Music Knockouts :: 5 Out Vocalists to Watch

Music Knockouts :: 5 Out Vocalists to Watch
by Sam Baltrusis
EDGE Contributor
Thursday Sep 27, 2007

There’s a new crop of openly gay musicians getting major play on radio stations, TV’s LOGO Network and the stages of mainstream venues scattered throughout the country.

However, if you flashback to less than a decade ago, only a handful of rockers like K.D. Lang, Melissa Etheridge and Ani DiFranco were bold enough to be open about their sexuality.

That was then, this is now.

With our brazen bunch of emerging artists, being out is a no-brainer. In fact, when compared to their closeted counterparts, the openness of our five fave gay musicians has allowed for an emotional sincerity and raw intensity to their craft that’s not stymied by innuendo and allusion.

Here’s our list of knockouts.

ROUND 1 :: ADAM JOSEPH

Adam Joseph’s ode to straight-guy seduction, "Faggoty Attention," started off as an inside joke among his tight-knit group of New York City pals.

"My friend Jonny McGovern (The Gay Pimp) said one night that I should write a song about seducing straight guys with my ’faggoty’ ways and so I did, I wrote the song," he says during a recent interview with EDGE. "It was totally a joke the entire time and I thought it was a fun little thing to do. I was on the way home in a car from a family vacation and I decided to write it."

A few months after the song was written, the 24-year-old got a call from film director Casper Andreas who was looking for an original tune for his new movie "A Four Letter Word." Joseph mentioned the title of the song and Andreas was instantly smitten. At this point, the tune hadn’t even been recorded.

"I had two days to produce the song," the Berklee College of Music graduate says, adding that he spent eight hours recording the vocals in his West Village studio before handing it over to Andreas.

"Faggoty Attention" started getting play around the NYC club scene and Joseph reluctantly worked the departure from his typical George Michaels-esque soul style into his stage act. Meanwhile, his debut music video "Flow With My Soul" was among the first indie label videos to make it into heavy rotation on MTV’s new LOGO Network.

Joseph was asked to shoot a video for "Faggoty Attention" for LOGO and the song shot up the charts. "The whole time I wasn’t taking it seriously at all," he jokes. "It’s weird how it all happened."

Joseph signed with Sony Records’ new GLBT label, TWIST, and the rest, as the cliché goes, is history.

Meanwhile, Joseph says he never considered going back into the closet to reach a more mainstream audience.

"I’ve been out since I was 14," he shoots back. "I feel like being an out artist is really important politically to show people you can be what you are, you can be yourself, and not be ashamed of it."

ROUND 2 :: ARI GOLD

Three years after his last album "Space Under Sun," Ari Gold is returning with "Transport Systems," a hip collection of R&B, house, electronic and soul singles, which hits stores and online on Tuesday, Oct. 2.

"My last album was called ’Space Under Sun,’ it was about finding where my space was as a gay man, as a gay out artist and even where do we fit in general as gay people," Gold says in a recent interview with EDGE. "We have greater visibility, we’re on TV, we’re in film, but where do we really fit in? Now, with this album it’s really about, OK you can see us, we are visible, but how do we move forward how do we move to the next place?"

Gold’s refusal to tone down his sexuality and ethnicity has earned the pop star a hardcore following among the GLBT community spanning from the UK to the United States.

"It’s really important as an artist and as a gay person to show that we’re multifaceted individuals," Gold continues. "It’s important to be proud of who you are and where you came from."

In regards to his new CD, Gold hopes he’s able to strike an emotional chord that transcends beyond the GLBT community and into the mainstream.

"There’s so much to learn about me, it’s really very personal, the record when it comes down to it," he remarks. "A lot of people who haven’t heard my music, who haven’t taken the time to listen to my music, have a certain idea of who I am based on my image or photos. That’s a part of me, I like to be sexy, there’s nothing wrong with celebrating your sexuality."

Gold continues, "It’s actually important for us to be sexual and not have to tone down our sexuality just to be more acceptable."

ROUND 3 :: ERIC HIMAN

When Eric Himan exploded onto the national indie music scene in 2000 armed with his blazing acoustic guitar and soulful baritone voice, he decided early on in his career to be up-front about his sexual orientation.

"I make sure that I say that I’m an out and openly gay musician," he says in an earlier interview with this reporter. "But, it’s not that I necessarily play gay music or that someone who isn’t gay can’t identify with my music."

In many ways, Himan is a walking contradiction.

His arms are completely inked out with rock ’n’ roll tattoos but his sound is more folk. He’s a young gay man who--contrary to the stereotype--blasts the idea of one-night stands. He owns his own label, Thumbcrown Records, in an industry that generally dissuades artists to be open about their sexuality.

"Yes, I’m gay," he quips. "But I believe if you’re gay you don’t have to necessarily limit yourself just to gay culture."

The musician says he’s emblematic of the younger generation of GLBT musicians that’s committed to individualism and has broken from the stereotypical tradition that "gay music" is bubblegum-dance tunes and cabaret.

"When you come out, there’s no guide book to tell you what a gay person should be like and what kind of music a gay person should listen to," he adds.

As for his latest CD "Everywhere All At Once," Himan says his music has transformed from nihilistic in 2005’s "Dark Horse" to revelatory. He attributes the change to having a committed relationship with his partner.

"I never really felt gay until I was in a really successful gay relationship," he remarks. "Or, I was never perceived as gay, even though I’m an out performer and playing Pride events and whatever. But somehow being in a relationship shows you just how straight the world can be."

ROUND 4 :: JASON WALKER

As far as being open about his sexual orientation, dance music phenom Jason Walker says it has always been a non-issue.

"It’s not like I can hide it anyway," he jokes. "Some people can and that’s OK for them. But I can’t do it."

Walker hesitates a bit before he continues. "It’s not like I want to get up on stage and yell, ’I love to suck dick.’ But, honestly, it would be so hard to hide it at this point in my life," he comments. "If you can’t be true to yourself, who the fuck are you going to be true to? You pour your heart out in your music and share so much with people that I couldn’t imagine not being open about who I am."

Walker, who is just as frank in his music as he is during this interview, was taken under the wing of legendary DJ and record producer Junior Vasquez, and together they produced 2006’s "This Is My Life," a debut album which so captivated the listening public that it catapulted the openly gay vocalist into the mainstream with three consecutive No. 1 Billboard hits.

In doing so, the album confirmed Walker as one of only a handful of young male artists capable of breaking through to a global dance audience. Those songs of life and love, delivered in an octave well above any other male artist in pop music, proved conclusively that the small-scale and specific can strike a universal chord.

Earlier this month, Walker released his sophomore effort "Flexible." The 24-year-old artist says the second time around has been a charm.

"I don’t want to say it was difficult following up the success of my first record," he says. "But I didn’t want to do the same thing twice. As an artist, I wanted to stretch a bit with this one."

The vocalist quips, "It’s not like I came out with a folk album this time around."

Walker recorded "Flexible" during what he calls "a horrible breakup" with his partner.

"It was so therapeutic to be able to drown myself in something for a few months," he remarks. "It took the edge off. I mean, I’ve written so many songs about the breakup it’s disgusting."

ROUND 5 :: KRISTEN PRICE

British siren Kirsten Price has a good reason to be ecstatic these days. She has a debut album in the works and her metaphoric and irresistibly catchy signature song, "Magic Tree," is the lead track on "Music From And Inspired By ’The L Word."

And now, marked for stardom, Price is ready to share her sounds -- a blend of old-school soul, classical compositional chops, and electronic beats--with the world.

As one of the first two talents signed to Music With A Twist (TWIST)--the recently launched record label dedicated to identifying and developing lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender (LGBT) artists--Price is on the cusp of a newly breaking cultural vanguard.

Price came to New York City for the very first time in early Sept. 2001, mere days before the world changed on Sept. 11. She crashed in the apartment of "a friend of a friend" and worked as a cocktail waitress.

When she came across a diverse neighborhood in Brooklyn, she knew she was home. "I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else in the world if you paid me," she says. " I found a racial and social mix in this neighborhood that reminded me of where I grew up. People from all kinds of different walks of life and backgrounds are very comfortable with each other here."

Holing up hermit-like in her Fort Greene apartment, Kirsten wrote a lot and set to work building a recording studio. "Having done the band thing so much and having become more of a writer-producer, I felt as though I could realize my vision musically much better on my own," she says, "or with one or two talented people, rather than with a bunch of kids with guitars."

Price says she’s stoked about her first commercial release and is excited to be working with a cutting-edge label like TWIST. "They were really into the music," the 27-year-old vocalist adds.

Sam Baltrusis has worked for WHDH-TV, CW56, MTV, VH1, Seventeen, Newsweek and as a regional stringer for The New York Times. He’s currently a full-time freelance editor/writer based in Boston. Check out his blog at loadedgunboston.blogspot.com.