Jack Tracy’s new song, “Time Travel,” is a call to action that urges the nation to stand together and make their blue voices heard on November 6. "The song is a direct response to this nonsense about making America great again,” the out musician explains. “Let’s be clear, that mantra is coded language, dripped in nostalgia. The truth about this so-called great America of the past, is that minority communities, including the LGBT community, were suffering.”
“The MAGA camp wants to turn back the clock on our LGBTQ rights,” Jack Tracy continues, “so unless you want our marriages nullified, our ability to adopt eliminated, our right to walk freely into any restaurant or bar stripped, civil rights of our trans brothers and sisters erased, or our ability to get insured limited...it's time to wake up, step up and prepare for real action—at the ballot box. If you cannot find one hour to get your ass to the polls on November 6, you are complicit in allowing this nonsense to continue.”
“Time Travel” is an 80’s Prince-inspired saga track with a militaristic, unified beat. The music video is a direct nod to Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation”. “I choreographed the video and incorporated a handful of moves straight from Janet's ‘Rhythm Nation’ video,” Tracy acknowledges. “The whole while, I had her pledge in mind: We are a nation of like-minded individuals sharing a common vision.”
It’s true that there are more blues than reds. Trump’s approval rating is at 44%, however republicans have historically been more focused and dedicated to supporting their candidates at the polls. According to Tracy, ”We have the chance to end this nightmare once and for all.”
He says that while he has always been politically minded — “ to be gay means you are politically minded” — he has never been more so than today. “The current administration has ignited a deep well of anger in me that I carry every day. The thought that there are some in the country that think Trump is good for America is appalling.”
The plight of the refugees has impacted Jack Tracy most significantly. “After these people fled their homes by taking a dangerous journey, often hundreds of miles, leaving everything they knew for the chance to possibly live a life free from gang violence and drug cartels, we ripped their children away from them. We sent parents back to their countries, some likely to their deaths, and we kept their children. In tent cities. In cages. Many will grow up never knowing what happened to their parents. It is heartbreaking, and it was done to them by the United States of America.”
Jack Tracy is the founder and owner of Necessary Outlet, a film production company that produces LGBT web series including the fifty-time festival selection and award winner, History, a show that stars Tracy as a 30-something gay lawyer, fresh out of a break up and looking to rebuild his life. Other notable works: Millennial Memoir, a comedic riff on a 26 year-old gay reality star looking to write his life story, and Big Law, a comedic “Office”-type show that Tracy makes occasional cameos in.
He is currently filming the third season of History – due out early next year — and his first full-length film, Snowflake, is primed to enter the festival circuit by year’s end.
Like “Time Travel,” the film was born out of frustration from the 2016 US election. It tells the story of a group of gay men and their friends and how they deal with a looming threat to LGBTQ rights spawned by a recent presidential election. Tracy wrote Snowflake last year and its Supreme Court subplot has proven eerily prophetic.
“The film takes a look at the state of the world through an LGBTQ lens and makes us wonder what, if anything, any of us would — or will — do to stop the insanity.”
Jack Tracy’s “Time Travel” is available on Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music and Tidal.
Visit his website.