Page 9 - Vo Vo | FIX MY HEAD #10: COMPLEXITY

just trying to support the work that the people around me are doing and trying to feel okay about asking for support for my own project, which is something that makes me feel really selfish and guilty.
4. What are your experiences either as an individual or as a band as QTPOC in Brooklyn?
Melo: Our band ends up playing in predominantly white spaces, in part because of the kind of music we make–emo music for gay elves–which is not to say that this type of music is a white thing or was created by white people or is designed for white people. Being in these spaces often feels awful and taps into a lifetime of trauma from growing up around so many white people, but at the same time I think there’s a way in which I do “fit into” these spaces as a fellow gentrifier and as someone who’s middle-upper class. I’m not really sure what white people in these spaces think about us but I sometimes get the feeling that they want to support our band as a way to soothe their conscience without really having to question what they’re doing. Like, let’s include this one QTPOC band in my lineup and that’s all the work we need to do.
4 (ii). You mentioned trauma, to bodies, emotionally, either growing up or currently. Could you speak a little more to that?
Melo: I’m pretty sure there’s a ghost that lives behind my fridge and everyone says it’s a “mouse” but I’m like 85% sure it’s a ghost. It’s not a mean ghost I’m just saying it’s there. I definitely write songs about my own trauma and what it means to be in a body that is moving through trauma. I try to write about those things in a way that won’t make me or a listener (re)experience trauma directly, which is why I write about more indi- rect experiences of trauma like ghosts or emotional voids.