Los Angeles-based duo Soto Voce’s confronting new video for their track ‘Better’, taken from their upcoming debut EP on French label Oskar takes a dark look at the current state of the USA’s race relations, juxtaposing stark desert landscapes with images of burning urban areas and riot squads.
Trans artist Kenny Soto grew up as a gender non-confirming boy in a Oakland, California whilst Miguel de Vivo fled his native Columbia as a teenager during Pablo Escobar’s cartel. Both backgrounds have defiantly shaped the artists today and their experiences are poured into the music. Though it wasn’t specifically made as a comment for these troubling times, as tensions around Black Lives Matter and Transgender rights reach boiling point, the video for “Better” could not have come at a more significant point. In Soto’s own words:
“In the video, I’m visualising some really dark images, or maybe they’re being broadcasted to me. It depends on your perception. I’m watching people being desecrated and killed, crosses being burned. There comes a point when the car stops and Miguel steps out to open the door. I’m handcuffed, and he pushes me into a grave, and I come out on the other side another version of myself. For us the Black Lives Matter stuff, of course that’s something that becomes relevant [now], and it wasn’t necessarily we made it for that in any way. But it obviously is relevant to the current , and culture in general. Then the gender stuff as well, and both of those things kind of tie in and maybe being seen as worthless.”
