Harmony in Creativity: Somber Mercy's Artistic Journey from Web Comics to Music and Fashion Vision

When the sound of music calls, some are compelled to follow. That's precisely what happened with Somber Mercy, our multitalented guest who's been riding the wave of a creative maelstrom. We get the inside track on her journey from the beloved panels of her web comic "ET Girl" to the melodious realms of her music career. Mercy opens up about the launch of Aionic Media, her latest endeavor that's poised to hoist fellow artists by providing a suite of creative services. She paints the picture of a future sanctuary for creatives, a hub aimed at fostering artistic endeavors without the added pressure of marketing and self-promotion.

Fashion and creativity intertwine as we thread the needle through Mercy's personal narrative, tracing her evolution from a cosplay enthusiast to a fashion visionary. She speaks to the heart of her designs, literally infusing sacred heart imagery to express the full spectrum of human emotion. We reminisce about early cosplay competitions and the enduring influence of connections made with industry mavens. Her story stitches together early passions with a vision for a vibrant local fashion community, revealing how collaborations can reshape not just our wardrobes but also the spaces we cherish.

Venturing further into the realm of dreams and introspection, Mercy shares the intimate discoveries of her artistic identity, born from the convergence of her musical lineage and the nurturing environment provided by her family. Her music, a reflection of personal growth and transformation, resonates with the teachings of Carl Jung and the catharsis of shadow work. The episode crescendos with a tribute to the musical genius of Nila Lois, and the harmonious family collaborations that amplify her sound. Join us for a symphony of conversations that celebrate the power of art to transform, heal, and connect us all.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

This podcast is brought to you by Place Pros Commercial and Investment Real Estate and NikoTour Boutique, your one stop shop for everything cool. Are we on Cool Kim Sombra? Mercy, good to see you. Happy holidays, happy holidays. How were your holidays?

Speaker 2: 0:22

They were good, they were chill, yeah, just very low key this year, which I kinda needed.

Speaker 1: 0:26

Yes, what have you been up to? I feel like I haven't caught up with you in about a year.

Speaker 2: 0:32

Yeah, when we did the well. We definitely saw each other at the bikini seven class, but we also there was a fashion walk over at Derrick Wars not too long ago. Right, right, oh I saw your clothing for sure, and I might have said hi, but it was like so quick.

Speaker 1: 0:44

I know those events are so fun and quick and, yeah, they happen in the Blee Go and I and I haven't seen you in months. What have you been up to?

Speaker 2: 0:53

So I've been really dialing everything kind of in with my music, cause I also do like a comic on the side and I mean I've been helping. What do you mean? I do a web comic. It's called ET Girl and I've been doing that for about four years or so. So I drop one new graphic novel every year. I actually sell them over at Famous Faces, really.

Speaker 1: 1:15

Yeah, oh my.

Speaker 2: 1:18

God, I had no idea. Yeah, cool, yeah. So it's great, but it takes a lot of my free time. Absolutely. It's like an ongoing saga where I've got another like at least five or six volumes. Wow, do you have like a following there? Yeah, I have a pretty big following in web tunes over 100,000 views and, like I think, about like 500 or so a little more than 500 people who follow that one.

Speaker 1: 1:40

So yeah, cool.

Speaker 2: 1:42

Okay, what else? So, yeah, I've been working on building my website for Sombra Mercy because I kind of realized dividing my time between the art and the music was just not gonna work so well. So this year I've made the tough decision but it's also one I'm proud of to be like okay, I'm not gonna spread myself too thin and I'm going to just like save the comic for like next year and I'm gonna spend this whole year doing something I've never tried before, which is scary, which is like I'm just gonna focus in on like the music, and I've also. Actually, I'm in business with a friend of mine. It's called Aionic Media and we're trying to do like a think like Ground Swall, but for creatives specifically.

Speaker 1: 2:22

Really. Yeah, We've worked with Ground Swall so that's interesting. So tell me more about that. So it would just be a hub.

Speaker 2: 2:30

Yeah, right now what we're doing is we're building websites, we're doing SEO like media marketing. If people want to like, if a musician wants to be recorded, we can do mixing and mastering for them as well. You'll have a studio in there, yeah like we're gonna. Well, we're gonna have our own separate studio, but he is currently my business partner. Well, I have two, mark and Josh. Josh actually does work with Ground Swall right now, so he's been helping clients.

Speaker 1: 2:58

Are they supporting? Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 3:01

He's on as a coach, oh, really, like he does the free business coaching that they provide.

Speaker 1: 3:08

Oh my gosh, that's amazing. Do you guys have like a brick?

Speaker 2: 3:11

and mortar. We're working our way up to it. So, as we're getting clients cause we just launched this like a month ago then, like we're gonna have, the dream is that the physical space will be it'll have different, like at least three different rooms. One where we do consultation for like like I'm gonna help people with like brand discovery. I wanna help like artists like figure out there, like why, like why they're doing what they're doing, and like develop, like just basically build their branding out for like music and other creative ventures.

Speaker 2: 3:42

And then I also want, like, a space where, like, they can film social media, so just something that's got a nice backdrop. They'll already have like a tripod setup. They'll have access to a bunch of social media tools, cause, like, I really wanna push the idea of, like I want artists to be able to be artists and to understand that content creation is a separate job and, while they do need to learn it, I don't want it to consume them, because a lot of artists feel like I can't keep up and I'm not a good artist if I'm doing, if I'm not doing, content creation well, and it's like no, it's a separate job.

Speaker 1: 4:12

Like it's okay if you're not getting it, and then you need the ring, light and the tripod and for an artist like that's 20 bucks, that's 40 bucks. It adds up. Yeah, it totally adds up. So you wanna make like a warehouse, a place where they could just come in and it's all set for them. Is it just for musicians, or are you thinking all sort of art?

Speaker 2: 4:32

Yeah, anyone's creative. They got creative ventures online. It doesn't just need to be creative, Like right now a lot of the clients are working with are like just people who need website, like regular people that need websites, built Apps designed anything to help push their Are you guys gonna? Do the social media, we'll either. We have tools to help with it. So, whether that's things like Facebook, like ad marketing campaigns or SEO buildups or anything like that, so yeah, we could we're working on maybe like a package where we could like offer a membership where we do some level of it for people.

Speaker 1: 5:05

Yeah, or teach them the skill, yeah, I'm working on the courses where I'll teach people. Really cool.

Speaker 2: 5:11

Wow, okay, you said there were three rooms.

Speaker 1: 5:13

What's the?

Speaker 2: 5:13

third one, the so yeah, one is consulting. The other one's for social media and then the third one's gonna be for for actually the mixing and mastering. So, like people have like a, it's like a studio where people can come in, they can record and get everything mixed and mastered.

Speaker 1: 5:31

Wow, and how did you meet those two?

Speaker 2: 5:35

So, josh, I met last year at an open mic night here actually in downtown O'Galley.

Speaker 1: 5:40

Really yeah. What did he do on the open mic?

Speaker 2: 5:44

Well, he came to check out other people when he saw me sing and then he was like, hey, I have a. I was in like looking for a DJ at the time and he's like, oh, I DJ and I have a studio that's right here in town. You wanna go check it out? And I was like yeah, it's the universe.

Speaker 1: 5:57

Isn't that funny? How yeah that happens. I feel like that's kind of what happened with Jesse too.

Speaker 2: 6:02

Yeah, that's awesome. I love that when the universe just like puts you in the right place at the right time or. I don't know.

Speaker 1: 6:10

People gravitate to what they need. Yeah, and then.

Speaker 2: 6:13

Mark kind of came along with Josh cause he knew him, so I only met him recently. He's a really cool guy. What's his capacity Like? What is he doing? He does like the music, the production side, and he also does the websites. Oh, great.

Speaker 1: 6:26

So yeah, oh, wow. Well, good luck on that, but you focus 2023 on the music.

Speaker 2: 6:33

Yeah, so I've decided to upgrade my gear. I'm gonna have more music videos coming out. I'm working on at least two of them right now. The one and a half for Helen Genesis, which was a song I dropped last year, is it's so like. The footage is amazing. We worked six months with a friend I have out in Orlando. Her name is Alexa. She's got a YouTube channel called Alexa the Great and she just started her YouTube stuff, basically, and she was like hey, I'd love to like work with you on music video. And so I have all the footage from her.

Speaker 2: 7:03

It's just a matter of like editing it together, Putting it together yeah, and I'm so motivated cause I'm like this, like I look at him like gosh, you got some killer footage and so I'm like we're gonna get it done. And then I even played around with a new camera. I just bought to try to see what I could do, Like a simple video.

Speaker 1: 7:18

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 7:19

Because I do want to start growing my YouTube channel where I'm gonna like talk about.

Speaker 1: 7:22

You have a YouTube channel.

Speaker 2: 7:23

I have three right now.

Speaker 2: 7:24

You have three, all right, tell us what they are, okay. One is Sombra Mercy, okay. The other one is called the planet streamer and that's the one that encapsulates all of my like I do how to's in art and comic, like tutorials for like I talk about ET girl, my comic in there, but I'm basically helping like artists and storytellers like make their own comics and stuff, okay. And then my third one's like a fashion. It's like mainly Japanese street fashion and like my like you know, clothing hauls and cute. What is that?

Speaker 1: 7:54

one called.

Speaker 2: 7:55

That one's called Kimba Darling, I think, or no, I think it's just Kim darling. Kimba Darling is my Instagram for you darling, okay, yeah.

Speaker 1: 8:03

Yeah, Cause I love when you make clothing. It's. I mean, it's kind of amazing.

Speaker 2: 8:08

Oh, thank you.

Speaker 1: 8:09

Yeah, so how much are you dedicating?

Speaker 2: 8:12

to that. Um, so right now I was dividing my time between all three of these. Yeah, right now I've kind of honed in on. I'm gonna just be focusing on my music channel, okay, but I have lots of content already dropped on both of those channels. So if people want to check out the fashion side of things or things like that, basically, once I get things up and running with my music one, I have content planned for the other channels.

Speaker 1: 8:36

Yeah, matter of like. Yeah, do it. Are you editing on your own?

Speaker 2: 8:41

I do, and actually it's a whole new venture right now because I just got a new computer and I've been using Windows Movie Maker I know you are which is not like the best thing, but I got so attached to it, yeah, and now I've. Actually I was like scared to make the leap, but I learned to venture resolve recently. Oh good, that's what Jesse recommends, yeah it's, it's good, it's um, I'm so happy to learning curve. It's, it's there, but it's not as tough as I thought it would be.

Speaker 1: 9:09

Yeah, no, I've even heard it in. Like the TV industry. Really which is kind of crazy because between like avid and final cut, there was never a third one mentioned.

Speaker 2: 9:20

So I'm yeah.

Speaker 1: 9:21

I'm here to try it. What do you use At work? I use avid. Okay, at home I might do like a subscription of like final cut, but it just depends. I really want to try DaVinci.

Speaker 2: 9:35

Yeah, it's good it's. The tools are really like intuitive. You can just go really deep with the layer of tools.

Speaker 1: 9:41

Yeah, yeah, okay, so just music.

Speaker 2: 9:47

I Say just music, and then I'm like well, right, well there's more.

Speaker 2: 9:52

Yeah, I'm like, oh, I've been. I Think that I've learned recently that mixing Music with fashion is really where I want to go. Yeah, it was. It was brought up to me a few times after I worked with spacewap, when I realized, actually, that that those things were tied. Ali, who runs spacewap, had mentioned it a few times and I was like, you know, I really think if I put two and two together, I don't need to run them as separate endeavors, right? So I want to build that out more this year. There's going to be some awesome things in the works. I don't want to spoil it, but that where I'm going to be combining fashion a little bit more with music, okay well, you do that anyway.

Speaker 1: 10:34

Yeah, we look at some of your outfits like they're all so cool. Are you making all of these, like the one with the hands, I love?

Speaker 2: 10:44

The, so the yeah, I can point out which ones I've made. See, oh, is this your, oh, my stories so early on. That was 2019, so that was, yeah, you look younger. Most of that was just stuff where I was putting together Outfits.

Speaker 1: 11:06

Yeah, when did you start making your own stuff?

Speaker 2: 11:09

I've technically been sewing for a long time, but I started making dresses specifically for music that red dress that I'm wearing and the that top one. Yeah that's the first one that I made for um. No, for for somber mercy. Did you make the skirt? That one I made the outfit underneath. Yeah, if you scroll down I can show you. There's like.

Speaker 1: 11:33

I usually take stills yeah of each one. So like that one one, yeah, you made that one right, you did like a whole tutorial or I did a follow along which I enjoyed.

Speaker 2: 11:45

I did it. You know it's funny. The reason why I did it was because I realized I get a lot of people who tell me wow, you do a lot of things and you always seem to be hustling and you're so like. Yeah amazing and like they'll think that I'm like perfect almost and I don't like when I'm, like I don't think people understand like that. I don't actually know what I'm doing sometimes.

Speaker 1: 12:08

That's refreshing because, yeah, I mean, I think when you put yourself out there, that's Because I'm sure you're like me, like you're gonna notice all the flaws that are still in the garment. But all of us are like wow, like look at what she did and she had time to record doing it like it's just nice and that's, that's the nice thing about content creation, right.

Speaker 2: 12:32

Like.

Speaker 1: 12:34

You get to share you and you know all that you do, and it inspires people.

Speaker 2: 12:42

Well, thank you, yeah, my did you make this? I sewed the heart on the front of that one.

Speaker 1: 12:49

It was love, those hearts. They've been like vibing in my head, like the the Virgin Mary hearts and all that.

Speaker 2: 12:55

Yeah, I find it. I don't know. I've always been drawn to it. I found the imagery really beautiful. I decided to study things about, like the sacred heart and yeah all that and I just I want to keep it as part of my imagery because, yeah, something I realized was like. So everyone on the internet, especially in social media, puts their best foot forward, their best face forward.

Speaker 2: 13:15

Yeah and to some degree, people can can settle with liking that. People are like, wow, you're so this, you're so that. And I, when I noticed I was like, well, what I'm trying to embody with my music is Showing all sides of what it means to be human. That then that what it does is it forces me to think outside the box. When I notice I'm doing that thing with social media, I'm making it all curated and I'm like I really want people to see the nitty-gritty underside that.

Speaker 2: 13:41

I because vulnerability is really important to me at work.

Speaker 1: 13:44

So yeah, like it embodies, like the music that you make a lot of, your lyrics are very vulnerable, very Touching, you know. Thank you.

Speaker 2: 13:56

That was a fun one, that one. I cut the bottom part out from under the skirt so it would be sheer, and then I made that the puff sleeve harness, because I realized like I want to wear puff sleeves with everything. So if. I just make a harness. I can put them on anything.

Speaker 1: 14:09

I mean like I Could see you doing like a whole show, you know, just like getting a bunch of mannequins the way they do like a Christian Dior show up in.

Speaker 2: 14:19

New York.

Speaker 1: 14:19

I love like and you can just walk around your garments, yeah, and just really look at them closely and look at this dress.

Speaker 2: 14:27

Did you make that? I did. Yeah, that was the one of the funnest ones I made. I did that for a Rockledge Gardens the space swap show we did like moon and bloom.

Speaker 1: 14:35

How many outfits of these do you think you have? Oh, I've already counted.

Speaker 2: 14:39

I have about 30 that I've made. Yeah, and that does. That's just the ones I've made. Like that doesn't include things I've tailored in my wardrobe.

Speaker 1: 14:47

You need to like, showcase them. Would you ever like sell them or like what do you? What do you do with them? You're just gonna keep them like in an archive.

Speaker 2: 14:56

So that's a good point. I have a don't have a lot of space and, because I did notice, I was kind of running low on it. There's two methods I'm moving forward with with my creation of my pieces. One is that I make pieces that are now versatile. They need to be able to be like stuff I can.

Speaker 2: 15:13

Replicate like, like, so, like, the mint dress is actually two pieces, so then I can wear just the top or the. Okay, so then it doesn't cuz together. They can look kind of crazy if I wear that in public and not do a show, but if I just make, I see. The other option I want to really like to do is I want to collaborate with other designers. So then I'm not only just wearing my stuff, because my wardrobe will fill up really fast, but if I can collaborate with other designers, then I will. I'm happy to showcase their piece and I will give them a shout out.

Speaker 2: 15:43

Yeah something if they want me to wear their thing and then. So then I'm also collaborating, not just with the music community, but the fashion community, yeah, yeah. So that's kind of something I have in mind, do you? Think there's a fashion community here. I've heard that people want there to be one like they want to build one up. I've heard just a little rumors.

Speaker 1: 16:03

Yeah, yeah, that would be great, but I think you should pioneer that. I think you need to do a show. I think you need people to see and like, because there is there's a small, tiny Community where people like to sew yeah, they like to create. I think after I met you I took the leap forward. I was like I met you and that we were doing your music video, yeah, and I was like asking you about your clothes and you said it started with cosplay.

Speaker 2: 16:32

It did. When I was 11 years old, I made my first Cosplay outfit and then, because my grandma's taught me how to sew and okay okay, so you had some Skill passed down to you. Yeah, it was really crappy skill. At the beginning, when I was 11 and made my first costume, I was like I just I was happy to jump into something, even if I didn't really know what I was doing.

Speaker 2: 16:57

Yeah and I think what really helped solidify it for me was I went to something called FX Show. It was like a kind of like a when mega con was kind of early, there was another one trying to start up called FX show, okay, and I think I went to that and I dressed as Me, me tooko from love Hina, and Because they were so impressed that I was so young and it made my own outfit, they helped me move on to like the. They picked shows me to go on to the finals round. It was like a contest, yeah, and I met. I went to the Hard Rock Cafe in Orlando. My dad and my sister went out there to support me and I actually met like the guy place Freddy Krueger and Someone from Harry Potter I, we have it all in video.

Speaker 2: 17:40

Cool the girl from Firefly, the. The main lady, the I don't remember her name. Well, they also made a movie called Serenity. Afterwards, firefly was like a TV shows like in the early 2000s. But yeah, it was. I Didn't know who any of these actors were, so I was like one of the only people not freaking out.

Speaker 1: 18:04

Yeah, yeah, you were like hey man. Yeah, I just talked to them, I was probably refreshing for them.

Speaker 2: 18:09

Yeah, everyone else behind stage was like freaking out. They're like, oh my gosh, it's these people. I'm like I don't know these. Yeah, so that I think that gave me a boost to be like confident, to keep doing it.

Speaker 1: 18:19

Yeah, totally Did. You grow up here in Melbourne.

Speaker 2: 18:23

Um, not at first. From the age of 11 on I did, but okay, but before then I lived all up and down the the the coast like I lived in Pennsylvania and North Carolina and Virginia. So why did? How did you land here? My dad lives here. So when I came to live with my dad I was like cool, I always liked Florida, I'm happy to stay here, like okay, I want to move around school Did you go to Westside, at first for talking elementary and then I yeah, it's Southwest and Bayside.

Speaker 1: 18:56

Okay, cool. Yeah, did you like it? Um?

Speaker 2: 19:01

it's public school. I mean, I know I Was an unrecognizable then because I thought I was an introvert so I had no fashion sense, really. Yeah, like bangs that would cover up my face and like someone actually mistaken me for a boy Because I'd wear oversized t-shirts and cargo pants. Like yes, I had no fashion sense back then.

Speaker 1: 19:22

What happened?

Speaker 2: 19:23

like, how, how the transformation, um I think I think part of it was Because I admired my dad. My dad kind of raised me, so I'm mirrored his fashion sense and stuff. He had fashion sense. No, I'm thinking like that's why I dressed like a boy. And then when I became older I was like I'm missing my femininity and so I like dove into a Japanese street fashion that's called Lolita and has nothing to do with the book, okay, but it's sort of like a overly hyper feminine, cute, dolly fashion. It's very suitable for a lot of people of different ethnicities, like a lot of like Muslim women like it because you can like it involves you being fully be covered?

Speaker 1: 20:03

Oh really, just very frilly.

Speaker 2: 20:05

Yeah, but yeah, you can wear like a cute dress and like cute wigs, and so that like really helped me once. I like basically pushed myself into hyper Femininity. I've now cranked it back and I've chosen my own like preferred version, but yeah, but it's still feminine.

Speaker 1: 20:21

Can I ask what happened with your mom like?

Speaker 2: 20:25

So she basically my parents like where they got divorced once a kid. Yeah, I live my first half of my life with her. It was kind of rough. I lived on a farm in the middle of nowhere.

Speaker 1: 20:34

Wow yeah, like the real farm.

Speaker 2: 20:37

Yeah, like, like we were so close to the Amish country. We literally saw horse-rung carriage go down the street. Oh that's cool. So, yeah, we were like, like, like, think, like the movie signs like where it's like the middle of nowhere, like that.

Speaker 1: 20:52

Okay, so like very secluded. Yeah, did you guys talk to the Amish, or no? They were secluded to yeah, not really.

Speaker 2: 20:59

Like the one time they passed by I was like, hey, cuz I'm obsessed with horses. So when I saw, the horse was like but it was like normal schooling and everything. Yeah, I went to a regular. I went to several different schools. I was a kid so I don't even remember.

Speaker 1: 21:14

Okay, the names. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but landed.

Speaker 2: 21:17

Yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't a great situation as a kid. I kind of had like a. I had a pretty rough childhood until I came to live with my dad.

Speaker 1: 21:25

Okay.

Speaker 2: 21:26

I can say now, happily, that everything is much better with both my parents, that's good. Yeah, I could not foresee that.

Speaker 1: 21:32

Like, I'm very happy that yeah, my parents are divorced too and it does take a lot of soul searching to sort of forgive. You know the party that made things may be a little heavier than they needed to be. Yeah, right.

Speaker 2: 21:49

I think I recognized something beautiful. I recognized when I started meditating a lot during, like I think it started during coven, like 2020. Yeah, it just kind of clicked where I was like my so both my parents, the only things they have in common that kind of glued them together with. They both made art together and they both loved music. And that's me, yeah, and me loving myself was me reconciling the differences of my parents, something they could never do.

Speaker 2: 22:14

Yeah so that was something where I like it clicked, where I was like, oh, like, like it's a really courageous act for me to like Love myself, because that's something that literally like I've not had no modeling. Yeah so like, yeah, it was just this beautiful thing where I was like, wow, like it also made sense. Why so it's been so hard to like choose between the two? I'm like do I want to do the art, do I want to do the music? I'm like they both represent you?

Speaker 1: 22:36

Yeah, so your dad. They were both artists. To what medium?

Speaker 2: 22:41

So my dad did comics early on. Oh, he did. Yeah, my mom did watercolor illustration and she also wrote stories and she actually dived in, did the comics with him for a little while when they were married, yeah, but she kind of went off more so with like Stories and music. And then my dad always like he didn't get into music, but he always. He has a lot of music and like appreciation.

Speaker 1: 23:04

Yeah, okay, yeah. And then you say you have a sister, I have three sisters, three sisters, are they all here?

Speaker 2: 23:10

No, they, they're like all over, yeah, like they were all up in one state together and now they've kind of moved around and are you the?

Speaker 1: 23:20

youngest or the oldest, middle, middle, yeah, you have the middle child syndrome.

Speaker 2: 23:24

Definitely. That's why I I, that's why I have turned my attention seeking into good by making music and as one does.

Speaker 1: 23:33

That's so inspirational it's a struggle yeah for you to continue to do it. Props to you. Yeah, what about these masks here.

Speaker 2: 23:44

Oh, so the mask is that's made by a specific designer that I've been following on Instagram for a long time. I think I tagged her in it. She's got a very hard to pronounce name. I love the mask, yeah, and the great thing is they're called blind masks because actually they've got no holes. No, you can see through them. Oh, that's why I wanted it, because I was like I'm I'm gonna perform in this at some point. Yeah, and the they look great in photo shoots because they're doing most of the work, because they're so intricate. Yeah, yes, so, yeah, I, that was. I got that as a Christmas present and I've just been like dying to use it for a Gig, but I did get to use it at the fashion show thing with Derek. So I was. I got to test that when I walked on stage. I didn't fall, so I'm good. What do your siblings think of your art? They, they've all been under the impression that I would always be like successful one day and all they always.

Speaker 2: 24:42

They've been always very supportive like that's good they could see things in me before I could. They're like Kim, you're, you're model-esque and all this other so they, like it, supported you.

Speaker 2: 24:51

We used to all watch America's next hot model together, like for years, and so, yeah, and I didn't see it. I often was like, yeah, no, whatever, because I didn't get into modeling until you, I was 27. So it was like only a few years ago that I decided, yeah, I'm gonna do it. But so this is me trying to like honor what everyone else has seen in me as well.

Speaker 1: 25:11

Yeah, it sounds like you've made some leaps along the way, you know, from just like yeah, accepting yourself, wanting to shape yourself into the you know, whatever was missing in your life.

Speaker 2: 25:26

And now here you are it started with my sister? Actually, my oldest sister was big into photography, or she is. She still likes photography.

Speaker 1: 25:34

Okay, so she's got the artsy bug.

Speaker 2: 25:37

Yeah, she's also extremely good natural classical pianist. She doesn't do it professionally, she just does it for fun. And I remember we would go out and do photo shoots and like just around town and she would look at me and like I'd be making a pretty like whatever, just be chilling, and she'd be like that's a perfect face. And then I'd make an ugly face like eh, last minute She'd be like don't do that. She's like you don't see how pretty you are, like you don't see. And so ever since she said that, like I've really got to know a lot of other photographers and something I really love is that I've learned that like it's not just me, a photographer can't help but impose their vision of their subject on their subject. So it's great because then, like, what I can end up seeing is other people's perspectives of me that I can't see.

Speaker 2: 26:25

So it's this beautiful thing where, like I couldn't do it alone, cool, so is that one of your favorite fruit?

Speaker 1: 26:29

hogged furs in town that you work with.

Speaker 2: 26:32

Yes, I do, I've worked with, so I have a friend Steph, I believe hers is Cosmic Capture.

Speaker 1: 26:42

And that's who we worked with. Yeah, she's still working with her.

Speaker 2: 26:45

Yeah, she did the photos for Rockledge Gardens Wonderful and her work is just very like her vision is really. It's just really like she can take things to a level that I really enjoy, which is more like yeah, it's very soft. It's pretty, yeah, soft, pretty, very artistic. She's like let's do some odd things.

Speaker 1: 27:05

Yeah, it's also like surreal. Yeah, she did. She did a really good job.

Speaker 2: 27:11

My other favorite is Cooper Photo. His work is very dynamic and bold. So most of my stuff where I see myself in a more dynamic, bold kind of sexy way is like, yeah, that's his work and it's been great, like we even started playing around with the video. So that one of the videos I have on my page that I did around Halloween, where I've got the red dress on, where it's like kind of slow mo, where it's had like my hands on my back, that was just like a video test we did and I love how that came out. So, yeah, those are yeah.

Speaker 1: 27:43

So cool, all right. So 2024, you're going to stick to your music, but you were saying you're still going to incorporate the fashion. Yeah, do you see something like putting on a show where, like, all your garments are on display?

Speaker 2: 28:01

I'll say that it's definitely something I've thought about and no promises, but it might be something that happens, I would go to that, the details, yeah, or something that I'd be looking into to really make it happen. But I do feel like I've got a lot of people I've talked to that are very interested in wanting to do that as well, and so like it's one of those things where it's, we'll see.

Speaker 1: 28:25

Yeah, we'll see, I'll leave it. Yeah, how's your relationship with Space Swap going to move forward now that they are closing up shop? I know they're not totally going away, but yeah.

Speaker 2: 28:38

So yeah, it was interesting. When I first heard about it I was like sad yeah.

Speaker 1: 28:43

And she always puts like a positive spin on things and she's not going anywhere.

Speaker 2: 28:47

Exactly.

Speaker 1: 28:48

Yeah, we need to have her on the show too.

Speaker 2: 28:49

She's like a force. I was like maybe I can do it differently, for sure. Yeah, I was sad at first, and then I noticed something really interesting. Actually, I noticed that I was excited Really and I thought that that was strange. But then I thought what it was was. As things were falling into place, I thought, well, the something I get sad about with the way that the shop is now is that there's so many events I can't go to all of them, and so before, when there was less events, I could go to all of them. So I personally don't mind if Spacewalk goes back to being sort of like a, however they choose to structure it. If it's more of like a pop-up, yeah, because event planning is what they're their best at anyway, and so I'm excited to see new places. They'll go, maybe they'll like, maybe it can even expand outside of just this area.

Speaker 1: 29:36

That's interesting, right, yeah, for them to just be able to, because, you're right, I never really thought about it that way, but yeah, they had a knack for just creating these really original events.

Speaker 2: 29:48

Yeah, and they would get like a lot of buzz because they had a lot of time like between each one. It was like three or four months at least between each event.

Speaker 1: 29:55

So then oh, really yeah, oh, it was quite a while. I thought it was like very back to back. It seems like they were always up to something they are now.

Speaker 2: 30:03

Yeah, for the last, like since they had the shop. It's like very back to back, which is awesome. It's like why not? If we have this like? That's how I look at him, like I used to own a shop and I get what it's like. It's like where. It's like how many things can we do? How can we do with?

Speaker 1: 30:15

the space, like how yeah?

Speaker 2: 30:19

So but yeah, it's like you had a shop I did. Yeah, Well, when I own a dress business for four years when I was in the Lolita fashion thing, I was talking about the Japanese street fashion.

Speaker 1: 30:29

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 30:30

I owned a dress shop where I had my own original designs here in Melbourne. No, I did it in Tampa and Oldsmore, oh yeah, and we had, I had clothing in from Japan on consignment, yeah.

Speaker 1: 30:42

And so.

Speaker 2: 30:42

How did you do that? How did you find my business partner? She was really good at like.

Speaker 1: 30:48

Sourcing it. Oh my god how fun.

Speaker 2: 30:51

It was great we had girls coming down from like other states just to see it, because you couldn't get that kind of fashion unless you went to New York or California or Texas. Yeah, so we were the only thing on this coast that had it.

Speaker 1: 31:03

Yes.

Speaker 2: 31:04

And I had my shop for like. It was only like six months. It was a very short amount of time as well.

Speaker 1: 31:07

Oh, really.

Speaker 2: 31:08

It just there wasn't enough. I mean, it was like breaking even, yeah. So they were like we can't. Why does it got to be that way?

Speaker 1: 31:14

I know I feel like there would be so many cooler things around if they were able to sustain. I don't know. Yeah, yeah, it's conundrum. Yeah, speaking of words, how do you come up with your lyrics? Oh, okay, so you said the art of playing with words is something that you wouldn't mind chatting about.

Speaker 2: 31:37

Yeah, yeah, so the way that I make my lyrics is a little different. I think I've noticed that I'm not just a musician it's and I'm not just a comicer I'm the thing that ties the two together. Yeah, is I'm a storyteller? Yes, so I really can't write a song unless I'm telling some kind of story, and so what I do is I usually tell a mini story with each song, and then the EP, which is usually four songs, I drop for the whole year. That's an overarching narrative, so they'll all tie together. Oh, really.

Speaker 1: 32:10

Yeah, that's really interesting. I've never I didn't know you were doing that yeah. It's like methodical, and then it's also like gives you a stopping point. In each song you already have something to build on. So what theme was this past one?

Speaker 2: 32:27

So this year I called the EP Slow Wave. Slow Wave and that's named after like. So that's the brain state, that like when you get into it's really deep and it's like good for you, Like a lot of kids are in that like if you go and like you know.

Speaker 1: 32:41

Right, and you're in that for the first 10 minutes of waking.

Speaker 2: 32:44

No, it's like the one where you're like, you know, like when you see a kid and you're like, oh, she's out, like you could make, like you could be vacuuming, and they won't wake up. Yeah, that's slow wave, oh yeah, when we get older we don't get as much of it. So I know it's like something that I like miss, where I'm like, oh, like it's, it's a thing that we need to value when we have it.

Speaker 1: 33:01

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 33:02

And also I'm a lucid dreamer. So I'm just like me and like dreaming is like I spend like half my life sleeping. I like sleep for 12 hours. So I'm like Are you always lucid dreaming? Yeah, always Like. I remember all of my dreams. I write long, like huge paragraphs.

Speaker 1: 33:18

When did that?

Speaker 2: 33:18

start. I remember my first time I had it it was like four or five I fell into a giant toilet in my dream.

Speaker 1: 33:24

It was terrifying and then you knew you were dreaming. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 33:29

Well, yeah, I kind of, when I was a kid I did, you know, once I woke up and was like, yeah, giant toilet clearly wasn't real. But yeah, it was one of those things where, like I've gotten to the point, I've gotten so good at it, I can kind of start to figure out what's like how to set off the lucid dreaming.

Speaker 1: 33:46

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 33:47

And then when I do it's really funny. My brain doesn't. It's like the movie inception. It doesn't want me to know. So it'll start like messing stuff up. Have you tried to look at a clock? Yeah, I actually can read books and stuff in dreams and I can remember strings of numbers. Most people can't. Oh my gosh, yeah, so things don't always shift. They only shift sometimes. So do you?

Speaker 1: 34:08

ever find like messages or like what do you? What do you conclude with this ability? Because I read the like Robert Monroe books and stuff and it was fascinating when he described the astral projection Like he was able to like pinch his friend. Yeah, have you read that book?

Speaker 2: 34:30

No, but I've. Astral project is. Tell me about that. So, interestingly, it has a tie in with somber mercy. Well, the name summer mercy came to me in a dream, so Okay, so astral. I didn't couldn't astral project really, until like after I had one of my last big health scares and I'd been hospitalized and it was pretty bad. I was in and out. A lot Was that recently. That was back in 2019. Ok, so nothing kicks you in the butt to say do your music than on your death experience.

Speaker 1: 35:02

Yeah, I mean, I think that's what COVID did to a lot of people. Yeah, it was like you never know when a pandemic's coming. You better get off your ass and wake up, you know.

Speaker 2: 35:12

Exactly yeah, I wrote Palongianesis about that because, specifically, I'm like I need something empowering for people to realize you can go through something tough and come out of it yeah, yes.

Speaker 2: 35:20

So OK. So the first time I had the experience I was just like a regular night of sleeping, but I had this vision where I was laying on the bottom of a hill, like a grassy hill in a field, and there was like three like black cloaked people around me and whatever they were doing, I couldn't move Like I've like kind of like when you get sleep paralysis- yeah.

Speaker 2: 35:42

And I just remember looking over the hill and seeing like what looked like a blue, like electrified outline of a person like kind of like, slowly strolling towards me and I just had this absolute fear of feeling of terror come over me, like, and all I could think was like I'm not ready to like leave this life yet, like it kind of felt like that was my next, like me or whatever, or like were you in the hospital when this dream happened?

Speaker 2: 36:08

No, this was like kind of like a weird forewarning that I was going to have a situation where I'd be have no control. Yeah, oh wow. Yeah, and the song that was playing for and I don't usually hear music in my dreams was I Can't See you in the Dark by Ray Brown, and so I just I just ran with that. I actually did. That was my year of shadow work that.

Speaker 2: 36:30

I noticed, so, like a lot of people, when they look at my profile, the darker imagery I have is my. It comes from me studying Carl Jung and shadow work. It is not like some people think. Like I've had to clarify, like I'm not an occultist. I don't have, I don't worship demons. Ok, I just like. I just want to play with the ideas of. Like. Everyone has light and dark elements. We all have the angel and the devil on our shoulders.

Speaker 1: 36:56

Right, but yeah, it has been a little bit somber. Yeah, do you think you'll? You'll do music that's light someday?

Speaker 2: 37:06

in contrast, yes, like the way that you went from your dad's fashion to this feminine and yeah, I think, I think, because it's really important to me to like embody the idea of like the world isn't black and white, like we're kind of all of these things. Yeah, I would say my first EP, heartbreak, breakthrough, was kind of a mix of those things. Urania was like the lightest song I did, yeah, and I'm so happy that everyone loved it, because I wrote it from a place of joy and a lot of people do write music from a place of pain. Yeah, and I get it.

Speaker 1: 37:37

That's easy.

Speaker 2: 37:38

But I was like what would happen if I wrote something from a place of joy and I just love that it popped off as a result and it resonated with people, yeah, so so slow wave. This year's EP was all rock music. It's more the heavy emotions. And then next year actually, yes, it's all going to be I don't have a name for it yet, but it's all going to be like ambient. It's exploratory of more light themes. It's going to be very soft stuff, because I think so many like vocally intense songs.

Speaker 2: 38:05

I realized I'm like I need to mix them for a soft way.

Speaker 1: 38:08

Yeah, slow wave was very intense.

Speaker 2: 38:10

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was very intense.

Speaker 1: 38:13

And you had you paired up with someone. Yes, my.

Speaker 2: 38:18

Yes, yeah, josh Haas Haas Haas, he goes by.

Speaker 1: 38:23

Wild Zest, yeah.

Speaker 2: 38:24

So not only am I doing aonic media with him, but he also does music, so we're under the name Wild Zest and, yeah, he we wrote that song earlier this year and he's just very vocally talented and a good complimentary Like I love duetting with people. So, yeah, it was fun to explore that, because I don't have a lot of duets and I want to do that more. Yeah, I liked that balance.

Speaker 1: 38:50

It was like a familiar, but like cool. Oh, thank you, are you?

Speaker 2: 38:54

still working at Monkey Bar? I am, yeah, currently. Yeah, I do bingo there just one night a week. What night, what? Night can we find you there. It'll be. I do it every Wednesday 8 to 10 pm.

Speaker 1: 39:06

Goodness Get lucky, yeah, and so I used to saying it. I'm like I can put on the bingo voice the bingo voice. I thought you were doing like karaoke there, though I turn it into karaoke, oh you do.

Speaker 2: 39:20

Because I'm like OK for 30 seconds, we can all sing along, like it makes me unique as a host, that's fun. I can't help myself. I'm like I would do better probably doing karaoke hosting. But if I can do musical bingo, I'm like I'm happy yeah, I'm happy to do that.

Speaker 1: 39:34

So it works yeah. That does sound like fun, cool. So you were telling me how you write your lyrics. Are you able to like write it on the fly? No, no.

Speaker 2: 39:49

OK, ok, yeah, that's a great question.

Speaker 1: 39:52

That's going to play a game for you, with you, if I gave you a word. Like oh, and if you had like a beat or something, I don't know, like what do you mean by, you know, playing with the art of playing with words?

Speaker 2: 40:05

OK, so there's two ways. There's double entendres, and that's something I really enjoy, but there's also hermeneutics. Oh tell me about that. So double entendres is like. I like to add layers in my music. So an example would be in the song the Sound, the name the Sound is the name of a beach in North Carolina, but also it's the Sound as in music.

Speaker 1: 40:27

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 40:28

See how like people get lit up when they go. Oh, it means two things.

Speaker 1: 40:30

Yeah, it gives you like a dopamine head or something.

Speaker 2: 40:34

Yeah, yeah. So with the Sound, I did it a lot. I had a lot of ocean entendres so I said I curl up safe and sound in my shell and when everything's around, or I see it swell, and I said I do have like Often, like we can feel like everything is good around us. Yeah, other people would say things are swell, but I see it swell, meaning things are swelling up inside. Yeah, yeah, the same way, like the ocean swells right before crashes.

Speaker 1: 41:00

Oh my gosh, how long, how long did it take you to write that, just those two lines?

Speaker 2: 41:05

I wrote that one actually on the beach. That one actually flowed out pretty well. Yeah, they don't always flow out. Usually what happens is my writing process is all just Brain dump my emotions first, and usually it's kind of like the most basic language you could think of, and then I start Taking those concepts and then I start turning them into Untunders where I like I find ways to play with the words. Yeah, create more poetic ways of saying the same thing. Cool, did you start out with poetry? No, I actually Was never really considered myself like a poet but for some reason, like I think what it is is. I would say it's like lyrics are my specialty and they are, but I think I noticed I kind of like I've always liked like rap battles and like, and my sister and I used to kind of joke about like that, and then I developed that out more in 2020. There wasn't much to do. So, yeah, there was some. Do you think you?

Speaker 1: 42:03

could rap battle.

Speaker 2: 42:05

You mean you developed your rap battle skills so, so for me to process my emotions, I noticed I would just write, I would write out bars, and then I Just didn't really do anything with it. But then I will say so there's music I post, I release in public, and then there's music that I just make for me to get my emotions out, and I did actually like I wrote two songs that I actually rapped.

Speaker 2: 42:30

You did, I did, and the reason why is because I knew I was like. I'll never release a song where I rap because I'm not.

Speaker 1: 42:38

I want to hear it oh.

Speaker 2: 42:44

No, okay, I can pull some of my my lines that I did for one of my songs. Okay, getting angry feels silly, cuz it gives me the willies. But don't mistake in that, from my heart being chilly cuz it's warm in here, are you smelling the fear? It's a black dog barking at a squirrel. That's near. I had to pull it from memory. I couldn't do it on the fly. That. That was for a. Yeah, I wrote a song. Some people think like they'll say like when they first see me they'll be like yeah, you look like a bad bitch.

Speaker 1: 43:20

Like this what they'll I don't know if I really, if you need to know, okay.

Speaker 2: 43:24

So they'll be like yeah, I see you look like a bad bitch. And then they're like and then I talked to you like the sweetest, yeah. And so I wrote a whole song where I'm like am I, am I not a bad enough bitch, like I Know? But I made like a bunch of dog puns like where I say double in time.

Speaker 1: 43:36

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I made a lot of dog so that's been recorded, just not released.

Speaker 2: 43:40

Yeah, like it's been professionally recorded, because my friend is like really good at professionally recording, so it's really funny that I just sit on this song where I'm like, yeah, it's in the.

Speaker 1: 43:52

In the cattle.

Speaker 2: 43:52

You must release that maybe I'll do an April Fool's show and that's the only time Do it you gotta let us know, though it's. It's kind of hilarious. It's got like lonely island. Vibes were like cuz, I'm not like I said, I'm not, I know, but a rapper.

Speaker 1: 44:08

I love that, though I need to hear it.

Speaker 2: 44:10

Yeah, it's actually that's what frustrates me. I'm like it's some of my best work. I'm like, is it or is it just really profound to me? So I think it's my bad. You know my gosh.

Speaker 1: 44:18

You have to hear it, we have to hear it, I have to release it. It's great talking to you. We hope to have you back.

Speaker 2: 44:26

Yeah, I'd love to before you leave.

Speaker 1: 44:27

We always want to ask is there any? But you can think of that you think is a local celebrity that you would want to nominate to have on the show.

Speaker 2: 44:38

That's a good question. Okay, let me think about that.

Speaker 1: 44:43

And also, while you're thinking, you get a local celebrity t-shirt. Oh, we have tank tops and we have teas, but oh, I love that. Yes, thank you. Thank you for being on the show. It was awesome having you. Please come back whenever you need to. Yeah, I would love to say something. I mean, I would like to hear more about your new business venture. Anytime you have something going on, let us know, oh.

Speaker 2: 45:11

Yes, new song dropping, can you hear? The one that I'm collaborating with is gonna be on January 12th.

Speaker 1: 45:17

January 12th.

Speaker 2: 45:18

All right, okay, we'll come out and we'll listen for that you have pre-saved link is up and so, yeah, okay, local celebrity, I have one. Okay, tell me, tell me. So she's pretty young, but every time I hear her, I just I should. It does something to me. I just feel that she's got it. Oh, this would be Nila Lois.

Speaker 1: 45:36

Oh, oh, definitely Nila Lois you've been nominating. I love her she's great Her mother's great too.

Speaker 2: 45:46

Yeah, they've been collaborating. I love their collabs. Yeah, I know Trace is great at everything.

Speaker 1: 45:51

I just I bought some mugs from her this holiday season and I need two more, tracy, because I gave him out as gifts and I was gonna keep one, but I was like I needed one and I know you have two more. I'm gonna buy them from you, all right, cool. Well, thank you, kim, it was so nice talking to you. Thank you, see you again in the new year. Yes, see you then. Awesome, thank you. To be a sponsor or nominate a guest, hit us up on Instagram at local underscore. Celebrity underscore bravard. Until next time, goodbye.