CAM4 Presents the World Premiere of “Mundo del Revés”
CAM4 is thrilled to present the premiere of our collaboration with Latin recording artist Baby Yors! This partnership celebrates sex positivity, creative freedom, and a celebration of pleasure seeking! Check out the video below, followed by an in-depth conversation with Baby Yors about his journey as a musician and creative director.
Who is Baby Yors?
Baby Yors is a piece of art created by artist and musician Marco Palou. He embodies different eras, feelings and circumstances in Marco’s life. He is a contradiction between escapism and first hand activism. He is as flamboyant and satirical as he is serious and broken. But he’s always rooted in the experience and honest communication of one person (Marco), who finds himself alone and thinking and writing, then singing and sharing. Then it becomes all yours.
Why was it important for you to partner with CAM4 for this project?
I am interested in the unexpected…in the unpredictable. So far, that’s where my instincts have told me to go. And I’ve been intrigued and turned on by the idea of CAM4 for a while. After my friend Chris Habana worked with the brand, I saw how limitless it was. I soon realized we had something in common: We’ve both been censored by social media, and this becomes a an even bigger problem when you see that those who are often affected the most are often queer people and people of color. \
Walk me through your creative process.
It always starts with me, by myself. I am a very introverted person and I value my quiet times and my inner process. It doesn’t matter how much I try, I am just not interested in writing lyrics with someone else. And that’s where all of the work is born. I write a lot of poetry, as well as stream-of-consciousness writing. I put my stories on the page, and sometimes I imagine lots of what-if scenarios. All of these live in my notebooks and my iPhone, and sometimes I reach conclusions and make personal discoveries. these writings mean so much to me. I save those, and then I expand on them. If I grab a guitar or sit by the piano, I can pull out the writings and read what I wrote. I can find the right sound for them and focus on what it makes me feel. This allows every one of my songs to feel like it has personal value, and speaks some truth about my experience. It becomes spiritual in a way: I decide to believe that I am not the only one who writes when I write. If I were, I wouldn’t be surprised so much and so often. I have faith that there is a magic teacher out there and I just listen to their whispers.
Describe your sound and why it stands out.
I can’t. I was never able to, simply because I am interested in so many sounds and I like to explore. It’s probably because I am very selfish when it comes to what I create, in the sense that I am only guided by my feelings and not by my thoughts. I feel like a little boy sometimes. That’s why the name Baby is well suited. Baby wants what he wants, just because he feels like it. ONLY when I create though! I am not a grown Baby walking around.
How does your audience directly connect to the CAM4 audience?
I don’t think it does for most of them, which I think is why I love this collaboration so much. Lots of people who listen to my music may not know of CAM4, and vice-versa. So we are opening new worlds for each other.
What inspires your aesthetic?
I’m sure every single thing my eyes see become a part of my visuals in some way, but I like to draw a lot, so most of the time I draw things before we film them or build them. I think it is extremely important that every person in the room knows exactly what I want something to look like.
Dreams have always been of inspiration as well, and I love the magic that they can exude. Again, it feels like that magic teacher is showing me the way.
Also, I am someone who comes from the theater, so I love theatricality. I am interested in the art of exaggeration, and in the beauty of slapping someone in the face with an outfit. To me it is hilarious that people can be offended by me wearing high heels… or make up… or doing something sexual or gay. Get over it already! But I know that I am lucky because I live in NYC… so a big part of my mission is to send delicate pink flowers to queer boys and girls everywhere.
Movies are also huge for everything I do…mostly for my music. I like to see my music in films.
How do you stay motivated to pursue other opportunities in the music industry?
Some family members have told me I am the most relentless person they know, because I have been performing and creating since I was a baby and I keep on doing it no matter what. I get that, but also it is so strange to me how people think of artists. It is like… they aren’t thinking art… they are thinking celebrity. And that pisses me off a little.
It’s as if being able to perform and create… to do anything I want to do in life…to travel and connect with people…wasn’t enough. For me, FREEDOM is what keeps me motivated. I do whatever the fuck I want every day of the week, any month of the year. I always find a way to have good people around me and have a good time while making things I love. At the same time, I can still be a fly on the wall and write about the experience.
What motivated you to create Mundo Del Revés and the visuals for it?
I directed this psychedelic short film called CHIC AND CHAMBRAY about two years ago, and it became such a transformative experience that while I was editing it, music started coming out of it, and that music became two songs. One of them is “Mundo Del Revés.” That experience informed the visuals and themes, but the lyrics are heavily influenced by Maria Elena Walsh, a lesbian author and songwriter from Argentina whom I listened to when I was little. The song that inspired this is “El Reina Del Revés” (“The Upside-Down Kingdom).
Since your performances and CAM4 performers are alike (reaching and connecting with audiences) what is the best performance advice would you give someone? How are your Latin American and North American fans different? The same?
First, I would say: just know why you’re doing what you’re doing. That will help you in the long run. Don’t just do it because you’re good at it or because of the money. Money and talent are valid reasons to pursue something, but I think, as an artist, that can’t be sustained over time. You need a deeper cause…something that will fulfill you as a whole human. And it has to be personal, maybe even secret. You can’t make art just for other people to like you. I say this because that’s why so many influencers exist, and at the end of the day, I’d kindly ask people to not get it twisted: I am not an influencer just because I have many followers; I have many followers because I am an artist who is connecting. The difference is in the WHY.
Creatively, what haven’t you done yet that you would like to accomplish?
Nothing and everything. I try not to put any pressures on what I should be making, because that damages creativity. But I do want to direct feature films, make more music in Spanish… explore Asian culture. I have Chinese heritage from my mom’s side so I’ve always felt a deep connection to it. I want to dance more and keep experimenting with my live shows. Maybe there will be more of me playing instruments on stage. Maybe I’ll incorporate an orchestra into the right project.
How does New York City influence your art?
In every possible way. Perhaps it influences me most with the diversity of its people. I like being like a ghost in a big city. Everyone does their thing and I like to observe. Lately, I have been in a very meditative state of mind, and that’s doing great things for my writing.
What’s next for Baby Yors?
I’m working on three very different albums/movies at the moment. We’ll see which one matures before the others. Well, actually… we’ll see which one gets funded first. Funding is one of the biggest challenges most artists face.
Explain the reasoning behind integrating CAM4 into the video and how did you accomplish this to fit your brand?
The music video takes place in a world where above is below and left is right. I thought it would be interesting if the most popular TV Channel was “CAM4,” and all of society’s hypocritical censorship of sex and absurd judgment of natural, human pleasure went out the window. In the world of “Mundo Del Reves,” what’s unjustly deemed as wrong is made right.
