Q: Hi! I absolutely love your voice. Your vocals are so effortlessly smooth and your range is remarkable. I’m curious in your vocal background?
STORY: Hey! First I just want to say thank you for giving me the opportunity to do this, its my first interview ever and I’m beyond excited about it.
But back to the question, I’ve been singing all my life. My grandma kept me in choir at our church growing up, but I also did choir in school which taught me a lot about classical music and made me fall in love with the genre. I studied classical voice for a semester at a college in Memphis, TN before transferring to a musical theater college here in LA, so I have a lot of training in different styles of singing and I like to combine those and come up with my own sound. Also It wasn’t until I went to college in LA that I figured out I was a countertenor (male soprano). That’s why using my higher, operatic voice is a big part of my music. My range used to be very limited because I allowed people around me to tell me what I could and couldn’t do vocally. How can someone tell you what you can do with your own voice? When I let that go, my voice soared.
Q: Was “This Moment” inspired by any real-life events?
STORY: This moment was inspired by so many things in my real life, as is anything I will ever create. I can’t call myself Story without telling mine, and with this one, I had been living on my own away from my family and friends for so long and it sometimes gets to me a bit. I’m the youngest of 6 with my mom and the oldest of 2 with my dad. Everyday I’m missing my little sister growing up and it really gets to me sometimes, but I know I have a mission here and one day she will understand. But I wrote this as a thank you letter to anyone in my life that holds me down. I appreciate every moment I have with the people I surround myself with and I really wanted to portray that feeling on this track.
Q: Your vocals are reminiscent of amazing vocalists such as Labrinth or Childish Gambino; who are your biggest musical influences?
STORY: I have so many influences, especially for this EP because it’s so multi-genre but if I had to pick just a few people I would say: Frank Ocean, SZA, Beyoncé, Minnie Ripperton, Eric Whitacre, Moses Sumney, UMI, Girl in red, HERS and Tennis
Q: “This Moment” sounds so well produced; can you walk me a bit through the production process on this track?
STORY: Thank you! That means a lot to me!I was blessed enough to meet this amazing producer/musician named Jaye Locke on Instagram late last year. He did a song with a artist named Baby Storme called “Dreams”, and I immediately fell in love with it. I sent him an old song I was working on and asked him if he was interested in working with a new artist, and he said yes!! and we’ve been working together ever since! Before him I was literally making all of my songs to pre-made YouTube beats so with him I could actually build songs from the ground up, which gave me so much more creative freedom and it’s been beyond anything I could ever imagine.
I’m so grateful for him. This moment was the second thing we created together and from then on everything has been organic and it all HITS. We just wanted to do something very stripped and highlight my vocals and it turned into one of my favorite things I think I will ever create. It’s a new beginning for me. I’m so excited for people to not only see what I can do, but Jaye as well. Mark my words that man is a GENUIS.
Q: What’s the best piece of advice about the music industry that you’ve received, and how has it helped you so far?
STORY: Honestly, I’m still very new to the business side of music so I’m still learning a lot everyday and there’s so much I still don’t know but I’m taking it a day at a time. If I had to say something I’ve learned through my own experience so far pertaining to music creation I would say the biggest thing I’ve learned (and am still learning) is how to be patient with myself and trust the process. I know how I want everything to sound in my head but transferring that from my head to peoples speakers is my everyday challenge. Sometimes things aren’t working in the moment and I’ve found that when that happens it’s because I need to leave it alone and live more. I’ve had songs I started years ago and couldn’t finish but they somehow work now, because there was something I was missing before that I have now, and that happens to anyone that creates. My music is all rooted in my reality but sometimes that could also be my past reality, or future.
Q: I’m always curious about a musician’s journey; do you remember when you first started singing/interested in music?
STORY: Although I did say earlier I’ve been singing all my life, My first initial dream job was actually to be a artist. I’m very good at drawing and that was the first thing I wanted to do but my family always knew I had a voice and would make me sing any and everywhere. I eventually started loving it, especially in school choir. That was my safe place, There I wasn’t just the gay boy, I was the gay boy who could sing. Which was a little better haha. But I knew I wanted to be a professional singer because of my influences. Whenever I would be going through anything good or bad in my life I would listen to music, and it would help me. I want to do that for others now, I want to have that type of music that sticks with people and almost becomes an era in their life. That’s what CTRL and Blonde were for me in high school, it’s forever a whole moment for me and I want to do that.
Q: In your own words, how would you describe the music that you typically create?
STORY: My music is free form, nostalgic but new, angelic, personal, black, queer, relatable, heartfelt. I put so much into this because it’s genuinely not work to me, it’s all I have. It’s what I’m best at. I have so many people that believe in me and I just want to do this for them. To all those that told me what I couldn’t do and who I wouldn’t become. I want to prove to the world that I am worth it. Im amazing, Im talented, Im powerful, I’m ME. It took me so long to believe in myself but now that I do, this shit is my super power (sorry if I can’t curse).
Q: “This Moment” is the first song off your new EP; what can fans expect from it?
STORY: Expect to be surprised; The EP is about transitions, it’s about mixing things together that don’t usually go together but making it work.
I wanted to evoke that both sonically and also in the messages I’m trying to get across.
I’m black and gay, and for the longest that felt like a death sentence. But I’m showing people that I’m the best me I could ever be because I am all of these things in one.
I don’t create in a box. I don’t care about labeling songs/albums with genres. I don’t care about strict song structures, I try to plan my music out but also give it space to change and evolve into whatever it becomes in that moment
I want people to trust me and give me space to be a artist from the jump, some songs/albums you will not be the biggest fan of but that’s okay because that just means what I’m doing in that moment is not for you.
Your time will come! And if it’s already come, it’ll come again trust me.
Interviewed by Melissa Cusano
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