Music Projects
funeral afterparty // album by the dead friends club
in 2020, a few of my friends in college and i came with this wacky idea to do a concept album within the emo/punk/rock genre, where each of us had developed characters, ran a dungeons and dragons campaign to deepen those characters' stories, and within a year, wrote and released an entire album. we performed at a few house shows and did several charity campaigns, including performing at a metalworking shop in boston called artisans asylum to support their community programs. i am not in the band anymore, but the tdfc legacy carries on. you can find the band's instagram here if you want to find some of the behind the scenes of the production process, and you can even support the members still currently associated with the band by buying the album on bandcamp. i look back at this band so fondly, we were an all non-binary punk band with an electric harpist, where every one of us contributed to the songwriting, and every part of what we did was so incredibly intentional.
the spice - izzy mello
for me to attempt to fully encapsulate this project in my own words would be a real struggle, so here's a short bit from the neurodivergent voices project website:
"this project brings together 12 LGBTQ+ and neurodivergent artists who will produce an original song on this collaborative album with the mission to empower neurodivergent LGBTQIA2S+ artists to share their stories through song to celebrate the beautiful and complex lives we live."
the album, a project concocted from the magical brain of rex wilde and in partnership with spectrum laboratory and the los angeles county department of mental health, was one of the greatest gifts i have ever been given artistically. i had the opportunity to meet 11 other artists, discuss our shared intersectional experiences of neurodivergency and queerness, meet with artist advocates who supported me every step of the way, direct studio musicians and producers to help create my vision of a song i had written about my journey with neurodivergency, and then perform it at the end of the year in a showcase. it was truly a spiritual and enlightening process, one i'd do a hundred more times. if you're interested in learning more about how this came together and hearing from rex themself, here's the mini documentary they put together about the bts process.
youtube
i write a lot of originals and post covers, and there are a few of my performances on there too! like and subscribe, as the kids say. you can visit my channel here (if ur on desktop, just click on one of the vids on the side and hit "f" on your keyboard if u want to watch them full screen).