‘Could I Be Somebody’ is an ode to the unique loneliness of the young queer experience. Rei navigates the strange secrecy and different realities within which queer people often exist.

Rei speaks about how the lyrics have roots in his time throughout school.

“In middle school, I was realising I was queer, and navigating that loneliness. Other people were starting to have relationships and it felt like that world was cut off to me,” he says.

“I felt like someone must be out there for me, but I just couldn’t see them or feel them — as if they were in a different plane of reality.”

Rei soon began to realise he could create his own reality – a secret one where he could be safe, and his heterosexual peers would never understand.

“When another boy and I came out to each other and started dating it really felt like entering a parallel dimension. We got to form our own little secret world where we could be safe together.”

Meanwhile, the cinematic music video is directed by Zachary Bailey and produced by Ava Doorley. It follows two kids as they wistfully run through a quiet, gleaming forest. The fleeting butterflies of a new crush begin to develop between the two. They later chase each other into an empty, abandoned house and it concludes with a young Rei reaching into a portal – bringing viewers into his sci-fi, queer fantasy world.

“We wanted to convey a coming-of-age story that captured the innocence of youth in the video that was reflective of my own life navigating closeted relationships for the first time,” Rei explains.

‘Could I Be Somebody’ is out now.