The artist’s Queer Urban Memoir claims back the space for LGBTQI+ artists to be divine beings
During February’s Cape Town Pride Week - just before the Covid-19 pandemic put South Africa on lockdown - Lance Lightyear released his latest project, ‘Queer Urban Memoir’. The emerging artist has been creating music under the moniker Lance Lightyear (a name he chose to remind him that he intends to be a messenger of positivity) since 2016. He’s now developed a lo-fi R&B sound that he describes as “urban contemporary music” and which lyrically subverts the status quo.
“There is a story to tell,” he says of the project, which addresses the experience of being a young, queer artist in Cape Town where the LQBTQI+ community is still a marginalised one. The opening song ‘Secret Garden’ expresses the desire to be seen as a divine being but feeling like an outsider. ‘Heavy Days’ then moves the narrative onto the experience of living within that reality. ‘QueeRihanna’ imagines a revolution – the artist Rihanna is one of Lance’s role models. ‘Glitter Gang’ is in praise of the community he’s part of, one that fights oppression together, and the final title track is about being able to express yourself as you truly are wherever you go.
“I come from this city and I know how things are here, so that’s what my music talks about,” Lance explains. “But I’ve spoken to people elsewhere in South Africa and even further and they say they can also relate. Music is my medium to speak about issues, to talk about how we want to be loved, and what we aren’t going to stand for.”
Lance was born and raised in the large township of Mitchells Plain and recalls how as a teenager he felt that there were certain spaces he was not allowed to inhabit.
“I’d go out to the store and there’d be 15 people voicing their opinions and criticising me because I was a man with make-up on. They think there is something wrong with us and we should fix ourselves to suit how the world is currently designed. Some people think that all I want to do is disrupt but I just want to feel included and represented.”
For the Nataal portrait shoot, Lance brought photographer Justin Keene to a skatepark in Mitchell’s Plain near where he lives. The park is part of his journey as an artist – a space that inspired him creativity but also one that he felt was historically hostile to queer individuals.
“It is an urban hip hop hub where people are always skating, rapping, break dancing, doing graffiti. It was somewhere for me to live and learn but I could never be a part of that clique. I was never comfortable and there was no one like me there to inspire me. I remember growing up and feeling very drawn to and also very repelled from that space. But now I go there proudly and I can shift the idea of what an artist should be.”
Lance also wanted to be shot outside a music venue where he was due to perform his new material but was forced to cancel due to the lockdown. He has made his name through his captivating live shows at local events. Undeterred though, and still at an early stage of his career, his priority for the future is to nurture his voice and collaborate with other local artists who speak truth to the people.