spotlight casey spooner
because it was buried in effects, editing and postproduction. Michael kind of gave me a script that I can actually perform live for the first time. We would record and write stuff, finish a song and he’d say, “Now I want you to go through and sing the entire song from top to bottom, three times…And just make sure that you have enough space to breath. I hadn’t really done that before. That’s why you can really hear the voice come through. One of the other things about this album that really struck me emotionally, is that you are actually singing the music as a gay man, to gay men
specifically...It’s very personal that way. That doesn’t happen too often in pop music, even after all this time. We have gay anthems and all of that, but there isn’t a lot of music so focused on our experience. Yes. I don’t need a diva to be the vessel for me
to find an expression for how I feel. Why don’t we have men singing for us? Sylvester is really the only one that I can think of that did it. I guess we have Frank Ocean and even Prince who was that way—he was very bisexual and queer—at least until he became not that. When I started this record, from the first moment I
started writing, I clearly knew that I wanted to make a record about my experiences as a gay man. I don’t know why it was so clear to me, it’s not like me to be that way. A lot of the times I would go into the artistic process as more of an exploration and more going in and letting the ideas come to me and not really going in with a strategy. But for some reason with this one, I wanted to sing in a more committed voice through the recording and writing process. I was also committed to honesty. Warren asked if
I minded shifting the pronouns so the songs could be more universal, because he was concerned about alienating our audiences. I thought about it and have done it in the past—and this is one of the reasons I love working with Warren so much—because we’re great foils for each other. We push against each other and have to answer to each other and we help each other to more clearly define who we are. Anyway, he asked me about changing the pronouns, and I was like, “You know what, when you change the pronouns and it’s more general, you never assume that it’s a queer narrative.” We immediately assumed that it’s heterosexual and that made me realize that I couldn’t actually change the pronouns. If I did, then the whole story and narrative I’m trying to tell, just doesn’t have the
34 RAGE monthly | MARCH 2018
They’re actually suppressing desires and their natural inclinations and its queer people who are going to actually help them to be happier and set them free.
The source has spoken.
same impact. Once I explained that I really wanted to keep it gay, he agreed with me. The other thing I had to answer to and thought
about a lot, was about being kind of ghettoized by calling your art “gay.” Defining yourself as a gay artist and how that can maybe diminish things and limit your audience. I thought long and hard and the thing I came to understand, is that there’s this assumption that because something is made by someone who is gay, heterosexual people can’t learn from it or can’t relate to it and that you are limiting yourself and your audience. It’s so stupid really, because I relate to a lot of culture and creative output that comes from straight people. The notion that because you don’t have the same sexual inclination and that you can’t learn from the other’s experience is really dumb. I couldn’t agree more. It’s always sort of dumbfounded me that there is such a divide, we’re basically all the same, even if we’re handling different parts in the dark. And, when you get
to it, there really is no such thing as straight. We have come to understand that there is a spectrum to sexuality, so this notion that at some point you have chosen to basically define yourself in a certain way for the rest of your life just isn’t natural. It’s re- ally a cultural construct and straight people are trapped in very narrow notion of what they are.
The only thing I can say in response is... yesSir!
Fischerspooner’s new albumSir is available now.
Connect with Fischerspooner on facebook atfacebook. com/FischerspoonerMusic, on Twitter:@fischerspooner, or via Instagram
atinstagram.com/fischerspooner.
Catch Fischerspooner live inLos Angeles onThursday, March 15atThe Fonda Theatre, 6126 Hollywood Boulevard. They will also be inSanta Ana onFriday, March 16 atThe Observatory, 3503 S. Harbor Boulevard. For tickets and more information, go
tofischerspooner.com.
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