Michael Chase DiMartino Creates Videos Designed to Bring Joy to the Deaf

New York native,
Chase, began performing at a young age. He sang in Carnegie Hall when he was 16. Later, he performed in a play called “Kosher Harry” for which he received rave reviews from the New York Times for his leading role. Now writing and producing his own songs, Chase endeavors to bring communities together through his music.

Michael “Chase” DiMartino is a new breed of Clark Kent. By day, the 26-year-old serves as a sign-language interpreter — translating meetings for a deaf business woman in New York City. By night, the Bay Ridge, Brooklyn native is using his hands — and his moves — for another lofty purpose: To bring the likes of Britney Spears and Lady Gaga to the deaf and hearing-impaired communities through the art of sign language.

After he posted interpretive videos of “Womanizer,” to You Tube,  Britney Spears herself had them posted to her website, bringing DiMartino’s videos over the 700,000-viewer threshold. He’s been asked to interpret Lady Gaga’s sold-out show at Madison Square Garden (check out his sign-language video for “Bad Romance” ). A singer-songwriter and performer in his own rite, Chase has been  showcasing his own original material and, in doing so, hoping to bridge the hearing and deaf communities in a way that has never been done before.

He is quoted, “Can you envision a stadium packed with people –  half of them hearing, and the other half deaf/hard of hearing  – and all of them enjoying the same music? That is my dream.” His first single, Falldown, and his follow-up song, Hard Candy, are both available on iTunes.  His EP is set to release this summer.

 With the release of this new video  HARD  CANDY, Chase has discussed a little about his sexuality. He starts off by saying:

 

Gay? Who me? Not such a big issue to me. I don’t believe music has a gender. It has no sex. The art of music does not differentiate between its gay or straight counterparts. For myself, I identify as gay only because it seems to be the most …easily explained, and also, more readily accepted.

But if I were to break it down, I would say this: ‘I truly believe myself to love a person for who they are. Gender unattached. I believe that if the right female came along, I could fall in love (and have, with women in the past). But as it stands right now, I am in love with one who happens to be a male.’

 

“After “Womanizer,” there was this shift in my mind, where I no longer wanted to do just that. I wanted to show people who I am, what my voice is, what my influence on music is. That’s why I started to go into the studio and started to write songs with another artist, Adam Joseph . He did the instrumental and we wrote lyrics together.

It’s been just a wonderful time. I have my videos, which are an extension of myself and now I feel like I have my music, which is an extension of myself and it really feels like a baby. I’ve always heard people say that but I never understood it until now. It feels like my baby. I put so much into this — and it’s my emotion. It’s going onto a limb. It’s taking a huge risk.”

Read more  at  OUT   and   OFFICIAL CHASE !

BEST GAY NEW YORK.com

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