‘It Made Me Proud to Be a Part of the Community’
So what has been going on since the Get Out! Awards?
I’ve been recording like eight songs for the album right now. It feels like we’re at the halfway point. I’m doing the “Summer of Love” video shoot, which is tomorrow. I’m real excited for that.
Where are you shooting it?
We are going to go upstate to the Catskills. I’m going with a small group of friends. We are going to go up and stay the night, and I don’t want to give too much away. It will essentially be a story of a bunch of friends on a camping trip.
OK, don’t say any more. Let it be intriguing. Are you so excited?
Yeah, I’m so excited. I love making videos. It’s probably my favorite aspect of what I do. I mean, I went to school for film and theater, so I’m really trying to make my music videos like films where the song is like the soundtrack of the film. I get to write an extension of the song. I am very hands on with the concepts, and I’m very hands on, so, yeah I’m excited.
If you had to stop doing music, what would you do to be creative?
I would probably just be an actor. I love theatre, I love film, I love acting on stage. In school I just wanted to be a well-rounded performer. It really inspired my writing style as well. I wouldn’t be the pop artist that I am if it wasn’t for the training. So yeah, I would be an actor.
Now imagine that you’re at a concert in the audience, and one of the band members spontaneously combusts. They call you up to the stage to take his place. Who’s the band?
Maybe The Doors. I think that would be cool. It would be fun to channel a little Jim Morrison. I think I could do it.
You’re very Jim Morrison actually. What’s the most rock star thing that you’ve ever done?
I feel like the “Blush” shoot was pretty rock star. Everything there was really happening. We were really smoking and drinking, just having a good time. I definitely felt like a rock star doing that video. It was very raw. We forgot we were making a video at a point. Everything you saw was what happened.
How do you think that your music has evolved since you began?
I’ve started to pay more attention to melody, whereas when I started it was mostly lyrical. Now I just write a whole song out, just the melody and the lyrics just come to me when they need to. For me I think that the melodies are stronger.
Is there anything that you would like to say that we haven’t spoke about?
I want everyone to be excited for “The Summer of Love” video. The song is out, and you can get it on iTunes or wherever you want. You can stream it. The video will really give the people some insight into the story that inspired the song. You can expect a lot more content coming out this summer. Just stay tuned.
Do we have a name for the new album?
“Golden Hour.” I just wanted to say, not to make the conversation depressing or anything, but there is another song on the album that I want to talk about. I went into the studio the day after the Orlando shooting, and I started working on a song called “Tie Dye” that I wrote specifically for LGBTQ fans. We weren’t going to work on it yet, but it was very inspiring, and I hope that people like it. Of course it was completely tragic, but it made me feel proud to be a part of this community, and a voice in the community. I really hope that everybody stands together.
