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Logan Lynn Interview on Texas Entertainment Site Bold & Sugar This Week. Read it Here.

Logan Lynn Interviewed by Bold and Sugar (July 2014) - I Am A Two-Headed Monster - Love Me

I was interviewed by entertainment site Bold & Sugar this week out of Texas. We chatted about all kinds of stuff, from music and love to queer rights and what coming out is like now vs. when I did it in the mid-90s and more.

Check it out on the Bold & Sugar site HERE or read the transcript below.

From Bold & Sugar: (7/14/2014)

Bold-Sugar-logo-2

Logan Lynn Interview: From Preacher’s Son to LGBT Artist

Former Logo Network “NewNowNext” host and current Huffington Post author and musician, Logan Lynn refuses to be put in a box. As an LGBT artist, his music transcends most musical genres, and Logan has gained a dedicated following as a musical artist who is determined to be innovative.

The “Radio Silent” musician was gracious enough to answer a few questions Bold & Sugar had (We’re nosey). Tuck in to the interview below.

Tell us about your musical beginnings

Well, I was raised in an A cappella church, so my vocal training came by way of that experience.  Once I left the church and came out, I immersed myself as a DJ in the mid-90s Kansas City rave scene and fell in with Jim Suptic, Robby and Ryan Pope, who had a teenage band called The Get-Up Kids, in the suburbs of KCMO…so I had one leg in either music scene.  By the time I moved to Portland in 1996 I was writing my own songs and just ended up meeting all the right people here, which gave me access to producers and studios and local Portland label folks.  I put out a mixtape in 1998 which landed in the hands of Portland producer PFog — and the rest is history.  He produced my debut record “GLEE”, which came out in 2000.  Hard to believe that was 15 years ago!

What clicked where you decided to become an “out” musician?

I’d say that becoming an out musician was not a choice, just as being a gay man was not a choice.  It just always has been.  There was never a time where I was “in” some sort of closet.  Since that first mixtape and all the albums and singles and videos and interviews and TV and radio and live shows and whatever else which has followed, the theme has been my truth.  I try to be brave with it.  What you see is what you get with me, in music and in life.

Did you ever struggle with your sexuality growing up?

Oh god, yes.  I was a preacher’s kid in a non-affirming Christian cult, so…they didn’t take too kindly to my gayness.  I was also in the middle of rural Nebraska, then Kansas — and the bible belt is not known for being really accepting of people who they perceive as being different.  I had a really tough time reconciling the events of my youth with my broken faith and trust in the church, on top of just the regular struggles all LGBTQ people face during the coming out process.  It was painful and complicated at best.

Do you feel it’s easier to come out nowadays than it was years ago?

Well, it’s certainly more common.  And there are way more out people in media.  We have more protections now as a community, or in the entertainment industry, but I can’t say if it’s easier now than it was when I was coming out at age 14.  All I know is that my experience can in no way be described as “easy”.

What advice would you give an up-and-coming LGBT artist seeking stardom?

I would encourage them not to seek stardom, but instead to seek their truth.  If your work is true, people will respond to it.  The times I have failed during my journey have almost always been times when I have gone with someone else’s idea of who or how I should be, rather than listening to myself and following that as my guide.  On the practical end, I would say that measuring one’s success based on money or how well other people are being received is never the way to go.  If it’s truly about the music, or getting your ideas about the world out there honestly, people will find you.

Tell us about your newest song, “Radio Silent”. What’s the idea behind it?

That song, just like most of the songs on “Tramp Stamps and Birthmarks”, is about love ending and the confusion and heartache that comes along with accepting that end.  It’s very hard to love someone and not be seen…much of that record was about my loving and losing a very important man in my life.  Sometimes the truth hurts.  The video is a snapshot of our 2013 summer tour of the states.  It’s very gay.

What do you want your listeners to get from it?

My hope is always that people will hear my songs and find something in there which they relate to…and I want them to dance.  Hard.

What’s your creative process when it comes to making music?

It has changed many times over throughout the years, but it almost always starts with some extreme experience, which I dig myself out of through song.  The past 5 years or so I have been working with a producer named Gino Mari, and we seem to be very in sync when it comes to managing my process.  He keeps me in line, then reels me back in when I’ve gone over the cliff.  I’ve had many collaborators over the years, and I would be nowhere without every person I’ve ever worked with.  It might be my name on the marquee, but it takes a village to make me happen.

Who are a few artists you’d love to work with if given the chance?

Sylvan Esso, tUnE-yArDs, Karen Peris from Innocence Mission, Simian, Liz Phair…that list could go on and on.  A bunch of the people I would really like to work with are already dead, though.  I hate drugs.

Who do you want your music in general to reach, and what do you want them to take from it?

I’m so lucky to have had so many years of being connected to people through my songs already.  I don’t know that I have a goal audience, other than I would just like the most people to hear what I’m doing as is possible.  Whether they like it or not is up to them, but I hope to at least get people to think or feel or to, for a moment, stop doing both.

What defines Logan Lynn, the artist?

Depends on the day.  Ultimately, there is no distinction between Logan Lynn the person and Logan Lynn the artist, so…however the person is doing, that’s how the artist is.  It’s pretty fucked up…but is also the thing people respond to.  That danger, that unpredictability…people dig that.  That kind of unbridled exposure has not always been great for my mental health, which is why the past 15 years have been sprinkled with public freak-outs and hiatuses, but that seems to be my path, so I continue to navigate it.

What are some other projects we need to be on the lookout for?

We are performing at Stargayzer Festival in Austin, Texas this September 12-14 and will be sharing the stage with Austra, Big Freedia, Mykki Blanco, Cazwell, Trust and a bunch of other amazing queer and trans bands, so that’s going to be fun — and Gino and I are also working on new songs for a record which has a tentative release date of sometime next year…but I’m taking a bit of a break this Winter, which I am looking forward to.  Other than that I’m Editor-in-Chief of QBlog in Portland and I write for Huffington Post, The Portland Mercury and a handful of other blogs and magazines, so even when I’m not gracing stages and studios, you can always find me putting out my ideas and dreams for the world that way.

What is Your Bold Statement?

My bold statement for others is “Nothing matters as much as you think.  I promise.”  As for defining myself, I try not to…but if I had to, I’d go with “I am a two-headed monster. Love me.”

Category: Arts & Culture, Interviews, LGBT, life, Logan Lynn, Love, Music, News, Press, Uncategorized

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