Thomas Orlina and Malia Baldovi have been best friends for over a decade and business collaborators who worked on their talk show under the same name Two Besties Together which premiered on YouTube in January 2019.
With thousands of views, followers and a built audience globally, the duo expressed their interest in entering the music world. Both Thomas (Choir) and Malia (Band) both have singing backgrounds and both have performing experience from their days in high school. We at GayLifeLA.com wanted to know more about the inspiration behind the creation of this summer anthem and reached out to Thomas and Malia to get the full scoope.
Empress: What inspired you both to create this single?
Thomas & Malia: We’ve always had a passion for music. In high school Thomas was in choir and Malia was in band. Naturally we developed an interest to have our own song and what better way to release one than together as a duo. Our audience has seen us grow as on-camera talent so this is a great way to showcase a new layer to what we’re capable of doing in entertainment.
E: Why a Summer anthem?
T & M: It made a lot of sense when we were in the process of writing the song. Thomas Orlina, Malia Baldovi and Kyle Rutchland are the masters behind the lyrics. We really wanted a song that was going to connect with a diverse group of people and we figured with summer right around the corner, it would be a genius idea to create a song that everyone can relate to. The song has a very versatile pop electronic dance music sound.
E: What message are you hoping to convey with this song?
T & M: We’re hoping to show our audience our individual personalities and what we think summer vibes entails. We had the idea of including lyrics like “postin pics” and “uploaded this” to really identify to today’s society with the usage of social media. The lyrics have the ability to connect with everyone. Now a days people often use social media to upload and post content to connect with people, so we used the song to really interact with our listeners and call out these habits and traits that everyone can relate to globally.
E: What do you hope your followers/fans receive from the message?
T & M: We hope our followers and fans have a good time with it as much as we do. The true message behind the song is just to live your best life, enjoy everything summer has to offer you and live in the moment. It’s a catchy song with a great beat and easy to sing along too. We’ve already received tons of great responses from our followers and fans around the world saying how much they’re loving it, so that is a really nice feeling.
E: How long did it take for you to:
T & M: To write the song took about a month to lock in all the words and craft the right message to our audience. We really made sure to put our hearts in the lyrics and make it as edgy and fun as possible. The name of the song is called Summer Vibes, so we really wanted a timeless message and something we can all play every summer for years and years to come. Composing the music was done with the help of Joel Ferber who is the producer on the song. He’s such a talented producer and we’re lucky to have him on our song Summer Vibes.
Finally, we created the music video with Jimmy Page who directed the music video along with ourselves who contributed and directed parts as well. We all had a couple of conference calls and in person meetings to go over the concept of the music video. It was really important for us to be included in the creative aspect of the overall vision for the music video. It was shot all around Los Angeles in cities like Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and Hollywood. We really think our followers and fans are going to be surprised and truly enjoy it.
We also worked with Cameron Lee who’s a celebrity dance choreographer who’s worked with Britney Spears and recently performed with Paula Abdul at the 2019 Billboard Music Awards. We spent a few months and countless hours rehearsing the choreography for the music video and we think it turned our really well. He’s so talented and created an original dance routine just for Summer Vibes.
E: Where can we go listen to “Summer Vibes” today?
T & M: Our song Summer Vibes is available on iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify and all music platforms. Make sure to download and stream it all summer long!
