2menkiss (First Demo 2016) (Patreon)

I wrote this song shortly after the horrible Orlando Pulse Club shooting that happened on June 12th 2016. The first reports suggested that the perpetrator got angry after seeing a gay couple kiss which some suggested might have been a motivating factor. Later investigations uncovered different motives, but anyway it is the deadliest incident in the history of violence against LGBTQ people in the United States and the deadliest terrorist attack in the U.S. since the September 11 attacks in 2001(Source: Wikipedia). So that triggered a response from me and multiple other LGBTQ creators.

I thought we needed more songs about our struggles as a community, and more examples of gay artists speaking up. It's ok that your regular diva does her thing and tells everybody that she's all about her gay fans, but let me tell you as a past insider that not all of them have our best interest in mind, or care at all. In the end, most of them just want to be relevant and that's an easy way to gain attention.

At the same time I didn't want to make something sad, I decided it was more constructive to do something for the future, something that made us feel stronger and closer as a community. So this was my humble attempt at that. I sometimes restrain to talk about the motivations behind this anymore, because it all may come across as a frivolous response, but I swear I had my most respect and will to do things right at the time I did it. 

I recorded this first demo on the 19th, just one week later, and you can hear the raw energy that possessed me, and some huge lyric mistakes here and there :) I was finding my voice then and some aspects, like the accent, were still on the works. Luckily I had a special guest staying at home those days, DJ Funkybear Martin (former XXL London Dj) who helped me a lot polishing that on following demos as my vocal coach. Here's a pic of us having lunch just after recording the final vocals, a week later.

His help was of paramount importance building my singing style, so I'll be forever grateful to him for that. As I'm grateful to Ivan & Gabo, the photographers of the awesome cover featuring Claudio and Nibaldo. Here you have a color version of it. Enjoy!