Describe in detail the scenario created in Polanco. What I see is
a local bar in Mexico with lots of different people enjoying the
ambiance, the music and each other...but there's so much more
underneath.
TL: In the music video “Polanco”, we see a girl meandering through a dimly lit bar. She sits down next to a guy she knows. She seems disinterested by him, instead sharing a moment with the attractive female bartender. The man tries to kiss her. She dodges the kiss and makes her way to the bathrooms. The man follows and finds her kissing another guy. The first guy seems really upset.
Meanwhile a singer performs in the bar while people dance energetically on the dance floor.
The girl nonchalantly returns to the bar, whispers something in the female bartender’s ear, and leaves. The bartender is shocked by the comment, but curious. She joins the girl outside for a cigarette. The girl takes her home to a high rise apartment overlooking Mexico City. They get it on while the sun comes up.
In the final shot, the singer sits alone at the bar and raises a glass of “marguerita mango” to the camera.
Did you write the
song? The script? Both?
TL: The script was written by the music video’s director, Abdeel Moreno, from Mexico City. I described to him a vague scenario involving a love triangle intrigue and a same sex romantic encounter. He took it from there.
Explain what it means to you and what you hope audiences will experience.
TL: What it means to me is; something naughty, a story told without words with twists and turns, a fly on the wall experience that keeps the audience interested and guessing. It’s supposed to be sexy, cheeky, daring, filled with surprises.
Perhaps the behavior of the girl, while being morally corrupt, is titillating for some viewers. Perhaps some people watching have behaved in a similar way after one too many drinks. Perhaps her drink has been spiked. What if the girl represents the dark side in everyone? Perhaps the final action of the singer holding the marguerita to the camera, is as if to say: Look what happens when tequila is involved!
The film and the music are interlocked, or so it seems. I cannotimagine one without the other. I have not seen Roma, so forgive me. Are you trying to convey a similarity in this music video to the content and themes of Roma? Explain in detail.
TL: The video was not intended to be viewed without the music, but the song is indeed available for download on all the usual channels. Spotify, iTunes, Amazon etc. It’s designed to be played in bars, nightclubs and on the radio, hopefully to a wide global audience some day!
The video has nothing whatsoever to do with the movie “Roma”. In my promo email, I merely made an allusion to the Oscar winning Mexican movie as a joke, since both it and my video are named after neighbourhoods in Mexico City. Aside from that they couldn’t be more different in conception, genre, feel, and size of audience reached so far!
Is the song entitled "Amor"? There are many kinds of love depicted in the room. Tell us your vision of this.
TL: The song is entitled “Polanco”. The love depicted in the video is first unrequited love, then sneaky, duplicitous love, and finally fun, playful, same sex love. The same sex experience is nothing out of the ordinary for our lead character, but for the bartender it’s a bit more scandalous and forbidden. It might be her first time going with a girl.
Talk about your role in the video as singer and also in putting it all together behind the scenes. Are you executive producer? You mentioned that the talented Mexican musicians are up and coming. Who are they?
TL: I’m playing the role of a singer who’s performing his original song on stage in the bar. It’s a small crowd. The singer is a relatively unknown artist.
My role behind the scenes was executive producer and co-writer of the song. Many of the extras in the music video are acting students in Mexico City. They generously offered their time for free. There were several pitchers of mango marguerita flowing freely from the bar during the six hour shoot, so a good time was had by all.
What kind of response are you getting in the US? Abroad? In Mexico? Is there a goal? Will there be a sequel? A continuation of the storyline?
TL: The response has been great so far. People are loving the contemporary Latin pop sound. Most people have commented that they really enjoyed the video and thought it was sexy.
The song is my first outing with 3KMKZ; music producers Pepe Portilla, Oliver Garcia and Hector Mena, based in Mexico City. We’ve recorded a second song, “Moctezuma’s Revenge”, which is due a music video shoot hopefully next month. I’m envisioning being sacrificed by Aztec warriors, scantily clad, while sitting on the toilet!
I’m hoping to record several more songs with 3KMKZ in the future, starting next month.
There is no goal persay. I do this mostly just for posterity, for the pleasure of integrating on a deeper level with foreign cultures, for the fun of the experience.
Maybe in the back of my mind I have the idea that young gay people might have the opportunity to see an expression of homosexual love on the screen so they don’t grow up feeling that it is wrong to be gay, as I did.
You have a varied background in music and speak many languages. Does Spanish have a bigger and more important meaning in your work? If so, be specific about what that is.
TL: Spanish has had an important role in my career. In 2016 one of the songs from my first album; “Inesperadamente”, was selected to represent the USA in an international song competition at Viña Del Mar in Chile, the largest music festival in South America, a curious honour, since I am not American. I am English. One of the co-writers and producer of the song, Mitchel Delevie, is American. I had the opportunity to perform the song live in front of 20,000 people and a televised audience of millions. It was pretty scary!
Aside from that, I must say that I find some Spanish and Mexican men to be extremely hot. So perhaps that helps entice me to those parts of the world. Haha.
Talk about your Harvard days, your East Asian studies and your involvement as a cultural attache for the University. Is that still a major part of your life?.
TL: My college alumni network will likely be a major part of my life until I’m old and wrinkly. Many of my closest friends are from the undergraduate classes of 2001 through 2008. I’m still on the mailing lists for The Harvard Pops Orchestra, The Hasty Pudding Theatricals, and my co-ed college a capella group, The Harvard Veritones!
In 2006 I bought in to a trip to China made by the Harvard Club of Tiger Crane Kung Fu! When it became apparent that no one on the team spoke mandarin, I was volunteered as an unofficial and temporary translator for the team; pretty amusing, since my knowledge of Chinese was basic to put it generously. When a representative from The Shaolin Temple returned to the Harvard campus months later, he presented me with a certificate naming me Harvard’s cultural attaché to The Shaolin Temple!
Learning Chinese has proved to be a quirky skill to have. I’m writing a one man show in Mandarin, singing songs made popular by Chinese Idol and The Voice, China. The songs frame an informal discussion with the audience about my travel adventures along The Ancient Silk Road in 2004.
I understand you have been a member of many bands. Which ones? Have you gone permanently solo?
TL: At 18 I became a member of the British boyband “North and South”. Our first single reached number 7 in the UK charts. We had four top 40 hits and acted in our own comedy TV series for Children’s BBC.
In college I was the lead singer of “Tommy and The Tigers”. We recorded an album and performed around the university campus, and at venues in Boston and New York City, including The Bitter End and the infamous CBGBs, believed to be the birthplace of hard core punk rock in the 80s.
I’m currently lead singer of “Chthonic Angels” in Los Angeles. We’ve written and recorded about 20 songs. Brian Florian writes the music. I write the lyrics.
I will likely continue both as a solo artist and as a member of a band in the years to come, but I’m focusing more on the solo stuff. It’s all just for fun really. I don’t have a record deal and I’m not making any money from it, nor do I expect to. It’s a brave new world of downloads out there and trying to make money to even break even with any of this stuff would be a full time job. I simply don’t have the time nor desire to pursue that. I think of it more as a passion project.
I read that you have also done TV talk shows. Where? When? Is that still a vital part of your life?
TL: In 2011 - 2012 I hosted a reality TV show on The Oprah Winfrey network entitled “Real Life: The Musical”. We crash-coached ordinary people off the street in singing and dancing, and orchestrated flash mob musical production numbers to surprise their loved ones with a unique message in each episode.
Talk about you as an actor in musicals and doing two roles in productions of Les Mis, one of which was at the Hollywood Bowl in 2008.
TL: I’m one of the lucky few to have played both Marius and Enjolras in major productions of this amazing, beloved musical. I played Marius on London’s West End for 2 years, aged 20, which was an absolute dream come true and possibly the biggest, most exciting break of my career.
The Hollywood Bowl is an incredible venue to perform at, fighting and dying on the barricade under the moonlight, with the 73 piece LA Philharmonic Orchestra backing you up. Spine tingling stuff.
Getting back to the video of Polanco is this your first or have you done others?
TL: I’ve done some other music videos. Check them out on YouTube:
1) The Party Is On
2) Inesperadamente
3) Quando Chove No Rio
4) Live
Any gigs coming up in the immediate future?
TL:I’m performing excerpts from Les Mis at The Lincoln Center (Bruno Walter Auditorium) in New York on April 6th @ 7pm with The UN Chamber Music Society, led by Brenda Vongova, to raise money for the homeless in New York.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Lowe_(performer)
Here is the mesmerizing backstory that led to the video:
https://www.facebook.com/3818/posts/10106680010053101/
Here is the video Polanco:
https://youtu.be/2U6cevVxI-s
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