We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Toño Jared. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Toño below.

Toño, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The most meaningful project I’ve worked on definitely has to be my upcoming first album. It’s the culmination of the last 4 years of my life from its themes, to the sound, and even the producers I’ve worked with.

My favorite example would be Jonny Lemons, the first producer I ever worked with, producing a pair of songs on the album. My first project had a lot of more melancholy themes so I found it fitting to bring it back to that by using Jonny’s tracks as an outlet for me make pop/rap hybrids about overstimulation and breakups.

The whole album itself is themed around presenting a mask, bringing it down, and realizing you’ve said too much and you gotta put it back up. When the mask is down I’m the most real I’ve ever been, but I still gotta be camp sometimes! The album is as many parts crying in the club as it is dancing your problems away with your friends in the club.

Writing this album over the past few years has been one of the most liberating and personal experiences I’ve ever had. I can’t wait to be sharing this with everyone once it drops. Album title dropping soon, but the first single “Last Call” is dropping April 21st!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Is it any surprise that I grew up doing theatre? I was pretty good at it, but I always noticed I liked doing the solo stuff more than other people. Monologues and solo musical numbers gave me a chance to be noticed and listened to for at least two minutes at a time without anyone cutting me off. As I got older I fell out of doing theatre in favor of chasing that feeling of validation from an audience and sharing my art.

I’ve been performing around Portland since I was right out of high school. Anywhere I could find that could take my style of music I was at. When you’re trying to sell yourself as a Latino hyperpop rapper you take what you get and you enjoy it! I’m very lucky to have been able to perform my music at pride festivals around Oregon, as well as the local drag scene. My performances are most at home in queer spaces. I want my music to be heard and enjoyed but most of all I want it to be understood. Queer people just get it, am I right?

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Truthfully it’s seeing the growth in myself. When I look at the bars I wrote when I was 18/19 vs now it’s like a Mega Evolution. I really have some pen game!

How did you build your audience on social media?

I know the algorithms want quantity, but I promise you quality is where it’s at. I’ve burnt myself more times than I can count on social media trying to keep up with every trend and schedule that it stops being fun. I have more fun when I’m making videos when I want to and not when I feel like I need to be. It’s a steeper climb, but you get more loyal and genuine people looking at the things you’re creating!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/tonotherapper
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/tonotherapper
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/tonotherapper

Image Credits
PHOTO TAKEN BY COLIN “YUCK” SMITH EDITED BY TOÑO