Any artist looking to change the game knows you’ve got to have an eye for the big picture and maintain a constant lay of the land. Gino McKoy has made big moves within the music and movie industries, beginning with his first-ever original composition getting played at the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He’s turned Goldove, his music, film & fashion conglomerate, into an international force to be reckoned with. He’s not only a singer/songwriter but also a talented film and music video director, screenwriter and film producer.
Rarely does a combination like this come along in the entertainment industry – Gino McKoy is the exception to this rule. His upcoming independent sci-fi horror film Lumina will be released Nationwide to 2,500-plus screens in North America. The feature film is being distributed in US by Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures/Freestyle Releasing. This will be followed by a release on all streaming video on demand platforms like Netflix.
McKoy’s latest video is for “Sensy Girl,” one of three original tracks on the Lumina soundtrack. It’s the perfect embodiment of how this son of Trinidad and Tobago and Toronto thinks huge while keeping a lock on the tiniest of details. Not to mention it was Produced by the legendary music producer, David Kershenbaum with McKoy and mixed by the legendary Mick Guzauski, a 15 time Grammy award winner, who has mixed over 25 #1 Billboard hits in his musical career. Also to note, McKoy’s father and mother are seasoned performers, whose combined pedigree includes everything from Caribbean music to Classical.
Last we checked, there were roughly one million songs about guys getting lifted. Gino isn’t one to walk well-beaten paths, so he and collaborator Diamond thought, Why isn’t there a positive, soulful anthem about women and weed? It started with a guitar riff and ended with a classic yet modern R&B track that showcases McKoy’s natural songwriting talent, classical voice training, and Diamond’s lyrical flow. It only made sense to write a song about these goddesses in the context of Sensimilla – the female strain of the weed plant, and specifically, its Caribbean nickname. McKoy makes “Sensy” his own, in this sexy, uplifting jam that’s heavy on the bounce, with a killer synth line and intricate, hooky beat. In his own words, it’s a “celebration of women and music everyone can listen and dance to.”
A man who has always put his money where his mouth is, Gino is putting 20% of the merchandising revenue for “Sensy Girl” into his new women and children’s charity, Kinder Crisis. The track is also something of a theme song for one of the strong female leads in Lumina, who definitely matches that positive description of a Sensy Girl.
The song’s unique angle, with its focus upon women, required a careful, cinematic approach to shoot. He and his team used vintage lenses, for a grainy, classic look. The raw, industrial, urban space is bare, so all eyes stay on the women and the generous clouds of silky smoke that envelop them as they exhale.
It’s Nouveau Chic, but with old-school visual effects, akin to the approach he took with Lumina. To make the visuals even more striking, McKoy not only Directed and wrote the treatment for the music video but he also recruited Chris Jensen, the mind behind the color grading for the live-action Aladdin, M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass, Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies, and Ready Player One. Check out the stunning video for “Sensy Girl,” and see if you catch a little otherworldly nod to Lumina in there.
