Casey Mq

Babycasey is the debut album from composer, producer, artist Casey MQ. Across 13 songs, the record is an examination of identity formation through the prism of pop. Punctuated by original songs Casey recorded as a child, the album examines pop archetypes while reveling in the pure catharsis of the medium. Babycasey is a radiant, deft statement from a crucial new talent - a gorgeous reckoning, and an honest reconciliation of ambition, queerness and artistry.

“Watching old tapes of myself, I realize much of my childhood world was a multi-faceted obsession with boybands. Before even knowing about sexuality, I was seduced by their guise of desirability: a 5 men crew with subtle homoerotic tendencies singing about wanting ‘the girl’ and basking in the surrounding fandom. These images pervaded my childhood and plagued me with confused desire. I was enriched and enchanted by that world - I wanted every piece of it, I wanted to be a part of it. When I watch videos of my childhood, I can sense the purity of a child living his dream in real time. babycasey is playing alone: filming the band, introducing the band, performing as the band; he is every member, and the host, and the crowd. I can see babycasey engrossed by these figures. I wanted them and I wanted to be them, but hetero-normative expecations designate these as mutually exclusive possibilities. And so I attempted to give up my desire and become the desirable. I became a singer as a child because I loved it, and yet still, praise from the outside world came coated with normative, traditional values: ‘Sing like this and you will get all the girls.’ Success meant extinguishing a woman’s agency. It meant that desirability could only be validated through a hetero-normative gaze. Performance became my vehicle for success and my path towards an aspirationalist dream: be a star and be valued for beauty, sex and power. ‘Make some noise’ - be a force so powerful as to command young minds. It’s a deceit, and yet a child can be entranced. The melodies, the dancing, the images - pain and pleasure permeating within babycasey’s imagination."

- Casey MQ

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