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.
Out singer/songwriter Parker Matthews drops his latest music video, “Good Enough.”
Trust and believe – it’s more than ‘good enough.’
The visually elegant video finds our hero prepping for a performance, but troubled.
After the sexy sass of previous tracks like “Hit and Run” and “Feelin’ Right,” Matthews is in a pensive mood.
Who hasn’t worried/wondered if they are ‘good enough?’ For others, for ourselves?
Through repetition (plus a touch of humanity), the title phrase sometimes feels like Parker is convincing his listener, sometimes himself.
It’s like I’m not good enough, good enough Why’m I not good enough, good enough Baby, I’m good enough, good enough I know that I’m good enough, good enough I can’t take it My heart, you break it I’m good enough, good enough I know that I’m good enough, good enough
(screen capture)
The handsome Mr. Matthews offers some of his most expressive and muscular vocals to date.
And, like all his releases, the production is top-shelf and sophisticated.
Make sure you hang around for the ending.
“Good Enough” is available now on iTunes, Amazon and all other digital download sites.
America’s Got Talent finalist Brian Justin Crum recently released the music video for his latest single, “I & U.”
Penned by #1 Billboard writers Melanie Fontana, Lindgren and Ferras, and produced by Lindgren, “I & U” is the follow-up single to “Circles,” released in February.
The singer recently told Huffpost the video for “I & U” is meant as an homage to his ‘spirit animal,’ George Michael.
“The video for ‘I & U’ is the most free Iʼve ever felt in my Queer expression,” says Crum. “I spent so many years trying to ‘butch it up’ so that people around would feel more comfortable and so that I could fit into anyones little box they wanted to put me in.”
Crum adds that he also wanted the music video to “feature a diverse cast of women who are strong in their own expression as well.”
“Growing up queer I was surrounded by woman who supported me,” says the 31-year-old singer. “My friends at school were all girls and it was their mothers (and my own) that loved me for who I was.”
“I think itʼs very important that we, as gay men, rally behind women and fight with them as they have always fought with us,” he adds.
During his time on Season 11 of America’s Got Talent, Crum garnered millions of views from his performances of songs by Michael Jackson, Radiohead, Tears For Fears and Phil Collins.
David Harbour in Netflix’s Stranger Things (screen cap)
Some news items you might have missed:
• Dad Bod alert: Who’s a fan of the Netflix’s Stranger Things? Season four was released last night and folks think series star David Harbour (above screen cap) is the new poster guy for ‘dad bods.’ #woof
• CNN: Adding homophobia to racism, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents made a migrant hold an “I Like Men” sign as an anti-gay punishment.
• Washington Post: Congressman Justin Amash, who represents Michigan’s 3rd congressional district, has been one of the few Republicans to publicly criticize Donald Trump, and actually side with Democrats in calls for impeachment proceedings. In an op-ed yesterday, he quit the GOP and announced he now identifies as an Independent.
• NY Times: Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) surprisingly raised less than $12 million for her presidential campaign in the past three months; very disappointing considering her very strong debate performance last week. The figure pales in comparison to her primary rivals: Mayor Pete Buttigieg pulled in $24.8 million in the second quarter, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. reports $21.5 million in campaign donations, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) took in $18 million.
• Gay Star News: Out musician Aaron Porter says his latest single, “Sorry,” comes from a very personal place for him. And, like life, it slowly evolved until coming to fruition.
“I was in a place of frustration and the track we created was a slow piano-led ballad, he told GSN. “I feel like the song has grown as I have dealt with my situation, and now it’s a fierce pop banger and I feel alive when I sing it.”
In August 2017, out musician Wrabel released his powerful music video for “The Village” as a sign of solidarity with the transgender community in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s ‘out of nowhere’ decision to ban trans military service members.
Beginning with this quote, “In nature, a flock will attack any bird that is more colorful than the others because being different is seen as a threat,” the video follows a young transgender man’s journey into self-acceptance.
Wrabel sent this message to the LGBTQ community via social media over the weekend:
“To anyone that feels like an outsider, the problem isn’t you, it’s the village. I don’t know how else to raise my voice than in a song. And so, I wrote a song for you. #transrightsarehumanrights #thevillage”
The mournful tune focuses on issues of isolation that arise with the exploration of one’s sexuality and identity.
The lyrics urge the listener to remember there is nothing wrong with them. The issue is with those who treat them differently.
Watch below.
At the time of the video’s release, Wrabel tweeted:
TRANS PEOPLE ARE JUST THAT . PEOPLE . HUMAN BEINGS . please i beg you do not let his hatred sink into your heads and hearts .
Last month, I covered the released of Adam Lambert’s music video “New Eyes,” from his upcoming album, Velvet.
The American Idol alum has just dropped the next single from the album, “Comin In Hot,” and it picks up right where “New Eyes” left off.
As previously announced, the music videos from the album tell a multi-part story.
The groovy new video finds the 37-year-old singer still in that retro nightclub having quite the ‘encounter’ with a fierce, sexy witch played by trans activist, Miss Shalae.
Musically, Lambert is serving up a fusion of sultry 70s rock and funk, letting the style carry the tune without relying on histrionic, power vocals.
“I want your touch, come put your hands on me / I want my love to feed your vanity / Comin’ in hot,” sings Lambert.
Since his last release, The Original High, the 37-year-old has been touring extensively as the frontman for iconic rock band, Queen, as well as making a cameo appearance in the Freddy Mercury biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody.
Discussing the upcoming album during an appearance on RuPaul’s talk show, RuPaul, Lambert said, “it’s not a big superstar, name-ringing kind of situation. It’s friends, people that I’ve met over the last 10 years that I respect, a lot of queer writers as well that I’ve teamed up with, more female writers than ever.”
He also shared that he met his current boyfriend on Instagram. “I love meeting freaks on Instagram,” said Lambert. “I think I’m a pretty good judge of character. We took our time.”
