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Changing Hearts and Minds?

admin — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 11:43:27 +0000

Is it possible to get one of the most radical, hardline conservative blowhards to support gay rights, thus abandoning a large percentage of his anti-gay following?

Well, Elton John seems to think he can.

According to a post on Female First:

“My goal is for Rush to say, ‘I support civil partnerships’. If I rang him right now, I think he might agree. He was one of the first people to congratulate us on the baby”.

More here!

Pretty in Pink

Jason Shaw — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 13:39:02 +0000

Fresh from her rocking highlight performance at the American Music Awards, UK pop boy Steven Dawson reviews her album and asks the question, why is she so underrated?

This week Pink (or P!nk) released her greatest hits album in the UK, in amongst the media frenzy and continuous promotional work from Take That and Rihanna. And whilst the return of the famous five, Take That, and the undeniable superpower that is Robyn Fenty (more commonly known to you as Rihanna) is to be greatly praised and welcomed with open arms, one cannot, and should not, forget about Pink.

A 21 track album, lasting roughly 1 hour and 20 minutes, from an artist that nobody really seems to give much thought to. What’s the big deal? Everything. From the off you realise that practically every Pink track is something you have loved but never realised; it’s an album genuinely made up of hit after hit and ending with four outstanding fresh tracks that almost eclipse her previous work with their brilliance.

Emerging on the pop scene back in early 2000, Pink’s care free and punkish attitude was a world apart from other leading ladies Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera who were also just coming into their own at that time. While Britney pushed the boundaries on sexualising her provocative image and songs, and Christina sang about the perfect man and what a girl wants, Pink sang about the real life crap that boys put girls through and the real life troubles of everyday life. Pink’s songs were real, pushy and opinionated – a kind of music that would not be fully embraced until the arrival of British star Lily Allen six years later.

Nowadays, music is different. Britney had a breakdown. Christina’s career collapsed. And there was movement amongst the youth of the world, people were suddenly proud to be different. Lady Gaga seems to be the embodiment of this. She sings and performs everyday for the rights of the gays and the mainstreaming of the weird. Just recently her contemporaries Kesha and Katy Perry have joined the bandwagon, releasing songs that tell the world you are perfect just the way you are. Being weird is now cool.

So why is it that even now Pink is still seemingly in the background? She has been singing for the underdog since the very start of the century. Her everyday activities include campaigning actively for gay and animal rights in America. She released the huge hit single “Dear Mr President” that confronted world leaders for their mindless destruction of the world. She released the somewhat hilarious video “Stupid Girls”, parodying the talentless dumb blondes of the MTV generation. Pink speaks up and is proud to be different. She’s not stick thin and sexy in that conventional, and frankly boring, way that teenage girls strive to be like. She doesn’t care to fit in and be the perfect little popstar. Her latest single “Raise Your Glass” proudly proclaims an ecstatic joy at being the minority as she sings in the chorus to “raise your glass if you are wrong in all the right ways” and gives the listener a sense of comfort and pride to be an outsider just like her, “all my underdogs, we will never be anything but loud and nitty gritty dirty little freaks”.

When you inevitably go out this week to buy Take That or Rihanna, take a moment and consider Pink. Listening to the Greatest Hits… So Far!!! you will not only be treated to the pleasure of new tracks “F***ing Perfect” and “Heartbreak Down” but also 17 superb tracks that not only define a remarkable career, but a decade of music and an attitude that came a little too early for some of us. Pink is the ultimate underdog, and she’s fucking proud of it.

By Steven Dawson.

Lover – The Tom Goss Interview

Jason Shaw — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 13:13:43 +0000

Hot and talented singer, Tom Goss, has just released a new single and video, it’s a poignant and heartfelt tale, that is both moving and charming.

Tom Goss takes a little time from his manic schedule to talk about his latest work, Lover, with top gay music blogger and good friend, Howard Stump.

Lover is his fourth music video, joining the video for Rise from his Rise EP, Till The End from Back To Love and You Don’t Question Love from the Politics of Love EP. The video was filmed in Washington, DC, and Alexandria, Virginia. It is directed by DC residents Aram Vartian and Michael Key of DC; Dylan Comstock is director of photography.

When I asked him about the idea for the video, he told me, “I knew that Lover needed a video. I would see all the videos online that use the song – there are like 100 of them on YouTube – and just knew I had to make it.

“I’m a very relaxed guy,” he said, as I agreed. “One of the reasons it took so long to release this video is that it had to be something so much bigger than I had done before. So exciting. I kept bouncing ideas off people for the video and none of them seem to stick.” He continued, “A friend was writing a screenplay for a film about two soldiers – the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) theme – and he kept using the lyrics for Lover to explain it to me. I started to see it, and I had to call him and tell him ‘I hope you don’t mind, but I am stealing your story,’ he laughed.”

I asked Tom more about the early process. “Aram, Michael and Dylan are cinematographers at heart. I think mainly about the story and the music, while they think about images. We had to figure out how to make it all go together. But I think a more powerful story is the result.

“There are things I’ve never done on video, like the crane,” he said enthusiastically. “It was exciting. There is a scene where we start with a close up on my face in the grass and zoom out. I had all these new visual angles in my mind, and just needed to figure out what to do with them. And we had a blood specialist – how cool is that?”

I asked him about the three-day shoot. “It was easier than I thought. I knew I didn’t want to hide behind an instrument on this one. I wanted to be open, honest and vulnerable, so I had to get out from behind the instrument. But I’m no actor, so that was a little scary. Both stories are told on parallel tracks; me at home without my lover and him fighting a war. There was this intense, long scene, and it was just so,” he paused before adding “intense. It was just me in the scene, and it seemed so long, but I had to sell the scene and tell my story. That was hard. I had to stay intensely focused. For me, it was a new role, as an actor.”

I had to ask the obvious question, is this a new political Tom Goss? “Although it’s political, it’s a love story at its heart. It is reality. At the end of the day, we just wanted to tell a story. It’s real. The video tells the untold story of what DADT really does to people.

“When I wrote the song with Matt Alber (Who We Are), I talked to a lot of people,” Tom explained, “and heard this story time and time again. It’s (DADT) bullshit, but that is the reality. This video is not about politics, it is reality. I had to trust I could find the most successful way to tell their (gay soldiers) story, for their reality to be honored. I hope we managed to do that.”

I asked about the realism of the video. “With me and my ‘lover’, (played by Ben Horen), there are three soldiers. They are the real deal. Mike Almy, David Hall and Danny Hernandez were all discharged because of DADT. We were always telling them ‘if you see us doing something that isn’t real, tell us.”

The video is released on YouTube, and will be sent to LOGO and all the other major networks. With that in mind, Goss told me, “We will see who will be brave enough to show it.” Here is the video.

While I had him on the phone, I wanted to catch up a bit on new music, and his life in general. ” The last year has been so heavy and political. With the release of Who We Are, You Don’t Question Love, and now Lover, it’s been heavy and I’m exhausted. So the new album is lighter and pop! I am trying to inject the fun back into the music.

“My life is amazing and so fun,” he continued, “full of love, full of happiness. I live in DC, where it is easy to be gay. I can get married and have a house. The last year for me has been about the things people are struggling for; equal rights, marriage equality. I have what people are struggling for, and sometimes I feel guilty about it.”

In the midst of this talk of his ‘heavy year,’ I asked him about a special event. “The wedding (to husband Michael Briggs) was amazing. I am so, so happy. We had family coming from all over for it, but afterward, they went home. That was a little sad, because I just wanted it all to keep going.”

He is back on the road in March, with a show in Philadelphia. In April, he will kick off a 50-city tour to support the new album. Lover will be available for purchase on iTunes in 6 to 8 weeks.

You can visit Tom on the web here. You can purchase Tom’s music at the store on his site, or you can check him out on iTunes here.

Thanks to Howard for this wonderful insight to Tom’s life and talent. Howard’s award winning music

blog can be found here.

Straight Guys Need Love Too

Jason Shaw — Wed, 05 May 2010 11:00:12 +0000

It’s not often that you hear a song or a singer that just halt you dead in your tracks, make you stop what you’re doing and listen. But that’s exactly what happened to me the other day, I was so captivated the other day when I stumbled upon the Facebook page of South Jordan, that I had to stop writing a piece for the local paper and listen, and I mean really listen.

This new band create a fresh, exciting and rich sound. They are already setting social networking sites of Myspace and Facebook alight with excitement. A sound that is interesting, fresh, entertaining with meaningful and emotive lyrics are gaining an them an ever expanding fan base, so I just had to learn more about these five young guys who, collectively call themselves ‘South Jordan’

The band is made up of Michael David Hall, the sexy hunksome fella on lead vocals, whose voice is husky, deep and breathy and so packed with emotion. Next up is Bobby Campbell who plays piano and guitar. And also writes the emotive, raw, authentic songs with Michael. Mike Chan hails from Kuala Lumpur as is the bands happy synth master, David Witucki from South Bend takes on the bass and also provides the harmonious backing vocals. Finally finishing off this five piece nicely is appealing Evan Chapman on the drums.

Drawing from many influences, these young guys come together to make music with passion, honesty and power. Here in an exclusive interview, Michael David Hall, SoJo’s front man and enigmatic lead singer talks openly and honestly to our very own Jason Shaw.

Michael, you’ve got a lovely fresh and exciting sound, can you fill me in on the background, how was South Jordan formed?
SoJo formed 2 years ago when I met Bobby and Mikey through a mutual friend. Bobby and I were both writing our own music, and when the 3 of us sat down and jammed we just clicked. There was a lot of chemistry in our sound – it felt right.

Where did the name ’South Jordan’ come from?
We’ve lived on South Jordan Avenue here in Bloomington for 3 years now. We came up with the idea at Hooters …. yea…. haha.

You’ve got over 15,000 fans on Facebook, nearly double that on Myspace, are you surprised at how popular you are?
We’re always surprised at how far the music has reached. It’s an amazing feeling to have all this support from people over the internet. And its even better when we finally get to meet our internet friends at live shows.

Are you signed to a record company?
No record deal yet. We are going to New York City from May 18th till the 22nd – While we’re there we will be performing privately for a few of the biggest labels. We’re very excited for that shot.

Wow, that’s really exciting, good luck with that, but, What’s the best for you, doing videos, recording in the studio or performing live?
All of those are very different things. We’ve really started to love our live shows.. we’ve come a long way with our sound and our performance is getting better. The acoustic videos we’ve made (which can be found on YouTube here) can take a while to nail down – When we are filming those it can get stressful sometimes because we want the product to be as perfect as possible.

Oh that video for Firefly is really great, who directed it? Looks like it had a big budget?
Thanks so much – Dark Hound directed that video. The budget for that production was a whopping zero (0) dollars.

They are an amazing group of students at Indiana University who have put all their time into making movies outside of school. We’re so grateful that we got the chance to make a video with them… really grateful. It’s amazing that they made that product without a budget.

Where do you draw your influences from?
People think that this is a basic question… it’s extremely hard to answer this correctly for me. Bono and Chris Martin (coldplay) are so good at being frontmen for their bands….I like to study them. I love to watch those two men work their audience. I hope to one day control a stage like that.

If you could only listen to one album for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Any album by The Beatles. Those men wrote the best songs that will ever be written.

What’s the writing process like for you Michael? Do you sit and create, bouncing ideas of each other?
Bobby and I usually bounce ideas off of one another. We’re the two songwriters in South Jordan. I’ll send him a hook or idea and 9 out of 10 times it will be turned down. But the one he likes will be the one that our fans will love. And vice versa

What song are you most proud of?
I am currently writing a song about my sister , Aubrey. When that song is finished it will be one of my finest works. It means an awful lot to me

I can’t wait to hear it. The songs you do are all really powerful, so full of raw emotion, they have the ability to really move people, do you find they are easy to write?
Haha. Definitely not easy. Bobby and I are both relatively new as songwriters…We’ve both been writing for 3 or 4 years and it’s always a challenge to say what we really want to say. One of the hardest things about the POP music genre is that the songs are supposed to be immediately understood. We’d like to play with these radio boundaries in the future. We want to challenge our listeners to think

What’s the story behind the song Forever?
Bobby and I wrote that song out in NYC with a very successful producer named Kyle Kelso. We knew while recording the demo that that song was special. Its got a positive vibe and a catchy chorus that people love to sing along to.

Fatal Flaw feels very authentic, very honest, was this a personal tale of unrequited desire? Whats the meaning?
Bobby wrote that tune. It’s about a girl that worked in a coffee shop that he kept on going to see. (very attractive brunette) She was a tease, led him into thinking she was interested. The best part of the whole thing is that she has no clue that that song is about her and she’s definitely heard it before.

Ok, so let’s take a look at the future now, what’s next in the pipeline for South Jordan?
I think we’ll get a record deal within the next 6 months to a year. And if/when that happens we’re going to party very hard for a day or two with our closest friends and our families. But when the partying is over things will have to get really serious. We’ll have to work even harder to keep the snowball rolling.

Personally, I somehow don’t think you’ll have to wait long before that deal is offered, but where would you hope to be in, say, 5 years time?
I hope to be with my band. I hope music works out so I can help support others in need and hold a positive influence. Thats my biggest goal.

What’s the best thing & worst thing about being in South Jordan?
Touring is such a good excuse to eat McDonalds!! we pound hamburgers like its nobodies business!

The best thing is that I am living my dream.

The worst thing that could happen is a total loss of my own privacy. But one day I will try and use that to my advantage and be a great influence.

Ok, Michael, let’s get a lil bit more personal now,
What makes you tick, what really is the inspiration in your life?
I feel incredibly grateful for my family and my best friends. Most of the time when i’m sitting around with my dad I feel like Mufasa is talking to me. My dad is the strongest man I will ever know.

I am inspired by love. I think technology and society is distracting us from what really matters – family, best friends, the earth.

We spend too much of our time looking into computer screens and texting while we should be running around outside and having real conversations with people face to face.

Haha, hippies don’t have to have dreads i guess. That is what i truly believe

Are you romantically involved with anyone at the moment? Or are you too busy to look for love?
Haven’t had a girlfriend in a while. It’s kinda hard when you’re on the road with guys all day and you don’t have a girl to call.

I think all the guys in South Jordan want a girl. But we are climbing a musical mountain right now and life is very hectic between school and touring.

You’re a young good looking guy, did you know you’re already starting to build a sizable gay fan base? How do you feel about that?
Thank you very much. I am very flattered when anyone thinks I am attractive.

What’s your view on the fight for equality and gay marriage?
I think it’s sad we live in a “free” country that degrades minorities. It’s a joke that politics have any say in whether or not two people can be married.

So, would SoJo ever play live at a gay pride event?
Haha that’s definitely not our typical venue.. but I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t.

Any message you want to give the Best Gay Blog readers?
I strongly hope that those who give South Jordan a chance will be pleased with our music and our message. We’re a very young band but we’re growing so much, and the support we get is the fuel we use to keep getting better.

Ok, now, I always end an interview with a little request, so Michael, go on, tell us a secret?
I legit knew I wanted to sing by the time I was 6 – because all those disney studs were getting the hottest babes by the end of the movies because they all had great voices

——

I’m sure it’s Michael’s gonna be the one getting a lot more ‘babes’ in the not too distant future. I’m also very sure that it’s not going to be long before we’ll hear and see a lot more of South Jordan in the mainstream. If you take a little time to listen to their music, I’m sure you’ll agree, these young guys have a big future ahead of them. A record deal is almost certainly just around the corner, which I can hardly wait for, I’d also like to thank Michael for his openness and honestly during this interview, it’s great to feel the passion.

For more information on Michael and the other boys from South Jordan please visit their website SouthJordanMusic.com or join in the fun of the Facebook fan page they have, as Michael says ”It’s the most important site for us because we can interact with everyone that visits” and they do try to answer and reply to all the comments they get.

Jason Shaw

Jason’s very own interlude in this thing called life can be found on his daily slice of cake from England’s south coast – The Seafront Diaries!

SIRPAUL Speaks OUT!

Jason Shaw — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 11:00:05 +0000

Born in a tiny harbor town along the north shore of Long Island into a musical family, he father once played drums on Ed Sullivan show, his mom answered Elvis back. Growing up, he lived in a house with three sisters and a brother, his early exposure to music was pretty varied and diverse, yet it was Cyndi Lauper that stole his heart and paved the way for a career of making music. In 2004 this interesting, enigmatic man went pop!

Pumped, preened and perfectly presented SIRPAUL is an interesting artist with a deep expressive voice that’s so well suited to the thumping pop that delights his audience. But, they is way more to this young New York boy, as Howard Stump has been finding out for his blog Soundtrack To My Day and us at Best Gay Blogs.

Who were you listening to as a kid, your early influences?

I have three sisters and one brother and I grew up listening to the music they exposed me to… They each had artists they listened to the most: Madonna, Prince, Stevie Nicks, George Michael, and Van Halen. You can hear all of those elements in my music…But I was OBSESSED with Cyndi Lauper. My entire room was wallpapered with images of her. I had every single piece of memorabilia that was available and I would sit in my room and listen to She’s So Unusual over and over and over! I really felt like she was the only person in the world that I could relate to at the time because she looked crazy and I did too! I was really into the whole “New Wave look” and you could see it in the way I dressed…I was kind of androgynous and had crazy hair colors all the time.

When did you first start making music?

My parents were both musicians. My father was a drummer and he played on the Ed Sullivan Show once with his band and my mother and her sister were a singing duo called Judy & Jo. They signed to Capital Records when they were teenagers and they had put out some records. One of them was an answer song to Elvis’s Good Luck Charm called Don’t Wanna Be Your Good Luck Charm. Their songs were GREAT! So at one point or another we all were encouraged to try our hand at music. My brother Brendan is an amazing guitarist and my sister Lisa totally rocked on the drums. But I always sang, made music and wrote songs. I remember being a little kid and making my own tapes and designing the album covers and forcing my friends to be in “bands” with me. I took it very seriously. Then my sister Cherylyn and I started playing around with a keyboard my parents bought me and we began writing real songs when I was around 12. It was all over from there. We were obsessed! By the time I was 16 we had recorded our first demo tape together as a freestyle/techno group called Double Exposure. We were offered the opportunity to start putting out music in Japan but we didn’t feel like the offer was legit. (Maybe it was the fact that they wanted my sister to pose for Playboy??) My voice was still changing and I had a lot of work to do so it really wasn’t the right time but we thought we were totally gonna be the biggest stars in the world!

How does being a DJ influence you as a singer/songwriter?

Well there’s always been this misconception that i’m a DJ but I’m not. I’ve had a very close friendship with one DJ since the very beginning of my career. In 1998 I recorded my very first album, (the self-titled, out of print CD, SIRPAUL) in my bedroom on a keyboard and I was feeling very ambitious. I had just moved to NYC and I pressed a thousand copies of my album and 200 pieces of vinyl for my first single I Disagree. I remixed the song myself (very well, I must say at the time, considering that I was only working on a basic keyboard, a digital 8 track and one sampler!) and my co-worker at the time was Andreas Anastasis. We had just started hanging out and he was really excited to see what would happen with my singing career. He ran the door at a gay club called Twirlin Chelsea. He told me to come down and bring my vinyl to the club because he knew the DJ. When I got there he grabbed my hand and ran me over to the DJ booth and introduced me to this ridiculously beautiful DJ…DJ Alex Lauterstein. I was so nervous, but Alex was totally cool and we clicked right away. He said he would play my record and my heart just stopped beating for a minute. When I heard my song playing for the first time I think it changed my life forever!! We both loved New Wave (Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, Erasure) so I guess that since Alex and I shared an affinity for the same types of music, I was probably tailoring my remixes specifically to appeal to that particular sense of aural aesthetics right from the very beginning.

In your personal life, you have a partner, right? How has that helped you with your music?

Yes. Paul is actually the best thing that ever happened to me. I really have never been in love before so this person coming into my life has really changed everything for me. I believe we are soul mates. Our families have both been amazing at welcoming us both respectively into their lives and rallying around us to support us as a unit. They do not treat us any different than any other couple. We both feel very blessed.

What makes you happier, making your own music, or spinning the music of others?

Nothing makes me happier than making music. I love to play and listen to other peoples music too, but it’s honestly just not the same level of satisfaction. DJ’s make music by combining other peoples music and mixing CD’s together. Producers and artists are creating something out of nothing at all…which feels like magic.

Do you enjoy performing for an audience? Where can a fan catch you performing live?

I love performing live. I’ve had such an overwhelmingly emotional response from fans in the audience at my shows so I’m really curious to see what the response is like when I can actually encourage people to get up and dance! I’m in the very early stages of putting together a show in NYC to coincide with the release of my new album Music & Me. [ It was just announced SIRPAUL will kick off his live shows in

New York City on June 26th at the Triad Theater. Tickets can be purchased here.]

Your first recording, 2003’s Thrust EP, seems to me offered a nod to the late 80s Euro-Electronica of Depeche Mode and Yaz, yet had your own spin. How did you approach your first recording?

My first recording was actually my album SIRPAUL. For that one I basically hid in my bedroom and hoped no one was listening! Lol!! I was working with the absolute basics- a keyboard, a mic, a digital 8 track and one sampler. My second album (the unreleased Sexual.Human.Being) no one ever heard, although I think it was quite good. At that point I had incorporated some acoustic guitar and my songwriting skills were getting better. I was creating more polished, well-crafted Pop songs. By the time I got to Thrust I was working on a computer in my tiny NYC apartment. The Thrust EP was just a sampler of my songs from Switch.Switch was my first REAL album and Thrust was going to be my first REAL single. I wanted Thrust to be a respectful nod to Prince and George Michael but I honestly can never shake that Euro feeling completely out of me so you can hear those influences in anything I record. I had my cousin James come over and help me out with the process of recording the vocals on that song and he helped me get to the that part where I sing in a falsetto. We were totally cracking up during the recording but I’m actually really proud of that song! I think it doesn’t take itself to seriously and it really set the tone for a lot of my future work.

Robotika had a more brooding feel, a bit sparse, almost jazz instrumental in nature. Does the music come easier?

Robotika was an experiment and the birth of my synonymous “alter ego.” I was trying to give myself very specific parameters and rules for the record. No real instruments were allowed. So if you heard a guitar it was totally synthesized. I loved making that album. I really stretched myself artistically and it was a huge relief to not have to feel obligated to reveal so much lyrically! But I don’t think any one particular style or genre of music is easier for me to create. I honestly make music in the most organic way… It kind of just flows out of me and I have absolutely no explanation as to how or what I will create next. If you listen to the track 2001 from Robotika you will hear that I sampled it as the basis for one of the songs from my next release Music & Me (the song Break the Beat (Don’t Stop!) So sometimes I’m starting one idea and finishing it almost 10 years later! When you get to the point where you are sampling yourself you know you have made a LOT of music! LOL!

In 2004, you released the album Switch, a much more pop-flavored outing with influences ranging from Middle Eastern rhythms and acoustic simplicity. What brought that on?

I think Switch was deeply subliminally influenced by what was happening in the world and in my personal life at the time. We were at the war in the Middle East and at the same time I was finding my artistic voice. I thought I could take that influence and let it speak through my music. That album almost never happened because immediately after completing it my apartment was broken into! I was out at the release party for Robotika and a compilation my label was releasing called Very Controversial! When I got home my computer (with all of the music I had ever created) along with my all of my recording equipment was gone! The police told me it was definitely an inside job done by some I had known…I was so devastated that I almost stopped making music. But I felt like without music I had no purpose in my life so I asked every person I had ever given a CD to to please return it to me so that I could put my library back together. I got back every single song except one! The sound quality of some of the songs on Switcharen’t perfect (to me) because they still needed some tweaking and EQ adjustment. Without the master files I couldn’t adjust anything so I had to just compile the songs, press the CD’s and move on.

My first purchase, 2006’s Dismantle, returned to the slightly dark and brooding side, only amped up. There seem to be more rock influences, both in percussion and mood. Vocally, you really stretched yourself, in a good way. Even the videos had a darker feel. Was that something you were trying to do?

Well yes and no…but not really. I think Dismantle was just about taking yourself apart and examining every single aspect of your person and the way you love both yourself and other people differently sometimes. I was just creating and that’s what came out. I did want to add more rock guitars and more Drum & Bass, Techno and Breakbeat elements but it was just what I was feeling like fusing together at the time, sound wise.

The 2007 Do U single seem to go flat out rock at times, with driving beat, but many of the mixes utilized electronica to soften that. What is your favorite version?

I think Do U has a very “Rock” attitude to it, but for me it was the most electronic single I had made to date at the time. Do Uhas a very interesting story behind it… I had “virtually” met French producers Human Body through MySpace. I fell in love with what they were doing with Naomman (who I also “virtually” met through MySpace) at the time and they really liked my sound as well. They sent me an instrumental demo track and I couldn’t stop listening to it! It was the first time I was ever set to write lyrics to and sing on a song that someone else produced so it was very exciting to me. I came up with the hook for Do U while I was out dancing at Mr. Black one night and it just stuck in my head and I knew we had something special there. So I went out to the studio on Long Island and my sister Cherylyn and I finished up the lyrics and I recorded the vocals to what is now the Human Body Original Version. After it was done, I was just so excited about the track that I had to remix it. So I started editing the vocal arrangement and played with very new sounds and that’s how I came up with the Robotika Remix (which is always what I call the versions of songs where I feel like I’ve stretched myself artistically.) I felt that the original version was a little too abstract for the “aurally repressed ears of the US” at the time so the Robotika Single Version wound up being the version we used for the video. But I can’t pick just one… I love them ALL!!

Last year you had Objectified, an electronic collection that is sexually charged, both in rhythms and themes. The videos were also more abstract, with the one for the title song to have almost a layered computer screen feel. Yet vocally, you never step away from the emotional intent of the song. Was that always the intention?

The running theme in all of my work is always the concept of Technology vs. Nature. I just think these two forces are constantly battling to dominate one another. I never get tired of exploring this dynamic and I also feel that I’m always finding new ways to express it. On the album Objectified, I loved creating a pure dance pop album that still had smart lyrics while maintaining a sexy, fun tone. Andreas Anastasis had done the video for Do U and it was my most successful single so far, so when it was time to shoot the next video and Andreas wasn’t available, I really had no idea what I was going to do! The next video needed to be really strong and I had only ever worked with Andreas. His unavailability opened the door for me to work with a new director for the first time. I was put in touch with Mark Odgers and I could tell that immediately after we met, he was the right person to shoot this video and that this was going to be something completely ground breaking and different for me. I feel like visually, this video is really quite an achievement and he did an amazing job.

SIRPAUL was talking to Howard Stump who writes music blog Soundtrack to my day.

Best Gay Blog correspondent and former music manager at UK’s Allied Radio Network Jason Shaw said “At first I didn’t know what to expect, I saw the Killer EP cover and wondered if I was going to get some blood thirsty Prince look-a-like & Sound-a-like, but then I put it on and within seconds my foot was tapping and my body was twitching to dance and get my groove on. SIRPAUL’s voice is powerful, interesting and intreiging, deep at times, light at others. His style is brash dancey pop, but it’s not in the slightest bit cheesy. I reccommed everyone to give SIRPAUL a chance to stimulate your ears with one, preferably a lot more, of his tracks, so you too can get ya groove on to a guys whose mixed things for Britney Spears and is no stranger to fashion. This is pure top class entertainment!”

For more information on SIRPAUL, check out his website here, Twitter here, and FaceBook here.

“If you don’t blast this past your lugholes, you’re missing out – big time!”

Jason Shaw

GaGa for Equality

Jason Shaw — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:00:40 +0000

The lovely, outrageous Lady Gaga hosted a benefit gala for gay marriage this past Saturday evening. The singer, who has just been nominated for a GLAAD award was said to be incredibly thrilled and ‘Honoured’ to be chosen to help the cause in New Jersey.

The Hands Up for Marriage Equality event in Atlantic City, will raise money for four organisations fighting for equal marriage rights; Empire State Pride Agenda, Equality Pennsylvania, Garden State Equality and The Power.

Gaga said in a statement; “I am honoured to be able to continue to raise awareness and money for this cause and these outstanding organisations.

“Organisations like these are in the trenches every day working on behalf of all of us whether you are LGBT or straight. Equal and full civil rights are supposed to be for all of us.”

Jason Shaw, Brighton, England! The Seafront Diaries,

Dexter Star’s Cancer Shock!

Jason Shaw — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:00:24 +0000

Six Feet Under and Dexter star Michael C Hall, has almost finished treatment in his battle against cancer, it was revealed this week.

In a statement the 38 year old star confirmed that he’d been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, cancer of the lymphatic system, a treatable form of cancer. In the statement he said “I feel fortunate to have been diagnosed with an imminently treatable and curable condition, and I thank my doctors and nurses for their expertise and care,”

Michael C Hall starred in the hit show Six Feet Under as the gay funeral director David Fisher, the award winning show was a hit round the world and ran for five seasons.

Michael plans to go with his wife Jennifer Carpenter, who plays his sister in the Dexter series, to the Golden Globe awards being held in Los Angeles this weekend, as he’s nominated for best dramatic actor and Dexter is nominated for the best drama award..

He’s also scheduled to attend the Screen Actors Guild Awards the following weekend where he and the cast are also nominees. In addition, it’s all go for the star, he’s due start work later this year o the fifth series “Dexter” for Showtime! In the show, Hall plays Dexter Morgan, a Miami police investigator who moonlights as a serial killer!

Jason Shaw, Brighton, England.

Return of the SuBo!

Jason Shaw — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 11:00:40 +0000

Stand by for the latest fashion trend! You might not believe this, but get ready for the opening of the brand new SuboStore! Yes, fresh her global chart domination, the Scottish talent show runner up, whose debut album has rocketed to the top of the charts wherever it’s been released has launched her own range of ‘Susan-inspired goods including T-shirts and accessories” from an online store.

You’ll be able to get T-shirts, hoodied tops and even Boyle bags! The singes cat ‘Pebbles’ also features on some of the goods, for example you can pick up yourself a £16 T-shirt that has Boyle’s name over a silver outline of Pebbles’s whiskered face. That’s not all, there is the ‘Duotone Collage’ which has four Andy Warhol-style Subo images in bright colours.

A £35 red “hoodie” carries a large image of Susan Boyle surrounded by stars! Other items feature hearts and signature lines from her songs, including I Dreamed A Dream and Who I Was Born To Be.

The store will add to Boyle’s wealth as she takes a little break after what has been an incredible year for the Britain’s Got Talent runner up! Yes, she was second remember, proving you don’t have to win, to be a winner!

Boyle has swept the world, since that breath taking first performance, she’s sold 1.5 million albums in the UK and 3.1 million in the US, where it stormed to the top of the American album chart and stayed put for 6 weeks!

A Susan Boyle T Shirt !

More from the SuBo here on her website store.

From Jason Shaw, the blogger with his eye on the pulse and finger on the action!

While SuBo’s got a store – I’ve got a fan! Stig!

“Jason Shaw on Best Gay Blogs

Rocks my socks” – Stig Jan 2010!

Children of God

Jason Shaw — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:14:18 +0000

To us Brit’s the islands of the Caribbean Islands are sufficiently far away to be thought of as exotic, even the some of them is rather intreging, Mystique, St Baths, Bahamas, the image we have of them all is simply perfection, paradise on earth.

“Children of God,” a full-length feature film that opened the 6th annual Bahamas International Film Festival early in December, and boots that image of perfection clean out of the water. Kareem Mortimer’s movie takes on the gritty and all too real problem of homophobia, which is widespread, not only in former British colony The Bahamas, but also the entire Caribbean.

His first thoughts about doing a movie was to create an interesting romantic love story, of sorts, but things took a different turn after the islands were rocked by the murder of five gay men over a relatively short period of time and the back end of 2007 and the front of 2008

“Two of them I knew personally,” he said in a recent interview “One was the subject of a documentary I produced, he had AIDS and was killed very violently near where I live. He was almost decapitated. Another guy, a fashion designer, was stabbed multiple times in his house.”

It’s not easy being an open gay man in the Bahamas, as Kareem said “I felt really afraid. I can’t even express how I felt, and one politician said things like ‘the only good homosexual is a dead homosexual’ that went unchallenged in the country. Bahamians are very generous, loving people, but it was an act of great shame.”

Kareem chose to focused the story on three very different people, the pastors wife, the pastor by the way is secretly gay, a young black guy who is trying to hide his sexuality from his family, finally a white man who has a few conflicts in his life, with who the young guy gets involved with.

The cast is mainly Bahamians and the move was shot in just over 24 days, Children of God” had little trouble finding financial backers, despite it’s rather controversial subject matter “I raised the money locally from supporters of my work, I called in favours from individuals who have supported my work.”

The Latest Greatest

James — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 11:55:07 +0000

You’ll find yourself welcome at the official muzhophile blog. You’ll also find all the latest in Entertainment News, Random Videos & more at muzophile.com. Just browse the categories to get it all! This is your premiere online destination for the hottest club hits mixed by America’s best DJs…from West Hollywood to New York.

Getting ready to go out for the night? Having friends over? Chatting online? Get your club music fix at You’ll also find the best club music radio station called MUZOPHILE on Live365, 24/7 club hits, a must for us gays! You’ll also find the blog, interviews with stars, and yes, pleanty of hot guys.

Visit today at www.muzophile.com or at blog.muzophile.com.

Or check out the guy behind the scene at genremagazine.com.