal” broke into the Philippines’ Viral Top 50, and she went on to be nominated for the 2024 MME Awards and the Norwegian Grammys (Spellemann) for Best New Artist and R&B/Soul. Carrying a calm boldness that grew from a year of intentionality prior to her release, HILLARI is beginning to see the fruits of her labour that have come from nurturing her spirit alongside her sound.

Her second EP, New Beginnings, marks a shift— no longer in the safe walls of her bedroom, HILLARI navigates to new spaces, new voices, and a wider world. Still rooted in soul, New Beginnings is a project that holds steady through all the change. The seven-track EP feels like walking into a garden newly in bloom—lush with gospel hues, and honest candour, HILLARI’s vocals embrace subject matters such as faith, uncertainty, and finding peace within chaos.

With deep roots in her identity and artistry, HILLARI continues to embrace the long journey ahead of her, as her sound and artistry continue to blossom before our eyes.

New Beginnings – throughout the EP you hone in on the idea of being comfortable with starting again and  being surrounded by peace. Between making How Is Your Soul and New Beginnings, what have been some defining turning points in your musical journey?

‘How Is Your Soul’ was my first EP. I made it pretty much only with myself and my main producer, Morten (Gillebo). It came from a place of safety and security. I was within these four walls, safe, only seventeen at the time, so I was very comfortable in residing in that space in my life. With New Beginnings, it’s like me stepping more into adulthood and womanhood and seeing life and the world through a bigger perspective.  Not that I’ve drastically changed, but now that I’m 20, the way that I perceive myself, and perceive life, comes from a wider perspective.

With New Beginnings – a lot of the tracks were made in LA as well, and with more people. As much as it is said in the title , it was definitely a new space now, and it wasn’t just me in my bedroom making songs, but it was from new place, with new people, and it was, and a starting point of me finding out more about who I am as an adult .

I’m not fully an adult yet, but this chapter is about me finding my footing in uncertainty.  That’s what a lot of the songs on New Beginnings are about. I have two sentences that I often say around the EP.  The first one is, “I’ll bloom wherever I’m planted”. It’s about how even though I don’t know where I’m going, or I don’t know who I am right now, I’ll still bloom. I’ll always nurture myself even though it doesn’t make sense. 

The other thing that I usually say is “There’s a garden within me waiting to be watered”, which means I need to nurture my spirit, even though I don’t feel for it. Even though the environment around me feels unsafe or I don’t know what’s happening – even though there’s a lot of uncertainty around me, I still need to nurture my spirit and find my footing in those unknown places.

In our twenties, we question who we actually are. But I want to encourage myself and others through this EP that you can figure out things with confidence as well. You don’t just have to exist. You can bloom. more than just surviving you can actually flourish in those moments. 

On ‘Breaking Hearts’ – you accept that you can’t control the narrative surrounding you, and have to be okay with people not knowing the truth. Are there any other comfort zones that you’ve had to leave while being an artist ?

I’m facing that right now. I’m still in Norway but I have a feeling that I might not be in Norway forever. I feel like there’s something dragging me into LA.  I’m not the biggest fan of LA, but there’s something dragging me there.

I’m in the position where I feel very blessed that I get the opportunity to work in America, wherever it is, but leaving something or someone behind is a lot.

I’m a relationship person, I love having genuine relationships, nurturing and investing time with my family and friends and my closest people. But I feel like whenever I’m stewarding my blessing, my work, I’m not really taking care of the relationships that God has given me as well as I’d like . It’s about finding that balance –  where do I find the time to take care of my work, take care of the gift that I’ve been given, but also find the time to take care of these relationships?

Right now, I’m in a hard place of having to somehow choose one of them, because it feels like I can’t really balance both of them.I t’s a process that I’m in right now, but I feel like a decision needs to be made somehow. As much as work is important, it’s relationships at the end of the day that really count.

‘Only God’, with Ryan Ofei  is such a moving track. You started this EP with stating God as your source. Do you ever feel the pressure to reduce that gospel sound in your music or downplay the influence of your faith?

I’ve definitely had a lot of feedback from live shows concerning how I speak about faith, and my team is very much open to how much my faith infiltrates into my work.

If you choose to work with me, then naturally you’re going to deal with this too. I’ve always been open about my faith, but the problem is when I say the name Jesus. But the reason why I started the EP with this song is because, at the end and at the start of the day, it’s the only God, and I wanted to make that very very clear for all the people around me. Even though we go through changes, it’s only God that can sustain us. I do feel the pressure, but I think it’s a choice to give into it or not. I always have to remind myself that this calling is not for myself, it’s for a higher purpose, so I’m trying to be bold in it. 

I made this song alone with my keyboard at home, intending to write for Stormzy. I heard that he was making some gospel music, and as I was writing it, the three lines on the hook kept coming out. I realised that the song was pretty personal, and put the idea in my voice notes on my phone and took it to my main producer Morten (Gillebo) and explained how I heard the song in my head having big harmonies. A year later in 2024, I sent the song idea to a couple producers that I trusted. One of the producers, Jordon Manswell, who worked on Ryan Ofei’s album, Restore, told me that he showed Ryan the song and thought we would be crazy on it together. This is public knowledge, but I love Ryan’s music. We set up a zoom call and for three to four hours were able to get to know each others and we recorded the song through zoom. It just felt right because the more I got to know Ryan, the more I realised how similar our upbringings were. It was a beautiful process.

‘Lose It All’ – it’s a song with a great balance between lavish production, yet your voice is able to flourish on this track too – I know you dropped this live version on YouTube where the instrumentation was elevated – do you create music with live versions in mind?

The process is very different from artist to artist. I would call myself a live artist, I love performing live. The way that most of my songs start is from me playing my guitar or the keys. In the back of my mind, I’m always thinking about how something would sound live, or how I would arrange something live. That’s always a part of my process. I’m a firm believer that if it sounds good live, then it’s a good song. If you can strip it down to the core and it still sounds good, then it’s a good song. It can be as big of a production as possible, but if it doesn’t sound as good without all of that, then to me, it doesn’t have the strongest bone. So I definitely think about performing live when I’m making music.

At your Headline show at MUNCH in Oslo, you cultivated a vocal live experience, but you also hosted a pre-show exhibit surrounding the EP. Talk to me about creating an experience for listeners that isn’t just centred around a vocal performance.

With the MUNCH show – my first headliner – I really wanted to create an experience. As a consumer myself, I want to know where Daniel Caesar’s headspace was when he made something – where did it come from? And what was he inspired by?

I’m also that type of artist that really wants to connect with my audience, with my FamHilly – it’s like making the most out of that connection. Me and my team, we’re pretty much independent – so just setting up an experience in itself, was just like a headache. It’s worth it, because we’re building this brick by brick, and getting there slowly but surely.

I told them that I wanted to make a pre-experience before the show, to help the listeners feel something outside of the music, and have a connection to my artistry .We had projections on the roof with some of my journal prompts – poems, sentences, and images that were a big part of shaping this EP, but also things that define who Hillari is. I had one quote that said,’ God seeks out for the defenceless’. Things like that can be a bit bold because it’s centred around faith – but you’re diving into my universe, so this is who I am.

I was inspired by SAULT – I’ve never been to a concert of theirs, but I saw that they had a pre-experience before the show for the listeners, and it made so much sense. We also set up some IPods for unreleased music . There’s a freestyle I posted that did well online, so the FamHilly got to listen to the full song on the IPods. They really got to experience the songs that had to be made in order to make this EP.  I also set up two huge mirrors that were wrapped in denim. We wrote, ‘What would you say to a younger self who is facing a new beginning?’, and the famHilly would get a card, write their answers and hang it up.

The reason I wanted to put weight and importance in setting up this experience is, because the audience isn’t just at the show to see me, but they’re also there to see themselves and reflect. It’s far more than just music, but about making the space to connect with other people who have the same interests. If you go to a Cleo Sol Concert, you know that you’ll get along with the person beside you, because you’re both at the same show. So curating that space for my audience was so importance.

Talk to me about emerging as a Scandinavian artist and maintaining that identity while simultaneously trying to break through the global market?

It’s an interesting position to be in but I’m also really trying my best to maximise being the Norwegian Filipina artist I am. With my background and trying to break into the US market – I know that’s an originality can’t really be found anywhere else. Without my Norwegian and Filipina background, I don’t think I would have had the same originality in my sound, or would carry myself in the same way – so I’m happy that I get to be in this position because it makes people raise their eyebrows a little bit like – ‘Oh okay, this is a different sound, and this is a different approach.’ 

In terms of Norway specifically coming from that culture, and trying to establish myself in LA is pretty interesting. In Norwegian culture, we’re very calm and collected, we’re not used to asserting ourselves. We have a societal norm that we call ‘Janteloven’ – it means you shouldn’t get too caught up thinking you’re too original, or better than anyone else because everybody is the same. I somewhat agree with that – and it’s a very interesting mindset to bring with me to LA, because people can see the difference.  When I’m in rooms in LA, sometimes I’m encouraged to own what I’m doing more, but I like having this mindset because it keeps me quietly confident.

I know that I don’t need to prove anything, and that’s definitely made me more comfortable in who I am, in my talent, and it kept me very grounded and humble, especially when I’m in LA.

Do you ever feel any type of responsibility in representing your Filipina heritage, and who are some Filipino artists you love ?

I came from a culture of just entertaining people. While growing up in the Philippines, and so I had a long distance relationship with my Mum because she was working in Norway. I remember preparing a cover or choreography to show to her on Skype every week. Performance was always in my love language, and that responsibility that was already in my blood.

I never thought I had to do something professional with it, but I think growing up within Filipino culture made me aware that I was meant to be an entertainer somehow.  My Grandmother would make me sing and dance in front of Uncles and Aunties and any visitors we ever had, and pay me to do it. I think it was really cultivated within me from a young age, so I don’t feel pressure, but I’m very grateful that my parents and family are so supportive of me doing this full time – so a little bit of pressure comes from that because they actually trust me with this – so I know I have to do it properly . 

Some of my favourite filipino artists – Denise Julia, who is killing it right now. I also love Juan Karlos – he’s a Filipino singer who mostly sings in Tagalog, and I would love to collaborate with him. Doing a song in Tagalog would be so different from what I usually do, but I love seeing collaborations in more than one language. 

‘Minds Eye’ – it’s such a perfect way to end the EP. You sing about how you reap what you sow. You and your team spent a lot of time working on how you’d present yourself as an artist before your debut release. Is there something that was sown back then that you’re reaping the benefit of now?

What I’ve been realising recently in this season is that we need to grow in depth in order to grow in height – building roots first is so important. I’m a firm believer of taking the time to just plant something and develop in it first. But it’s also difficult to have a stand on that in such a fast paced industry. What worked for me the most is that me and my team knew who we were, and did not want to be moved by the fast pace nature of the industry. They encouraged me to be confident in my identity, and in the artist I wanted to be.

We planted things, and even though we didn’t see any results, we knew that things would grow in time. We had a tunnel vision approach when it came to my career, and I’m definitely seeing results now from that period. I’m happy that I took the time to develop myself, my talent, and my character. If I received things too early, things could’ve been different. Choosing to do what we did enabled me more able to be able to take more care of the things that I have in my hands, and know what to do when opposition comes.  

You recently dropped some merch, and we see you do choreo sometimes – beyond music, is it important for you to have a wider identity outside of music?

Definitely. It was actually never my intention to be an artist. My first love, besides singing, was design. In high school I studied business, because I wanted to build my own fashion brand – so I definitely want to develop my identity as an artist far more than just music, and in fashion especially,. With fashion, I can force myself to feel certain ways, and even more confident. Even though I’m still an upcoming artist, I still want to have that in my DNA from early on. Like reaping and sewing, I want that to be something I’m intentional about.

This EP is such a journey. The EP is called New Beginnings –  you’re still 20, and being so young, what’s your take on longevity in terms of your future in the industry?

My goal isn’t to achieve goals as fast as I can, but to do this for as long as I can. This craft takes so much time and patience, and I’m not always the most patient person – but I believe one of the reasons God has put me where I am is to teach me how to be more patient.

I’m learning that good things take time, and reminding myself that this is the path that I’ve chosen, and it’s going to be a long one, because it needs to be sustainable.

I’d rather take that time to build something steady than have a rapid career that grows and then falls. I’m a fan of longevity – I get more time to reflect, to develop myself, to practice what I’ve learnt, to be intentional – which I’m thankful for when things are feeling more slow – I want to do this for as long as I can, so I’m here for it. 

What do fans joining you from this EP need to know about your journey so far, and about the New Beginnings to come?

Live shows. International shows are coming – Shows in New York, the Philippines, and Jakarta, and also, I’m in the album process too. 

In the wider sense, I’m very excited to come to a point in my career where my FamHilly and I can somehow connect in a deeper way that goes far beyond music. The same way Cleo Sol has built her empire with her audience, I want to do the same, in an area. I’d love to gather my FamHilly so we can sing our hearts out. I want to grow further than music – in fashion, in entertainment, within magazines, so – I have quite some ambitions.