In response to the post on my site about my going to work full time for Q Center and how the only way to get my new record is by donating directly to the center I have been getting tons of emails asking not only what the hell I’m doing but why the hell I’m doing it. I responded to one such wall post on my Facebook music page and figured it made enough sense to post for the rest of you. Hopefully this explains it. If not, please feel free to hit me up directly. I’d love to chat with you further about Q Center and my involvement there anytime.

To begin with, my motivation is deeply personal. As an out queer person growing up in the Midwest in the 90’s there were no safe places for me to be myself. To me, that is what the Q Center is. It’s a place where ALL queer people can be themselves openly without the fear of judgment or danger. I recently became involved after some of my friends were gay bashed in Portland during the Rose Festival. If you care to read more about my history leading up to this point and what has been the primary motivator for this you can check out this blog post I wrote just after said bashings happened HERE.

Q Center is at the forefront of not only local change for the LGBTQ community, but statewide and national change. It is the only community center of its type in Oregon. I recently was particularly drawn to Kendall Clawson (the Executive Director of the center) after receiving THIS NOTE in a Q Center email. After I heard that I was like “This lady is doing exactly what I am wanting to do only instead of just being emotional and writing about her feelings (which is what I’ve been doing for the past 10 years) she follows it up with actually CHANGING things for our community at large.” I felt compelled to reach out to her to let her know where I was with wanting to change my everyday life and get involved with something I am passionate about and it all just kinda clicked.

I believe in Kendall’s cause and the work the center does. I’m raising money for them so I can come on board full time as assistant to the Director and office everyman from Sept. 1st – Jan. 1st, then see where we’re at with the whole thing. They need me there NOW, not in 4 months when the fiscal year ends. That is why I am raising this money. I figured I could either sell the record myself and put the money into the center or give people the opportunity to get involved with my next steps themselves, have a tax deduction, and get the new songs all at the same time. I could really use your help making this happen. Please share the following link with friends: https://loganlynnmusic.com/2010/08/savingtheworldonequeeratatime/ and, of course, donate whatever you can. The more money I raise for Q Center before September 1st the more people we can help. Let me know if you have any questions.

To participate in this fundraiser for Q Center and get my new, unreleased record for free CLICK HERE. For more information on Q Center CLICK HERE.

Well, that was fun. The Gentry boys and I just got home from a wild weekend in Salem, Oregon where we played TWO shows in less than 24 hours for 2010 Capitol City Pride! First we played their official opening party at Flipside Nightclub on Friday (August 6th) and ended up dancing the night away and filming scenes for my upcoming “Bleed Him Out” music video with me undoing my shirt and making sex face in the stripper cage. It was epic. For those of you who made it out, thanks! It was nice to see you.

The next morning I was finally able to announce that we were going to be the surprise performers at the Capitol City Pride Festival in Cascade Gateway Park later that afternoon (having kept it a secret since MAY when I was booked!) We got there and it was bustling with partying queers and their friends. We set up our electronics in the middle of the park and had one of the best shows of our whole Summer tour! As it turns out, I love secrets!!!

Thanks so much to everybody who took such great care of us this weekend and to all of you who came out to the shows! We filmed both of them so I’ll be posting clips sometime soon. You can check out hundreds of pix from our adventure on Myspace HERE or on Facebook HERE. I ended up having the best time ever this weekend and got to talk about Q Center on the loud mic for a bit at both shows as well so that was cool. Go Salem gays! See you again soon…

Q Town Magazine interviewed me for this month’s issue (on stands now in Virginia, online HERE. Check out the full transcript below! I talk about the usual things people talk about in interviews: cocaine, butt sex, being a jerk, fucking my life up, Jesus, etc.

🙂

From Q TOWN Magazine (August 2010 Issue):

It’s been quite a trip for Portland electronica artist Logan Lynn. From his first studio album, This Is Folk Techno in 1998 to his latest From Pillar To Post, Lynn transports us away to his buzzing trance-like world. Famous for edgy lyrics and playful beats, Lynn creates excitement on MTV, Logo, VH1, Spike and in the pulsating indie music scene.

Q town recently caught up with Logan to chat about hooking up with The Dandy Warhols, his connection to his fans, and how queer culture influences the mainstream.

QT: Your style has been called electro-house mixed with folk, which is a really interesting combination. How did these two come together for you?

LL: I was always really interested in both genres separately growing up and coming into my own musically as a songwriter. At some point in the late 90’s I started blending the two together. Back then nobody really understood what I was doing. I would have shows and people would just stand there and scratch their heads. I could tell they were like “What the hell is this guy doing?”, but that was mostly because they just had no reference point. That was WAY before The Postal Service or some of those groups that came along in the mid 2000’s. Once that all started getting big is when people really started to gravitate to my music. I repackaged and re-released the same record in 2005 that I had released in 2000 and the reaction was amazing so I immediately recorded all the songs I had been writing during that 5 year hiatus from making records and got the ball rolling for my self-titled record in 2006. I’m glad people get it now.

QT: How did you hook up with the indie-rock band The Dandy Warhols and what has that experience been like for you?

LL: I was working on an ad campaign for a company in Los Angeles in 2005 & we hired a photographer from Portland named Ray Gordon who I ended up partying with for days in LA. He fell in love with some of the new material I played him and just happened to be really good friends with Courtney Taylor-Taylor (the Dandys’ frontman). He knew they were starting a label, Courtney and I met, he got really into my record, they signed me in 2007 and released my last record “From Pillar To Post” on their Beat The World label in 2009. It has been really great to have access to their studio and to be able to learn from them. It has been quite the journey from there to here.

QT: Can you tell us the inspiration to the lyrics behind your sharply-titled single, “Bottom your way to the top”?

LL: Well, I was in a very long-term relationship that started ending in 2007, but eluded finality until a little over a year ago. At one point, as our 6 years together were dissolving, the words “Just go and bottom your way to the top, then” was yelled my way….so I wrote a song about it. That whole record (“From Pillar To Post”) is about that time in my life. I was immersed in cocaine partyworld and was losing my love. I didn’t react very well to the breakup initially. I acted out in ways that were, well…song-worthy.

QT: We really love the video for “Bottom your way to the top”. In addition to being a musician you’re also a visual artist. Did you help contribute to the concept behind the video?

LL: Nice one! Thanks. I am always involved in some aspect of everything, but I think much of my success has been found in letting the people I work with do their jobs (be it on songs or videos). I have yet to drink my own Kool-Aid to the point where I think I know how to do everything better than everyone else. That’s bullshit. Anyway, the director Jeffrey McHale (from Chicago) had a very clear vision. I came to him because I felt like he and I had a similar point of view. It turned out that we did. He introduced me to an illustrator named John Parot who came on board to illustrate the video which Jeff then animated. Interestingly enough, John Parot is a contestant on Bravo’s “Work Of Art: The Search For The Next Great Artist” this season. He does amazing work. I love that we got him on that video. His drawings are really what next-leveled that one.

QT: What would you say is the best part of being a performer?

LL: I love the connections I make with people. I think because my songs are so personal they tend to find people that are similar to me. That’s been the case thusfar at least. That connection, that shrinking of the world to a size I can deal with, has been the best part of all of this so far. I like feeling like my crazy is understandable my hundreds of thousands of people. Like…other people aren’t running away from my ugly parts on display so maybe I’m not such a fucking psycho after all?

QT: You’ve been a fixture on MTV, VH1, Spike TV and Logo Online and you’ve got a huge following. How did it feel to break into the biz?

LL: It felt different than I thought it was going to. It is amazing that I get to live out my lifelong dreams and have been able to get to the point I’m at currently with this whole thing…but I’ll be honest and say that I always had it in my mind that I would get here and suddenly be happy, suddenly feel like I belong. Unfortunately, that is not the case so I’ve had to mourn the loss of that delusional notion as it has become clear that there just simply is no golden ticket. I love singing, I love writing, I love that there are so many people who feel a connection with me and my songs…but it’s isolating, too. That’s sort-of the nature of the beast I guess…but I wasn’t prepared for that part. It gets lonely on the island, ya know?

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