Jessye DeSilva’s new single “Proud and Lonely” showcases their strengths. An acoustic meditation that draws as much inspiration from Laurel Canyon as DeSilva‘s classical vocal training, this is a song that confronts anxiety head-on and attempts to draw strength from it. With long-time collaborators Cecilia Vacanti and Alex Calabrese joining DeSilva, the trio paint an earthy picture with which to comfort us.
“The past couple of years have been surreal in the scope of uncertainty and loss we’ve experienced collectively,” DeSilva says. “Sometimes it hits so hard that you feel as though you’ve even lost yourself. You can feel the grief reflected in even your natural surroundings, and the more you search for familiarity and comfort, the more it can seem as though you’re met with reminders of what you’ve lost. ‘Proud & Lonely’ sits firmly in that struggle and offers comfort and rest in the idea that ‘it’s ok to not be ok.’ You don’t have to push through and save face.”
Jessye DeSilva is a classically trained vocalist and a voice teacher for musical theater students at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee College of Music. Their upcoming crowd-funded album Renovations follows their ‘70s-rock-influenced 2022 release Landscapes, which earned them a nomination for Americana Artist of the Year at the 2022 Boston Music Awards. Jessye discussed their upbringing, religious trauma, and coming-out journey on the very first episode of the Rainbow Rodeo podcast.
“I grew up not really seeing trans people and queer people portrayed very often at all in public. It was very rare to see any depictions of trans people, let alone positive ones,” DeSilva explains. “You don’t have to be queer or trans to relate to the album, but I’m putting this out for my trans kin right now. I’m not going to try to make this mainstream or try really hard to appeal to universality, because this isn’t the moment for that.”
“Proud and Lonely” is available on all streaming services.