LA-based pop songwriter and producer, Abby Diamond, announces her new solo project, BEVERLEE, today and reveals an album, Purple Violin, which is due out this Summer 2021. Debut single, "6X" is streaming on all platforms now, and is accompanied by a music video made on an iPhone 10 and directed by Kacy Boccumini, an award-winning writer/producer who screened at Outfest 2020 and Slamdance, who is now making her music video directorial debut with "6X." The song itself is a whimsical love letter to all manners of relationships during Covid -- the ones with potential lovers, with our current partners, with our friends, and ultimately, ourselves.
BEVERLEE (FKA Abby Diamond) is a queer woman, a person who is doing generational healing, and a soul who seeks resistance in the form of joy and sexual freedom -- an opportunity her late cousin, Beverlee Jacobson, no longer has, as her life was stolen in the 1970s at the hand of her Hells Angels boyfriend. The impact murder has on a family is too complicated and painful for words and has caused much shame and trauma in her family, and BEVERLEE seeks to pay tribute with fierce love and unapologetic living. The project is about unheard voices and is a celebration of queer, left-of-center pop. This release is a moment of Diamond stepping into her power as a performer, songwriter and producer in the form of BEVERLEE, as well as celebration of her rebirth as a gay woman in Los Angeles.
Diamond, who produced most of the forthcoming album, co-produced a few songs with Matt Mariano film composer who did Grey’s Anatomy, Raising Hope and Bri Holland, vocal arranger for Trolls, Madagascar and numerous pop albums. Mostly having been behind the scenes as a songwriter, Abby Diamond's music is constantly in the public sphere and enjoyed by millions, often having music in film/TV ads and even touring with major acts like Barenaked Ladies. In 2016, she wrote the hit dance song, “Places,” by Xenia Ghali. Recently, her work with Shea Diamond, a Black trans artist with whom Diamond wrote "American Pie," picked up massive recognition as Joe Biden even danced with her to it at the White House. She also worked on the Son Little (Anti) record Aloha, co-writing the song “about her. again,” which has had placements on various hit shows. She prides herself in working with queer artists and supporting other women, like BIIANCO, Janelle Kroll and vöx.
Debut single, "6X," was inspired by Carson McCuller’s The Heart is a Lonely Hunter in which various characters project their wants onto a deaf man as a respite for loneliness. The first lyric dives right in, saying: "I’m a greedy mother fucker, and desire’s wanting what you can’t have, but I’m a real giving lover." Throughout the song, the protagonist tries relentlessly to be seen by her lover but only ends up smothering her. The chorus is where she decides to finally let go and move on, but not before requesting to be touched 6 times “before the end of the world.”
There is a repetitive and nostalgic guitar riff, “basically the extent of my shredding, hammer on hammer off,” BEVERLEE jokes, that gives the feeling of hopelessness, as electronic drums and deep bass drive home the doom of the relationship’s inevitable end. “I’m terrified of loss,” BEVERLEE says, “I wrote a 40,000-word essay collection The End of Things all about death and change as a means of becoming, embracing the temporary as beautiful too, but I still am forever holding on to things and people. My longing is infinite.”
Director Kacy Boccumini, says: "Operating under her label, My Best Guy Productions, this project quickly became a gauntlet of obstacles: overcoming the restrictions of a global Pandemic, the necessary pause and focus on the Black Lives Matter protests, cast injuries, to name a few. Without being able to gather more than two people in a room, Kacy improvised with technology, weaving together iPhone footage, creativity, and a Premiere Pro account. She leaned on the popularity of Tik Tok and Reels on Instagram, knowing her audience would totally accept text and graphics in a video, and that influenced the story-telling. 2019, it was unheard of. Now, it’s the standard."
In the video, viewers are introduced to the story of Beverlee, who is hounded by her best friend Ashley to make a dating profile. Begrudgingly, Beverlee agrees and under the guidance of Ashley, they create a proper thirst trap. Once published, Beverlee begins the search. At first, it’s a series of scrolls and likes, but no matches. Then eureka! Beverlee matches with Lennon and Bryan, a hot couple into girls who speak french and truth games. All is going well, for Lennon and Beverlee anyway, and Bryan quickly puts the “He” back in "threesome," ending the chat. Beverlee then connects with BB, a sexy personal trainer. A tête-à-tête striptease ensues, and just when things are heating up for Beverlee, a dude in a bathrobe smothers the flames. Out of matches and options, Beverlee opts for a dip in the pool, leaving Ashley begging for her help to end this longing.
Diamond continues, “Part of the reason I wanted my close friend Caroline Blaike to star as Beverlee in the videos is that she is a dancer and Beverlee worked at a strip club also. In the before times, Caroline danced at Jumbo’s Clown Room in LA. She’s an amazing ASL interpreter and actor, and one of the wittiest and weirdest people I know. She is totally free and shameless in her self-expression and sexuality, and I would like to think Beverlee would feel honored to have Caroline portray her.”
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