So rarely do we hear about the people behind our favorite artists and bands, who work tirelessly to create a more immersive and authentic musical experience. Whether it’s producing, CD and box set design, or any other aspect that goes into music making nowadays, so many heroes of the industry go unsung. Now, Berit Gilma is making her presence known. Gilma is the creative director of Danny Elfman’s album Big Mess, and was nominated for a Grammy Award for the box set design.

Gilma and Elfman met about seven years ago, and became friends overtime. She now serves as his creative director, and has a hand in crafting several music videos, a double LP, a deluxe box set, and a remix record where she acted as curator and co-producer. If that wasn’t enough, Gilma holds several degrees from esteemed universities. She holds a BA degree in Visual Communication from the University of the Arts in Berlin, and an MFA from UCLA. In addition to her already extensive portfolio, she’s done written pieces for outlets and organizations around the world.

What can’t she do? Her expertise and experience spans practically all methods of mass communication as we know it. Flaunt spoke with Gilma to talk all things from music, media, and re-introducing Danny Elfman to rock music. 

You have a large educational background and a lot of degrees from different parts of the world. Is there anything you learned through experience that school could not teach you?

Honestly, I think that experience, rather than formal education, taught me the most. School didn’t inform my life—I always had a life besides school, being out there doing my thing. It’s just one piece of the puzzle. I saw academia more as a means to educate myself, draw from the same canon of a community, and shape my conceptual and critical thinking. It put me in discourse, both practical and theoretical, with new technologies to make art. And that partially informed my work in the industry. And vica versa.
How did you and Danny Elfman meet, and can you expand on your experience working with him over the past few years?

‍We met in Los Angeles in 2016 through a mutual friend and then became friends over the years. Owing to a scholarship, I relocated from Berlin to LA in 2019 to study digital art at UCLA. I had planned a show with him for Dark Mofo festival in Tasmania, for which he began writing new music (the first he wrote as a solo artist in 30 years). Ultimately, the show didn’t happen and his Coachella performance was also canceled because of Covid. But it seemed he was inspired by what we had started, and the pandemic allowed him the time he needed to go all in. 

He asked me to be his creative director and within a few months he had all songs together, we found a label (Anti/Epitaph) and thought out a rollout strategy. It was 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, and not an easy time. We were heavily leaning on music videos to get the word out there. In 2.5 years, we produced 13 music videos, the original LP (Big Mess), a remix record (Bigger Messier), and the box set that I was Grammy nominated for. Although I was primarily leading the visual side of the project, I ended up co-curating the remix record and co-producing the song featuring Einstürzende Neubauten's Blixa Bargeld's voice. It was very exciting to get all these amazing musicians on board, who I thought I would never be in touch with. Iggy Pop, Trent Reznor, HEALTH, Zach Hill, Xiu Xiu, Boy Harsher...just to name a few. I wore many hats in this project and I learned so much. It’s truly been a wild journey.

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Can you tell me about what it was like to reintroduce Danny to rock music, and how it feels to have a Grammy nomination? ‍

I’m not sure if I'd say that I reintroduced him to rock music—it was a unique circumstance that brought him back to his rock music roots. I was there and had a creative vision, reconnecting him to contemporary art and music movements, and he trusted me. It was exciting that he was up for all the wild ideas I had, and we were able to work so collaboratively. It wasn’t always easy because we both have high standards, but the results showed that everything was created with sincerity and with a desire to be the best it could be.

I'm honored. It came as a surprise– I didn't follow the announcements as I never thought I would get anywhere close to the Grammys. I was in an online class when someone texted me congrats and a screenshot of the New York Times with my name in it in relation to the Grammys. I thought it was a joke. I didn’t win in the end, which is unfortunate as it would have been a little historic—my category has existed since 1995, and only once has a female single art director won. Male nominees make up the majority. That reveals a lot, in my opinion, about the DNA of the music industry. I would have been the second female art director and the first woman from a German-speaking country. Nonetheless, I am grateful for the recognition, and while I did not win in my category, I did win in the fashion department: I was named best dressed on the red carpet and appeared in fashion magazines around the world. Given that I didn’t have a big-name fashion designer, a manager, a PR agency, or money behind this, like other celebrities, and I designed the outfit myself, it felt pretty cool that this happened. The magazines called my vibe extraterrestrial, so I’m going to call this "alien-chic".‍

Who or what artistically impacts you and your creative decision-making?

‍I think my time in Berlin and the scene I was in were very formative—I was a student of Ai Weiwei, involved in the hacktivist scene, and immersing myself in various subcultures around music and the arts. I’m always inspired by the communities I'm in, new technologies, and whatever I encounter in my daily life. I could name numerous people who inspire me or have mentored me, but a person I often think of when I feel uninspired is Nikola Tesla. He is the one I would like to have a conversation with if I could time travel.‍

What’s your opinion on technology in relation to art? Having worked with it before, what are the pros and cons of inviting something like AI into the creative space? ‍

Creating with artificial intelligence means engaging with contemporary image creation, the political discourses surrounding it, and pushing a new aesthetic understanding. Image-based AI has resulted in a paradigm shift, both in terms of the theoretical understanding of art and visual perception. In the end, it’s really about reflecting on ourselves, our visual history, and the stories we tell. It’s the sweet spot where computer science and psychology meet art. A con, in my opinion, is that AI is being used as a shortcut to create art, resulting in potentially impressive visuals but lacking concept and thought.‍

How do you keep yourself creatively energized and inspired?‍

Nature, a rave night, a conversation, a museum, good music I switch from external inspiration to internal inspiration. I often think about C.G. Jung and other psychonauts. The human condition, and what we make of it are endlessly inspiring.‍

What have you been dreaming about lately?‍

I had a dream the other night that someone proposed to me (which is odd because I don't have the desire to marry), and the ring they gave me was from the Middle Ages—a witch ring from Austria with a beautiful serpent pattern. On the backside, a spell was inscribed in the silver. Dreams, I believe, tap into your subconscious in an unusual way. Many of the artists I love have spoken about dreams as a source of inspiration—David Lynch notably talks a lot about this. It is actually a very psychonautic concept, where you surrender to your inner world.

Photographed by Carlos Gonzalez / The1point8