Looking for your new favorite song? We’ve found it, and it’s Charlie Peck’s cover of “Home,” originally recorded by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. For those of you who haven’t heard the original, the song is performed as a male/female duet, and Peck picked the perfect voice to accompany his in the duet….his own, pretransition.
Peck recorded the traditionally female vocal portion of the song before beginning his testosterone treatments in May of 2016. Nine months into his testosterone treatments, he recorded the male lead.
“This video is a true ‘once in a lifetime’ experience,” Peck writes in the description of his YouTube video. “I am singing a duet with myself where one voice is recorded my first day on testosterone treatment (16th of May 2016) and the second voice 9 months later (16th of February 2017).
In addition to recording vocals, Peck also documented his transition visually, creating a music video for “Home.” The song, which Peck is calling “a tribute to the transgender community” has been viewed almost 295,000 times in under two months.
“There are many ways to transition and to find yourself,” Peck tells The Huffington Post. “This was my way. I am not telling every trans* individuals story, but I am giving them mine… The lyrics of the song, with some modifications made by me, say so much. You are not alone, things can get better and put yourself before everybody else’s expectations on how you should live your life. Now that I have the energy to give something back to the trans* community ― this is my heart medicine for those in need.”
The original release of the song includes a conversation between the male and female vocalists. Peck recreated this conversation, putting his own spin on it by discussing his own transition with Ruby, the name Peck identified as pretransition.
“As a sidenote: In the video I refer to myself with my previous name,” Peck writes under his YouTube video. “I do this because I personally feel comfortable with this. Generally never refer to a trans* person with their ‘dead name’. My way to transition is also just that – My way. There are so many ways to feel comfortable in your own body and no way is more right than the other. Go your own way.”
Needless to say, we’ll be having this song on repeat all day.
