Today we’d like to introduce you to Corey Calabasas.
Hi Corey, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Hi, I’m Corey Calabasas. I’ve been a musician for 88% of my existence, and a student in perpetuity. I also love writing.
I was born a Gemini (sorry) on a full moon in a town splitting the 49th and 50th parallel (I am Canadian), thirty-one years ago.
Music has been a part of my life for over two decades since it first found me; I am bewildered and beyond grateful for the creative expression it continues to provide for me. Over two decades later, music has taken me to countless auditoriums, recital halls, fire halls, bars, Austria once, art studios, coffee shops, tiny storefronts – to name a few – and has connected me with thousands of other hearts and minds in mutual interest of cultivating the creative field.
I started playing classical guitar at 7 and from that moment on I had the bug. I started producing music under my own label, Coronation Collective in 2017, going through various phases as an artist while I too discovered my true self, something over time that continues to unfold.
(“Examining in Royal Conservatory curriculum from grades 1 through 10, reaching ARCT level I followed this first true musical love of classical guitar to the University of Victoria in 2013, enrolling to major in the Guitar Performance Program and minor in English Literature…It wasn’t until 2017 that we started releasing tracks on SoundCloud, which is right after I switched to a Major in English Literature and a Minor in Professional Communications, putting the guitar out to pasture after 15 years of non stop study. It was time to break free, loosen up, figure out who I actually was, give the guitar some rest and come back to it one day, like every guitarist my senior had told me would “eventually” happen, both the absence and the return. I knew it was something that would later paint itself in a more comprehensive light, akin to a Hemingway novel, and today I do concur, it is true…”)
As a person: – Artist, Guitarist, Writer, Utilitarian, Centrist Libertarian, Modernist Fighting the Tempest of Postmodernism, Old Book Advocate, Anti-AI Activist; Genderfluid Nonconformist, Wearer of Many Hats.
As an independent artist I’ve released 4 albums, 1 EP and 13 singles in collaboration with the 4-5 other core members of the group to date. Through this process I allowed myself a safe space to get out of my head and through the speakers, something to explore and amplify this discovery process in hopes that I might hear myself as I heard it up there, in my head. It came close and found itself a new home through hip-hop, rap, autotune crooning. And I’ve enjoyed the hell out of it. But writing allowed me to really speak – hence the story’s unfolding…
As Corey Calabasas, I’m a retro futurist. My fashion stems from my influence of vintage (1950s-) casual and formal with 80’s/90’s supermodel chic, drizzled with glam metal flair. As a musical artist Corey Calabasas experiments across all genres. Hip hop, pop, metal, country, folk or singer songwriter. I let it influence what directions I keep sculpting my sound into. I’ve released one album of my own so far, a few different singles, an EP with Coro homie Bai, though I’m particularly excited for what’s up my sleeve next. I just dropped a metal track on my SoundCloud. Oh yeah, and there’s 22 other songs you can only find on Coronation Collective’s SoundCloud. I also illustrate and paint, largely inspired by abstract impressionism, psychedelia, and landscapes, having done cover art for most of Coronation’s projects, my own, and some Victoria rappers and artists as well.
(“…Calabasas released two solo projects under Coronation Collective – “No. 888: Miles” and “612Dreamland” – in addition to the group’s “Melon Season/MS2.” projects. He formerly performed with the Collective as YvngMilez and drag alias Monica Miles, releasing “DazeB4Dreamland” in 2021 under the moniker. As an artist Corey experiments with fashion, personal style and performance as a fluid form of energetic expression, and channels 80’s glam metal energy, rockstar flair and magnetic stage presence…”)
WHERE IT STARTED…..
I grew up playing classical guitar, and early on found liberty and solace in the space creative expression music provided, from the practice room – perhaps frustratedly practicing Giuliani studies – to a stage, works of Tarrega, Agustin-Barrios Mangore, and Dyens (fond favourites) flowing from my fingertips. It spoke to me, and to this day consider myself privileged and honoured to have studied and shared such wondrous music with so many people. Classical guitar, specifically works from the Romantic as well as contemporary composers like Canada’s own Richard Fortin, had profound effects on me for a young age.
Books were always my best friend, too. I never learned to read; I just began very young, is all. The written word has forever captivated me and forever will just as much as the fact that ink on paper was, until only recently, the highest resolution DPI available to humans in our known universe.
Despite being surrounded by popular music as long as I can remember (raised on Alan Jackson and Alison Crowe before country was, well, what it is now/the first tape I remember fully experiencing was Van Halen’s ‘1984’) it is curious to reflect on how my formative years were centered around Classical music largely composed before the Second World War. It didn’t matter to me that it was what my peers at the time would dismiss as “old” music, it was the anachronistic escape the experience of the instrument evoked from me that gave me the performing bug. It was a space where I fell in love with music for the emotion, the artistry, the passion, and its timeless craftsmanship in pursuit of translating the human experience; it was a safe space where, perhaps unbeknownst to me at the time, I was finding myself. From teenage years to reaching adulthood it became painfully evident to me that I did not fit in.
I started to wrestle with my sense of identity by the time I got to university and as I always had, turned to creativity as a means to quell this. I began writing poetry and raps, seeking to defend an idea of masculinity I had informed myself with through mainstream rap, out of my own growing insecurity with the body I occupied. By the time I was working on Disconnect, I was pretty much living my life on autopilot, driven by fear of myself, rejection of those close to me and a thwarted career if I ever achieved the financial means of addressing this perpetual identity crisis. My frame of reference at this point was entirely that it was unacceptable to be queer, much less be assigned male at birth and not mentally align with this.
My debut performance with part of the Coronation Collective squad in 2019 was very much me taking a stab at this new era rockstar idea that a rapper could be, shelving my own feelings in pursuit of one I thought would be commercially successful and economically viable enough that it would secure my “happiness” at a later date…sure enough it did attract the attention of some influential bodies in the industry, but I didn’t take it seriously enough as I knew I wasn’t being honest with myself, earnest with my work.
Not long after this I fell in love with a hair stylist who was my first public queer relationship, and this changed my life. It brought out a whole side of me that I had long kept hidden for fear of being too “feminine”, unlocking a confidence I always knew I had and giving my particular eccentricity a glass of perspective. I got into makeup thanks to him, and started working on some drag looks at this point. My debut album “No. 888: Miles” marks a new direction in my life and is where I started to open up a bit more through this lens.
Around this point, I lived with my good friend and producer YoEmmett, where we had a studio called the Launchpad…there was a venue that opened up island shortly after with the same name but spaced differently and I couldn’t help but feel like they heard it from our circles. Friends, acquaintances, local artists would pull up and record day in and day out. It was a sanctuary close to downtown Victoria and in two years, we only had one noise complaint.
The joy I felt experimenting with drag early on made me feel unstoppable, so much so that I basically manifested a career opportunity for myself before I’d even begun. Right around the start of the pandemic I decided I would start performing and making music as my drag alias, Monica Miles. I worked at a couple local queer bars, turned looks and maybe a head or two and generated somewhat of a buzz as a C-list celebrity in the city. But it wasn’t a sustainable path I was walking at that point, nor was I conscious enough to make proper decisions regarding my future career and livelihood. It took me a long time to get over my eventual “sabotage” of said opportunity, but I’m glad I’ve stayed independent until now. It has allowed me to discover myself on my own terms while perfecting my craft, something I may not have had as much control over if I were under a label throughout this process.
WHERE I AM TODAY
My lifestyle is that of a small town, crop-topped femboy with a hint of redneck, good dose of fabulous and a dash of can-do attitude. And not any one of those things is because its fashionable or needs to be en vogue, its because it is simply Me, something I’ve had to learn how to be in a world that says it cannot be.
I work a day job in a lumberyard and do side jobs like painting or roofing as needed to support my creative endeavours, enjoying hiking, mountain/dirtbiking and reading (about to start Valis, a Philip K. Dick novel I have never read.) I live in a small town in the Kootenays where there is not really a market nor opportunities to perform, but things are changing. Moving forward, with Loa Budget Productions (Ebby Gregory) I’m looking to generate some interest for live shows in my area, fostering an entertainment scene as part of the local economy for musicians and township alike. I’m working on my next album, “555,” in Vancouver next month with YoEmmett at Legacy Creative House and releasing a few fun ones along the way on SoundCloud.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The biggest challenge has been myself and getting out of my own way. This is an impossible battle if you’re an independent artist! I’m a smidge (a generous one) on the old-fashioned side (if you can’t tell) and in many aspects feel out of place in society altogether.
Social media has been my biggest challenge. Some downsides of not taking those aforementioned “offers” from influential industry giants means that you will be flagged as an independent, nonconforming artist. My Instagram and TikTok accounts are shadowbanned/frozen, and my streaming platform numbers vary wildly, don’t show up, or disappear completely. But I make my music the way I want, and I’m grateful that those who do hear it, or who my music may find, enjoy it.
With releasing my own music it was a harsh wake-up call to realize that simply putting music out there is “enough” in the commercial sense. I let this death drive for success, more or less, take me to the end of the road on multiple occasions. Throw in a dysphoric sense of identity and it was a matter of time before I sought out self-medicating behaviors that sent me on a path of addiction and substance abuse. Because as long as I can remember, I’ve felt peculiarly out of place. Only in recent years have I found vocabulary to begin describing this.
From the moment I had my own independence I began to run from myself. I was uncomfortable that now, on my own, I felt the way I did – a “bright boy” raised in a traditional family of small town, second-generation Canadians could never actually, possibly feel this way, right? Social environments meant parties, which meant social norms, cues, fear, anxiety. I sought out alcohol and as it progressively got worse, rejection from friends, family, and lovers propelled me towards drugs. I hospitalized myself twice in self-inflicted, drug induced psychosis, completely detached from reality in hopes of escaping one that did not feel like my own.
Coming out is something that never really happened, it was just the big pink elephant in the room my parents didn’t want to address and neither did I. When I was pushing to be a career drag queen, it was a necessity at the time to have to hate your family, it’s their fault, they made you this way…the way I see it and as far as my body is concerned – God did. And when it came to selecting a gender for my earth suit, God simply said “yes.” Actually, maybe “no?”
It’s an everyday challenge to see yourself outside of a binary gender in a world that increasingly says “there’s no science to support this.” This is simply not true, we are just not provided the evidence that would make us understand the truth. It is far more profitable to overemphasize on pronouns and put everything into neat little titles and descriptions popularized by Mainstream Western media, purposely propping up tropes of queer and gay people in order to quietly and eventually delegitimize them. In many countries outside of Canada or the US, third-gender people are highly regarded in culture and society; thanks to what “culture” and “society” we have been spoonfed over decades of media, our idea of this concept or the capacity thereof is almost entirely eroded and for the majority, understandably so. And this idea of “neat little titles” doesn’t only happen within the queer community; the Information Age’s bloodthirsty penchant for new ways to divide us, to compartmentalize us on the laboratory shelf affects us all, writ large.
Like many people, I struggle from anxiety and depression; being diagnosed and understanding how this personally affects me has enabled me to live more consciously and purposefully. Mental illness, in my eyes, is completely understandable given the world we exist in: it is not one that is kind to the human condition in spirit, substance, or thought. Bearing this in mind we should find the compassion to be compassionate to all we share the earth with.
I’m grateful and proud of what I’ve overcome, thankful to be healthy and sober, and empowered to put my everything into my next creative works.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Both my lyrical style and longform writing style deal largely with themes of self-exploration, identity, struggles with addiction, recovery, and inspiration. On a much larger scale, I fear we are losing true authorship with the rise of big tech and how our modern communication systems have become fragmented and compartmentalized; how things have essentially become ‘anti’ social media. Which is why I enjoy the use of humour, because it allows us to feel a good human emotion that we all have in common, rather than negativity. I try to create things that stimulate the mind rather than numb it; it’s important that we curate and nurture our lives with media and art that inspires beauty. Asimov, George Eliot, Charles Brockden Brown, a bit of Wordsworth – deep inspirations of whose respective genres I feel writing in the 21st century is duty bound to protect. Melville, Hawthorne, onward!
In terms of art – vibrant contrasts, abstract elements that channel order from chaos, numbering and lettering that is clearly handmade without looking lazy, this is my jam. Follow the instinct, but not to a tee: I had a rather sinister art teacher in elementary who would dog whistle at our class, regularly yell, and on a few occasions hold up my project to demonstrate “what not to do for the assignment.” This was certainly foreshadowing for a whole lifetime of getting in trouble for thinking outside of the box.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
There are many. My sister and I had rabbits when we were kids, and we’d let them out into the yard to run around. We would tow a little wagon behind Speedy, my sister’s Honda Z50, and cruise around the yard as “Bunny Patrol” and would have all sorts of games where we were either park rangers relocating them or zoologists observing them for study.
My sister is a very talented pianist, so we would always be playing music together in some fashion, whether in the church choir or at home. She is the one who first encouraged me to sing, to which I owe her greatly! We performed at a few fall galas together also, including our rendition of Rihanna and Mikky Ekko’s “Stay.” There is something incredibly powerful and intuitive about singing with your sibling, it was a very unique chemistry and gave my voice the space where I first felt safe within it.
I remember the first family vacation we took was to Kauai. The first night we got there we walked down to the beach and my sister and I, being so used to the cold waters of Vancouver Island, were in disbelief at how warm the water was, in December after all!
She and I grew up together as best friends. We built forts, treehouses, rode our bikes everywhere, played dress up, played make believe and laughed from our bellies until it hurt. To this day I could ask her “remember that time…” and it’s some silly inside joke from something 20 years ago and we will laugh just like we did then. We have a tongue-in-cheek theory that we are actually twins, but she was removed and frozen for three and a half years. I am incredibly blessed to have grown up with a sibling such as her, and I know for a fact I would be a lot less of who I am today had I not.
Pricing:
- Vocal Features from $250
- Commissioned Art from $300
- Contact for Bookings
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tiktok.com/@coreycalabasas
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coreycalabasas/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/loabudgetproductions/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GquuE_LgIsM
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/coreycalabasas
- Other: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/
Image Credits
©2026 Loa Budget Productions; original artwork by Corey Calabasas ©2026 Coronation Collective.
