It’s been a few years since we’ve heard from trailblazing musician and performer Mykki Blanco, and ten years since the artist began subverting expectations of genre-expanding queer narratives. After their 2016 album Mykki they’ve released a few singles here and there, but today Blanco is sharing the news of a new label home, Transgressive Records, along with a new single “Free Ride” and the promise of two new albums arriving in the near future. The song first came about in 2018 after the end of Blanco’s first serious long-term relationship, but it wasn’t finished until last summer with final co-production from FaltyDL and Hudson Mohawke. It was mixed by James Rand and features backing vocals by Grammy-nominated Mykal Kilgore as well as Leah King and L1ZY.
“Some of the most intimate moments and conversations I have ever shared were with my mother on long drives in the Southern countryside when I was a teenager,” they shared, introducing the track. “The music that soundtracked these memories on our daily journey’s was the stuff of my mothers generation. I would find myself daydreaming, reflecting and envisioning the kind of life I would like to create for myself. These memories and the music of Luther Vandross were the first inspirations behind the creation of my new song.”
https://twitter.com/MykkiBlanco/status/1371894173733904386
“Free Ride” is a concoction of trap beats, soulful piano, and a gospel chorus that chants “What I wouldn’t do for love.” Before the verse, an airy flute sound maneuvers its way between bongo hits. “Free Ride” feels both revitalizing and sentimental, further pushing against the binaries society has placed around love and sound. Its accompanying video, directed by Hannah Rosselin, portrays Blanco surrounded by loved ones partying and celebrating a spiritual reception of sorts.
“I wanted to portray the very real situation of two humans being in love and creating a child without necessarily being the same sexuality, but a love of acceptance, the love created by creating a family and accepting wherever your lover falls on the spectrum,” Blanco said of the video. “I’m at a place in my life now where I know I want to have a family of my own one day and that I have entered a more mature phase of my life where this is a kind of thing I think about now. And on a professional level, I know videos have been such a key part of my journey and this truly feels like a video which is showing the world something new from me.”
Watch and listen below.
