Meet The New Dance-Pop Artist Who'll Get You Grooving For Pride

Singer-songwriter Joey Suarez dropped his debut single, "High in the Sky ," this week, and The Huffington Post has an exclusive first listen. 

The slickly-produced, dance pop anthem is about "coping with hard situations, and using dance to get away from [them]," Suarez, 23, told HuffPost. "I like music that makes you happy and makes you want to move. If it doesn’t, then I’m not interested."

The New York-based artist and former model, who hails from Texas, has been working steadily toward a full-time performing career for some time. Citing Beyoncé and Troye Sivan as two of musical influences, Suarez credits his recent split with a longtime boyfriend with finally providing the impetus to dive headfirst into producing music full time.  

"I thought I was getting married, but instead, I guess I’m now going to put out an EP," he quipped. "That was my tradeoff."

"High in the Sky ” is the first taste of Suarez's forthcoming EP, which is currently slated for an October release. The EP, he said, will be a five-to-seven song collection that will "make you want to dance, make you want to go out and party." He's aiming to make it topical, too, with one new tune describing the "uselessness of Grindr" and other dating apps. 

"I allude to how we feel when we message somebody and we’re waiting for reply, or you meet someone and they ghost you," he said. "There’s a disconnect that I think technology has created, and I’m definitely highlighting that."

Although artists like Sivan, Sam Smith and Frank Ocean have thrived in other genres, Suarez believes there's a lack of openly gay performers in dance music aside from popular DJs, and aims to fill that void. 

"I believe strongly in starting out saying, ‘This is who I am,’ and not coming out later as a publicity stunt," he said. 

Suarez will celebrate the release of "High in the Sky" with a performance at New York's Rise Bar on June 23. He's also slated to perform at PrideFest NYC on June 26.