Out Artists on the Rise
Team Gina’s expressive brand of rap combines their shared experience as children of the ’80s, and their love of all things pop.
The Seattle-based duo of Gina Genius, 27, and Gina Bling, 26, audaciously sample Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back,” simultaneously referencing My Little Pony, and themes from the queer rights movement.
“We’re synthesizing all the elements of pop culture that we grew up with and mashing them up to create something new,” Genius. “We’re also trying to bring a perspective that’s kind of utopian—we want to represent the perfect queer paradise that doesn’t exist yet, that maybe exists at our shows.” Components? “Well, there’d be really great outfits,” muses Genius, giggling. “And really great dance moves.”
While Gina Bling is a Seattle-born former “musical theatre junkie,” Genius, who hails from D.C. via Brooklyn, is a former folk singer. The beat-heavy duo, who met in 2006 at a Scream Club show, sport matching attire (think booty shorts, wristbands) when they break it down every first Friday at Seattle’s Wild Rose bar. Their debut CD, gina gina revolution, was released this year by Crunks Not Dead and Don’t Stop Believin’ Records.
The two giggly femmes, who just finished touring with MondoHomo Dirty South, share one other love: butch girls. Hence these memorable lyrics from their Sir Mix-sampled track “Butch/Femme”: “I like butch girls and I cannot lie/You other femmes can’t deny/When a butch walks in all the femmes wanna fuss/’Cause it’s like one of them and thirty of us.”
For more on Team Gina, visit myspace.com/teamgina. –Melody Wells
Hip-hoppers to country crooners, this year’s up-and-comers are here, queer and ready to entertain
Colleen Max Fisher
Jamaican-born songstress Colleen Max Fisher blends synthesizers and throbbing club beats with soulful, Sade-esque vocals, creating a sound that she calls “progressive soul electronica.” Her style is best demonstrated in two highly polished, trance-y slow jams found easily on her website: “Lonely Hearts” and “All Eyes on Me.”
At the late age of 18, Fisher discovered music. After her cousin, a recording industry veteran, had her drop vocals on one of his tracks, he encouraged her to pursue her talent.
“We create music that is from our hearts and souls,” says Fisher, 32, who works with producer Christian Montalbaum. “Whatever we sing about is an experience we’ve been through.” Tackling divorce and discrimination, Fisher says, “We try to show people that you can turn that [negative] experience into something that’s not so dark.” Being out in the music world is not something Fisher thinks about. “It’s really all about love, and if we’re coming from a place of love, then who you love shouldn’t matter.”
Fisher’s unafraid to use offensive words to get her positive points across. The song “R U Happy Now,” is a meditation on holding one’s tongue, that uses a spoken-word loop of ethnic and gender/sexuality slurs repetitively. The negatives turn into a positive, says Fisher.
“Sometimes when you listen to something, it changes your whole mood. It changes the whole way you perceive life to be,” she says. “I try to write from that standpoint.”
Listen to Fisher at colleenmaxfisher.com. –MW
