“We artists exist in a strange space. We’re so unavoidably connected, yet uncomfortably disconnected. We can never escape our empathic impulses, and thus can never unplug, but our careers operate in a way separate from societal norm. We’re born to watch from the outside and understand the depths of what’s inside.

21 June marked our third orbit around the sun together. We met through mutual connections in the music industry in 2017 and quickly fell for one another (I’ll pause for the ceremonial 'aw'). Ego and fear prevented us from collaborating until 2020 (whatever artist says they’re not sensitive and egotistical is lying). Our first collaboration – a cover of 'Fall On Me' – found major success. It flourished on YouTube and even the original artists (A Great Big World and Christina Aguilera) acknowledged and shared our rendition.

We had plans to celebrate Pride this year by teaming up on another track, but as the weight of the world shifted, so did our expectations of creating music. The idea waxed and waned, eclipsed by disease and the fires of revolution. As queer New Yorkers, revolution is core to our essence. We were raised on the soil that birthed the revolts we celebrate each year during Pride Month.

 

After debating whether or not to go forward with the collaboration, we decided what the world needs most right now is love, and thought it was essential to share a piece of ours. We fought through the imperfections – recorded vocals in our bedroom closets, filmed the video with a crew of one person wearing a precautionary mask – and found so much beauty in the authenticity of the process.

We developed a love for the Netflix series '13 Reasons Why' having watched most seasons together as a couple. The show's iconic song 'The Night We Met' by Lord Huron had long been on our list of dream covers, and we knew some day we’d perform the track together. With the ending of the series, we thought now to be the best time. Though, while finishing the show, we thought to ourselves, 'wait. Our proms sucked'. And thus, the spark of inspiration.

We blew up glittery balloons and cut up strips of tulle and string to decorate and recreate our own prom, but this time as our most authentic selves. We didn’t celebrate our proms as openly gay high schoolers, and so we chose to reclaim that night and immortalise it in a music video, all while reliving the show’s celebrated scene of Hannah and Clay dancing at their school dance.

As I said before, it’s hard for us artists to unplug. With a world grappling with loss, we couldn’t celebrate our pride romantically without capturing the frequency of sadness we’ve been feeling so deeply. The experience was cathartic for us; we reconciled our missed opportunities as high schoolers and purged some of the heavy feelings we all have experienced lately.

We hope you all enjoy the video, and for anyone who also had a terrible prom or high school dance experience, may you feel comfort in our reclamation.

And if you like what you hear, check out more of our tunes under Corvyx, Joey Dean, and Joey Dean’s band Pros & iCons on YouTube, Spotify, all other streaming platforms.

With love,
Corvyx and Joey Dean”