You’ve been touring
around the world since 2008 with your first album Goddamned. What can we expect from this tour
with your latest album Rob Me Blind?
So you’re a fully functional, autonomous
artist. How does a busy
man such as yourself juggle being several different
roles at once.
Good question! I'm
currently self-managed, and although I have a booking agent for North America,
I do all my own booking outside of that territory. I finance and executive
produce all of my music, and I have a distribution relationship with a label
called Nettwerk, who also has various distribution partners around the world.
So I do have some support, but I am certainly getting to the place where it’s a
lot for one person to manage. I write the songs, create the music, tour alone,
book all my own travel, manage my websites and other online marketing, and am
also trying to create more opportunity for myself on the industry side, to the extent that I can. It’s all a lot of work!! I think
after this album cycle and tour are finished, I will collapse for a couple
months (hopefully somewhere exotic like Argentina). I'm hoping to bring on some
more help this year, like a European booking agent, a manager, some people to
help me look for placements of my new music in film/tv. I’d like to expand my
team, but it’s hard to find the right people.
You’re songs are often very honest about your life and opinions,
what life defining moments got you to put pen to paper when
writing Rob Me Blind.
Rob Me Blind
has been a long time in the making. I think I take a bit longer to produce new
music because it’s really important to me that it be organic, and also done in
the right way. I wanted to find the right producer, etc. so the songs on this
album were written over the course of a couple years…
mostly venting my romantic, professional, social, and creative
frustrations. I think writing songs is my way of
letting off steam—it’s an outlet for taking all the thoughts that are constantly
racing around in my head and getting them out of myself. I try to write
honestly and accurately to whatever experience it is I’m trying to convey. my
inspirations are primarily frustration, fear, anger, loneliness, sadness. but I
think this album also has a little bit more hope in it than my previous work. I
gravitate to the more socially unacceptable emotions, I think they are really beautiful
and important, and we have to keep expressing them until the world realizes
that they are just as valuable as the lighter, more “pleasant” moments in life.
Perhaps more so.
You like to voice your thoughts through your blog; do you find
it an easy outlet to have your say?
[Laughs] Sure, blogging is an easy way to express yourself, but
so are sites like Facebook and Twitter. Although they receive a lot of
criticism (what doesn’t these days?) I think composing a tweet, or a facebook
post, or a blog are a new art form in modern society. It gives everyone a
chance to do what I do – express something, try to come up with something
clever or witty to say –
just get your thoughts out of yourself. I think it’s really healthy, although
it does make it harder to stand out, because we are all constantly bombarded
with each other’s thoughts and creative content. there’s so much content out
there online, that it gets harder and harder to rise about the noise of
everyone’s thoughts.
In a recent entry you attacked America’s response to Lana Del
Rey’s SNL performance.
What would you do if you could change the face of American music?
Oh I don’t know! I think I’d vote to place a little more value
on talent, and things and people that are more interesting or different. I
think the music industry is one of the least
innovative, creative, and cutting-edge industries out there. it sounds ironic –
because mainstream entertainment professes itself to be so cutting-edge – and
in some ways it definitely does push the limits of society, but when you look
at how much talent and individuality there is out there, and then you compare that to who is really working and
making all the money. It’s largely very general and down-the-middle sort of
stuff, with no controversy or no real message. Mainstream music is all about
creating something that everyone will sort of accept, but will not be
“polarizing”. That’s one of the music industry’s favourite words. They’re
TERRIFIED of doing something that some people will really be passionate about,
but others might be turned off by. At the end of the day, it’s all about
numbers. It doesn’t really matter if you can sing or write interesting songs.
What matters is a.) if you are physically beautiful, b.) what relationships you
have or how famous you are already, c.) you are someone who has a generally mainstream identity,
d.) luck! it seems strange & illogical, but that’s what I observe.
Do you think being open about your sexuality as an artist contributes to the success of the
artist? Do you think being open about your sexuality has added to
your success?
Er, it’s a double-edged sword. Some people will support you just
because you are gay & some will avoid you just because you are gay – and I
find both to be sort of annoying [Laughs] because there are so many other parts
of me (and all of us) that are worth focusing on.
What are your thoughts on being
typecast as a gay singer/song writer? Does it
affect you in anyway being associated as a gay
singer/song writer or would you rather be known simply for your music?
I definitely think we’ve reached an era where gay people (and ALL people) should be defined be who
they are and what they do, and not over meaningless demographical statistics. I
really hate being called a “gay singer” or when a headline reads “out
singer/songwriter”. I’m a professional musician, not a professional gay – and
it’s hard to get people to focus on that. I have worked so hard and put every
ounce of myself every single day for my whole life into being a musician and an
actor and being creative, or whatever endeavours I might have at the time or in
the future. So to constantly be marginalized because of sexual orientation or
to be reduced to one tiny aspect of myself is maddening. I really wish we lived
in a time where people stopped caring so much about that. I want to live in a
world where people are acknowledged for who they are and what they believe and
what they work for, instead of their gender or their race or their sex lives.
Who cares about those things? Being gay doesn’t say anything about who you are,
what you like, what you believe in, who you want to be around, what your
interests are, etc. We
are all basically the same and have the same experiences regardless of our
superficial differences. I think it’s time for gay people to be accepted as
real people, just like anyone else – as doctors or lawyers or waiters or taxi
drivers or whatever else. I want to compete on the same playing field as any
other person. I am trying to help gay people become accepted as MORE than their
orientation. But if gay people can’t do that for themselves first—and demand it of everyone else—then
no one else is going to do it either.
So you seemed to be a pretty well rounded guy with modelling and
singing under your wing, but what got you noticed was your performance in John
Cameron Mitchells Shortbus. Will we ever have the chance to see you on the
silver screen again?
I hope so! I have focused more on music because I can
more easily be the head of my own company and drive my own business. It’s still
very difficult, but as a musician I can create content at home by myself in the
middle of the night and use the internet to put it in front of an audience. I
can book my own shows, or just play in a park somewhere and tell my Facebook
followers about it. Unless you are a filmmaker and a writer and many other
things, its pretty difficult to make your own work as an actor – it can be
done, but I think it’s more of a collaborative art form by necessity than
music. You need a huge group of people to hire you for a job as an actor, and
as a musician I can be a lone wolf.
Your character Ceth was a
hopelessly looking for love? 5 years on and out of
character have you personally managed to find it?
Ha h, um…. I haven’t dated anyone in almost a decade. So no. I
haven’t been very lucky in that way. I'm kind of a loner, so I don’t meet that
many new people (I’m not a nightlife kind of guy), and I rarely find that sort
of special chemistry. When I do it’s never mutual, I
think a lot of people have that problem. I also have a rather non-traditional
and specific personality, so I think that requires a pretty specific match.
It’s clear that you have a long and successful future
ahead of you, but what else can we expect from you?
Well my plan is to marry a rich person, move to a
deserted island, and never work again, haha. I don’t know, I would like to find
more success in the world of romance and companionship. I’d like to do more
acting, and someday write a book – although I think that will require help as I
don’t have much of an attention span for anything longer than a 4-minute song.
I don’t want to think too far in the future, it’s best just to do the next
immediate thing, and hope I survive for whatever comes after