From the opening bars of her song “Tightrope,” it’s clear that there’s a magic about alt-rocker Quill. Not in a cheesy, sword-and-sorcery sort of way, but rather a magic steeped in gothic majesty. With a tip of the hat to Poe, as well as the likes of Nick Cave, Quill works in the darkness to create poetic, crunchy songs that then burst into the light. Evanescence is an obvious reference, though Quill is very much her own artist.
Quill can’t remember a time when she wasn’t singing. “My mom used to call me Ethel Merman, because I would sing opera in our living room (or try to),” she says. “It was one of those things I always gravitated toward when I started playing piano at five. I always wanted to sing my favorite songs. Writing came from a more private place. I think I started writing because there were things I felt too deeply to say plainly, and songs gave me somewhere to put all of that.”
Initially her focus was on poetry, using it “as a way to put words to feelings I couldn’t understand.” When she graduated high school, she picked up a keyboard at 21 and was drawn back into music. “That’s when it shifted from ‘I want to do music’ to ‘this is what I’m building my life around,’” she says.
Quill describes her sound as “prunge metal”—sometimes grunge, sometimes nu-metal, always poetic. “I’m really drawn to music that feels dramatic, repressed, and a little dangerous,” Quill says. “Artists like Evanescence, Deftones, SleepToken, etc. They inspire me. There’s darkness in my music, but I wouldn’t describe it as dark just for the sake of being dark. It’s more romantic, emotional, and theatrical. I like tension: repressed rage, hidden imperfections, vulnerability. I like flaws. The uglier, the better.”
All of that can be heard on her recent EP Diary of a Wannabe, which Quill describes as “probably the most personal thing I’ve made so far.” It’s an impressive piece of work, only possible because of her admirable work ethic.
“DIY means doing the work,” Quill says. “It means believing in yourself enough to create the vision, even when no one else sees it yet. You make the song, you plan the shoot, you build the visuals, you post the content, you figure out the rollout, you answer the emails, you fund what you can, and you keep going even when it feels like you’re building something huge with very limited resources.”
2026 will see Quill “expanding the world of Diary of a Wannabe,” and we’re looking forward to seeing where that takes her.
Visit quillmusic.org
Photo by Anna Haas
