Dive Into the Minds of the Dynamic Duo Behind ABRACADABRA

For International Women’s Day, we sat down with Vivie-Ann Bakos (aka BLOND:ISH) and Liana Hillison, the power couple behind ABRACADABRA.

ABRACADABRA is a pandemic success story if there ever was one. While ABRACADABRA itself existed pre-pandemic with the aim of bringing magic to more music fans, their move to the virtual realm was an effort that stemmed from the lockdown measures. And after a number of fantastic, multi-day virtual festivals over the past year with stacked lineups, it’s clear that ABRACADABRA TV is something that will keep on giving for some time to come.

The ABRACADABRA brand is run by Vivie-Ann Bakos (known around the world as BLOND:ISH) and Liana Hillison who are both business and life partners. This tireless dyad isn’t satisfied to simply deliver music to an audience – they have a deep ethos of delivering more for their fans including joy and magic, as well as a corporate focus on social causes as well. This includes the Bye Bye Plastic initiative co-founded by Bakos and Camille Guitteau to reduce single-use plastics and this even includes a contract rider that removes all such items from their events.

In celebration of International Women’s Day, we sat down with these two movers and shakers in the scene to explore their story, how they’ve grown over the years, and what plans they have for the rest of 2021. Check out the highlights from the New Year’s edition of ABRACADABRA Festival on YouTube, follow them on social media, and continue reading on below for the wide-reaching interview with its founders!

Hey Vivie-Ann and Liana, thanks for talking to us today! Let’s start with a little background about the two of you and how ABRACADABRA came to be. When did you launch it and what were your goals at the time?

Liana: Vivie and I met in Tulum about seven years ago, through many mutual New Yorker friends. She was my first “girl crush” ever, and we immediately became best friends! We traveled the world together with the intention of exploring and creating something new and fresh. Tulum is a place we will forever hold close to our hearts. It’s where we met, where we fell in love, and where all the magic of ABRACADABRA came to life.

Vivie-Ann: ABRACADABRA was created out of our shared love for music, art, wellness, and eco-activism, both online and IRL. We have been producing unique single-use, plastic-free events in Tulum, Mykonos, and at Tomorrowland since 2017. At the time, we were working on bringing to life the first in-person rendition of ABRACADABRA Festival, but we very quickly had to adapt when the pandemic hit!

Vivie-Ann, as BLOND:ISH you were very quick to the livestreaming rush when the pandemic started, but ABRACADABRA TV came a bit later. Tell us a little about that time period. Were you testing the waters? And were you building the ABRACADABRA TV framework behind the scenes?

V: When the pandemic hit I had a dream that I had to start streaming to connect with my fans again. So, I made it happen and started performing on Twitch. That’s where this all started! There was ZERO plan! All we wanted to do was keep our community alive and connected. The platform has endless possibilities so we realized the potential we had here. My initial livestreaming became part of something bigger, ABRACADABRA TV, and shifted into my show Human Nature, which airs weekly on the channel. Season 2 debuts March 22!

ABRACADABRA TV may not have launched out of the gates of the pandemic, but it quickly became a top music streaming channel and a go to for so tens of thousands of followers and millions of views to date. To what do you attribute your success?

L: Thank you for acknowledging that! We owe all our success to our community. We did this for them and they have given back to us tenfold. Whether that’s the artists, the fans, the team — everyone has given so much to keep the party alive. We couldn’t have done it without them. We’re also showing up for fans in all the places they are, across Twitch, Discord, IG, and YouTube. In times like these, belonging to such a strong community of loving people has been nothing short of incredible and essential. The community is constantly pushing us, always wanting more and we strive to deliver!

There are so many technical variables that can make or break a livestreamed event. ABRACADABRA TV has done fests that have lasted for days on end and your team makes it look so easy. Please tell us how!

V: We have an angel working on the technical side of things and we couldn’t do it without him! We love him dearly. He holds the tech team down and drives that ship very well! Not only is he the most professional and efficient person, but he has also become family. But overall, we have a big and incredible team supporting us on every angle, and artists who show up wanting to be a part of the magic.

L: And again, a strong community of loving people and never doubting that anything is possible! Manifesting has a big role in this — we quite literally manifested headliners like John Legend, Major Lazer, Snoop Dogg, and more, by visualizing who we wanted to perform and making it happen. You have to believe in yourself!

Do you think livestreaming has democratized the gender imbalance in our scene? It appears to me that women are getting outsized attention right now (deservedly so). Is this because artists can bypass the existing structure that favors male performers for live events?

L: YES, no doubt here! Listen, livestreaming definitely gives you an opportunity to step outside the box, and use your voice, personality, music, and just overall talent all while living in the moment and enjoying. That spontaneity has really opened the door for women to step in and take their deserved place.

V: We love raw talent, and through a lot of research and diving deep into Twitch, exploring different channels, whether music or even chat-only, we were able to come across endless talents, many of who are women! So naturally, we connected and collaborated!

There is a strong ethos tied to everything you do with the Bye Bye Plastic non-profit, breathwork, intention-setting, and self-love, just to name a few. Tell us more about how you tie all of this into a cohesive brand. Has running a brand with such positive intentions helped you personally through the pandemic?

L: The four pillars of ABRACADABRA are music, magic, self-love, and activism. Music is at the core because it’s the best way to bring people together — it’s the greatest connector. Magic, because everyone needs a little magic in their life, right?! Self-love is the most important thing we can give to ourselves and we really wanted to dive into that with our talents and community. And, of course, activism! By understanding our responsibilities as human beings, we must defend a cause we are passionate about — that is part of our purpose on Earth.

V: Activism has really been a focus of mine since starting my nonprofit, Bye Bye Plastic. Our female-powered global team of music insiders creates sustainable movements that activate the collective power of the music industry to restore balance to our planet. We’re dedicated to removing single-use plastics from the music industry by 2025! We have already inspired thousands of DJs and event promoters to back the initiative since launching in 2018, through our #PlasticFreeParty movement and our Eco-Rider pledge. You can also join us at our Greener Sound Workshop, a free motivational workshop for the aspiring greenfluencer music talents, coming up Monday, March 29 at 12pm EST / 6pm CET.

L: Running ABRACADABRA during the pandemic gave us a super clear vision, daily reminders of how beautiful life is and how fortunate we are to live. When you say ‘abracadabra,’ which translates to “I create as I speak” 200 times a day real magic starts to happen, we promise!

Following on to that, you are both partners in business and partners in life. How do you find the right balance? Do you each have parts of the business that you own independently? Or are you just so close that operating together 24/7 is a comfortable thing?

V: Funny you ask! We’re still trying to find the right balance. We work way too much! I’ll take the blame for that one, I’m the bad influence. I’m the workaholic, or passionaholic, should I say.

L: We have a certain vision for ABRACADABRA. We really want to revolutionize music festivals and events as we know them, and we have a lot to do! ABRACADABRA is our playground. It’s a space for us to experiment and where all the parts of our ecosystem are rewarded when brought together.

That being said, we do take time for ourselves. Self-love is primordial. We implement morning rituals and spend a lot of time in nature, surfing, and just hanging out with bugs or watching the clouds pass. That’s how we find balance.

V: If we need some time apart, we are open about it and go see family. But to be honest, we’re pretty much together 24/7 and our love grows more from it every day. Liana makes me smile instantly all the time!

Shifting gears completely, I saw that BLOND:ISH, you announced on your IG that you’ve begun accepting payments in cryptocurrency. What’s your strategy behind this? Has the recent mainstream media attention, and subsequent volatility of crypto, changed your thinking in any way?

V: I actually got into cryptocurrency in 2017 (although I wish I had gotten into it sooner!), so I’ve been familiar with it all. Our old currency is archaic and the pandemic has really opened up space for people to dive into it. Ultimately, my goal is to create inclusivity across everything and this is a step in that direction.

I see a future where artists receive their royalties in real-time, where streaming is decentralized, where festivals and creators introduce their own coin, where new revenue streams are created, and NFT everything, of course. Emerging artists will have greater support, established artists will have direct access to listeners, birthing a more diverse market!

Before we go, aside from live music events, what are you craving most as the pandemic gets under control? Where are you going and/or what are you doing as soon as it’s safe again?

Both: Connection! Human connection is so essential. We cannot wait for the day we can all be together, dance and just be silly.