Even With Scars

I began writing this song in September of 2023. After I'd learned of a violent shooting in Mpls during an underground punk house-show (Nudieland), and a member of the gathering was killed (August Golden)

At that time however, I had no idea how it would come together, when, or even if it would. It was an admittedly slow writing process for me with this one. I believe the wind had simply been knocked out of me.

-- The punk scene here in Mpls is very LGBTQ+ inclusive, with a significant focus on our trans community. Therefore the shooting felt personal as I've been a long, long-time member of the Mpls Trans-community. And we all felt very crushed. I felt such sorrow.

Continual anti-trans political focus from the right, which has only increased as we approach our 2024 election pushed me to reflect on the best tools I have when I'm moved in attempting to make a difference in the world and I struggled for a few months trying to find some sort of "voice" for the song, and it's lyric. Eventually, slowly, bits and pieces began to fall into place.

I remembered touring as an out trans-performer back in the late 90's and early 00s... when at times my band and I were the first time some of our audience had interacted, or even seen someone who was trans. It never worked to get angry or defensive when we experiences negativity. Often that negativity came from a place of simply not understanding. We always worked to win over whoever we could be performing well, and being as authentic as we could. Sure, there were times when things heated up bad, and we had to watch our backs.. but more often than not, we would make small inroads in a positive way. Step by step felt like we did make progress. -- Remembering that time, I chose this reflective approach for "Even With Scars." In the lyric, the instrumentation, and the structure of the song.

My producer Barb Morrison, joined me as producer-mentor, helping me to bring my initial demo-rough tracks to their final mix end. Over the months all that was happening, I began creating the music video. I felt the video needed to reflect the breadth and depth of our trans, non-binary, queer community. I invited both a live volunteer choir, and anyone else to send me photo selfies for inclusion in the video. Over the last few months after doing that, I was overwhelmed by the amount of involvement I received.

The final single work for "Even With Scars" is now here for anyone to see, listen, enjoy, and hopefully to share.

The download file has the option of a full quality 24bit .wav file. That quality is only available here via Bandcamp. Standard quality digital downloads are also available wherever you download your songs from.

I've included a standard copy of the music video here, but optional higher 4k versions are available at my www.YouTube.com/venusdemars channel.

My attention will now turn to finishing the rest of my new songs with hopes to have a full album done and available here by the end of this year, or early next year.

Thank you all so much for your continued support of my art.

Make a difference in the world.
Stay strong.

-Venus de Mars