Features : Jerry T Funky fuses fashion and empowerment on new single “Vogue”

Jerry T Funky is a non-binary dance DJ and producer with music embedded into their soul. They’ve been playing music since they were three years old with experience in both the piano and guitar. They make electronic dance music and their latest single “Vogue” is one that sits comfortably in that world and its intersection with the LGBTQ+ community.

The track “Vogue” began as a small joke as Jerry dwelled on the classic track “Flashing Lights” and began to think about the other parts of the camera and the process of taking pictures. This blossomed into more lyrics and and interestingly enough, Jerry always starts with lyrics for songs. The finished product is a techno based pulse pounding track with Jerry delivering the lyrics in a direct way which lines up with the minimal yet effective production.

“Starting with the lyrics actually makes things harder but it also allows me to be more intentional with the track. I like to start with strong lyrics and then create the music around it because writing lyrics was something that challenged me for a long time. I’m basically working backwards in my song making process.” they said.

Music has been a constant throughout all of Jerry’s life. One of their earliest memories is being three years old and asking their grandmother to teach them the piano. From there, they went on to start composing at six years old on the piano and at eight years old on the guitar. Their lane for the latter is in jazz and funk and they would go on to study audio engineering in college which would enhance their creative abilities to combine acoustic elements with electronic music.

“Bringing the acoustic elements to electronic music creates interesting results. I like playing synth lines on my 88 key digital piano. Adding guitar elements is more challenging but since I play jazz and funk guitar, I can always rely on that.” they said.

Dance music has always been a part of Jerry’s life. They are of Indian descent and grew up with their culture’s traditional dance music. They remember hearing it when celebrating holidays and events with their Mom’s side of the family. Additionally, they have fond memories of the dance pop music from Brittney Spears, Nelly Furtado, Rihanna and more from the 2000s music world.

“The cultural background of dance music is so important to me. And the nostalgic aspect too. I loved hearing all those artists sing over dance music and delve into R&B and hip-hop through collaborations and things like that too.” they said.

Making music for the LGBTQ+ community is important to Jerry because they want to do their part to continue to bring multiple elements from it to mainstream audiences. They admire non-binary artists like Sam Smith who are contributing to this effort on a global scale.

“Indian culture is very fashion centric. Songs like ‘Vogue’ and some of my other techno tracks emphasize feeling empowered in your fashion. It’s a feeling of freeness.” they said.

Jerry’s mindset as an artist is to not stop trying. They believe they have to keep going and have become adept at turning the emotions they are going through into music. Sometimes, an interesting musical contrast can come from this.

“Just because things are sad it doesn’t mean you can’t choose to be happy. You’ll hear a lot of that in my music because it’ll be in a minor key but I'll be singing positive stuff. The jazz chords I use provide ambivalence and make some of my music more emotional.” they said.

“Vogue” by Jerry T Funky is available on streaming services now.

You can keep up with more of Jerry’s dance music by following them on these platforms.

Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Threads | Facebook

The Starlight PR Team thanks Jerry T Funky for taking the time to speak with us.