Tonight's queer artist feature is J GRGRY with his amazing new single 'DINOSAURS'
I'm so excited to complete the story of DINOSAURS with you, picking up from our last conversation over a year ago!
The version from early 2019 was a demo we were working on. I wanted to have some new material out for the tours I was going on that year and I wanted to test the songs out on the road because the engineers were stalling and things weren't clicking after initial tracking was done.
The people I was working with at the time were drinking on the job and working on other projects and sessions and seemed to be losing track of what our project was. Ultimately, I was becoming worried about their abilities. I was handcuffed at the time by the money we had already paid them and felt cornered by their attempts to take advantage of someone with no family, no money and a husband who has to travel for work.
These things turned out to be glaringly true as soon as I hit the road. Engineer after engineer, venue after venue, struggled with the tracks so much until we finally figured out that those demos had major elements recorded and mixed out of phase, among other amateur editing mistakes, and the tracks became a nightmare to deal with performing live. Suffice to say it has cost tens of thousands of dollars (in addition to the tens of thousands they were paid) to fix these songs, and if it weren't for the fact that I wrote everything and can play all the instruments myself, it would not have been possible to save them.
Something else I discovered touring with DINOSAURS in 2019 was that my specific anti-trump message wasn't as obvious as I thought it to be. The lyrics in the verses talk about his sheer ineptitude and that he doesn't even know an I.Q. test isn't something you pass or fail.
In the chorus, my depiction of a bird is meant to symbolize Twitter and the divisive, maniacal words he uses on that platform ("I'm not gonna listen anymore to the birds chirp down the street, no. I'm not gonna let 'em take anything other than they've already taken from me")
Like I mentioned previously, this was a call to myself to live authentically and passionately. Ultimately, to fight daily against racism and white supremacy. To fight for women's rights. To combat homophobia and transphobia, and try to create a safer more loving world, day by day, person by person, as I go.
I've never been more proud of one of my compositions and while this battle for the song to come to life, true to my vision, has been exhausting and demoralizing on so many days, I am so thankful to share this final version with you all.
With love + light
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