20 SEPTEMBER 12-18, 2024 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | LETTERS | CONTENTS | comes to compatibility, we are, in the stars, a perfect match,” DNA says. “That’s my person.” “He is my familiar,” Christina affi rms. “He’s been my familiar since day one. Some of it is inexplicable.” They discovered that their grandfathers were both born in 1911, although Christina is 21 years older than DNA. She has the same name as his brother, and he has the same birthday as her father. Their Human Design charts were an exact match. He is a twin, and she is a mother to twins. But perhaps the most striking story involves a poem Christina wrote that had a particularly poignant resonance. “Dominique wrote a poem about this mother who couldn’t take it anymore and jumped off of a building, killing herself and her two kids,” DNA recalls. “And my mom lived in that same building.” When he and Christina be- gan talking, “something told me I could trust her,” he says. “I told her my story, and I sent her [the Maury clip], which I never showed anybody.” After hearing about his past, Christina offered to help him fi nd his birth mother. No one had ever suggested that before. “And I love her for that,” he says. “I felt like I let my guard down. I felt like I could be vulnerable.” The quest to fi nd DNA’s mother took the couple a year; relatives they connected with said she had been missing for a long time. Through some- one who worked at Medic- aid, DNA discovered that his mother, who is around 59 years old, was living in an adult home. He and Christina visited her, and returned for the third time this year. “My mom struggled with addiction and mental health issues and homelessness,” he says, “so I’m very, very sensi- tive to those things. I abso- lutely want to fi gure out how to help everybody right now, but I just can’t. I know that I have to keep climbing up. I can handle what I can handle, and then...I want to fi gure out how to really touch all these people. I want to get my mom a house.” The journey to fi nding his mother and the growing love between him and Christina inspired his 2023 album, The Color Blü. Now they’re spotlighting their connection on Lawless: A Love Story, which will drop on October 25. “We met through letters,” says Christina, “and this, for me, felt like just more letters being written to each other about how we feel about each other, what we’re thinking about, how we’re relating to ourselves now that we’re in this relationship. I feel like the project is just an extension of those conversations that laid the groundwork for our relationship.” One of the songs, “Origami,” was recently showcased in a music video via the 48 Hour Film Project, a strong visual complement to the sensual number. The fi fteen tracks are re- plete with passion and vulnerability, particu- larly “Motherless Child,” which fi nds DNA refl ecting on his own past, supplemented by Christina’s experience as a mother. And there are joyous moments that pull listeners into their aspirational, unconditional love, on such songs as “Luv U Always,” “Heaven Can Wait” and “Renovate.” The album closes out with “First Poem She Wrote,” which consists of Christina reading the fi rst poem she had written for DNA over a hypnotic beat, her silky voice bringing weight to each word of the powerful proclamation. “I just want people to hear the project and feel glad,” Christina says. “I want people to feel happy for us, but more like happy with us. To be embedded in this joy with us. That’s what I want. I feel like that’s what we get with our friends when they’re around us. I’m very proud of it, and I want that to translate.” While the power couple’s album took only a couple of weeks to write, creating the Lawless series with the Museum of Con- temporary Art’s Holiday Theatre has been a long and arduous process — and DNA and Christina are putting their all into it. They believe the designers they chose — Allegra, Chance of Uniq Jeans, Menez to Society, and Faatma Be Oné — represent the cream of Denver’s fashion crop. “In an effort to just have high-level cura- tion, I feel like these designers really, really do represent what good fashion truly looks like,” says DNA. “And it helps set a bar.” The name “Lawless” was chosen for both the album and the MCA series because “that is the most accurate description of how he and I show up in the world — which is to say, the rules just don’t really apply,” Christina says. “We color outside of the lines all the time; there are no lines. We don’t ask for seats at the table; we might be fl ipping those tables,” she continues. “We are interested in being in service of our gifts and in support of one another. To me, there’s a culture that doesn’t necessarily know how to honor love and commitment anymore, doesn’t necessarily know how to feed artists, doesn’t necessarily know how to honor our creative process and how much we need it, how invested we are in pouring beauty back into the world, giving you music where bombs used to be, right? “So to me, that’s a lawless existence — when you are in resistance to a culture that is trying to tear things down and you are trying to build things up, build things up in people, in spaces,” she concludes. “That’s lawless. To me, that’s the ethos, really.” DNA’s work on other projects doesn’t distract him from the goal of building up the local music scene. Alongside Kelsy Lartius Miguel, he has been cultivating a new organization called the Colorado Music Industry Alliance since the beginning of the year. “Basically, our mission is to educate, connect, support, uplift Colorado’s music industry by building a thriving and sustainable scene in the state of Colorado through programming, advocacy and accountability,” DNA says. He wants it to be a one-stop shop for resources, with a directory for artists, writ- ers, producers, studios and more. “We want to be Colorado’s number-one advocacy and programming organization for the music industry,” he adds. He already has a robust network, as he demonstrated by leading the charge for strategic partnerships at the Auditorium, bringing in not only panelists, but sponsors like the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts, the Sonic Guild and Illegal Pete’s. That network is also showcased at events like the R&B Jam Fest. He started the series in 2022 out of his genuine love for the genre; he hosted three shows that year and four the next. Then Your Mom’s House locked him in for twelve shows this year. He already has a lot on his plate, but the meaning of this event keeps him going. “I think my ‘why’ is knowing that it is bigger than me,” he says. “I created that just to make sure that R&B artists had a place in the community. Also, I had self-serving reasons: I wanted to know about all the art- ists that were here to be able to work with these people one day. “The ecosystem that I’ve been able to create with this show…people who are now collaborators, best friends, producers, ac- companying musicians, videographers, pho- tographers — all these different things. I’m fi guring out I created this community that people feel like they can come in and benefi t from,” he adds. “And I don’t know, it’s just crazy to see. It’s crazy to stand back and watch.” While he continues creat- ing opportunities, he wants to inspire others in the com- munity to do the same, and is attending Arapahoe Commu- nity College to earn his music business certifi cate to further his goals. Denver is in a unique position when it comes to the music scene, he says, and the wider industry should take notice. “We don’t want this to be another L.A., another New York,” he explains. “We have an interesting opportunity to be able to create something that’s never been seen before, a super-community.” That means supporting local artists, as the R&B Jam Fest does. Many musicians feel they have to leave for cities like New York, Nash- ville or Los Angeles to make it big, but DNA thinks the more time that’s invested into building the music scene here, the more the industry will recognize its talent. That also involves advocating for more arts funding. During the Auditorium, he encour- aged musicians to look for grants, to apply for residencies, to take care of their needs. And now that he’s a Grammy U member, DNA is speaking to the Recording Academy about partnerships and growing Colorado’s membership base. “I want to bring the industry here,” he says. “There are no publishing houses here. There should be a Sony Music offi ce down- town. There should be a Warner Brothers of- fi ce downtown, distribution centers, agents and reps and offi ces here. We don’t have that. The industry hasn’t come here and embraced the scene here. It’s valuable, but really, it’s untapped gold. “We need the tools to extract that gold,” DNA concludes. “And that’s where I’m trying to be a pioneer.” Email the author at [email protected]. DNA Picasso performing at the Underground Music Showcase. Music continued from page 18 JORDAN ALTERGOTT
