VIVEK SHRAYA CELEBRATES TRANSGENDER DAY OF VISIBILITY WITH THE DELUXE VERSION OF HER NEW RECORD, NEW MODELS
LISTEN / SHARE “MORAL PANIC” FT. JEREMY DUTCHER
BUY / STREAM NEW MODELS DELUXE VERSION HERE
Photo Credit : Paul Mpagi Sepuya // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
Today, multi-hyphenate artist Vivek Shraya is celebrating Transgender Day of Visibility by releasing the deluxe version of her latest album, New Models. The deluxe version includes reimaginings of two album tracks which feature Jeremy Dutcher (On “Moral Panic”), and Tanya Tagaq (on “Apathy Crisis”).
“New Models was written in the past four years, during a time when trans rights around the world have been slowly and systematically chipped away,” explains Shraya. “I wanted to make something that pushed back against the hateful political rhetoric (“Groomer”) but also could be cathartic to queer and trans listeners (“When I’m Overcome”). I wanted to make something that could rally allies (“Apathy Crisis”) but I also wanted listeners to discover new perspectives and motivations on their own (“Moral Panic”). Often, I wasn’t even sure what I was making (“I Don’t Know Where I’m Going”) or if any of it mattered (“Am I Doing Enough?”).
“My relationship to International Transgender Day Of Visibility is similarly ambivalent. What I personally want for my communities is not necessarily visibility but safety and dignity. I also know that it’s seeing trans people that empowers me to keep existing and, crucially, to keep challenging my own assumptions about gender.
“I offer this deluxe version of New Models, recharged by two artists I admire very much, Tanya Tagaq and Jeremy Dutcher, on this day, with the hopes that it acts as a reminder of the importance of collaboration and community during this time. I don’t believe visibility is the end goal, but I do think many of us are searching for the light and clarity right now and this can only come from working together, across our differences.
On the collaboration with Shraya on “Moral Panic”, Jeremy Dutcher says, “I’ve loved Vivek for a LONG time. Since first hearing her collaboration with the queer songbook orchestra in 2017, I’ve been eager for an opportunity to work together. In 2023, she joined me on stage in Calgary during the motewolonuwok tour and we dueted a song called ‘take my hand’. From then, I knew our voices would dance together in-step. So when she asked me to be part of this upcoming project, it was an instant yes.
“The message in these lyrics are, for me, speaking of the hope and resilience of all the rainbow children in this world. It is an anthem to our strength; In the face of fear & hatred, our joy, love and kinship networks persist. This message is both timely and timeless when considering queer, embodied experiences.
“My approach to this song was to create an army of voices (a chorus) to be a bed on which Vivek can lay and share her truth.”
LISTEN / SHARE “MORAL PANIC” FT. JEREMY DUTCHER
MORE ABOUT VIVEK SHRAYA AND NEW MODELS
‘When I’m overcome with feeling / I have to break free from words and just sing.’ An inveterate writer, Vivek Shraya knows that fewer words can carry more weight. These first lines of her album, New Models, serve as both a thesis to the transcendent sonic experience to come, as well as an invitation to leave the burden of self-assuredness at the door. Don’t overthink—just listen. Just feel.
New Models is “me grappling with the state of the world over the past four years and eventually realizing that language, particularly English, had become so contorted and weaponized that the only way I could grieve, rage, and find comfort was to let go of it,” says Shraya. “How do you express the horror and helplessness of witnessing progress being rapidly undone—in words—when all you want to do is scream or cry?”
WATCH / SHARE “AM I DOING ENOUGH?” VIDEO
WATCH / SHARE “I DON’T KNOW WHERE I’M GOING” HERE
Shraya has dedicated much of her impressive artistic career to incisively articulating culturally loaded issues. Whether through her best-selling book I’m Afraid of Men (which Vanity Fair called “cultural rocket fuel”), her award-winning play-turned-CBC show, How To Fail As A Popstar, or her provocative visual art and installation work, Shraya has challenged the status quo by transcending her personal experiences into daring artworks. But it is music that first drew Shraya into the arts, and it’s on her 11th solo album, New Models, that Shraya redefines her musical trajectory with a bold display of boundary pushing done right.
This collection of hypnotically textured songs allows each listener to come to their own conclusions about the heavy subjects she conjures. Dread, disconnection, uncertainty—all are invoked through Shraya’s sparse, cutting lyrics, but it is her wordless vocal chanting that cuts the deepest. “How do you express—in words—the horror and helplessness of witnessing progress being rapidly undone,” Shraya explains, “when all you want to do is scream or cry?”
WATCH / SHARE “WHEN I’M OVERCOME” LYRIC VIDEO
For New Models, Shraya joined forces with long-time producer-engineer James Bunton (Donovan Woods, Celeigh Cardinal, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson). Shraya and Bunton connected a decade ago, when Shraya realized the notion of the self-producing “solo genius” was profoundly flawed, and her and Bunton have grown to share a deep bond and a common language, with Bunton producing most of Shraya’s recent music, from Part-Time Woman, her album with Queer Songbook Orchestra (2017) to her previous full-length album Baby, You’re Projecting (2023, Mint Records) and the subsequent duet versions of songs from that album with Jann Arden and Donovan Woods.
WATCH / SHARE “MORAL PANIC” (VISUALIZER) HERE
Vivek Shraya’s artistic practice has long been unrelentingly honest. She has never shied away from difficult feelings, whether harassment – her graphic novel with Ness Lee, Death Threat – professional jealousy – as she explores on her podcast, I Won’t Envy – or chronic pain – as in her new short film, Bodyrebuilding. What’s special about New Models is its insistence on moving through all the feelings possible. While no answers are uncovered, a deep desire for reconstruction and reconstitution glimmers. As Shraya intones, “everything works, until it doesn’t”—but just as crucially, “Everything hurts, until it doesn’t.” - Sam Boer
MORE ABOUT JEREMY DUTCHER
Jeremy Dutcher is a classically trained tenor, Two-Spirit song carrier, polymuse, activist, ethnomusicologist, and member of Neqotkuk (Tobique First Nation) in Eastern Canada. Dedicated to language revitalization, Jeremy’s debut album Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa unearthed century-old archival recordings of his ancestors, turning them into collaborative compositions on the grand piano. Sung entirely in Wolastoqey, his endangered mother tongue, it would go on to win the 2018 Polaris Music Prize and lead to collaborations with such iconic artists as Yo-Yo Ma and Leslie Feist. His sophomore album Motewolonuwok ᒣᑌᐧᐁᓓᓄᐧᐁᒃ was awarded the 2024 Polaris Music Prize, making Jeremy the first ever two-time winner. Jeremy’s music transcends boundaries: unapologetically playful in its incorporation of classical and jazz influences, full of reverence for the traditional songs of his home, and teeming with the urgency of modern-day resistance. He is regularly sought out for his perspectives on queerness, Indigeneity, language revitalization, and fashion.
BUY / STREAM NEW MODELS DELUXE VERSION HERE
NEW MODELS DELUXE TRACKLIST
01 When I’m Overcome
02 Apathy Crisis
03 We’re In Pain
04 Groomer
05 Breaking Our Pattern
06 Moral Panic
07 Am I Doing Enough?
08 I Don’t Know Where I’m Going
09 Apathy Crisis ft. Tanya Tagaq
10 Moral Panic ft. Jeremy Dutcher
VIVEK SHRAYA
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Photo credit : Kirk Lisaj // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
