Out singer/songwriter Kyle Motsinger just released his latest single, a groovy, bouncy bop titled “Love On Each Other,” in advance of his upcoming album to be released this winter.
Working with producer and collaborator Corey Tut, the track features big disco beats and slinky 70s strings making for an upbeat affair – which was Motsinger’s goal.
The artist says current headlines of “crowds chanting against immigrants” and “transgender people being murdered in the streets” inspired him to counter that with some positivity.
“It’s a sneak peek of the more upbeat sound I’m cultivating for my Sophomore album that will be released this winter,” says Motsinger. “I hope everyone takes away from the song that we have the power to change the world if we open our hearts and ‘Love on Each Other!’”
You can currently find the track on Amazon and Spotify.
• InstaHunks: So, I went to take a selfie after working out at the gym today (cause I hear that’s what you’re supposed to do), but I somehow ended up with a snap of woofy Jeff Ferreira (above). And everyone is all the better for it…
• Journal-Constitution: Police have arrested Shaleeya Moore and Joshua Ellis in connection with the shooting death of Ronald “Trey” Peters, a 28-year-old gay social worker in Decatur, Georgia. A third suspect is still being sought.
• CNN: After the Federal Reserve cut interest rates a quarter point, the Dow dropped 450 points following comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell who said not to expect any further rate cuts.
• Kenneth-in-the-212: It’s Hump Day! And that means it’s ‘Wrestle Wednesday’ over at Kenneth’s blog! Yay!
• New York Times: Students who said they were discriminated against because of their sexual orientation or gender identity were significantly less likely to get any relief from the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights under the Trump administration than they were under the Obama administration
• IMF: There are more $100 bills in circulation than $1 bills. And most are held abroad.
• Twitter: When the wave pool operator gets drunk and moves the setting to “Tsunami.” According to reports, 44 people were injured in Yanbian, Manchuria (Eastern China) when the malfunction occurred.
Water world Tsunami injuring many in Yanbian, Manchuria. The operator got drunk and turned the wave magnitude to maximum level. pic.twitter.com/PjKTBelPRA
— Augustus Manchurius Borealis (@1984to1776) July 30, 2019
Out actor/singer Kat Cunning recently released her new single, “King of Shadow,” which has been featured on the hit Netflix series Trinkets where she plays rocker chick, “Sabine.”
Since her performance of “King of Shadow” on the show in mid-June, Kat’s streaming platforms have seen 7.8 million streams with “King of Shadow” garnering over 3 million streams.
As a musician, the beguiling artist crafts alternative pop songs, drawing from her study of dance as well as her time on stage which includes appearances on Broadway in Dangerous Liaisons and Cirque Du Soleil’s Paramour.
“A lot of my music is pretty queer because I’m telling my stories and I’m queer, and I really believe in representation for anybody who’s marginalized,” she told PEOPLE in 2018. “Being a queer person, I can’t really help but write true stories about love with female pronouns.”
“The themes my music ends up being about are sexuality, religion — as one of those metaphors for sexuality and love — and also heartbreak and love,” she added.
In “King of Shadow,” Cunning exudes seductive romantic confidence that combines with rich pop production resulting in a richly-layered musical tapestry.
I like.
The multi-hyphenate artist is currently working on her debut EP. Hit play below.
• InstaHunks: Woofy Diego Lozano (above) reminds me how many InstaHunks I follow in Spain. Which I guess explains why I’m headed back there in August 😉
• The Economist: In a new poll conducted by YouGov, former Vice President Joe Biden has a 7 point lead over Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) 25/18 respectively. In third place, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) garnered 13 percent support.
• GQ: Asked about “gay rumors,” NFL star Odell Beckham Jr. says he “wasn’t offended,” adding, “I have no problem with anyone’s sexual orientation. Love is Love.”
• Twitter: Not to be weird or anything, but is that the ‘white power’ hand signal Trump is making?
• Billboard: Out rapper Lil Nas X has tied the record (16 weeks) for the most weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The other record holders are Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men’s “One Sweet Day,” and Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee and Justin Bieber’s “Despacito.” He also scored 8 MTV Music Video Award nominations today including ‘Video of the Year.’
• USA Today: A New Jersey school board member, Daniel Leonard, may face an ethics inquiry over social media posts that include violent comments regarding Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan). One post read, “My life would be complete if she/they die,” across a photo of Tlaib. Leonard was, unsurprisingly, charged in a road rage incident last week where he crashed into a tree while chasing another motorist.
• Out Music: Openly pansexual artist Madison Malone releases this sweet mid-tempo groove, “Quiet Down.” The music video features a wide, diverse universe of folks sharing their thoughts on what “love is.”
The Wisconsin native has performed at some of the world’s largest music festivals including SXSW and SUMMERFEST, where she was voted ‘Favorite Emerging Artist.’ Find out more at her official website here.
I really don’t know what’s going on in the new music video, “Gone,” from out singer/songwriter Charli XCX and Christine and the Queens, but it’s a wet and wild affair to be sure.
Towleroad called the video “an automotive bondage fantasy empowerment anthem,” which pretty much sums it all up.
That said, I do like the track. Mixing 90s synths with some fat 80s beats with the ladies’ on-point pop vocals results in a bouncy bop I’ll be including on my pool-time playlist.
Hunky out singer/songwriter Raph Solo shares the first single from his fifth studio album, LIFE.
The single, titled “Jasmine Petals,” looks to nature for inspiration in how we look back at lost loves and knowing when to let go.
“Trees release their buds after the loveliness decays and that’s when real growth to the tree occurs,” says Solo. “Such should be the case with people and love.”
“We live and love and it’s ok to lose sometimes,” he adds. “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.”
The contemporary euro-pop track begins with a haunting, melancholy introduction before a heavy bass beat kicks in along with piano and violin.
Shot in a cemetery and in a French period mansion in North London, the music video is full of symbolism.
In one scene, Raph is seen playing a violin, blindfolded. The artist says the visual is his way of questioning whether we really see what is happening in our lives, or if we simply go through life blinded.
In several scenes, Solo brandishes a gun. In that guns can end life, Solo includes the weapon as a metaphor for choosing or ending life. Choose to put the gun down and you choose life. Regardless of circumstance, Solo says the decision between life and death is ultimately our own.
“Jasmine Petals” and LIFE are currently available on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon and other digital music sites.
Well, look at Sam Smith get down with his bad self.
After a tremendously successful year that saw Dancing With a Stranger garner an amazing one billion streams, hitting #1 in both the US and UK, and going platinum in 15 countries, it seems Mr. Smith is in the mood to dance about.
Smith begins his new single, “How Do You Sleep,” singing ‘I’m done hating myself for feeling / I’m done crying myself awake,’ to an ambient, light-as-air accompaniment before the track kicks into a mid-tempo dance groove complete with hooky chorus.
And that’s when Smith surprises by busting a move (a lot of them!) with a company of half-naked male dancers choreographed by Parris Goebel.
It’s a nice change of pace for the 4-time Grammy Award winner.
The singer tweeted to his fans, “My heart is beating so fast. I’m so proud of this one. Thank you to all the beautiful humans who’ve helped me really come out my shell over the past year. I hope you all enjoy this & please learn the moves so we can dance together soon.”
HOW DO YOU SLEEP? My heart is beating so fast. I’m so proud of this one. Thank you to all the beautiful humans who’ve helped me really come out my shell over the past year. I hope you all enjoy this & please learn the moves so we can dance together soon x https://t.co/HpvK3IPeYQ
With a career spanning four continents, out musician Katey Brooks continues her journey from intimate living rooms to dive bars to opulent concert halls to your digital catalogue with her single, “All of Me.”
Considering her back-catalogue incorporates soul, folk, blues and country, Brooks is difficult to categorize in terms of genre. Words like “organic” and “honest”come to mind as her music details her romantic turbulence and the struggle to come to terms with her sexuality.
Growing up in a cult, Brooks found refuge in music.
“It was a very chaotic upbringing, full of some pretty colourful and sometimes unsavoury, characters,” she shares. “But when I sang, I felt free and connected. For as long as I can remember, it’s been my way of getting what I need to say out.”
“All of Me” narrates calling someone out on their ambivalence.
“It was inspired by a personal situation with someone I was prepared to give my world to,” reveals the artist. “They proclaimed deep love, but then proceeded to behave in ways that were completely incongruent with that proclamation.”
Brooks has garnered acclaim from the likes of Billboard, Pride, The Advocate, Gay Times, After Ellen and Earmilk to name a few.
I interviewed out singer/songwriter Justin Utley some years ago when I was co-hosting the online radio show, The Candi & Randy Show. Candi and I both just fell in love with Justin’s talent and his deep passion for speaking out against so-called ‘conversion therapy,’ having been subjected it its dangers for two years as a young Mormon in Utah. Happy to say the two-time OUTMusic Award winner has a new music video, “Survivors,” from his upcoming album, Scars. Justin recently told my Instinct Magazine colleague Michael Cook, “’Survivors’ is about facing and overcoming insurmountable odds and learning to thrive in the face of adversity.” “It’s about survivors of abuse in all forms and how it takes a great deal of effort to move forward in life while carrying the heavy burden of trauma,” added the hunky singer. During the month of July 2019, all proceeds from “Survivors” will be donated to the Born Perfect Campaign, a survivor-led movement working to end conversion therapy. The song is available on most digital download sites like iTunes.
Oh, and as you can see, Justin is waaaay easy on the eyes, too 😉
Acclaimed singer/songwriter Tom Goss (photo: LafamosPR)
Out singer/songwriter Tom Goss drops this chill summer single, “Quayside,” from his upcoming album, Territories. The song shares the delicate story of entering into a polyamorous relationship.
In a departure for the ‘guitar-toting troubadour,’ Goss explores new musical territory in “Quayside” (pronounced ‘key-side’). The track, featuring acclaimed songwriter Gregory Douglass and produced by Ian Carmichael, finds Goss shifting into a contemporary synth-pop vibe.
I recently chatted at length with Goss about the new track and how his own perceptions of love and relationships shaped the narrative of the upcoming album.
“‘Quayside’ explores an entirely new set of boundaries that I encountered when visiting my lover at his home on a quayside in London for the first time,” explains Goss. “I was concerned about being respectful to him, and his public (or daily life with his husband) while still being respectful to my own husband, and the love we’ve fostered for so many years.”
“It’s been a tumultuous three years or so for me, in that my husband and I opened our relationship, which is very difficult for me,” shared Goss in our candid interview. “I spent a lot of time struggling with that, and a lot of time just being really introspective.”
“This has all been an evolution trying to understand my role in helping my husband find the thing he was searching for and support him in the changing man that he was becoming,” explained the singer.
“And I was a little lost in knowing where I fit in along those lines,” added Goss. “So, I think that that definitely made me very introspective and I think changed the ways in which I tell stories because it was painful for me.”
“There’s a whole world out there that’s very frightening because you we live in a society that tells us what sex is, and what relationship is, and what monogamy is and what this is,” said Goss. “And when you come out as gay, a whole bunch of that falls to the ground and you have to learn how to live with that.”
“And when you open your relationship, it does the same exact thing”, he added. “A whole bunch of those internal constructs that you believe are innate to you, you start questioning. Are these innate to me or are these something that’s learned? Is this a learned behavior?”
“And this is a learned thought,” says Goss with a sense of resolution.
(photo: LafamosPR)
To make sure everyone is on the same page here, the discussion is not about cheating on one’s spouse or partner.
Polyamory is described as the practice of intimate relationships with more than one partner, with the consent of all partners involved. It has been called ‘consensual, ethical, and responsible non-monogamy.’
That said, Goss is clear that seeking purely physical connections are not in his wheelhouse.
“I want to have really impactful emotional experiences,” shares the singer. “I think, for me, the, the idea of physicality and openheartedness is very important, and I want my intimate experiences with my husband, or with another person, to be really open and connective.”
Shifting the conversation to the music, Goss is upbeat, saying, “The whole record is really me trying to understand how I engage with the world at large in a positive, honest way.”
“And it really puts a spotlight on the openness of the opening of the relationship, and the falling in love with another person, and the wanting to be respectful of that person, and wanting to be respectful of my husband, and wanting to be respectful of me, and wanting to be respectful of my lover,” he says. “It has been all of these things and it just becomes a mind f*ck very quickly.”
“I’m so proud of this record – I’ve never heard anything like it. And, I’ve never shied away from saying something ‘different’ in my career,” says the man who put the bear community front and center in his music video celebrating the furry form.
(photo: Daren Cornell)
A veteran musician of seven albums, Goss has played over a thousand shows in over a hundred cities around the globe, and his music has been featured on ABC, HBO and Univision.
A college wrestler turned Catholic seminarian turned polyamorous gay songwriter, Goss is well-known in the LGBT world for his music videos for “Bears,” “Round in All The Right Places,” and his cover of the Dusty Springfield classic “Son of a Preacher Man,” which reimagines the video as a poignant ballad about two gay teens.
Racking up more than 12 million views of his music videos, Goss has been praised by press outlets such as The Washington Post, The Advocate, The Daily Beast, Huff Post, Billboard and more.
