PENELOPE DARIO in conversation with KISSCAM TONY
IN A GLOBALIZED WORLD, YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT WILL WASH UP ON YOUR LOCAL SHORE.
Though these shores are less related to sand and sun, but rather where the surfing is done with a screen and keyboard and not with wetsuits and longboards. While we owe a lot of our modern comforts to the proliferation of the internet, we are now craving to find a soft underbelly within it—a space that allows artists to exist, thrive, and celebrate the imperfect beauty of analog processes. The tender glow of romantic nostalgia is shattered by the all time highs in resolution and definition that digital tools can instantly provide us. Enter Tony Verdello AKA Kisscam Tony, a Chilean born Sex-Tech entrepreneur with the heart of an artist. He has created the first modern-day pay-per-view porn site dedicated exclusively to footage shot on film and vhs, and who believes medium is as equally important to message.
PETIT MORT (PENELOPE DARIO)
We spoke a couple of days after I went to the Bad Gyal concert and you were saying that Europe has a different relationship to their pop stars…
KISSCAM TONY
Europe and America have this thing in common with idolizing in general, especially with soccer culture, like European and Latin American football—the way they see the players, the way they see the teams. It’s the exact phenomenon with music. When you take the case of someone like Anuel and Karol G, they became huge because they were also pushing a lifestyle in Latin America that’s so looked up to, and everybody started doing it. I feel the progression with reggaeton in Latin America, nowadays with Spotify, every country has their pop stars, but there are only a few huge ones like Maluma, Karol G and Becky G, J. Balvin. In Europe, especially for Latin music fans, it's just one country. It's from Spain, or you can hear some reggaeton tracks by French or Italian artists. And that's a good phenomenon. But Europe and Latin America have that thing in common with idols. But in Europe, with Lamella Rodriguez, she's a pre-Spotify, female Spanish rap artist. I think that Bad Gyal got in at a really good time for music in Europe. At the same time, it's niche but it's worldwide. It's like a worldwide niche. I think she's huge. For the people that are in the scene, she's a reference. The DJs are certainly different in the electronic music scene. But in reggaeton it’s Bad Gyal in Spain, and Miss Nina in Argentina, and Tomasa Del Real in Chile. Those are the underground girls of reggaeton, but they're still huge.