Thank you so much for having me! My name is Tianna Esperanza and I’m so excited to share my heritage and history that influenced my new single “Princess Slit And The Raincoat Prince”.
This song is an homage to my Abuela who started the first female punk band in history called The Slits. She was the drummer and later played with The Raincoats on their famous self-titled record. I’ve always been so proud of my grandmother’s legacy and I wanted to write a song celebrating my punk roots.
When I met producer Chin Injeti, we were really excited to see what we would come up with together. Originally, we considered trying a cover of one or some of my favorite songs of the two bands but we landed on creating our own song.
I think that choice allowed me the freedom to express my queerness as well as incorporate my mixed American heritage. I believe Chin drew from American punk rock as much as he drew from the early British punk we’re referring to which gives the song a fun twist.
When I sat down to write, queer centric lyrics started coming to me as naturally as the lyrics hinting at my legacy like “punk princess”, and “suck my slit, raincoat Prince”. It started to become a queer anthem as much as it was connected to the badass women of punk I’ve gained so much from.
When I began having discussions with the director of the music video, Peter Collins Campbell, we had the same discussion of how best to pay homage to punk and celebrate my identity. I had so many ideas for the music video but I knew that I wanted to depict a joyful experience of queerness.
We decided to treat the video with a sense of innocence to contrast the mature lyrics. I specifically wanted to portray a polyamorous relationship in a way that felt like there was equality between the characters.
Peter and I also had multiple discussions on how best to do this when oftentimes in music videos especially, the artist is surrounded by models with no purpose other than to accessorize so we approached the concept with the intention to almost create backstories and characters.
We did multiple rounds of chemistry tests with potential actors and models and when we found the right fit, the day of shooting was so much fun and I think that shows. During our costume fitting up till the day of shooting, my “polycule” and I came up with backstories and character developments.
It, of course, is a casual approach, depicting a very innocent day outdoors but I think we achieved that feeling of friendship and intimacy in the video. The added layer of a golf course, with the double entendre of four people golfing (a foursome) made the video clever too.
Really proud of this project and grateful for everyone involved! I hope to have created a fun piece of art that is also of value to the queer community. Thank you for having me and listening WPGM!
Watch the video for “Princess Slit And The Raincoat Prince” below!
Words by Tianna Esperanza // Follow her on Instagram + Twitter
