Overview

Hello world! My name is Sirene, and I'm a singer-songwriter here in the beautiful city of Austin, TX.

I’ve been making music and performing my whole life but never considered myself good or legitimate enough to ever actually pursue it. It took me a long time to realize that sitting around singing oldies with my family wasn’t just a legitimate way of immersing myself in music from a young age, but also a masterclass in collaboration and developing an ear. I come from an pretty artistic, musical extended family, and during the holidays we’d meet at my paternal grandmother’s house, pass around instruments from Puerto Rico, and play old songs that everyone older than me knew. There were parrandas (Christmas carols but cooler), trío songs, and my favorites, boleros. I was obsessed with their lush arrangements, romantic narratives and intense performativity. I had no idea music could sound like that.

Then later I started listening to jazz standards, and I felt like somebody went inside the temple of my soul and rang a bell I didn’t know was there. I remember hearing Amy Winehouse sing “I Heard Love Is Blind” on the radio for the first time and being shocked that modern music could sound like that. That day a part of me internalized the fact that it was possible to teach yourself to make music sound how you wanted it to, which meant it could sound like anything, and that was a powerful thing to learn.

Later, when I got my undergrad degree in theatre I fell in love with concept albums and embracing visual motifs/themes in music and video. I started writing poetry, and then eventually worked up the nerve to try my hand at songwriting. But it wasn’t until the first year of my transition, when a close friend suggested I listen to Pinc Louds than I started to believe it was possible to be the kind of artist I wanted to be and be successful at it. Seeing them perform live and watching the lead singer, a gender nonconforming Puerta Rican expat who with the band sounded like Billie Holliday fronting the Pixies, my brain fully broke. What they were making was at the intersection of so many disparate things I loved, and yet it all sounded so good together. It sounded right together. 

I think it’s true that sometimes, you have to see yourself portrayed in media in order to believe that it’s even possible for someone like you to well, be portrayed in media. Especially if you’re not used to seeing yourself or your potential reflected back at you. As a mixed race trans Taino latine femme, I’ve always felt like a cosmic mutt, a little bit of a lot of things that from the outside, didn't seem to go together. Even the name Sirene is a doctoring of the spanish word for both mermaid and siren, the word itself laced with double meaning. It was actually shocking, because now I knew it was possible to shape those things in a way that could highlight their commonality and create harmony. I just needed to figure out a way to do it. Five years later, I’ve got the music from Pink Leidy to show for it, and after all that imposter syndrome and the revelations, the self-doubt and the fear, the only thing left to do is to share these songs I have loved on so dearly with all of you. The material is ready, and the musicians are waiting -- this Plaid Dog campaign is the final step toward creating my first ever, professionally produced studio album.

This campaign is raising funds for my professionally recorded album with Mike Davidson in Boston, MA. Mike is a Boston-based producer and engineer with 15+ years of experience working with both established and up-and-coming musicians. Together, Mike and I are digging into my original material, writing arrangements, and reaching out to local musicians to bring the songs to life. 

We’ve been able to cover the costs of recording and producing one song, which is ready for you to check out right here on this page. This first song is called “Olive Branches,” and you can check it out below!

While I’ve been able to fund the recording process for "Olive Branches" on my own, to create an album of songs of this quality, studio costs add up quickly. With that said, this campaign can give us a unique opportunity to collaborate and make great art together. Your donation will cover the following costs of my project:

1. Pre-Production: This is where everything starts. Mike and I will start crafting the arrangements for each song slated for the album. We’ll hold rehearsals to fine-tune the songs and arrangements and talk through new and exciting ideas for how to approach the recording process.

2. Recording: This is when we enter the studio and start capturing the music and where the songs become what you'll hear on this album. This campaign will play a huge role in making sure we have enough time to capture great performances for every member of the band.

3. Mixing & Mastering: Each track will get mixed to create the right balance between instruments, texture and color that make up a track. As a final step, the album will be mastered from beginning to end so that the listening experience is cohesive and carefully choreographed from start to finish.

And what will you get for your generosity and support? So many awesome things!

I am so appreciative and grateful for any support you can lend to this campaign. In exchange for your generosity, I've put together a really exciting group of gifts that are available exclusively through your participation in this campaign.

Check out some examples below and a full list to the right!

It's hard to express how much this project would change my life.

Honestly, it really is hard to understate how impactful this project could be for me. Like I said above, being trans, latine, femme and mixed, I don’t see myself reflected very often, if at all, in media. I’m a first gen american and this project would not only give me the opportunity to afford professional studio time and high quality tracks, but it’d give me a platform to be able to show that just like any other artist I have something to say that no one else can, and that it deserves to be heard. Music has this incredible ability to heal and unite people, to express these deep messy feelings that help us connect to each other in these fundamentally human ways. I am, for the first time in my life, feeling brave enough to offer my music up to my community, messy feelings and all.

Music is, for me, fundamentally a collective process--incredible musician friends that have pushed me to be better, my classmates in highschool that were there for all my earliest performances, my found family for giving me such a wide perspective on different types of music, my birth family for doing the same when I was young, my brilliant and wonderful roommates for listening to all the weird mistakes I make when I'm working out a new vocal part. Music is about community and connection, and some of my most influential and special experiences with music were ones I've shared with friends and loved ones in my life. One of my hopes is that this project helps me find new collaborators in my networks to make more music together. After all, there are so many more songs I want to create!

While I've never made a music project of this caliber before, I have managed and executed creative projects of all types: in creative fundraising for direct action, in theatre, in poetry and animation even. All the while, I've been deepening my musical focus and practicing, practicing, practicing. With your support, I will channel that consistent work and experience into something new and beautiful that we have made together.

If you're ready to contribute, just click the "Back This Project" button on the top right of this page! Every little bit counts, and I’m so grateful for all your support.

If you have folks in your network that would be interested in supporting me, please feel free to share this page with them.

Thank you so much for checking out my campaign page. I can't wait to share this music with you.