Grant Knoche is scratching the final name off of his “coming out” list with his latest single “FIRST HELLO”. With big busts of bass interspersed around a calm ethereal synth pop ballad, he channels the best of dubstep and EDM while staying true to his more alternative pop roots.
“I recently came out as bisexual to my friends & family & the last person to tell was my dad…”, Knoche writes, “So I wrote him ‘FIRST HELLO’”. And like the genre bending done in the music, he demonstrates that the song need only be itself to be exceptional. “It’s a special & life-changing song. I’m a 20yr old independent artist & I self-produced & co-wrote this song. It has a very unique structure & approach which I feel tells my story the best. Really hoping to change many lives with this one.”
You can feel a deep sense of desperation as he sings the opening verse, “I don’t wanna fight no more / So I will let it out / I wasn’t ready then / but I’m ready now”. As the bass drops like a bomb, you can feel the catharsis of the release as a liberated Knoche bursts forward ready to give off a new glow.
With so many traumatic stories about coming out circulated through LGBTQ+ coming-of-age tropes in movies and television, it’s nice to hear him lead with nothing more than unabashed joy. A delightful change in the narrative that focuses more on what’s to come rather than what cannot be changed.
“FIRST HELLO” is available now on major streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. Find this and more excellent music on the Alchemical Records Multigenre Mixture playlist on Spotify.
Charlie Maybee is a dancer, musician, educator, and writer based in Charleston, South Carolina who currently teaches with the Dance Program at the College of Charleston. His primary work as an artist is with his performing collective, Polymath Performance Project, through which he makes interdisciplinary performance art that centers tap dance as the primary medium of expression and research. He also currently plays rhythm guitar for the Charleston-based punk band, Anergy, and releases music as a solo artist under the name Nox Eterna.
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Alchemical Records is a Washington, D.C. based music publication. We cover the Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Richmond, VA metro area music scenes, including band interviews, articles about your favorite musicians, new music and concert dates.
