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Padini Paolo Santiago is a theatre major at UTRGV. A student whose passion is not only found in playing a role in a show, but in a different type of craft and performance.
Santiago says he has been making music since he was 12 years old. He tells us musicians like Paul McCartney, Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys, Frank Ocean, and Kendrick Lamar inspire him to create music that is genuine to his life and values.
His most recently released song titled ‘Isolation Summer’ was inspired by what he calls “the emotional honesty of missing someone” during the COVID-19 quarantine.
“I miss my girlfriend so much. I miss my friends so much. And all I can do is sing about how I miss them. I can’t break the rules and see them because I know that would be an endangerment for everyone else,” said Santiago.
He states that though he misses his loved ones, he feels privileged to be able to write this song.
”I understand that there are people who are dying, their families are sick, some people have lost their families and they can’t hold funerals, they can’t have weddings. I mean I personally didn’t have a birthday but that’s nothing compared to what other people are going through,” said Santiago.
He also used this song to express the growing discrimination he has both experienced and witnessed towards the Asian American community which he identifies with.
“I started seeing people look at me differently or if I coughed they just looked at me weird like they left areas. I was different and I had different customs which means I was definitely a target for their prejudice and that’s what hurt. As soon as they could point a finger at me, they did it and that was so crazy.”
Santiago says he hopes that people facing this type of prejudice during this moment of crisis can understand they are not facing this alone.
“Understand that you are not silent. We are not deaf to your cries. We stand with you, we don’t stand against you.”
Santiago’s band Honey Flowers is set to release a new single on Spotify in about a month titled ‘Yellow Boy’ which he states is framed as a love song, but can also be viewed as a song about discrimination towards Asians in the music and entertainment industry.
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