VINCINT (photo: Matthew Takes)
California-based Tommy Boi serves up a bit of hopefulness with this heart-on-sleeve pop ballad, “blessing in disguise.” “I grew up as a pastor’s kid so coming out was always like this scary thing that I knew I was going to have to do eventually,” says the young out artist. “I was also made fun of in high school because I was new and kids assumed, I was gay before I was ready to come out. “It was really painful and hard to know people were making up rumors and talking about me,” he adds. “Anyways, I think this song was just a culmination. It’s me singing to myself while I’m going through it, hoping that everything turns out to be okay in the end.” I hear Tommy is currently working on a music video for the track, but to be honest – I like being able to experience Tommy’s open, plaintive vocals set atop the haunting, melancholy piano soundscape without a visual to distract me. Look for his new four-song EP due out late July.
Kim Petras in “Broken Glass” (screen capture)
Neon Trees drops their new single, “Mess Me Up,” in advance of their upcoming album, I Can Feel You Forgetting Me due out July 24. “’Mess Me Up’ is the gut-punch of our new album,” says NeonTrees‘ lead singer, Tyler Glenn on the single. “It’s a plea to not let the pain of a break-up linger, set to the tune of a slow dance.” “What I love tonally is it sounds like that one last dance on prom night before we end it all,” adds the out frontman. “If you’re gonna mess me up, get me addicted, ruin a few good years of my life–Act like you know me and don’t do it slow.”
TRR: You grew up in Atlanta, a major music city in the U.S. Now, Los Angeles has its groove, NYC has its vibe, Nashville has its thang. Does Atlanta have a certain flavor? If so, what did you take away from your time there? NV: Yesss! Atlanta has a fun vibe. It is a very artsy and diverse city with a charming grit. It’s Hotlanta for sure!! It’s humid and hot in the summers but the city stays so alive even on the hottest of days there are always cool events happening all over the city. I am proud of my hometown! TRR: I have to ask – you joined your local circus when you were younger? What did you do in the circus? NV: This is going to be a long answer… So I woke up one day and knew I just was not happy, I was not me. In that same day, I quit my job, I quit school and I quit my boyfriend. My spirit was to a point where a change was needed. My life as it was, was not lending to me being able to really pursue my dreams of being an artist. I was in my last day at the nice loft I shared with my boyfriend at the time, doing a final load of laundry (I was seriously downgrading my digs and moving into a very cheap crapshoot apartment) when I realized as fate would have it, I was out of detergent. So I went down to the only neighbor I had had small exchanges within my time living there and went to ask to “borrow” a cuppa soap. He was a quirky fellow, always dressed very steam-punk/circus-y…our small exchanges usually consisted of “hello, how are you” and incorporated funny accents. I peeked behind him as he agreed to help out with my soap saga and saw all these trapezes, mats, and open space. I asked him what that was all about and he explained he ran a local circus to which I confided I had always wanted to join the circus ever since I saw my first circus show at 11 years old. He asked me “well, why haven’t you?!” while gesturing with his arm into his space and I agreed to come to practice with them for hand to hand acro. It was in that moment I was forever changed. I worked with him on getting stronger and more flexible (at this time, I don’t think I had ever even done a push up) and I had my first performance experience with them for a series of Valentine’s day shows. I was also asked to sing for these and this event REALLY changed my life. In rehearsals, I met my first songwriting partner with whom I learned so many fundamentals. We wrote a lot of folk stuff. I might pull a GAGA and release a different vibe project pulling from those pieces and those days. I <3 the circus and all it taught me. Forever changed from all the circus performers I got to meet because of that experience too. 
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In one of those Nashville label meetings, a few well-known executives advised him to rebrand his image and leave “all questions of sexuality up to the listener.” He was told a good way to be asked fewer questions about his then-referred to “current issue” was to appear “more masculine.” Greenwell shares that he was advised not to do interviews because his “gender expression would be too ‘gay.’” Taking their unfortunate advice to heart, Greenwell moved back to Nashville in the fall of 2013 to begin production on what would become his country-pop EP titled Road Map, released under the stage name “Nate Green.” The blend of country influences coupled with dance-pop production proved popular with a new audience. But it wasnʼt long before the media realized ‘Nate Green’ appeared to be a non-gay version of ‘openly gay, Gay Pride performing Josey Greenwell.’ The result was a frenzy of public backlash, especially from the LGBTQ community, who regarded his seeming retreat back into the closet as a sort of ‘betrayal of gay pride.’ During the period of backlash, Greenwell recalls a writer coming up to him in a club and saying, “Hey, I wrote that awful thing about you.” The artist remembers, at the time, it seemed like the writer almost wanted to be thanked. “This was the journey, and looking back, it was one of the most miserable times of my life,” he admits. “It was what I thought you did since I didn’t know any successful LGBTQ musicians.” 