Let The Music Be Your Guide

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Every post I will include the song that inspired me to build a post around it's title

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What I'm Wearing: Shirt - H&M Pride Collection, T-shirt - Good Fellow, Pants - Express Men, Shoes - Calvin Klein 

"Let The Music Be Your Guide" 

Dear readers,

Are you gonna run? Are you gonna fly? I know that you can do it. 6 years ago I wrote these lyrics in a Costco parking lot. 6 months later I found myself in one of the most historic studios in the United States, recording with a Grammy award winning team and producer. Hours of tears and fears in the studio booths and 3 months later, this little song I wrote as I moved to LA, made it's way onto the worldwide web. Here we are 5 years later. So much has happened in the last 5 years. I don't really need to re bring up my diagnosis with Glaucoma , falling out with the music industry, people who came and went. There is many pages about that in this story, I don't need to do an hour long recap of the bad. This song is about empowering and uplifting the kids, the men, the women, everyone who wants to live a brand new day. That is me. I want to live a brand new day. Normally artists don't celebrate anniversaries or birthdays of the work they put out into the world. They only do that on special occasions for special songs.
This is a very special song for me. I feel like the morals of what I stand for in life is clearly represented throughout each verse and bridge. I know when something is special and I know this song is still special 5 years later. It is unfortunate that I got sick and my career, this record, this album, took a hard hit along with me. But I was once told that LTMBYG and the whole album it comes with, is timeless. I 100% agree. I'm not just saying that because it is my album. I'm saying that because it is so much more than that. Within the DNA of this track and then the whole album that it comes with, is messages of LOVE in all forms. Loving yourself for all your flaws, faults, highs, lows. Accepting and loving the world around you, no matter their size, color, sexuality, religion. Loving everyone for the beauty they hold within. And being proud of the beauty around you. As my audience continues to grow and I grow as a social influencer, I want to remind everyone where I come from. I don't come from the fashion world, I don't come from the blogging community. I am a singer - songwriter. I will always be a musician and a devoted artist. I 100% plan on using my audience to my advantage, because if they love me as social influencer, then I hope they love me for who I truly am, Dom Baza, the singer- songwriter. I hope they give me the chance to give my children, my songs, a 2nd life it truly deserves. Let The Music Be Your Guide, deserves a 2nd life. My song and whole album is too special to have 1,000 copies sitting at my parents house, when the messages within them NEED to be heard, especially now with the way the world we live in works.

I always have a lot on my mind. Lately i have a lot on my plate. I have been so busy being a social influencer. When I surrendered I thought things were gonna take a little while to pick up. But my email and phone has not stopped flickering at me. I have been blessed with the opportunity to keep doing empowering and special collaborations for social media. I swear each week they get better. I'm genuinely excited to keep trying something new. I have turned my blog about fashion into something I am proud of as an activist. To be able to speak up about causes that are important to me, that means a lot. I feel like everything has been leading right to this moment, the 5 year anniversary of Let The Music Be Your Guide. All the current themes I have been preaching about, all lead up to this and beyond. I wanted to do something special for this song that really is the definition of who I am. When I wrote Let The Music Be Your Guide, I was 17 years old. It was September 2012 and I just got my first apartment in LA. I was in the car with this melody stuck in my head. The lyrics "Are you gonna run, Are you gonna fly" on endless repeat until I reached the lyrics "Come on feel it in you, Let The Music Be Your Guide". I had been circling that title for 2 weeks. I didn't know what I wanted to use it in, but I knew I was going to use it eventually.
You see, I wrote the title "Let The Music Be Your Guide" on a guitar I autographed for a fan named Rosy. She loved my song "September" and got a hold of me to autograph a guitar she had won. I signed it and put always let the music be your guide. I thought it was catchy and would be great to use in a song. I just didn't know what to do with it until I took a trip to Costco. I know that sounds weird, but i'm serious, Costco was a great inspiration that day. It took me 5 mins to come up with the rest of the song. The rap came naturally, it just flowed so well in my head. I was feeling all these emotions run through my head and heart. At the time I was genuinely struggling with figuring out what I wanted in my personal life. I was married to my career, I still am married to my career, but now I find balance between my personal life, illness, and my careers. In all honesty I wrote this song for the world, but I wrote it as a letter to myself as well. I didn't know what I was going to find when I moved to LA. I didn't know I was going to get picked up so quickly and have my world turn upside down. I knew I wanted to make the record that would become all 10 songs in Let The Music Be Your Guide, the album. I knew I wanted to fall in love. That was important to me, I wanted to feel loved and love someone like the way I was beginning to love myself. It took me a second to accept my unique qualities. Funny thing is, I would gain more unique qualities a year later.
I moved to LA with so much love in my heart. So much love that I wanted to share. All that love is what brought this song to life. When Let The Music Be Your Guide was released, same sex marriage became legal in California. I did not plan on the release to meet up perfectly with this historic ruling. It just happened so naturally. I can't begin to describe the feelings I felt from the amazing feedback I got when this song first hit online. I know I am not the biggest singer in the world, or the best, but my work can stand tall on it's on. But there is people who do love this song. I did get some sort of audience that listened to what I had to say. They took the time and heard me out and connected with the message in my song. I still have every tweet sent to me saved in a folder. One girl told me, thank you for saving me, thank you for your music, thank you for giving me this song to use as my guide. My song didn't get to reach everyone in the world, but knowing that it reached a young girl and made some sort of impact on her, that is something I will always be proud of. My fans that supported this song, the whole album, they played a huge part in getting me back out of the music closet to celebrate this special song 5 years later. 

In May, I quietly started working on a new version of the music video for the song. I wrote down ideas and thoughts. I thought it wouldn't be possible to do. I thought everyone was going to turn me down and not want to be apart of what I wanted to create. As I explained to them, Let The Music Be Your Guide was relevant then, and now more than ever. We live in a world where you turn a corner, haters there, love is exiled. We try to think but we are all so in denial. There is so much sin going around like it's destiny's child. But if we can all put a smile on our face and help a kid who is trying to run an 8 mile race, to their dreams that are far from in denial, away from sin spreading around like west nile. Together we will run, we will fly, there is music in our hearts and we will let that be our guide. I am so sick of turning on the news to see another school shooting, another hate crime, another issue about someones race or sexuality. This is not right and I want to stand up and speak out. I want to stand up and speak out and help heal with what gift god gave me, my music, and my voice. I truly believe we are all equal. June is Pride month for my LGBTQ brothers and sisters. We should stand up and be proud of what makes us special. We shouldn't have to feel the need to hide away from society.
Society is making a shit load of people want to hide what makes them, them. ENOUGH. I have had my share of racist experiences in the last year, but my little encounters can't top the headlines of the African Americans, the Muslims, the Mexicans, anyone NOT white. For a time we were united wether white, black, or even beige, and now today in societies huge rage, none of us our equal in their eyes. But let me tell you, we are. Don't let the fake news and rage blind you from seeing that our unique souls are meant to be the way they are. Stand UP with pride. Be proud of who you are, where you come from, what god you love, who you love, and everything that makes you, you.
I am proud to be apart of the LGBTQ community, I am proud to say I have swayed both ways, I am proud to be a non white Guamanian Filipino American import, singing every genre of music, preaching the things I believe in, loving a French Italian man, standing up for the underdogs, fighting a disease that is trying to make me blind, proud to be a son, a brother, an uncle, a friend, a partner and a lover. I am proud that my loved ones from around the world chose to join in and celebrate my song and the message it holds in a month that should be filled with nothing but love. I am honored that they along with more than a handful of my fans could write words of love, words of wisdom, words that describe who they are and what they believe in, words that uplift, words that empower, words that inspire to aspire. I hope that their words along with the song that I wrote help make some sort of difference in someones life. I hope that the things I have to say and the people that are in my life help give this song the 2nd life it deserves so it can help the kids, the men, the woman, who are ready for a brand new day. 

When you break down and cry, or have sleepless cold night, remember tomorrow is a new day. Every little thing is gonna be alright.

With love in our hearts we are equal. Love is love, is love, is love. 
And you, yes, i'm talking to all of you, 
Don't let anyone ever tell you, you are not loved. 
Because you are loved.
​You are loved. 

Love, Dom 

Photographer: Joey Marie & Dom Baza
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PAGE 51
​Stories From My Life - Chapter 7