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CHECK OUT MY INTERVIEW WITH AUSTRALIAN "Q" MAGAZINE!

From Pillar To Post Artwork by Logan Lynn (2009)

For those of you not in Australia, you can either go to “Q Magazine” online here and download the latest (August 09) issue (My story is on pages 31 and 32) or you can check out the full transcript of my interview with Q Magazine’s Marc Porter just below:

MP: What is the inspiration behind your upcoming new album From Pillar To Post?

LL: Well, this record is basically a documentation of my journey from despair into wellness…the songs are about love and sadness and the struggle to stay alive and find truth in the midst of total chaos, addiction, loneliness…my music mirrors my life, and my life went through a major overhaul about halfway through the 2-year process of making “From Pillar To Post”, so it starts off desperate and ends hopeful. Ultimately, it’s about me letting go of the darkness that I had been encompassed by for so many years and allowing the light in, little bits at a time. I’m no good if I’m not totally honest about where I am when I’m writing, so as the clouds cleared in my life they also cleared in the songs. It’s about letting go, allowing myself to feel things as they are, and being brave about facing the feelings instead of cowering in the corner with a pile of cocaine and doing my best to escape them.

MP: How did the opportunity to work with Logo come about?

LL: In 2006 I made a bunch of videos for my self-titled release and ended up getting one of them into the hands of Logo’s programming director, and from there the relationship was born. The first video ended up spending something like 14 weeks in the top 10 countdown, and right around that time the head of artist development from the network came to my show in NYC for gay pride 2007 and invited me to come by MTV the next day for an interview. When my “Feed Me To The Wolves” E.P./video came out later that year, we had an even more successful run, and this time they picked my video as one of the top 10 of the year and invited me to host their weekly music video show “NewNowNext”! We are just wrapping up two new videos for this new record (with more on the way) so there will be more Logan Lynn/Logo action coming up in the next few months. I love those guys and feel really lucky to have been around since when they were first getting started as a network. They wanted LGBT artists who were doing something different and I guess I fit the bill, so…YAY.

MP: Is it a curse or a blessing being known as a gay artist?

LL: I’d say if anything it’s been a blessing. It’s cool to be able to say that and actually believe it. Growing up in the bible belt I don’t think I would have envisioned that what was getting my ass kicked and disfellowshipped from church for would eventually be a major draw for my career path as an adult and would basically be the catalyst for getting people to listen initially. Had the gay press not endorsed me so whole-heartedly none of what is currently happening would exist. I am thankful for the change from Con to Pro and am really only ever able to be successful as myself, so…being a gay artist was really my only option from day 1. I think my songs are about life and love and the valleys we go through on the course of our human experience…some of the themes such as loneliness, isolation, despair and a feeling that you don’t belong hit home especially with many folks in the gay community, but those sorts of things apply across the board to ALL of us, gay or otherwise. I think that’s been really great to see that I’m not actually alone, not so isolated as I thought…that there are TONS of people out there on a similar journey and they are able to connect with my music in a way that I did not think possible when I was convinced that I was a man without a country or whatever.

MP: To an outsider just discovering your music…how would you describe your style?

LL: Ah, the million dollar question. This is a hard one to answer because I think that, with this new record in particular, I have my feet dipped in a bunch of genres. At the end of the day, it has been widely categorized as Sentitive Electropop but I still fancy myself a singer/songwriter with DJ gear instead of an acoustic guitar or a piano. I think the term Emo fits as well, but you might think about throwing a “tronic” on the tail end of the word just to avoid conjuring a mental image of a 17 year old Crybaby from Orange county with dyed jet black hair and too much eyeliner, singing about how fucked up high school is.

MP: How did music come into your life?

LL: I fought for it. Being raised in a VERY religious, anti-“secular” music home I was not allowed to listen to anything that wasn’t written about in “CCM” (Contemporary Christian Music) Magazine. As I began to discover what REAL music was around the age of 12, I began to fight for it. From there, when it was clear that I would never be allowed access to such tunes on the up and up, I began to steal CD’s and hide them under my bed. I remember taking a bunch of Amy Grant CD cases and replacing the discs with Nirvana, Teenage Fanclub, Sam Philips and Depeche Mode records. At some point, my parents eased up about the music and I was allowed to listen to “clean” songs by “secular” artists…this was a MUCH easier rule to break and I now just had to lie about what I was listening to, as opposed to relying on shoplifting to get my hands on important records. That was sort-of the beginning of the end with the heavy-handed media rule at my house, but I think that the many years spent longing to hear pop music and rock and roll instilled this incredibly strong connection with the music I have come in contact with ever since, and CERTAINLY was a driving force in the formation of what the music I make sounds like today. I’m pretty sure that my knowing back then that every time I pressed play might be the last time I could hear it made the hearing of it that much more important.

MP: You’re quite a sexy guy…do you like the attention?

LL: I’m flattered by that perception and am aware that it exists, though I try to keep the focus on the music as much as possible. I think the day I look in the mirror and think “Wow. You’re sexy.” will likely NOT be happening any time soon, but it’s great if other people think so and that somehow gets them into my music.

MP: What do you think sets you apart from the crowd?

LL: I’m WAY crazier.

MP: Feed Me To The Wolves is a wonderful song, does this reference something particular in your life, and do your songs ring true?

LL: Hey, thanks! That song was written as my long-time partner and I were splitting up in 2007 and is the first song on the record, beginning the journey back together and into the madness of trying to put the pieces back together. It’s me at my emotional worst, trying to hold onto something that was slipping away faster than I could grasp it. That song is about desperately trying to get the love back, make the pain stop. My songs ring true to the time in which they were written, but as my feelings change, so do the songs. I was at rock bottom when I wrote “wolves” and am not anywhere near that at this point…but that kind of sorrow and panic is an important part of the puzzle and was necessary to include in order to accurately tell the whole story.

MP: Do you live in Portland, Orgeon? Does this city support its artists like Melbourne, Australia does where I’m from?

LL: Yeah! Puddletown, baby! The local press has been really good to me and as far as the city goes, I am SURROUNDED by talented, like-minded folks to work with. I can’t really imagine living anywhere else at this stage in my life, and every time I have tried a new city since moving here in ‘96 I end up coming back boomerang style so I am, for now, home.

MP: How much planning goes into your image such as your incredible fashion sense and gorgeous hair?

LL: Ah, schucks. You’re very kind. I think at this point I have worked really hard to match up the “image” with how I am in real life so all of that requires very little plotting or planning…it’s all just me—the good AND the bad. That applies to my songs as well as my outfits and hair I guess. It just is what it is and I’m trying to be ok with however that sounds and looks at any given time. If other folks are into it, great. If not, no worries…but whatever the response is, I can at least know that they are responding to ME, not some publicist’s edited, airbrushed version of me.

Category: Interviews, Music, Press

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