Use Your Voice
‘Use Your Voice’ - my first full track release ever! The process of creating this really has been a release. I wanted to create something to symbolize my relationship with my voice, both the literal sound of my voice and my inner voice, my expression, my truth. I used to sing a lot when I was younger, but never really felt like my voice was mine, and eventually shied away from singing and playing music. In retrospect, I realize this was gender dysphoria. After starting HRT (aka Hormone Replacement Therapy, for those who don’t know, which is a form of gender-affirming care, and in my case I’ve been taking testosterone since 2021), my voice has deepened and I’ve been on a journey of learning to love my voice and singing again. Meanwhile, as I’ve been growing into my true self and discovering who I am (also thanks to gender-affirming care, as well as therapy, resilience, and dedication), I’ve been learning to trust my intuition, to be honest with myself and others, and to speak up and speak from the heart. So this song is about that journey. One of the things that has been giving me the fire I need to put this into practice is how much privilege I have, despite the sometimes painful and unbearable reality of existing as a trans person. On top of the obvious visible privileges of being white and not having a physical disability, my basic needs are being met, I have access to resources, I have community, and an amazing support system. I see being trans and queer as a privilege too. I feel so incredibly grateful to be who I am and where I am now. I also have a lot to say, lol. So realizing that I have all of this potential and opportunity is giving me the courage to be more vocal, both in my day to day/personal life, and as an artist/on social media. I have a voice and I need to use it. This track was produced with a lot of care and intention. 100% of the sounds you hear in it were created from recordings of my voice. That process was so much fun. I want to do more projects like this, where I choose one type of sound source, intentionally and ethically source my own recordings of it, and use sound design techniques to create samples and instruments that I then use to produce a record. You can get Use Your Voice on Bandcamp for free or PWYC. I want all my music and art to be available for free forever. I am a firm believer in free music, free art, free information, open source software, free housing, free food, etc (actually, can we abolish money already?). That said, I am also a firm believer in artists being fairly compensated for their work. So in the current system, if you can spare some cents or bucks or whatever, it would be greatly appreciated. The sample pack and instrument racks for Use Your Voice are free to download on my website. Bonus: if you’ve made it this far, I also made my very first audio effect plugin, which I used in the production! You can also get the plugin on my website 😁 For everyone who listens to the track, thank you so so so so much. 🙏 I am always open to feedback and would love to hear your thoughts/feelings. Gender-affirming care truly does save lives, btw. ✌️ 💜
Sound Design
For Use Your Voice, 100% of the sounds I used were created with recordings of my voice. The sample pack and the Ableton instrument racks (Wavetable, Simpler, Sampler, Granulator III) are available to download for free.