Brandon Victor Dixon Talks About His New Single “#WeAre”Posted by Wilson Morales
May 23, 2018
Fresh from giving an electricfying performance as Judas in NBC’s Jesus Christ Superstar Live, Tony Award and Grammy Award nominee, Brandon Victor Dixon, has released his debut single, “#WeAre” available now for digital download.
The pop-anthem was written by Dixon as a call-to-action, speaking to the social issues confronting us today. The lyrics were written by Dixon, with music by Dixon and Greg Dean Borowsky of Sony Music, featuring spoken word by Daniel J. Watts (TBS’s The Last O.G.).
Sales from the download of Dixon’s first original song will benefit YoungNewYorkers.org, an organization that helps rehabilitate juvenile first time offenders in their teens who are sentenced to their arts program instead of jail. Dixon feels strongly about the issue of mass incarceration in our country and how it impacts us all morally. “We are more than the worst thing we have ever done. And it is our responsibility not to punish our children, but to heal them; to provide for them.” Dixon insists.
Dixon currently co-stars as Terry Silver on the STARZ hit series, “Power.” Prior to Jesus Christ Superstar Live, he most recently starred as Aaron Burr in Broadway’s HAMILTON. His previous Broadway credits include Eubie Blake in Shuffle Along (Tony Award nomination), Berry Gordy in Motown The Musical (Grammy and Drama League Award nominations), and Harpo in The Color Purple (Tony Award nomination).
Blackfilm.com recently spoke with Dixon about the song, the fun he’s having on Power, and his new app, Qurater.
Why choose #WeAre as your first release?
Brandon Victor Dixon: I thought it was one of the stronger tunes in my arsenal, but I also thought it was the perfect encapsulation of the goal of the music, the goal of the platform. As I was thinking about my music and what I wanted to do with it, the conception of really creating a network of seeking out artists who want to pair their art with their advocacy and working to build intersectional platform on that basis, seemed like the kind of thing that made sense for the kind of things I’m thinking about. I tend to work out in general and #WeAre was the perfect song to create that platform of intersectional change. To announce a campaign that is about remembering the mutual understanding of our interdependency as living beings on this planet; and working from that perspective to think on how we address issues of helping everyone to live and thrive.
When did you know you wanted to write this song and how long did it take you to write it?
Brandon Victor Dixon: It began at a charity performance that Daniel Watts was going to do. He’s featured on the track. He asked me to write something for it and so I wrote the hook. Maybe two years after that I decided to go back in and do the song. I wrote the song and have performed it live acoustic version the past year but decided to turn it into a record.
Will the rest of the forthcoming music have similar themes?
Brandon Victor Dixon: Yes. The next two releases that I have and one of the titles is called “One Day” and the other is “Today is Possible” and the intention is to create collaboration in production with each of the projects and to pair them also with another philanthropic entity, another charitable platform.
The goal of these songs are not to generate income for myself. The goals of these songs are to tell a message and with this message hopefully create networks of understanding and raise funds for institutions that really need it. I’m always looking to have things so that I can it give away. That’s my general philosophy in life.
Unless one lives in New York, they haven’t seen how good you are when on the stage and their first glimpse of that was watching you on NBC’s Jesus Christ Superstar; where you gave a phenomenal performance as Judas? Has things change for you since then?
Brandon Victor Dixon: It’s funny because I get that question a lot. I’m still out here shaking my ass on the street, but just doing it in nicer clothes for more people. Like you said, more people now have a wider range of understanding. They get a fuller picture of who I am and the things I am about and the things I’m looking to contribute to and to collaborate in. I am getting some more interesting phone calls and getting people reaching out. I’m getting people willing to spread the message of the things I’m involved in like “We Are.” I connected with some cool people who are developing a new app for the film and television space. I started to talk with them on how I could support their work. It really has opened up some doors.
Later this summer, you’ll be back on Power. How much fun are you having on the show since your character is still alive?
Brandon Victor Dixon: (Laughs) Every day alive in the Power world is a beautiful day. We’re having a great time. I was a fan of Power before I was working on the show so I’m excited by every script that comes into my hands. The season that we have coming up is going to be really exciting. I’m hyped for July 1st and to see the reaction from everybody. The crew is back together with Ghost, Tommy and Canan up against the world. The personal vendettas and web that have woven continue to ensnare their groups, Ghost and Terry Silver and Team Tasha has some more dealings.
What are you working on next?
Brandon Victor Dixon: You will see me talking about this new app called “Qurator.” I’ll be out doing some interviews and presentations over the next two to three weeks. We’re launching a Kickstarter this week. For the last year or so, there has been a lot of debate in the film space regarding critics, opinions of films, studio projections of films, audience reaction of films, and people are having difficult of where to go to have integrity with reviews and content. We’re launching an app called Qurator, which is essentially a peer-to-peer platform that’s designed to restore the integrity to reviews for films and television. The basic premise of the app is to deter weighted reviews or to deter trolls. You go on the app and select a film, you press curate and you take a 30 seconds quiz of randomized questions from the film. If you pass at a rate of 51%, then you get to rate the film and give it a number form 1 to 10 and you get to leave a review. You can also see other people who have rated the film and you can see what films they liked. The link for Qurator can be found here.
