January 21, 2024 • 46 mins
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.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
This podcast is brought to you by Place Pros
Commercial and Investment RealEstate and NikoTour Boutique,
your one stop shop foreverything cool.
Are we on Cool Kim Sombra?
Mercy, good to see you.
Happy holidays, happy holidays.
How were your holidays?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
They were good, they were chill, yeah, just very low
key this year, which I kindaneeded.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Yes, what have you been up to?
I feel like I haven't caught upwith you in about a year.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah, when we did the well.
We definitely saw each other atthe bikini seven class, but we
also there was a fashion walkover at Derrick Wars not too
long ago.
Right, right, oh I saw yourclothing for sure, and I might
have said hi, but it was like soquick.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I know those events are so fun and quick and, yeah,
they happen in the Blee Go and Iand I haven't seen you in
months.
What have you been up to?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
So I've been really dialing everything kind of in
with my music, cause I also dolike 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'vebeen doing that for about four
years or so.
So I drop one new graphic novelevery year.
I actually sell them over atFamous Faces, really.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Yeah, oh my.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
God, I had no idea.
Yeah, cool, yeah.
So it's great, but it takes alot of my free time.
Absolutely.
It's like an ongoing saga whereI've got another like at least
five or six volumes.
Wow, do you have like afollowing there?
Yeah, I have a pretty bigfollowing in web tunes over
100,000 views and, like I think,about like 500 or so a little
more than 500 people who followthat one.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
So yeah, cool.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Okay, what else?
So, yeah, I've been working onbuilding my website for Sombra
Mercy because I kind of realizeddividing my time between the
art and the music was just notgonna work so well.
So this year I've made thetough 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 likesave the comic for like next
(02:06):
year and I'm gonna spend thiswhole year doing something I've
never tried before, which isscary, which is like I'm just
gonna focus in on like the music, and I've also.
Actually, I'm in business witha friend of mine.
It's called Aionic Media andwe're trying to do like a think
like Ground Swall, but forcreatives specifically.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Really.
Yeah, We've worked with GroundSwall so that's interesting.
So tell me more about that.
So it would just be a hub.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah, right now what we're doing is we're building
websites, we're doing SEO likemedia marketing.
If people want to like, if amusician wants to be recorded,
we can do mixing and masteringfor them as well.
You'll have a studio in there,yeah like we're gonna.
Well, we're gonna have our ownseparate studio, but he is
currently my business partner.
Well, I have two, mark and Josh.
(02:53):
Josh actually does work withGround Swall right now, so he's
been helping clients.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Are they supporting?
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
He's on as a coach, oh, really, like he does the
free business coaching that theyprovide.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Oh my gosh, that's amazing.
Do you guys have like a brick?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
and mortar.
We're working our way up to it.
So, as we're getting clientscause we just launched this like
a month ago then, like we'regonna have, the dream is that
the physical space will be it'llhave different, like at least
three different rooms.
One where we do consultationfor like like I'm gonna help
people with like brand discovery.
(03:31):
I wanna help like artists likefigure out there, like why, like
why they're doing what they'redoing, and like develop, like
just basically build theirbranding out for like music and
other creative ventures.
And then I also want, like, aspace where, like, they can film
social media, so just somethingthat's got a nice backdrop.
They'll already have like atripod setup.
They'll have access to a bunchof social media tools, cause,
(03:53):
like, I really wanna push theidea of, like I want artists to
be able to be artists and tounderstand that content creation
is a separate job and, whilethey 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 nota good artist if I'm doing, if
I'm not doing, content creationwell, and it's like no, it's a
separate job.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Like it's okay if you're not getting it, and then
you need the ring, light and thetripod 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 awarehouse, a place where they
could just come in and it's allset for them.
Is it just for musicians, orare you thinking all sort of art
(04:32):
?
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, anyone's creative.
They got creative venturesonline.
It doesn't just need to becreative, Like right now a lot
of the clients are working withare like just people who need
website, like regular peoplethat need websites, built Apps
designed anything to help pushtheir Are you guys gonna?
Do the social media, we'lleither.
We have tools to help with it.
So, whether that's things likeFacebook, like ad marketing
(04:55):
campaigns or SEO buildups oranything like that, so yeah, we
could we're working on maybelike a package where we could
like offer a membership where wedo some level of it for people.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yeah, or teach them the skill, yeah, I'm working on
the courses where I'll teachpeople.
Really cool.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Wow, okay, you said there were three rooms.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
What's the?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
third one, the so yeah, one is consulting.
The other one's for socialmedia and then the third one's
gonna be for for actually themixing and mastering.
So, like people have like a,it's like a studio where people
can come in, they can record andget everything mixed and
mastered.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Wow, and how did you meet those two?
Speaker 2 (05:35):
So, josh, I met last year at an open mic night here
actually in downtown O'Galley.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Really yeah.
What did he do on the open mic?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
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 DJat the time and he's like, oh, I
DJ and I have a studio that'sright here in town.
You wanna go check it out?
And I was like yeah, it's theuniverse.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Isn't that funny?
How yeah that happens.
I feel like that's kind of whathappened with Jesse too.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yeah, that's awesome.
I love that when the universejust like puts you in the right
place at the right time or.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
People gravitate to what they need.
Yeah, and then.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
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, theproduction side, and he also
does the websites.
Oh, great.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
So yeah, oh, wow.
Well, good luck on that, butyou focus 2023 on the music.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, so I've decided to upgrade my gear.
I'm gonna have more musicvideos coming out.
I'm working on at least two ofthem right now.
The one and a half for HelenGenesis, which was a song I
dropped last year, is it's solike.
The footage is amazing.
We worked six months with afriend I have out in Orlando.
Her name is Alexa.
She's got a YouTube channelcalled Alexa the Great and she
(06:55):
just started her YouTube stuff,basically, and she was like hey,
I'd love to like work with youon music video.
And so I have all the footagefrom her.
It's just a matter of likeediting it together, Putting it
together yeah, and I'm somotivated 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 itdone.
And then I even played aroundwith a new camera.
I just bought to try to seewhat I could do, Like a simple
(07:18):
video.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Because I do want to start growing my YouTube channel
where I'm gonna like talk about.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
You have a YouTube channel.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
I have three right now.
You have three, all right, tellus what they are, okay.
One is Sombra Mercy, okay.
The other one is called theplanet streamer and that's the
one that encapsulates all of mylike I do how to's in art and
comic, like tutorials for like Italk about ET girl, my comic in
there, but I'm basicallyhelping like artists and
storytellers like make their owncomics and stuff, okay.
(07:45):
And then my third one's like afashion.
It's like mainly Japanesestreet fashion and like my like
you know, clothing hauls andcute.
What is that?
Speaker 1 (07:54):
one called.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
That one's called Kimba Darling, I think, or no, I
think it's just Kim darling.
Kimba Darling is my Instagramfor you darling, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Yeah, Cause I love when you make clothing.
It's.
I mean, it's kind of amazing.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Oh, thank you.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Yeah, so how much are you dedicating?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
to that.
Um, so right now I was dividingmy time between all three of
these.
Yeah, right now I've kind ofhoned in on.
I'm gonna just be focusing onmy music channel, okay, but I
have lots of content alreadydropped on both of those
channels.
So if people want to check outthe fashion side of things or
things like that, basically,once I get things up and running
(08:32):
with my music one, I havecontent planned for the other
channels.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Yeah, matter of like.
Yeah, do it.
Are you editing on your own?
Speaker 2 (08:41):
I do, and actually it's a whole new venture right
now because I just got a newcomputer and I've been using
Windows Movie Maker I know youare which is not like the best
thing, but I got so attached toit, yeah, and now I've.
Actually I was like scared tomake the leap, but I learned to
venture resolve recently.
Oh good, that's what Jesserecommends, yeah it's, it's good
(09:03):
, it's um, I'm so happy tolearning curve.
It's, it's there, but it's notas tough as I thought it would
be.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah, no, I've even heard it in.
Like the TV industry.
Really which is kind of crazybecause between like avid and
final cut, there was never athird one mentioned.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
So I'm yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
I'm here to try it.
What do you use At work?
I use avid.
Okay, at home I might do like asubscription of like final cut,
but it just depends.
I really want to try DaVinci.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Yeah, it's good it's.
The tools are really likeintuitive.
You can just go really deepwith the layer of tools.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Yeah, yeah, okay, so just music.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
I Say just music, and then I'm like well, right, well
there's more.
Yeah, I'm like, oh, I've been.
I Think that I've learnedrecently that mixing Music with
fashion is really where I wantto go.
Yeah, it was.
It was brought up to me a fewtimes after I worked with
(10:07):
spacewap, when I realized,actually, that that those things
were tied.
Ali, who runs spacewap, hadmentioned it a few times and I
was like, you know, I reallythink if I put two and two
together, I don't need to runthem as separate endeavors,
right?
So I want to build that outmore this year.
There's going to be someawesome things in the works.
I don't want to spoil it, butthat where I'm going to be
(10:28):
combining fashion a little bitmore 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, mystories so early on.
That was 2019, so that was,yeah, you look younger.
Most of that was just stuffwhere I was putting together
(11:05):
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 dressesspecifically for music that red
dress that I'm wearing and thethat top one.
Yeah that's the first one thatI made for um.
No, for for somber mercy.
Did you make the skirt?
That one I made the outfitunderneath.
(11:29):
Yeah, if you scroll down I canshow you.
There's like.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
I usually take stills yeah of each one.
So like that one one, yeah, youmade that one right, you did
like a whole tutorial or I did afollow along which I enjoyed.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
I did it.
You know it's funny.
The reason why I did it wasbecause I realized I get a lot
of people who tell me wow, youdo a lot of things and you
always seem to be hustling andyou're so like.
Yeah amazing and like they'llthink that I'm like perfect
almost and I don't like when I'm, like I don't think people
understand like that.
(12:05):
I don't actually know what I'mdoing 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 gonnanotice 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 itlike it's just nice and that's,
that's the nice thing aboutcontent 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 frontof that one.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
It was love, those hearts.
They've been like vibing in myhead, 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 reallybeautiful.
I decided to study things about, like the sacred heart and yeah
all that and I just I want tokeep it as part of my imagery
because, yeah, something Irealized was like.
So everyone on the internet,especially in social media, puts
their best foot forward, theirbest face forward.
(13:15):
Yeah and to some degree, peoplecan can settle with liking that.
People are like, wow, you're sothis, you're so that.
And I, when I noticed I waslike, well, what I'm trying to
embody with my music is Showingall sides of what it means to be
human.
That then that what it does isit forces me to think outside
the box.
When I notice I'm doing thatthing with social media, I'm
(13:36):
making it all curated and I'mlike I really want people to see
the nitty-gritty underside that.
I because vulnerability isreally important to me at work.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
So yeah, like it embodies, like the music that
you make a lot of, your lyricsare 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 fromunder the skirt so it would be
sheer, and then I made that thepuff sleeve harness, because I
realized like I want to wearpuff 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 abunch of mannequins the way they
do like a Christian Dior showup 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 reallylook at them closely and look at
this dress.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Did you make that?
I did.
Yeah, that was the one of thefunnest ones I made.
I did that for a RockledgeGardens 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 includethings I've tailored in my
wardrobe.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
You need to like, showcase them.
Would you ever like sell themor like what do you?
What do you do with them?
You're just gonna keep themlike in an archive.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
So that's a good point.
I have a don't have a lot ofspace and, because I did notice,
I was kind of running low on it.
There's two methods I'm movingforward with with my creation of
my pieces.
One is that I make pieces thatare now versatile.
They need to be able to be likestuff I can.
Replicate like, like, so, like,the mint dress is actually two
(15:17):
pieces, so then I can wear justthe top or the.
Okay, so then it doesn't cuztogether.
They can look kind of crazy ifI wear that in public and not do
a show, but if I just make, Isee.
The other option I want toreally like to do is I want to
collaborate with other designers.
So then I'm not only justwearing my stuff, because my
wardrobe will fill up reallyfast, but if I can collaborate
(15:39):
with other designers, then Iwill.
I'm happy to showcase theirpiece and I will give them a
shout out.
Yeah something if they want meto wear their thing and then.
So then I'm also collaborating,not just with the music
community, but the fashioncommunity, yeah, yeah.
So that's kind of something Ihave in mind, do you?
Think there's a fashioncommunity here.
I've heard that people wantthere 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 seeand like, because there is
there's a small, tiny Communitywhere people like to sew yeah,
they like to create.
I think after I met you I tookthe leap forward.
I was like I met you and thatwe were doing your music video,
(16:26):
yeah, and I was like asking youabout your clothes and you said
it started with cosplay.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
It did.
When I was 11 years old, I mademy first Cosplay outfit and
then, because my grandma'staught me how to sew and okay
okay, so you had some Skillpassed down to you.
Yeah, it was really crappyskill.
At the beginning, when I was 11and made my first costume, I
was like I just I was happy tojump into something, even if I
(16:56):
didn't really know what I wasdoing.
Yeah and I think what reallyhelped solidify it for me was I
went to something called FX Show.
It was like a kind of like awhen mega con was kind of early,
there was another one trying tostart up called FX show, okay,
and I think I went to that and Idressed as Me, me tooko from
(17:17):
love Hina, and Because they wereso 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 onto the finals round.
It was like a contest, yeah,and I met.
I went to the Hard Rock Cafe inOrlando.
My dad and my sister went outthere to support me and I
actually met like the guy placeFreddy Krueger and Someone from
(17:38):
Harry Potter I, we have it allin video.
Cool the girl from Firefly, the.
The main lady, the I don'tremember her name.
Well, they also made a moviecalled Serenity.
Afterwards, firefly was like aTV shows like in the early 2000s
.
But yeah, it was.
(17:59):
I Didn't know who any of theseactors were, so I was like one
of the only people not freakingout.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Yeah, yeah, you were like hey man.
Yeah, I just talked to them, Iwas probably refreshing for them
.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Yeah, everyone else behind stage was like freaking
out.
They're like, oh my gosh, it'sthese people.
I'm like I don't know these.
Yeah, so that I think that gaveme 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 thethe coast like I lived in
Pennsylvania and North Carolinaand Virginia.
So why did?
How did you land here?
My dad lives here.
So when I came to live with mydad I was like cool, I always
(18:45):
liked Florida, I'm happy to stayhere, like okay, I want to move
around school Did you go toWestside, at first for talking
elementary and then I yeah, it'sSouthwest 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 anunrecognizable then because I
thought I was an introvert so Ihad no fashion sense, really.
Yeah, like bangs that wouldcover up my face and like
someone actually mistaken me fora boy Because I'd wear
oversized t-shirts and cargopants.
Like yes, I had no fashionsense 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 Iadmired my dad.
My dad kind of raised me, soI'm mirrored his fashion sense
and stuff.
He had fashion sense.
No, I'm thinking like that'swhy I dressed like a boy.
And then when I became older Iwas like I'm missing my
(19:44):
femininity and so I like doveinto a Japanese street fashion
that's called Lolita and hasnothing to do with the book,
okay, but it's sort of like aoverly hyper feminine, cute,
dolly fashion.
It's very suitable for a lot ofpeople of different ethnicities
, like a lot of like Muslimwomen like it because you can
like it involves you being fullybe 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 likereally helped me once.
I like basically pushed myselfinto hyper Femininity.
I've now cranked it back andI've chosen my own like
preferred version, but yeah, butit'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 ofmy life with her.
It was kind of rough.
I lived on a farm in the middleof 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-rungcarriage 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 themiddle of nowhere, like that.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Okay, so like very secluded.
Yeah, did you guys talk to theAmish, or no?
They were secluded to yeah, notreally.
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 waslike but it was like normal
schooling and everything.
Yeah, I went to a regular.
I went to several differentschools.
I was a kid so I don't evenremember.
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 asa kid.
I kind of had like a.
I had a pretty rough childhooduntil 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 alot of soul searching to sort of
forgive.
You know the party that madethings 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 startedmeditating a lot during, like I
think it started during coven,like 2020.
Yeah, it just kind of clickedwhere I was like my so both my
parents, the only things theyhave in common that kind of
glued them together with.
They both made art together andthey both loved music.
And that's me, yeah, and meloving myself was me reconciling
(22:11):
the differences of my parents,something they could never do.
Yeah so that was something whereI like it clicked, where I was
like, oh, like, like it's areally courageous act for me to
like Love myself, because that'ssomething that literally like
I've not had no modeling.
Yeah so like, yeah, it was justthis beautiful thing where I
was like, wow, like it also madesense.
Why so it's been so hard tolike choose between the two?
(22:32):
I'm like do I want to do theart, do I want to do the music?
I'm like they both representyou?
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 watercolorillustration and she also wrote
stories and she actually divedin, did the comics with him for
a little while when they weremarried, yeah, but she kind of
went off more so with likeStories and music.
And then my dad always like hedidn't get into music, but he
always.
He has a lot of music and likeappreciation.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Yeah, okay, yeah.
And then you say you have asister, 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 statetogether 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 childsyndrome.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Definitely.
That's why I I, that's why Ihave turned my attention seeking
into good by making music andas one does.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
That's so inspirational it's a struggle
yeah for you to continue to doit.
Props to you.
Yeah, what about these maskshere.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Oh, so the mask is that's made by a specific
designer that I've beenfollowing on Instagram for a
long time.
I think I tagged her in it.
She's got a very hard topronounce name.
I love the mask, yeah, and thegreat thing is they're called
blind masks because actuallythey'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
(24:06):
perform in this at some point.
Yeah, and the they look greatin photo shoots because they're
doing most of the work, becausethey're so intricate.
Yeah, yes, so, yeah, I, thatwas.
I got that as a Christmaspresent and I've just been like
dying to use it for a Gig, but Idid get to use it at the
fashion show thing with Derek.
(24:26):
So I was.
I got to test that when Iwalked on stage.
I didn't fall, so I'm good.
What do your siblings think ofyour art?
They, they've all been underthe impression that I would
always be like successful oneday and all they always.
They've been always verysupportive like that's good they
could see things in me before Icould.
They're like Kim, you're,you're model-esque and all this
(24:48):
other so they, like it,supported you.
We used to all watch America'snext hot model together, like
for years, and so, yeah, and Ididn't see it.
I often was like, yeah, no,whatever, because I didn't get
into modeling until you, I was27.
So it was like only a few yearsago that I decided, yeah, I'm
gonna do it.
But so this is me trying tolike honor what everyone else
(25:10):
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 likeyeah, accepting yourself,
wanting to shape yourself intothe 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 wasbig 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 itprofessionally, she just does it
for fun.
And I remember we would go outand do photo shoots and like
just around town and she wouldlook 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 facelike eh, last minute She'd be
(25:58):
like don't do that.
She's like you don't see howpretty 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 andsomething I really love is that
I've learned that like it's notjust me, a photographer can't
help but impose their vision oftheir subject on their subject.
So it's great because then,like, what I can end up seeing
(26:21):
is other people's perspectivesof me that I can't see.
So it's this beautiful thingwhere, like I couldn't do it
alone, cool, so is that one ofyour 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 CosmicCapture.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
And that's who we worked with.
Yeah, she's still working withher.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Yeah, she did the photos for Rockledge Gardens
Wonderful and her work is justvery like her vision is really.
It's just really like she cantake things to a level that I
really enjoy, which is more likeyeah, it's very soft.
It's pretty, yeah, soft, pretty, very artistic.
She's like let's do some oddthings.
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 andbold.
So most of my stuff where I seemyself in a more dynamic, bold
kind of sexy way is like, yeah,that's his work and it's been
great, like we even startedplaying around with the video.
So that one of the videos Ihave on my page that I did
around Halloween, where I've gotthe red dress on, where it's
(27:33):
like kind of slow mo, where it'shad like my hands on my back,
that was just like a video testwe 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 stickto your music, but you were
saying you're still going toincorporate the fashion.
Yeah, do you see something likeputting 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, thedetails, yeah, or something
that I'd be looking into toreally make it happen.
But I do feel like I've got alot of people I've talked to
that are very interested inwanting to do that as well, and
(28:22):
so like it's one of those thingswhere it's, we'll see.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Yeah, we'll see, I'll leave it.
Yeah, how's your relationshipwith Space Swap going to move
forward now that they areclosing up shop?
I know they're not totallygoing away, but yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
So yeah, it was interesting.
When I first heard about it Iwas 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 itdifferently, for sure.
Yeah, I was sad at first, andthen I noticed something really
interesting.
Actually, I noticed that I wasexcited Really and I thought
that that was strange.
But then I thought what it waswas.
As things were falling intoplace, I thought, well, the
something I get sad about withthe way that the shop is now is
(29:12):
that there's so many events Ican't go to all of them, and so
before, when there was lessevents, I could go to all of
them.
So I personally don't mind ifSpacewalk goes back to being
sort of like a, however theychoose to structure it.
If it's more of like a pop-up,yeah, because event planning is
what they're their best atanyway, and so I'm excited to
see new places.
(29:32):
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 aknack 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 likebetween each one.
It was like three or fourmonths 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 backto back.
It seems like they were alwaysup 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, likeI used to own a shop and I get
what it's like.
It's like where.
It's like how many things canwe 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 dressbusiness 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 andOldsmore, oh yeah, and we had, I
had clothing in from Japan onconsignment, yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
And so.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
How did you do that?
How did you find my businesspartner?
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 wentto New York or California or
Texas.
Yeah, so we were the only thingon 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 oftime as well.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Oh, really.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
It just there wasn't enough.
I mean, it was like breakingeven, 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 ableto sustain.
I don't know.
Yeah, yeah, it's conundrum.
Yeah, speaking of words, how doyou come up with your lyrics?
Oh, okay, so you said the artof playing with words is
something that you wouldn't mindchatting 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'mnot just a musician it's and I'm
not just a comicer I'm thething that ties the two together
.
Yeah, is I'm a storyteller?
Yes, so I really can't write asong unless I'm telling some
(31:59):
kind of story, and so what I dois 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 youwere doing that yeah.
It's like methodical, and thenit's also like gives you a
stopping point.
In each song you already havesomething 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 namedafter like.
So that's the brain state, thatlike when you get into it's
really deep and it's like goodfor you, Like a lot of kids are
in that like if you go and likeyou 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 andyou're like, oh, she's out, like
you could make, like you couldbe 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 somethingthat I like miss, where I'm like
, oh, like it's, it's a thingthat 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 likedreaming is like I spend like
half my life sleeping.
I like sleep for 12 hours.
So I'm like Are you alwayslucid dreaming?
Yeah, always Like.
I remember all of my dreams.
I write long, like hugeparagraphs.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
When did that?
Speaker 2 (33:18):
start.
I remember my first time I hadit it was like four or five I
fell into a giant toilet in mydream.
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 waslike, yeah, giant toilet clearly
wasn't real.
But yeah, it was one of thosethings where, like I've gotten
to the point, I've gotten sogood at it, I can kind of start
to figure out what's like how toset 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 messingstuff up.
Have you tried to look at aclock?
Yeah, I actually can read booksand stuff in dreams and I can
remember strings of numbers.
Most people can't.
Oh my gosh, yeah, so thingsdon'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 thisability?
Because I read the like RobertMonroe books and stuff and it
was fascinating when hedescribed the astral projection
Like he was able to like pinchhis 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 tiein with somber mercy.
Well, the name summer mercycame to me in a dream, so Okay,
so astral.
I didn't couldn't astralproject really, until like after
I had one of my last big healthscares and I'd been
(34:50):
hospitalized and it was prettybad.
I was in and out.
A lot Was that recently.
That was back in 2019.
Ok, so nothing kicks you in thebutt 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 neverknow when a pandemic's coming.
You better get off your ass andwake up, you know.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
Exactly yeah, I wrote Palongianesis about that
because, specifically, I'm likeI need something empowering for
people to realize you can gothrough something tough and come
out of it yeah, yes.
So OK.
So the first time I had theexperience I was just like a
regular night of sleeping, but Ihad this vision where I was
laying on the bottom of a hill,like a grassy hill in a field,
(35:33):
and there was like three likeblack cloaked people around me
and whatever they were doing, Icouldn't move Like I've like
kind of like when you get sleepparalysis- yeah.
And I just remember looking overthe hill and seeing like what
looked like a blue, likeelectrified outline of a person
like kind of like, slowlystrolling towards me and I just
(35:53):
had this absolute fear offeeling of terror come over me,
like, and all I could think waslike I'm not ready to like leave
this life yet, like it kind offelt like that was my next, like
me or whatever, or like wereyou in the hospital when this
dream happened?
No, this was like kind of like aweird forewarning that I was
going to have a situation whereI'd be have no control.
(36:15):
Yeah, oh wow.
Yeah, and the song that wasplaying for and I don't usually
hear music in my dreams was ICan't See you in the Dark by Ray
Brown, and so I just I just ranwith that.
I actually did.
That was my year of shadow workthat.
I noticed, so, like a lot ofpeople, when they look at my
profile, the darker imagery Ihave is my.
(36:36):
It comes from me studying CarlJung and shadow work.
It is not like some peoplethink.
Like I've had to clarify, likeI'm not an occultist.
I don't have, I don't worshipdemons.
Ok, I just like.
I just want to play with theideas of.
Like.
Everyone has light and darkelements.
We all have the angel and thedevil 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 lightsomeday?
Speaker 2 (37:06):
in contrast, yes, like the way that you went from
your dad's fashion to thisfeminine and yeah, I think, I
think, because it's reallyimportant to me to like embody
the idea of like the world isn'tblack and white, like we're
kind of all of these things.
Yeah, I would say my first EP,heartbreak, breakthrough, was
(37:26):
kind of a mix of those things.
Urania was like the lightestsong 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 dowrite 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 joyand I just love that it popped
off as a result and it resonatedwith people, yeah, so so slow
wave.
This year's EP was all rockmusic.
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 lightthemes.
(37:59):
It's going to be very softstuff, because I think so many
like vocally intense songs.
I realized I'm like I need tomix 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'reunder the name Wild Zest and,
yeah, he we wrote that songearlier this year and he's just
very vocally talented and a goodcomplimentary Like I love
duetting with people.
So, yeah, it was fun to explorethat, because I don't have a
(38:46):
lot of duets and I want to dothat 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 onenight a week.
What night, what?
Night can we find you there.
It'll be.
I do it every Wednesday 8 to 10pm.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
Goodness Get lucky, yeah, and so I used to saying it
.
I'm like I can put on the bingovoice the bingo voice.
I thought you were doing likekaraoke 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 uniqueas a host, that's fun.
I can't help myself.
I'm like I would do betterprobably 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 youwrite your lyrics.
Are you able to like write iton 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 abeat or something, I don't know,
like what do you mean by, youknow, playing with the art of
playing with words?
Speaker 2 (40:05):
OK, so there's two ways.
There's double entendres, andthat'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 mymusic.
So an example would be in thesong the Sound, the name the
Sound is the name of a beach inNorth Carolina, but also it's
(40:26):
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 alot.
I had a lot of ocean entendresso I said I curl up safe and
sound in my shell and wheneverything's around, or I see it
swell, and I said I do havelike Often, like we can feel
like everything is good aroundus.
Yeah, other people would saythings are swell, but I see it
(40:55):
swell, meaning things areswelling up inside.
Yeah, yeah, the same way, likethe 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 outpretty well.
Yeah, they don't always flowout.
Usually what happens is mywriting process is all just
Brain dump my emotions first,and usually it's kind of like
the most basic language youcould think of, and then I start
Taking those concepts and thenI start turning them into
Untunders where I like I findways to play with the words.
(41:26):
Yeah, create more poetic waysof saying the same thing.
Cool, did you start out withpoetry?
No, I actually Was never reallyconsidered myself like a poet
but for some reason, like Ithink what it is is.
I would say it's like lyricsare my specialty and they are,
but I think I noticed I kind oflike I've always liked like rap
(41:51):
battles and like, and my sisterand I used to kind of joke about
like that, and then I developedthat 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 myemotions, 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'smusic I post, I release in
public, and then there's musicthat I just make for me to get
my emotions out, and I didactually like I wrote two songs
(42:29):
that I actually rapped.
You did, I did, and the reasonwhy is because I knew I was like
.
I'll never release a song whereI 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, frommy heart being chilly cuz it's
warm in here, are you smellingthe fear?
It's a black dog barking at asquirrel.
(43:04):
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'llsay like when they first see me
they'll be like yeah, you looklike 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 thenI talked to you like the
sweetest, yeah.
And so I wrote a whole songwhere I'm like am I, am I not a
bad enough bitch, like I Know?
But I made like a bunch of dogpuns like where I say double in
time.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I made a lot of dog so that'sbeen recorded, just not released
.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
Yeah, like it's been professionally recorded, because
my friend is like really goodat professionally recording, so
it's really funny that I justsit 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 Doit 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 notlike 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 bestwork.
I'm like, is it or is it justreally 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 youthink is a local celebrity that
you would want to nominate tohave 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 wehave 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 youneed to.
Yeah, I would love to saysomething.
I mean, I would like to hearmore about your new business
(45:05):
venture.
Anytime you have somethinggoing on, let us know, oh.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
Yes, new song dropping, can you hear?
The one that I'm collaboratingwith 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 linkis up and so, yeah, okay, local
celebrity, I have one.
Okay, tell me, tell me.
So she's pretty young, butevery 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 Hermother's great too.
Speaker 2 (45:46):
Yeah, they've been collaborating.
I love their collabs.
Yeah, I know Trace is great ateverything.
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 sonice talking to you.
Thank you, see you again in thenew year.
Yes, see you then.
(46:11):
Awesome, thank you.
To be a sponsor or nominate aguest, hit us up on Instagram at
local underscore.
Celebrity underscore bravard.
Until next time, goodbye.
This podcast is brought to you by Place Pros
Commercial and Investment RealEstate and NikoTour Boutique,
your one stop shop foreverything cool.
Are we on Cool Kim Sombra?
Mercy, good to see you.
Happy holidays, happy holidays.
How were your holidays?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
They were good, they were chill, yeah, just very low
key this year, which I kindaneeded.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Yes, what have you been up to?
I feel like I haven't caught upwith you in about a year.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah, when we did the well.
We definitely saw each other atthe bikini seven class, but we
also there was a fashion walkover at Derrick Wars not too
long ago.
Right, right, oh I saw yourclothing for sure, and I might
have said hi, but it was like soquick.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I know those events are so fun and quick and, yeah,
they happen in the Blee Go and Iand I haven't seen you in
months.
What have you been up to?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
So I've been really dialing everything kind of in
with my music, cause I also dolike 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'vebeen doing that for about four
years or so.
So I drop one new graphic novelevery year.
I actually sell them over atFamous Faces, really.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Yeah, oh my.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
God, I had no idea.
Yeah, cool, yeah.
So it's great, but it takes alot of my free time.
Absolutely.
It's like an ongoing saga whereI've got another like at least
five or six volumes.
Wow, do you have like afollowing there?
Yeah, I have a pretty bigfollowing in web tunes over
100,000 views and, like I think,about like 500 or so a little
more than 500 people who followthat one.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
So yeah, cool.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Okay, what else?
So, yeah, I've been working onbuilding my website for Sombra
Mercy because I kind of realizeddividing my time between the
art and the music was just notgonna work so well.
So this year I've made thetough 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 likesave the comic for like next
(02:06):
year and I'm gonna spend thiswhole year doing something I've
never tried before, which isscary, which is like I'm just
gonna focus in on like the music, and I've also.
Actually, I'm in business witha friend of mine.
It's called Aionic Media andwe're trying to do like a think
like Ground Swall, but forcreatives specifically.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Really.
Yeah, We've worked with GroundSwall so that's interesting.
So tell me more about that.
So it would just be a hub.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah, right now what we're doing is we're building
websites, we're doing SEO likemedia marketing.
If people want to like, if amusician wants to be recorded,
we can do mixing and masteringfor them as well.
You'll have a studio in there,yeah like we're gonna.
Well, we're gonna have our ownseparate studio, but he is
currently my business partner.
Well, I have two, mark and Josh.
(02:53):
Josh actually does work withGround Swall right now, so he's
been helping clients.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Are they supporting?
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
He's on as a coach, oh, really, like he does the
free business coaching that theyprovide.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Oh my gosh, that's amazing.
Do you guys have like a brick?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
and mortar.
We're working our way up to it.
So, as we're getting clientscause we just launched this like
a month ago then, like we'regonna have, the dream is that
the physical space will be it'llhave different, like at least
three different rooms.
One where we do consultationfor like like I'm gonna help
people with like brand discovery.
(03:31):
I wanna help like artists likefigure out there, like why, like
why they're doing what they'redoing, and like develop, like
just basically build theirbranding out for like music and
other creative ventures.
And then I also want, like, aspace where, like, they can film
social media, so just somethingthat's got a nice backdrop.
They'll already have like atripod setup.
They'll have access to a bunchof social media tools, cause,
(03:53):
like, I really wanna push theidea of, like I want artists to
be able to be artists and tounderstand that content creation
is a separate job and, whilethey 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 nota good artist if I'm doing, if
I'm not doing, content creationwell, and it's like no, it's a
separate job.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Like it's okay if you're not getting it, and then
you need the ring, light and thetripod 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 awarehouse, a place where they
could just come in and it's allset for them.
Is it just for musicians, orare you thinking all sort of art
(04:32):
?
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, anyone's creative.
They got creative venturesonline.
It doesn't just need to becreative, Like right now a lot
of the clients are working withare like just people who need
website, like regular peoplethat need websites, built Apps
designed anything to help pushtheir Are you guys gonna?
Do the social media, we'lleither.
We have tools to help with it.
So, whether that's things likeFacebook, like ad marketing
(04:55):
campaigns or SEO buildups oranything like that, so yeah, we
could we're working on maybelike a package where we could
like offer a membership where wedo some level of it for people.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yeah, or teach them the skill, yeah, I'm working on
the courses where I'll teachpeople.
Really cool.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Wow, okay, you said there were three rooms.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
What's the?
Speaker 2 (05:13):
third one, the so yeah, one is consulting.
The other one's for socialmedia and then the third one's
gonna be for for actually themixing and mastering.
So, like people have like a,it's like a studio where people
can come in, they can record andget everything mixed and
mastered.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Wow, and how did you meet those two?
Speaker 2 (05:35):
So, josh, I met last year at an open mic night here
actually in downtown O'Galley.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Really yeah.
What did he do on the open mic?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
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 DJat the time and he's like, oh, I
DJ and I have a studio that'sright here in town.
You wanna go check it out?
And I was like yeah, it's theuniverse.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Isn't that funny?
How yeah that happens.
I feel like that's kind of whathappened with Jesse too.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yeah, that's awesome.
I love that when the universejust like puts you in the right
place at the right time or.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
People gravitate to what they need.
Yeah, and then.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
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, theproduction side, and he also
does the websites.
Oh, great.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
So yeah, oh, wow.
Well, good luck on that, butyou focus 2023 on the music.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, so I've decided to upgrade my gear.
I'm gonna have more musicvideos coming out.
I'm working on at least two ofthem right now.
The one and a half for HelenGenesis, which was a song I
dropped last year, is it's solike.
The footage is amazing.
We worked six months with afriend I have out in Orlando.
Her name is Alexa.
She's got a YouTube channelcalled Alexa the Great and she
(06:55):
just started her YouTube stuff,basically, and she was like hey,
I'd love to like work with youon music video.
And so I have all the footagefrom her.
It's just a matter of likeediting it together, Putting it
together yeah, and I'm somotivated 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 itdone.
And then I even played aroundwith a new camera.
I just bought to try to seewhat I could do, Like a simple
(07:18):
video.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Because I do want to start growing my YouTube channel
where I'm gonna like talk about.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
You have a YouTube channel.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
I have three right now.
You have three, all right, tellus what they are, okay.
One is Sombra Mercy, okay.
The other one is called theplanet streamer and that's the
one that encapsulates all of mylike I do how to's in art and
comic, like tutorials for like Italk about ET girl, my comic in
there, but I'm basicallyhelping like artists and
storytellers like make their owncomics and stuff, okay.
(07:45):
And then my third one's like afashion.
It's like mainly Japanesestreet fashion and like my like
you know, clothing hauls andcute.
What is that?
Speaker 1 (07:54):
one called.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
That one's called Kimba Darling, I think, or no, I
think it's just Kim darling.
Kimba Darling is my Instagramfor you darling, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Yeah, Cause I love when you make clothing.
It's.
I mean, it's kind of amazing.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Oh, thank you.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Yeah, so how much are you dedicating?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
to that.
Um, so right now I was dividingmy time between all three of
these.
Yeah, right now I've kind ofhoned in on.
I'm gonna just be focusing onmy music channel, okay, but I
have lots of content alreadydropped on both of those
channels.
So if people want to check outthe fashion side of things or
things like that, basically,once I get things up and running
(08:32):
with my music one, I havecontent planned for the other
channels.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Yeah, matter of like.
Yeah, do it.
Are you editing on your own?
Speaker 2 (08:41):
I do, and actually it's a whole new venture right
now because I just got a newcomputer and I've been using
Windows Movie Maker I know youare which is not like the best
thing, but I got so attached toit, yeah, and now I've.
Actually I was like scared tomake the leap, but I learned to
venture resolve recently.
Oh good, that's what Jesserecommends, yeah it's, it's good
(09:03):
, it's um, I'm so happy tolearning curve.
It's, it's there, but it's notas tough as I thought it would
be.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah, no, I've even heard it in.
Like the TV industry.
Really which is kind of crazybecause between like avid and
final cut, there was never athird one mentioned.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
So I'm yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
I'm here to try it.
What do you use At work?
I use avid.
Okay, at home I might do like asubscription of like final cut,
but it just depends.
I really want to try DaVinci.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Yeah, it's good it's.
The tools are really likeintuitive.
You can just go really deepwith the layer of tools.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Yeah, yeah, okay, so just music.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
I Say just music, and then I'm like well, right, well
there's more.
Yeah, I'm like, oh, I've been.
I Think that I've learnedrecently that mixing Music with
fashion is really where I wantto go.
Yeah, it was.
It was brought up to me a fewtimes after I worked with
(10:07):
spacewap, when I realized,actually, that that those things
were tied.
Ali, who runs spacewap, hadmentioned it a few times and I
was like, you know, I reallythink if I put two and two
together, I don't need to runthem as separate endeavors,
right?
So I want to build that outmore this year.
There's going to be someawesome things in the works.
I don't want to spoil it, butthat where I'm going to be
(10:28):
combining fashion a little bitmore 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, mystories so early on.
That was 2019, so that was,yeah, you look younger.
Most of that was just stuffwhere I was putting together
(11:05):
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 dressesspecifically for music that red
dress that I'm wearing and thethat top one.
Yeah that's the first one thatI made for um.
No, for for somber mercy.
Did you make the skirt?
That one I made the outfitunderneath.
(11:29):
Yeah, if you scroll down I canshow you.
There's like.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
I usually take stills yeah of each one.
So like that one one, yeah, youmade that one right, you did
like a whole tutorial or I did afollow along which I enjoyed.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
I did it.
You know it's funny.
The reason why I did it wasbecause I realized I get a lot
of people who tell me wow, youdo a lot of things and you
always seem to be hustling andyou're so like.
Yeah amazing and like they'llthink that I'm like perfect
almost and I don't like when I'm, like I don't think people
understand like that.
(12:05):
I don't actually know what I'mdoing 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 gonnanotice 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 itlike it's just nice and that's,
that's the nice thing aboutcontent 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 frontof that one.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
It was love, those hearts.
They've been like vibing in myhead, 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 reallybeautiful.
I decided to study things about, like the sacred heart and yeah
all that and I just I want tokeep it as part of my imagery
because, yeah, something Irealized was like.
So everyone on the internet,especially in social media, puts
their best foot forward, theirbest face forward.
(13:15):
Yeah and to some degree, peoplecan can settle with liking that.
People are like, wow, you're sothis, you're so that.
And I, when I noticed I waslike, well, what I'm trying to
embody with my music is Showingall sides of what it means to be
human.
That then that what it does isit forces me to think outside
the box.
When I notice I'm doing thatthing with social media, I'm
(13:36):
making it all curated and I'mlike I really want people to see
the nitty-gritty underside that.
I because vulnerability isreally important to me at work.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
So yeah, like it embodies, like the music that
you make a lot of, your lyricsare 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 fromunder the skirt so it would be
sheer, and then I made that thepuff sleeve harness, because I
realized like I want to wearpuff 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 abunch of mannequins the way they
do like a Christian Dior showup 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 reallylook at them closely and look at
this dress.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Did you make that?
I did.
Yeah, that was the one of thefunnest ones I made.
I did that for a RockledgeGardens 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 includethings I've tailored in my
wardrobe.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
You need to like, showcase them.
Would you ever like sell themor like what do you?
What do you do with them?
You're just gonna keep themlike in an archive.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
So that's a good point.
I have a don't have a lot ofspace and, because I did notice,
I was kind of running low on it.
There's two methods I'm movingforward with with my creation of
my pieces.
One is that I make pieces thatare now versatile.
They need to be able to be likestuff I can.
Replicate like, like, so, like,the mint dress is actually two
(15:17):
pieces, so then I can wear justthe top or the.
Okay, so then it doesn't cuztogether.
They can look kind of crazy ifI wear that in public and not do
a show, but if I just make, Isee.
The other option I want toreally like to do is I want to
collaborate with other designers.
So then I'm not only justwearing my stuff, because my
wardrobe will fill up reallyfast, but if I can collaborate
(15:39):
with other designers, then Iwill.
I'm happy to showcase theirpiece and I will give them a
shout out.
Yeah something if they want meto wear their thing and then.
So then I'm also collaborating,not just with the music
community, but the fashioncommunity, yeah, yeah.
So that's kind of something Ihave in mind, do you?
Think there's a fashioncommunity here.
I've heard that people wantthere 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 seeand like, because there is
there's a small, tiny Communitywhere people like to sew yeah,
they like to create.
I think after I met you I tookthe leap forward.
I was like I met you and thatwe were doing your music video,
(16:26):
yeah, and I was like asking youabout your clothes and you said
it started with cosplay.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
It did.
When I was 11 years old, I mademy first Cosplay outfit and
then, because my grandma'staught me how to sew and okay
okay, so you had some Skillpassed down to you.
Yeah, it was really crappyskill.
At the beginning, when I was 11and made my first costume, I
was like I just I was happy tojump into something, even if I
(16:56):
didn't really know what I wasdoing.
Yeah and I think what reallyhelped solidify it for me was I
went to something called FX Show.
It was like a kind of like awhen mega con was kind of early,
there was another one trying tostart up called FX show, okay,
and I think I went to that and Idressed as Me, me tooko from
(17:17):
love Hina, and Because they wereso 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 onto the finals round.
It was like a contest, yeah,and I met.
I went to the Hard Rock Cafe inOrlando.
My dad and my sister went outthere to support me and I
actually met like the guy placeFreddy Krueger and Someone from
(17:38):
Harry Potter I, we have it allin video.
Cool the girl from Firefly, the.
The main lady, the I don'tremember her name.
Well, they also made a moviecalled Serenity.
Afterwards, firefly was like aTV shows like in the early 2000s
.
But yeah, it was.
(17:59):
I Didn't know who any of theseactors were, so I was like one
of the only people not freakingout.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Yeah, yeah, you were like hey man.
Yeah, I just talked to them, Iwas probably refreshing for them
.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Yeah, everyone else behind stage was like freaking
out.
They're like, oh my gosh, it'sthese people.
I'm like I don't know these.
Yeah, so that I think that gaveme 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 thethe coast like I lived in
Pennsylvania and North Carolinaand Virginia.
So why did?
How did you land here?
My dad lives here.
So when I came to live with mydad I was like cool, I always
(18:45):
liked Florida, I'm happy to stayhere, like okay, I want to move
around school Did you go toWestside, at first for talking
elementary and then I yeah, it'sSouthwest 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 anunrecognizable then because I
thought I was an introvert so Ihad no fashion sense, really.
Yeah, like bangs that wouldcover up my face and like
someone actually mistaken me fora boy Because I'd wear
oversized t-shirts and cargopants.
Like yes, I had no fashionsense 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 Iadmired my dad.
My dad kind of raised me, soI'm mirrored his fashion sense
and stuff.
He had fashion sense.
No, I'm thinking like that'swhy I dressed like a boy.
And then when I became older Iwas like I'm missing my
(19:44):
femininity and so I like doveinto a Japanese street fashion
that's called Lolita and hasnothing to do with the book,
okay, but it's sort of like aoverly hyper feminine, cute,
dolly fashion.
It's very suitable for a lot ofpeople of different ethnicities
, like a lot of like Muslimwomen like it because you can
like it involves you being fullybe 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 likereally helped me once.
I like basically pushed myselfinto hyper Femininity.
I've now cranked it back andI've chosen my own like
preferred version, but yeah, butit'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 ofmy life with her.
It was kind of rough.
I lived on a farm in the middleof 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-rungcarriage 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 themiddle of nowhere, like that.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Okay, so like very secluded.
Yeah, did you guys talk to theAmish, or no?
They were secluded to yeah, notreally.
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 waslike but it was like normal
schooling and everything.
Yeah, I went to a regular.
I went to several differentschools.
I was a kid so I don't evenremember.
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 asa kid.
I kind of had like a.
I had a pretty rough childhooduntil 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 alot of soul searching to sort of
forgive.
You know the party that madethings 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 startedmeditating a lot during, like I
think it started during coven,like 2020.
Yeah, it just kind of clickedwhere I was like my so both my
parents, the only things theyhave in common that kind of
glued them together with.
They both made art together andthey both loved music.
And that's me, yeah, and meloving myself was me reconciling
(22:11):
the differences of my parents,something they could never do.
Yeah so that was something whereI like it clicked, where I was
like, oh, like, like it's areally courageous act for me to
like Love myself, because that'ssomething that literally like
I've not had no modeling.
Yeah so like, yeah, it was justthis beautiful thing where I
was like, wow, like it also madesense.
Why so it's been so hard tolike choose between the two?
(22:32):
I'm like do I want to do theart, do I want to do the music?
I'm like they both representyou?
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 watercolorillustration and she also wrote
stories and she actually divedin, did the comics with him for
a little while when they weremarried, yeah, but she kind of
went off more so with likeStories and music.
And then my dad always like hedidn't get into music, but he
always.
He has a lot of music and likeappreciation.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Yeah, okay, yeah.
And then you say you have asister, 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 statetogether 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 childsyndrome.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Definitely.
That's why I I, that's why Ihave turned my attention seeking
into good by making music andas one does.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
That's so inspirational it's a struggle
yeah for you to continue to doit.
Props to you.
Yeah, what about these maskshere.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Oh, so the mask is that's made by a specific
designer that I've beenfollowing on Instagram for a
long time.
I think I tagged her in it.
She's got a very hard topronounce name.
I love the mask, yeah, and thegreat thing is they're called
blind masks because actuallythey'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
(24:06):
perform in this at some point.
Yeah, and the they look greatin photo shoots because they're
doing most of the work, becausethey're so intricate.
Yeah, yes, so, yeah, I, thatwas.
I got that as a Christmaspresent and I've just been like
dying to use it for a Gig, but Idid get to use it at the
fashion show thing with Derek.
(24:26):
So I was.
I got to test that when Iwalked on stage.
I didn't fall, so I'm good.
What do your siblings think ofyour art?
They, they've all been underthe impression that I would
always be like successful oneday and all they always.
They've been always verysupportive like that's good they
could see things in me before Icould.
They're like Kim, you're,you're model-esque and all this
(24:48):
other so they, like it,supported you.
We used to all watch America'snext hot model together, like
for years, and so, yeah, and Ididn't see it.
I often was like, yeah, no,whatever, because I didn't get
into modeling until you, I was27.
So it was like only a few yearsago that I decided, yeah, I'm
gonna do it.
But so this is me trying tolike honor what everyone else
(25:10):
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 likeyeah, accepting yourself,
wanting to shape yourself intothe 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 wasbig 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 itprofessionally, she just does it
for fun.
And I remember we would go outand do photo shoots and like
just around town and she wouldlook 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 facelike eh, last minute She'd be
(25:58):
like don't do that.
She's like you don't see howpretty 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 andsomething I really love is that
I've learned that like it's notjust me, a photographer can't
help but impose their vision oftheir subject on their subject.
So it's great because then,like, what I can end up seeing
(26:21):
is other people's perspectivesof me that I can't see.
So it's this beautiful thingwhere, like I couldn't do it
alone, cool, so is that one ofyour 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 CosmicCapture.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
And that's who we worked with.
Yeah, she's still working withher.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Yeah, she did the photos for Rockledge Gardens
Wonderful and her work is justvery like her vision is really.
It's just really like she cantake things to a level that I
really enjoy, which is more likeyeah, it's very soft.
It's pretty, yeah, soft, pretty, very artistic.
She's like let's do some oddthings.
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 andbold.
So most of my stuff where I seemyself in a more dynamic, bold
kind of sexy way is like, yeah,that's his work and it's been
great, like we even startedplaying around with the video.
So that one of the videos Ihave on my page that I did
around Halloween, where I've gotthe red dress on, where it's
(27:33):
like kind of slow mo, where it'shad like my hands on my back,
that was just like a video testwe 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 stickto your music, but you were
saying you're still going toincorporate the fashion.
Yeah, do you see something likeputting 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, thedetails, yeah, or something
that I'd be looking into toreally make it happen.
But I do feel like I've got alot of people I've talked to
that are very interested inwanting to do that as well, and
(28:22):
so like it's one of those thingswhere it's, we'll see.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Yeah, we'll see, I'll leave it.
Yeah, how's your relationshipwith Space Swap going to move
forward now that they areclosing up shop?
I know they're not totallygoing away, but yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
So yeah, it was interesting.
When I first heard about it Iwas 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 itdifferently, for sure.
Yeah, I was sad at first, andthen I noticed something really
interesting.
Actually, I noticed that I wasexcited Really and I thought
that that was strange.
But then I thought what it waswas.
As things were falling intoplace, I thought, well, the
something I get sad about withthe way that the shop is now is
(29:12):
that there's so many events Ican't go to all of them, and so
before, when there was lessevents, I could go to all of
them.
So I personally don't mind ifSpacewalk goes back to being
sort of like a, however theychoose to structure it.
If it's more of like a pop-up,yeah, because event planning is
what they're their best atanyway, and so I'm excited to
see new places.
(29:32):
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 aknack 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 likebetween each one.
It was like three or fourmonths 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 backto back.
It seems like they were alwaysup 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, likeI used to own a shop and I get
what it's like.
It's like where.
It's like how many things canwe 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 dressbusiness 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 andOldsmore, oh yeah, and we had, I
had clothing in from Japan onconsignment, yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
And so.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
How did you do that?
How did you find my businesspartner?
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 wentto New York or California or
Texas.
Yeah, so we were the only thingon 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 oftime as well.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Oh, really.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
It just there wasn't enough.
I mean, it was like breakingeven, 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 ableto sustain.
I don't know.
Yeah, yeah, it's conundrum.
Yeah, speaking of words, how doyou come up with your lyrics?
Oh, okay, so you said the artof playing with words is
something that you wouldn't mindchatting 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'mnot just a musician it's and I'm
not just a comicer I'm thething that ties the two together
.
Yeah, is I'm a storyteller?
Yes, so I really can't write asong unless I'm telling some
(31:59):
kind of story, and so what I dois 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 youwere doing that yeah.
It's like methodical, and thenit's also like gives you a
stopping point.
In each song you already havesomething 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 namedafter like.
So that's the brain state, thatlike when you get into it's
really deep and it's like goodfor you, Like a lot of kids are
in that like if you go and likeyou 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 andyou're like, oh, she's out, like
you could make, like you couldbe 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 somethingthat I like miss, where I'm like
, oh, like it's, it's a thingthat 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 likedreaming is like I spend like
half my life sleeping.
I like sleep for 12 hours.
So I'm like Are you alwayslucid dreaming?
Yeah, always Like.
I remember all of my dreams.
I write long, like hugeparagraphs.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
When did that?
Speaker 2 (33:18):
start.
I remember my first time I hadit it was like four or five I
fell into a giant toilet in mydream.
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 waslike, yeah, giant toilet clearly
wasn't real.
But yeah, it was one of thosethings where, like I've gotten
to the point, I've gotten sogood at it, I can kind of start
to figure out what's like how toset 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 messingstuff up.
Have you tried to look at aclock?
Yeah, I actually can read booksand stuff in dreams and I can
remember strings of numbers.
Most people can't.
Oh my gosh, yeah, so thingsdon'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 thisability?
Because I read the like RobertMonroe books and stuff and it
was fascinating when hedescribed the astral projection
Like he was able to like pinchhis 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 tiein with somber mercy.
Well, the name summer mercycame to me in a dream, so Okay,
so astral.
I didn't couldn't astralproject really, until like after
I had one of my last big healthscares and I'd been
(34:50):
hospitalized and it was prettybad.
I was in and out.
A lot Was that recently.
That was back in 2019.
Ok, so nothing kicks you in thebutt 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 neverknow when a pandemic's coming.
You better get off your ass andwake up, you know.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
Exactly yeah, I wrote Palongianesis about that
because, specifically, I'm likeI need something empowering for
people to realize you can gothrough something tough and come
out of it yeah, yes.
So OK.
So the first time I had theexperience I was just like a
regular night of sleeping, but Ihad this vision where I was
laying on the bottom of a hill,like a grassy hill in a field,
(35:33):
and there was like three likeblack cloaked people around me
and whatever they were doing, Icouldn't move Like I've like
kind of like when you get sleepparalysis- yeah.
And I just remember looking overthe hill and seeing like what
looked like a blue, likeelectrified outline of a person
like kind of like, slowlystrolling towards me and I just
(35:53):
had this absolute fear offeeling of terror come over me,
like, and all I could think waslike I'm not ready to like leave
this life yet, like it kind offelt like that was my next, like
me or whatever, or like wereyou in the hospital when this
dream happened?
No, this was like kind of like aweird forewarning that I was
going to have a situation whereI'd be have no control.
(36:15):
Yeah, oh wow.
Yeah, and the song that wasplaying for and I don't usually
hear music in my dreams was ICan't See you in the Dark by Ray
Brown, and so I just I just ranwith that.
I actually did.
That was my year of shadow workthat.
I noticed, so, like a lot ofpeople, when they look at my
profile, the darker imagery Ihave is my.
(36:36):
It comes from me studying CarlJung and shadow work.
It is not like some peoplethink.
Like I've had to clarify, likeI'm not an occultist.
I don't have, I don't worshipdemons.
Ok, I just like.
I just want to play with theideas of.
Like.
Everyone has light and darkelements.
We all have the angel and thedevil 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 lightsomeday?
Speaker 2 (37:06):
in contrast, yes, like the way that you went from
your dad's fashion to thisfeminine and yeah, I think, I
think, because it's reallyimportant to me to like embody
the idea of like the world isn'tblack and white, like we're
kind of all of these things.
Yeah, I would say my first EP,heartbreak, breakthrough, was
(37:26):
kind of a mix of those things.
Urania was like the lightestsong 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 dowrite 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 joyand I just love that it popped
off as a result and it resonatedwith people, yeah, so so slow
wave.
This year's EP was all rockmusic.
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 lightthemes.
(37:59):
It's going to be very softstuff, because I think so many
like vocally intense songs.
I realized I'm like I need tomix 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'reunder the name Wild Zest and,
yeah, he we wrote that songearlier this year and he's just
very vocally talented and a goodcomplimentary Like I love
duetting with people.
So, yeah, it was fun to explorethat, because I don't have a
(38:46):
lot of duets and I want to dothat 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 onenight a week.
What night, what?
Night can we find you there.
It'll be.
I do it every Wednesday 8 to 10pm.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
Goodness Get lucky, yeah, and so I used to saying it
.
I'm like I can put on the bingovoice the bingo voice.
I thought you were doing likekaraoke 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 uniqueas a host, that's fun.
I can't help myself.
I'm like I would do betterprobably 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 youwrite your lyrics.
Are you able to like write iton 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 abeat or something, I don't know,
like what do you mean by, youknow, playing with the art of
playing with words?
Speaker 2 (40:05):
OK, so there's two ways.
There's double entendres, andthat'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 mymusic.
So an example would be in thesong the Sound, the name the
Sound is the name of a beach inNorth Carolina, but also it's
(40:26):
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 alot.
I had a lot of ocean entendresso I said I curl up safe and
sound in my shell and wheneverything's around, or I see it
swell, and I said I do havelike Often, like we can feel
like everything is good aroundus.
Yeah, other people would saythings are swell, but I see it
(40:55):
swell, meaning things areswelling up inside.
Yeah, yeah, the same way, likethe 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 outpretty well.
Yeah, they don't always flowout.
Usually what happens is mywriting process is all just
Brain dump my emotions first,and usually it's kind of like
the most basic language youcould think of, and then I start
Taking those concepts and thenI start turning them into
Untunders where I like I findways to play with the words.
(41:26):
Yeah, create more poetic waysof saying the same thing.
Cool, did you start out withpoetry?
No, I actually Was never reallyconsidered myself like a poet
but for some reason, like Ithink what it is is.
I would say it's like lyricsare my specialty and they are,
but I think I noticed I kind oflike I've always liked like rap
(41:51):
battles and like, and my sisterand I used to kind of joke about
like that, and then I developedthat 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 myemotions, 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'smusic I post, I release in
public, and then there's musicthat I just make for me to get
my emotions out, and I didactually like I wrote two songs
(42:29):
that I actually rapped.
You did, I did, and the reasonwhy is because I knew I was like
.
I'll never release a song whereI 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, frommy heart being chilly cuz it's
warm in here, are you smellingthe fear?
It's a black dog barking at asquirrel.
(43:04):
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'llsay like when they first see me
they'll be like yeah, you looklike 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 thenI talked to you like the
sweetest, yeah.
And so I wrote a whole songwhere I'm like am I, am I not a
bad enough bitch, like I Know?
But I made like a bunch of dogpuns like where I say double in
time.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I made a lot of dog so that'sbeen recorded, just not released
.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
Yeah, like it's been professionally recorded, because
my friend is like really goodat professionally recording, so
it's really funny that I justsit 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 Doit 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 notlike 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 bestwork.
I'm like, is it or is it justreally 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 youthink is a local celebrity that
you would want to nominate tohave 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 wehave 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 youneed to.
Yeah, I would love to saysomething.
I mean, I would like to hearmore about your new business
(45:05):
venture.
Anytime you have somethinggoing on, let us know, oh.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
Yes, new song dropping, can you hear?
The one that I'm collaboratingwith 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 linkis up and so, yeah, okay, local
celebrity, I have one.
Okay, tell me, tell me.
So she's pretty young, butevery 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 Hermother's great too.
Speaker 2 (45:46):
Yeah, they've been collaborating.
I love their collabs.
Yeah, I know Trace is great ateverything.
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 sonice talking to you.
Thank you, see you again in thenew year.
Yes, see you then.
(46:11):
Awesome, thank you.
To be a sponsor or nominate aguest, hit us up on Instagram at
local underscore.
Celebrity underscore bravard.
Until next time, goodbye.
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