I’ve been releasing acoustic versions of new songs every few weeks since December and let another one out this evening. It’s called “The Tree You Named After Me” and is yet another collaboration with teenage pop phenom Noah Daniel Wood on guitar & David Appaloosa (from Portland indiepop boyband The Hugs) recording and quick mixing the whole thing for us.

Have a listen:

Click the album cover below to download “The Tree You Named After Me” from Logan Lynn’s “Everything You Touch Turns To Gold” for zero dollars on Bandcamp!

(Originally Published on The Huffington Post – 1/17/2012)

In keeping with the theme of love, family, and relationship from my last post, I reached out to some famous friends to see what their thoughts were on the subject.

Singer/songwriter Matt Alber, filmmaker and photographer Bruce LaBruce, actor and musician Daniela Sea (from Showtime‘s The L Word), TV personality and activist Danny Roberts (from MTV‘s Real World: New Orleans), drag superstar and electrosleeze pioneer Jackie Beat, composer and singer Holcombe Waller, and “Charlie” Swimwear designer Matthew Zink all weighed in on the same five questions:

1. If you could sum up your concept of “relationships” in one word, what would it be?

2. What is your favorite love song of all time?

3. If you could choose any actor to play you in the movie version of your life, who would it be? What about them is you?

4. How has the relationship between your mother and father influenced your ideas about love and relationships?

5. What three qualities do you look for in a partner?

Here come their answers! (Drum roll please…)

Matt Alber

Matt is a singer/songwriter and all-around pop phenom. Dude’s cover of Madonna’s “Take a Bow” from his new record Constant Crows will make you cry. So will his “End of the World” video.

1. I guess it would be “listen.” My first answer was “summer sausage,” but then I realized that is two words.

2. Hands down, it’s gotta be “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley, 1) because we have the same birthday, and 2) because I got to sing it with a live band at the Playboy Mansion when I used to make my living as a singer in Los Angeles’ top cover band.

3. Ryan Gosling is my first choice, but mostly because of those sweet, dreamy eyes. Of course, if Jake Gyllenhaal is free, please ask his agent if he would consider the role. You can tell them that the “losing his virginity” scene will be a hell of a lot more comfortable than Brokeback.

4. My parents spent the better part of their young adult lives at war with one another. I’m very close with both of them, and they’d agree with that statement. Their relationship was founded on a lot of hope, but also on a lot of control. I think true love means you speak up lovingly when your lover crosses a personal line, and that every conversation comes back to “I want this to work” more than “I want to be right.”

5. His masculine playfulness, his handsome face I can’t stop staring at, and his chili.

Bruce LaBruce

Over the years, Bruce has been called everything from pornographer to genre genius, but one thing is undeniable: he is authentically himself, and I love that. Watch the trailer for his latest film, L.A. Zombie.

1. “Love,” “love,” and “love.”

2. “Sara Smile” by Hall & Oates.

3. Lindsay Lohan, because she’s ginger like me, a brat with criminal tendencies like me, and I think if she played it a bit more feminine than she usually does, she could nail me. Plus, she needs a good comeback role.

4. My parents will have been married 60 years in February, so I guess I’ve learned about stability and longevity from them.

5. Topness, unrehearsed masculinity, and gentleness.

Daniela Sea

Daniela is a filmmaker, musician, and actor, and is best known for her role as Moira/Max on Showtime’s The L Word.

1. Unique in each incarnation: on Valentine’s Day, “relationship with a lover” comes to mind, of course. But “relationship” is a great word for the interconnectivity of all things. My relationship to the Earth is precious to me, as well as to the animals, to my fellow humans, and to the elements that bring life to the planet. My relationship to my family and to the communities that hold me up gives me joy every day. Each spirit is unique and intertwined; being in relation to all beings in all the universes is a truth that sustains me. This is love.

2. There are some great ones, but I’ll go back to my childhood roots, my mom spinning Joni Mitchell on the record player as I swung in the living room hammock: “A Case of You.” She sings, “Part of you pours out of me in these lines from time to time.” I could be much more avant-garde or punk rock, but honestly, that would most likely take the prize.

3. Would I play me? If not myself, than perhaps Agnes Varda would make the film, and play me and herself? She’s my hero.

4. I learned that love can be unconditional and everlasting, however it shifts shape.

5. For me, a good mix of curiosity about the world, kindness, wildness, and a free-spirited soul. A great mind and heart is right up there, as well.

Danny Roberts

Danny first appeared as himself on MTV’s The Real World and has been an outspoken voice from the LGBT community for over a decade.

1. “Unity.” A relationship is a mutually beneficial arrangement where two people uplift each other, encourage each other, and support each other in every way possible. There’s no one way or best way of going about this.

2. “All Is Full of Love” by Björk.

3. Jude Law: he plays an amazing brooding cynic.

4. Well, I certainly learned from them that it’s give-and-take and that it’s important to compromise and give a person room, but at some point you have to put your foot down and bring them back to center, and it’s always a two-way road. I also learned that two people can work through a tremendous amount of adversity and continue to love each other.

5. Must be down-to-Earth and centered, must love to continue to explore and learn in life and have a natural sense of curiosity, and must have a sense of humor and never take this short life too seriously.

Jackie Beat

Jackie is a star of stage, screen, and sound. Her band Dirty Sanchez might as well have owned the rights to the electroclash movement a few years ago.

1. “Friends.”

2. “How Beautiful You Are” by The Cure.

3. Miss Piggy, for all the obvious reasons.

4. Listen to the song mentioned in the second question and you tell me!

5. Kindness, a sense of humor, and a deep-seated lack of self-esteem.

Matthew Zink

Matthew makes the beautiful people more beautiful through swimwear. Check out his new collection.

1. “Partner.”

2. “I Really Got the Feeling” by Dolly Parton.

3. That is a hard question! Maybe Ryan Gosling… I am such a fan of him as an actor. He’s so talented and carries himself like a gentlemen. (Perhaps a bit too handsome to play me.)

4. My parents showed me that love is patient and you constantly have to work at it, but it’s worth all the hard work.

5. Kindness, intimacy, and passion.

Holcombe Waller

Holcombe has the voice of an angel. Watch his “Hardliners” video.

1. My definition of an amorous relationship in one word would probably be “grace,” both in terms of how it describes elegance and beauty, as well as the sense of mercy and clemency implied. All people should bring beauty and forgiveness into the world around them. In a relationship, this duty is amplified and focused between partners.

2. I have too many favorite love songs to really pick just one, but the first that came to mind is Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne,” particularly because of the way it portrays a kind of ambivalent masculine love born in fascination with this mysterious otherly female dream character. It’s so fabulous, it’s honorifically gay.

3. Well, of course it would be Meryl Streep. I mean, what about Meryl isn’t me? That’s the question! I would only worry about what Nora Ephron once said about the travails of having been portrayed in film by Meryl Streep: she simply will play you better than you do, and this could be the cause of deep existential anguish for one’s own ego. I should be careful what I wish for.

4. Through thick and thin, my parents are deeply committed to each other till death do they part. I’ve seen them go through things that seem to push the limits of the phrase “for better or for worse,” and I think I’ve internalized that sense of commitment from them. It’s not just applied towards romantic partnership; I feel this way about my closest friends. I don’t want anything but death to get in the way.

5. Given that I’m partnered, let me share the three things I always tell my single friends that they should be looking for in their prospective dates and potential significant others. The first and most important quality in a person in a relationship is that they want to be in the relationship. This seems so basic, but I’ve had terrible problems with this in the past — being with someone (or with people, if they are poly) who profess ambivalence about whether or not they want to be in a relationship — and I’ve seen it a lot in my friends’ romantic trials. My attitude is that if someone is indicating ambivalence, end it. You can’t work through problems if there isn’t a reason to, and relationship ambivalence is a deal breaker. It’s one thing for another person not to know if they should or shouldn’t be in a relationship, but to know that you are ambivalent means the relationship is not good for now. The second quality I recommend is ease. People always say “relationships take work,” but they get confused and think that the relationship itself is the problem you have to work to surmount. What’s that about? The relationship should be the easy joyful wonderful thing that gets pummeled by the real and unavoidable troubles of being alive. Sure, these can make a relationship hard, if someone is going through a rough patch, but if a relationship is like hard sailing on a smooth and beautiful ocean, ditch it and look for a boat that’s easier to be on. Lastly, I highly recommend finding a partner you’re in love with who is also in love with you. I actually think this is more rare than people think, but steps 1 and 2 are a good start.

(Originally Published on The Huffington Post – 1/2/2012)

The first 12 years of my career were spent writing songs about loss and longing, so in some way I suppose I owe the fact that you are even reading this on The Huffington Post to my own unhappiness. Historically, I have felt most at home in heartbreak, both in art and in life. It’s largely what I knew growing up, so everything else felt foreign and wrong as an adult. For years, people being kind to me felt painful. I was terrified of anyone actually knowing me. It’s pretty fucked-up — and I still struggle with this. It’s a jagged part of my makeup that I will most likely be working on for the rest of my days.

I first learned about how sad the world can be when I was 7 years old, courtesy of a much older family “friend” who just couldn’t keep his hands off me. I won’t get into the specifics around the abuse suffered, but it was ongoing and horrible and went undetected for many years. The scars from this experience in my formative days have done just that: they formed me. They changed who I was and how I looked at the world, and they altered my sense of self at its core. All of this was complicated by the fact that I also happened to be a gay man born into a fundamentalist Christian home. It was a perfect storm for me to go completely apeshit, which I did.

I began experimenting with drugs and music around the same time, both before my 11th birthday. By 14 I was a full-blown, cigarette-smoking, drug-addicted alcoholic with headphones and a notebook who fancied himself a singer-songwriter. Those same old scars now rooted me on as I built an impenetrable wall of sadness and sound around myself. They gave me words and melodies to purge the feelings that could not be killed chemically, and I began seriously writing and recording music when I was 17. Those first songs would become my debut record, GLEE, which was released in 2000. At the time of its initial release, nobody knew what I was trying to do. I recall a lot of head scratching and people being really uncomfortable with the lyrical content, mostly, so I decided to take a break and focused solely on partying my brains out for the next five years.

In 2006, prompted by more unfortunate heartbreak of the drugged-out variety, I released a self-titled album, Logan Lynn, a mixture of songs from my debut and new material I had been working on. It was surprisingly well received, particularly by the queer community. I opened for The Presets and My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult at Folsom Street Fair for over 400,000 people and caught the attention of MTV‘s Logo network, which immediately started playing my videos. This was where things started to change for me. Suddenly I had over 100,000 folks in my online networks, had been nominated for some awards, and was getting a ton of press, for both my music and my party-boy lifestyle.

In 2007 I released the Feed Me to the Wolves E.P. and got signed to The Dandy Warhols-owned and operated Beat the World Records, with a distribution deal through Caroline/EMI. My music career was starting to peak, but my addictions had snowballed. I was freebasing 28 grams of cocaine a week and drinking gallons of vodka around the clock to balance it out. By the time I was admitted to rehab (for the fourth and, fingers crossed, final time) four years ago, I had suffered a partial stroke, had been fired by the Weinstein Company from an in-production reality show after over six months of invasive filming, was fired from the job said reality show was about, and lost my band, my friends, my partner, my dog, my house, and my words and had nothing left — nothing but that record deal and the scars.

So I used them to get myself well. I threw out the record I had been working on before rehab and started from scratch. In 2009 I released From Pillar to Post and did tons of interviews about getting clean as a way of holding myself publicly accountable. It was not the traditional way someone handles their breakout pop-music moment, but I needed to be honest about what was happening with me or I wasn’t going to be able to do it. The strange fame and recognition that came with the commercial success of that record and my suddenly being all over the TV freaked me the fuck out, and I no longer had chemicals to make it better. All I had was the truth, so I put it out there — all of it — not thinking about what it really meant for everyone to know everything about me. As a relatively shy, private person, afraid of being seen or known, this brand of overexposure didn’t set well at the time.

I was feeling pressured by my publicist, label, and collaborators to do more, say more, be more, go more places. I released a single to try to ease some of the professional pressure, but there was no break from the sadness, because now the sadness was fueling a business. I no longer owned myself or my words. I was taken back to that place from years before, feeling owned and ruined and hurt by the world. This was a new kind of heartbreak, however. It was the heartbreak of realizing that the thing that had always made me feel better had now become the very thing that was making me miserable. I did the only thing I knew how to do in that moment: I wrote songs and planned my escape. I was sick of being professionally sad and was just completely done with people relating to me on that level. In June 2010 I announced that I was going on an indefinite hiatus and released two in-progress records, I Killed Tomorrow Yesterday and Blood in the Water, myself, just months apart — no label, no PR campaign, no radio. I fired everyone around me and set off to explore a regular life, which I am pleased to report I found.

In the 18-plus months since, I have thrown myself into working full-time for LGBT rights at Portland’s Q Center. In being around people who truly care about my well-being and about humanity at large, I’ve realized that those scars from my early days are beautiful if you look at them just right. All of the heartbreak from the years is just part of my story, and my story is just getting started. I am not shaped by the experience of abuse and heartache any more than I am shaped by the experience of surviving them, and I am not driven by sadness any more than I am driven by joy — I just needed something joyful to write about.

I’m reminded of a quotation by author Rachel Naomi Remen that my mother sent me with regard to this very thing:

Wounding and healing are not opposites. They’re part of the same thing. It is our wounds that enable us to be compassionate with the wounds of others. It is our limitations that make us kind to the limitations of other people. It is our loneliness that helps us to find other people, or to even know they’re alone with an illness. I think I have served people perfectly with parts of myself I used to be ashamed of.

Love has made a home in my life and songs these days, shining new light on old wounds, bringing with it new words and melodies. I hope love makes a home in your lives, too. We are all so much more than our scars.

Hope everybody is having a great new year so far. We are just 2 days in and I am already announcing exciting stuff! I was recently asked to come on board as a blogger for The Huffington Post and they published my 1st piece today in the Gay Voices section HERE. It’s called “Unhappiness Is A Strange Muse“. Please comment, share and click the “Like” button…and you can subscribe to my future posts on my official HuffPost author page HERE.

Cray Cray, huh?

Happy New Year Everybody!

I am headed to the Oregon coast tomorrow to ring in the new year with my boyfriend and some of our friends but figured I would leak another in a series of acoustic version of songs from this new record I’ve been working on before I go. That’s Noah Daniel Wood on Ukulele.

Click the album cover below to download “Laying Still” from Logan Lynn’s “Everything You Touch Turns To Gold” for zero dollars on Bandcamp!

Whoa! Portland Monthly Magazine picked my record “I Killed Tomorrow Yesterday” as one of their top 15 records to give as gifts this holiday season and had some really nice things to say about me! So cool.

Check it out HERE.

I love it when my songs are used in cool stuff! This promo for ESPN, Mutiny Bikes, and Etnies is called “Battle Los Angeles” and has the instrumental of my track “Velocity” (taken from my 2010 record “I Killed Tomorrow Yesterday” and produced by Bryan Cecil) in it at the 5:10 mark. I once told my basketball coach brother Landon that ESPN would never want to use my music for anything but apparently I was wrong.

The video stars adrenaline junkies Brandon Hoerres, George Boyd, Andy Martinez, Matt Roe and Justin Simpson and was filmed, edited and directed by Joe Simon. Holy shit. They are all completely NUTS.

Here:

+ Logan Lynn // “Velocity” for ESPN & Mutiny Bikes (2011) – at 5:10

Last year on this day the most wonderful man came into my life. Over the past 12 months of being together a new record has formed. In honor of today’s manniversary I have decided to leak a couple of the acoustic demo versions of new songs from said new record.

Teenage pop prodigy Noah Daniel Wood plays guitar on both “Everything You Touch Turns To Gold” and “Heaven Or Hell” and they were recorded in Portland by David Appaloosa from The Hugs.

These songs are for my dearest Aleksandr.

You can download them FREE by clicking HERE.

Love,

Logan

At the end of 2010 I created The Q Center Concert Series in an effort to showcase LGBT musicians, dancers, comedians, actors, filmmakers and performance artists from around the world and locally at Portland’s LGBT community center. I am pleased to report that, due to the mega success of this 1st year of the program, we will be back in 2012 for another round!

This year so far I have featured Matt Alber, John Cameron Mitchell (Rabbit Hole, Hedwig & The Angry Inch, Shortbus), Taylor Mac, Tom Goss, Amber Martin, Shannon Grady, Sook-Yin Lee (Hedwig & The Angry Inch), Paul Dawson & PJ Deboy (Shortbus), Jenna Riot, Kaia Wilson (Team Dresch), Adventures! with Might, Leviticus Appleton, DJ Beyondadoubt, DJ Lunchlady, Swagger, Rose City Sirens, Drag Mansion, DJ Bruce LaBruiser, ChiChi & Chonga, Fannie Mae Darling, Belinda Carroll, Hugo Orozco (Rock & Roll Camp for Girls) and many more. Thank you to everyone who performed, attended or helped me pull these shows and events off! Without all of you none of this would have been possible.

You have one last chance to catch some killer queer acts before the 2011 Q Center Concert Series takes a bow! The 5th Annual Queer Quistmas Variety Show is happening on Saturday, December 17th at Q Center. Tickets are on sale now. CLICK HERE to get yours! This year’s raunchy holiday shitshow promises to be the filthiest yet! Come get down and dirty with hosts Splendora Gabor (Lee Kyle from “Sissyboy”) and Fannie Mae Darling while we welcome another group of incredible performers to the stage: Austin Tautious, Jam N Toast, Queertet, Nico Bella, Anthony Hudson, Angel Hanson, The Julian-ettes, Eric Sellers, Korin Schneider, Daniel Thompson, Jamie Treadwell, tons of surprise guests and the incomparable Glenn Goodfellow on piano all night!!!

This is the only holiday party that has ever mattered, and it’s for a good cause! See you there…and yes. That’s me in a onesie on the poster.

Happy holidaze, everyone!

LL

Click the poster for more details:

Oh god. Watch my new video on MTV below or on their website HERE.

MTV is so fucking cool still.

Well, folks…it’s been a year and a half since I went on hiatus from music world and it’s been really good for me. I’ve immersed myself in activism and community work in Portland and have managed to stay put for a second. A lot of happy stuff has come into my life as a result of my deciding to sink the boat I was on before and I don’t ever regret having done so. It needed to happen and while at the time many people thought I was fucking crazy, as it turns out, it was the right choice. ALL of it.

With a little bit of distance between the stress of constantly touring and my everyday life now I have been able to separate the parts of the music industry I like from the parts I do not. In many ways I have gone back to how it was in the beginning—no pressure, no competition, no financial motivation to be more “mainstream” or “successful”—just me, my feelings, my keyboard, a pen and some paper. It’s been lovely to get back in touch with why I started off on this career path in the first place. In searching for that I seem to have accidentally unblocked myself and have, over the past 18 months, written a new record-one which I am already proud of and so excited to make.

I have already reached out to a few different folks who I want to work with on this one. I’m not going to set up shop with just one producer for the project. I am thinking of it as a chance to collaborate with a variety of talented people on a variety of tracks, then see where it lands. There are no rules anymore so it’s really just about the music. I don’t care how famous you are or who you’ve worked with in the past. If I’m inspired by your work, you’re in. If I’m not, you’re not.

If you would like to work on this new record with me and are interested in throwing yourself into the mix of potential producers, send an email to Logan@LoganLynnMusic.com with up to 3 original, unreleased instrumental works attached in MP3 format. Any genre is fine. Push me out of the box I’ve been living in if you dare! The only thing that is non-negotiable with this project is that YOU MUST BE THE OWNER OF THE SUBMITTED MATERIAL. I will be listening to all of your tracks over the course of November and will be identifying people from there.

Really looking forward to hearing from you. I don’t know about you but I’m feeling better than I have in years and it’s coming through in these new songs. Let’s make something pretty together!

xo
Logan

As many of you probably already have heard, Seattle’s evangelical Mars Hill church has just set up shop in SE Portland. The story broke via the Portland Mercury last week and ignited a controversy which has been covered in the media (both local and national) ever since.

When anything notable that’s LGBT-related happens in this town I generally expect to get calls from newsrooms wanting official statements from Q Center about said goings-on. That’s part of our role as an organization, actually; to speak out and offer up a voice from the queer community. As Q Center‘s Public Relations Manager, this time-sensitive-race-to-press stuff lands on my desk – generally all at once and without warning. This was certainly the case this past week. At 4pm Thursday Fox News descended upon my office with TV cameras. The Oregonian and Just Out had both interviewed me about the church just before they arrived as well.

Here’s where this whole thing gets tricky:

I know that ultimately what comes out of my mouth in these initial unplanned moments matters much more than any of the well thought out words I will think to say in the days following…so I try my best to speak from the heart and stay focused on the issue at hand instead of my past experience or perceptions. I’m not gonna lie, though- This particular issue is hard to stay objective about…impossible, maybe…so I decided not to.

Instead of fighting to stay removed I dove headfirst into my personal experience. I thought about how different my relationship with my family, the church and the world is these days compared to when I was coming out as a teenager and I thought about how it was that we got from there to here. In the years since coming out I have been able to change the hearts and minds of the people in my life. The once conservative views alive in my family are no longer anywhere to be found. We live in a profoundly free, new world together; a world full of love and celebration of our differences. It’s really quite beautiful. Had you told me this would be the case with my loved ones when I was 14 and miserable I would have laughed in your face at the impossibility of it all.

When I think about how this change in our lives came to be there are many variables. The common factor is me, however. In getting to know me, in seeing what it means to be a gay person through my life, my parents and these anti-gay people around them have changed their minds. It has taken years…but eventually is so much better than never. There are educational opportunities in front of my face all the time. Sometimes I am the teacher, but I am ALWAYS the student. When I heard Mars Hill Pastor Tim Smith speak in this video (click HERE to watch) I knew this was one of those times. I invited them to come take a tour of Q Center and chat and they took me up on the offer.

This afternoon MH Pastor Tim Smith arrived at Q Center with his colleague and we (along with Barb and Paul) spent nearly 2 hours together, chatting first about our similarities to find common ground and then about our differences and what that means for the local LGBT community here in Portland now that they have arrived. It was a very respectful, civil afternoon. We spoke about what all we do at Q Center, about youth suicide, bullying, queer families, the local political landscape and the state of the LGBT community here in Portland and worldwide. They spoke, we listened. We spoke, they listened. We had “ah-ha!” moments, they had “ah-ha!” moments. It was really that simple. No screaming. No fighting. Just talking. I believe we all left today’s meeting with a better understanding of one another’s perspective and with a resolve to take this dialogue to the next level.

In discussing what that would look like initially, we have decided to gather a dozen people – 6 from the LGBT community and 6 from the Mars Hill/Evangelical Christian community – to meet and dive deeper into these discussions over the course of a period of time yet to be determined. This will be an opportunity for the hard questions to be asked, answered, cried about, talked over, etc in a safe space, with the end goal being that both sides walk away with a better understanding of the other. There is so much fear on both sides of this particular coin…and we often are most afraid of the unknown. My hope is that we can replace the fear with knowledge, swap out the misinformation with education. I have seen this happen in my immediate family and believe wholeheartedly that it can happen in the larger human family as well. We are all just people, after all.

Today was a victory for courage, compassion and kindness; for being heard and for listening to. I’ll keep you all posted as this develops. I have high hopes that something really good comes out of this bridge we started building today.

In the end, love wins. Always. You’ll see.

xo,

Logan

It’s been a REALLY big couple of weeks since the release of “Live From Nowhere Near You” (the charity record I’m on with The Strokes, Pearl Jam, Spoon, Sleater-Kinney, Elliott Smith, The Decemberists, The Dandy Warhols, Wilco and dozens of other killer bands). Not only is the record blowing up radio (and selling out everywhere in-stores) but the press has been all up in it since the beginning of July!

After being featured by Pitchfork Magazine, Under The Radar Magazine, and a TON of other awesome media outlets all praising the record, it was picked as #3 on this week’s Must-Have list in Entertainment Weekly! Pick up the current issue on stands everywhere now or click the front cover below to check out the electronic version! YEAH BUDDY!

To get your copy of “Live From Nowhere Near You” go to any record store anywhere or CLICK HERE.

For those of you who missed it, John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig & The Angry Inch, Shortbus, Rabbit Hole), Portland-gone-NYC performance queen Amber Martin, Sook-Yin Lee (Hedwig & The Angry Inch, Shortbus), PJ DeBoy (Shortbus) & Paul Dawson (Shortbus) partnered with me on a Q&A meet-and-greet event in Portland this month while they were in town throwing their Mattachine dance party! It was really fun. They are all lovely. I’ve included a couple of shots here but you can look at the whole batch of photos on my Facebook page HERE if ya wanna!

Thank you John, Amber, Sook-Yin, PJ & Paul for being sooooooooooooooo awesome!!! See you all again soon.

Love,

David Byrne included me and my “Quickly As We Pass” video in his notorious “Pop Making Sense” column this week in Chicago’s Windy City Times newspaper! You can currently pick it up anywhere periodicals are distributed in Chicago or just keep reading below.

From Windy City Times, Chicago: (7/27/2011)

“Another video to keep an eye out for is Logan Lynn’s ‘Quickly As We Pass.’ Imagine forward-thinking Imogen Heap mentoring a DIY artist with the hipster sound stemming from Brooklyn. The end product would be ‘Quickly As We Pass‘. The track’s video is very cleverly done with stills looking like cutouts then being turned into 3-D objects, as they are filmed from different angles. Also, there is footage of neighborhoods in the Windy City with many of the spots being instantly recognizable. Not only is the video well crafted, but the song itself is very catchy. Lynn is based in Chicago and is openly gay. ‘Quickly As We Pass‘ can be found on the album ‘I Killed Tomorrow Yesterday‘.

Nice huh? I’m actually based in Portland but I love that Chicago wants to claim me! So cute!!! To read the full article, CLICK HERE.

Portland/San Francisco-based photographer Jeffrey Horvitz has an ongoing photo series called Queer Aperture which features the diversity of the LGBTQ community in even more diverse scenarios, pairing the photos with subject interviews. I was asked to participate and ended up having a shoot with him last week. The result was a sort-of Satanic goat priest experience. It’s super creepy. ha ha ha – You can check out my favorite shot below. The people in the photo were just passing by and called themselves “God-Fearing” just before the pic was taken. It was perfection. To see the rest of the photos as they are posted, CLICK HERE. To redirect to the Queer Aperture website to see more of Jeffrey Horvitz’s work, CLICK HERE.

QUEER APERTURE FEATURES LOGAN LYNN (August 2011)

QA: What is your name?

LL: Logan Lynn

QA: How long have you lived in Portland?

LL: I originally moved here in ’96 but have had tragic attempts at other cities sprinkled throughout. I always come back. Portland is home.

QA: What is the first time you noticed that Gayness existed?

LL: I was raised in a notoriously anti-gay fundamentalist Christian cult in Nebraska so I knew about gayness very early on…mostly as a way to get sent straight to hell, though. When I was a child my dentist had a poster of Magnum P.I. hanging on the ceiling above the chair so I stared at Tom Selleck’s chest hair for an hour every 6 months while I was getting my teeth cleaned growing up. I’m pretty sure that’s what did it.

QA: What would you consider a guilty pleasure?

LL: The Real Housewives of ANYWHERE. Gimme.

QA: Your having a dinner party of 6 , whom would you invite?

LL: My boyfriend, mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law and best friend. I prefer having dinner with people who actually know me and still love me over dinners with famous strangers who don’t give a shit.

QA: What would you consider a perfect meal?

LL: Some sort of Mexican fiesta.

QA: What would be a perfect day off?

LL: Sleep in late, watch TV in bed until I get hungry, eat things, play with the dog, play with the man, watch more TV, eat more things, get back in bed, play with the man some more, go to sleep.

QA: Favorite book?

LL: “A Million Little Pieces” by James Frey.

QA: Favorite movie?

LL: “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”

QA: Favorite word?

LL: Dude

QA: Least favorite word?

LL: Church

QA: Favorite swear word?

LL: Jesus

QA: What is your profession?

LL: Pop Musician/Activist

QA: If you could with a snap of a finger what would be another profession you would like to do?

LL: If I could snap my finger and get something I would snap myself into independent wealth and never work again.

QA: Whom would you like to meet dead or alive?

LL: My grandmother. We never met. I hear she was pretty cool. She gave Jonny Cash singing and piano lessons on the piano I learned on.

Hey folks! Saturday, August 6th at Q Center in Portland I’m throwing an ALL AGES Q&A Meet-and-Greet with John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig & The Angry Inch, Shortbus, Rabbit Hole), Portland-gone-NYC performance queen Amber Martin, PJ DeBoy (Shortbus) & Paul Dawson (Shortbus)! They are in town for their traveling Mattachine dance party spectacle that evening but will be spending some of their afternoon with us at Q Center before the show!

You are all invited. Spread the word. RSVP to the Facebook Event Page HERE.

Now watch John Cameron Mitchell in “Hedwig & The Angry Inch”:

“Live From Nowhere Near You” is a benefit record I was a part of for homeless youth at Outside In and it was released today. Actually, last night at midnight. By 1:00am they had sold 5,000 CD’s and were sold out. Good times, right?! OMG.

New songs by me, Elliott Smith, The Dandy Warhols, Pink Martini, Spoon, The Helio Sequence, The Strokes, Wilco, Bright Eyes, The Decemberists, Gang of Four, Sleater-Kinney, Viva Voce, Modest Mouse & so many more!!! You can read the full list HERE.

Here’s my contribution to the project:

Logan Lynn: “Movies” (2011 Greyday Records)
Words and Vocals by Logan Lynn.
Programming by Carlos Cortes.
Horns: Chris Frazier.

Logan Lynn: “Movies” (Taken from “Live From Nowhere Near You” – A Benefit For Homeless Youth) by LoganLynn

This psycho little song sure is in good company with this one. Geezuz.

The Boy In Static remix of my song “Alone Together” (from my new record “Blood In The Water” available on iTunes HERE) was used in Trent Finlay‘s promotional video for the Q Center, Basic Rights Oregon, Cascade AIDS Project & Pride NW “Hands Across Hawthorne” anti-gay bashing event.

Read what The Advocate had to say about the event itself HERE, then watch the video below.

Together we can stop the violence. To get involved with LGBT community safety in Portland, CLICK HERE. To find the LGBT community center closest to you, CLICK HERE.

I contributed to this epic collaboration record called “Live From Nowhere Near You” & it’s about to be released on 7/19 by Greyday Records. The project paired street musicians with professionals. All profits go to homeless & street youth programs at Outside In. The pre-release is happening NOW. Order yours today by clicking HERE or on the album cover below. All the songs on “Live From Nowhere Near You” are previously unreleased. More info on the release HERE.

Here’s the full list of contributing artists on this 3 disc set:

Aaron Trueb (of Tango Alpha Tango)
Adrian McEldery
Aimee Nash (of The Black Ryder)
Aja Kim
Albert Hammond Jr (of The Strokes)
Alex Barwick
Anita Robinson (of Vive Voce, Blue Giant)
Archi Read
Arion Salazaar (original member of Third Eye Blind)
Benjamin Weikel (of The Helio Sequence)
Bill MacBeath
Bob Graham Mild (of The Upsidedown)
Bosko
Brad Hargreaves (of Third Eye Blind)
Brandon Summers (of The Helio Sequence)
Brant Taylor (of Pink Martini)
Brent DeBoer (of The Dandy Warhols)
Brett Hartenbach:
Brett Kron (of The Upsidedown)
Brian Sage
Brian Winkle
Britt Daniel (of Spoon)
Carlos Cortes
Carlos Guitarlos
Carlos Vamos
Catherine Kamei
Chris Ballew (of The Presidents of the United States of America)
Chris Denham
Chris Frazier
Chris Friel (of The Rockfords)
Chris Funk (of The Decemberists, Blue Giant)
Christian Zammit
Christine Zieverink
Cole Peterson (of Sweetwater)
Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes)
Corin Tucker (of Sleater-Kinney)
Courtney Taylor Taylor (of The Dandy Warhols)
Dan Reed (of The Dan Reed Network)
Dan Wienstien
Dand Lee Strickland
Daniel Johnston (solo, himself))
Dann Gallucci (of Modest Mouse)
Danny Seim (of Menomena and Lackthereof)
Danyel Smith
Dave Allen (of Gang of Four, Faux Hoax, and Shriekback)
Dave Dederer (of The Presidents of the United States of America)
David Black
David Brown
David Maverick
Dirk Wallace
DJ Sirround
E.L. James
Eddie Vedder (of Pearl Jam)
Elliott Smith (solo, formerly of Heatmiser)
Erik McDowell
Evan Railton (of Swords)
Evan Stroum
Fabrizio Moretti (of The Strokes)
Freddie Thomas
Goldie Davich
Goldxilla
Greg Montplaisir (of Station Zero)
Greg Oden (of The Portland Trailblazers)
Greg Snell
Imani Coppola
Isaac Brock (of Modest Mouse)
James Mercer (of The Shins)
Jason Adams (of The Upsidedown, Pete International Airport)
Jason Finn (of The Presidents of the United States of America)
Jay Bennett (of Wilco)
Jeff Tweedy (of Wilco)
Jeremiah Green (of Modest Mouse)
Jeremy “Jem” Cohen (of The Ettes)
Jerry Carnathan
Jill Wilson
Jim Talstra
Jodi Huffman
Jody Linscott
Joe Berardi
Joe Purdy (solo, himself)
Joe Whaley
Joey Morales (of Top Jimmy and The Rhythm Pigs)
John Askew (of Faux Hoax, Tracker, FILMguerrero)
John Doe (of X)
John Moen (of The Decemberists)
Jonathan Maron
Jordan White
Josh Brown (of The Robots)
Joshua Homme (of Queens of the Stone Age and Them Crooked Vultures)
Julian Casablancas (of The Strokes)
Kachina Dechert
Keith Schreiner (of Dahlia, Suckapunch)
Kevin Moyer
Kevin Robinson (of Vive Voce, Blue Giant)
Leah Shapiro (of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and The Raveonettes)
Licky Noir
Lindsay “Coco” Hames (of The Ettes)
Lindsay Buckland
Lisa Lengwenus
Logan Lynn (solo, himself)
Marc Cappelle
Maria “Poni” Silver (of The Ettes)
Matt Brown (of The Robots)
Matt Moore (of The Upsidedown)
Max Butler
Mic Crenshaw (of Hungry Mob, Suckapunch)
Michael Childers
Mike McCready (of Pearl Jam)
Mike Sweeney (of Criteria and Bright Eyes)
Mike Watt (of The Minutemen, fIREHOSE, reunited Stooges)
Mirabai Carter-Trueb (of Tango Alpha Tango)
Mr Ricky Maymi (of BJM and The Imajinary Friends)
Nathan Jr (of Duover, M Ward)
Nathan Trueb (of Tango Alpha Tango)
Neal Clark (of Station Zero)
Neil Gust (of No. 2 and Heatmiser)
Nicholas Crosa (of Pink Martini)
Nick Valensi (of The Strokes)
Nikolai Fraiture (of The Strokes)
Otto Papasadero
Patrick Kempfer
Paul Cobb
Paul Immanuel Owens
Paul Lingas
Pete Droge (solo, himself)
Pete Mazich
Pete Miser (solo, of The Five Fingers of Funk)
Peter Hayes (of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club)
Peter Holmstrom (of The Dandy Warhols)
Phillip Dieter aka Skeeter
Portland Street Elvis AKA John Schroeder
Rich Milock (of Station Zero)
Robert Been (of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club)
Rory Merrit Stitt
Ryan Adams (solo, formerly of Whiskey Town, The Cardinals)
Ryan Bernstein
Sarah Jane (of The Upside Down)
Scott Von Ryper (of The Black Ryder)
Seth Lorinczi (of the Golden Bears)
Shawn Smith (of Brad and Satchel)
Skeeter
Stephan Jenkins (of Third Eye Blind)
Steven Wilson (of Porcupine Tree)
Stic.man (of Dead Prez)
Stone Gossard (of Pearl Jam)
Street Freddie
Street Keith
Streetkid SkunkE,
Suzy Coté
Thomas Lauderdale (of Pink Martini)
Tim Jensen (of Pink Martini)
Tobin Herrera
Tom Fabre
Tristan Evans (of The Upsidedown)
Tyler Coyle
Vince Meghrouni
Vini Miranda
Walker Beckman (of Tango Alpha Tango)
Wally Hendrickson (of Station Zero, The Hip Replacements, Sinus Rhythm)
Woodie Guthrie
Various anonymous street musicians and artists

HOLY SHIT, RIGHT??? I’m in some REALLY good company with this one.