David Archuleta; Tony Hale, D'Arcy Carden (Sketch)

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
In this episode of pop Culture Weekly, the cast of
the New film Sketch, including Tony Halen, Darcy Cardin, and
then the one and only David arch Aletta, joins to
discuss his new albums. Let's go.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome to pop Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon from my
Heart Radio, your pop culture news, views, reviews and celebrity
interviews on all the movies, TV, music and pop culture
u CRABE Weekly. Here's Kyle McMahon.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
NTT Nana Net Hello and welcome to pop Culture Weekly
with Kyle McMahon. I of course am Kyle McMahon, and
as always, I appreciate you so much joining to talk
to me about pop culture. I'm so excited because we
have a great show today and we've got not one,
not two, but three sets of amazing interviews, and honestly,

(00:53):
I don't know how I'm gonna emotionally recover from this lineup.
We'll be diving into the wild, weird, and wonderfully created
world of the new movie Sketch with director Seth Warley
and star Bianca Bell plus later comedy Royalty. Tony Hale
and Darcy card enjoin me to talk about making this
hilarious and heartfelt movie. And then I sit down with

(01:16):
Archie himself, David Archiletta, to talk all about his brand
new album Heavenly Bodies, and we go deep in faith music,
his journey with sexuality. Yep, you know we're going there,
So buckle up, grab your snacks, and let's get into
it all right. First up, we're gonna kick it off

(01:36):
with the brains and the brilliance behind sketch. This movie
is literally like if your trauma doodles came to life,
but instead of getting detention for drawing in class, you
end up with a short to be award winning heartfelt
comedy film. So I sat down with director Seth Warley,
who has the kind of imagination that makes you wonder

(01:57):
if he's secretly a part wizard, and with star Bianca Bell,
who brings so much heart and charm to the film,
like you'll just love her two pieces. She's just so great.
So here they are, Seth Worley and Bianca Bell. Thank
you all for joining me. I really appreciate it. Oh

(02:18):
thanks for having us me of course. So Seth, if
I may, I'd like to start with you. This is
kind of your big feature film debut. Why was this
story important for you to be the one the first.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
Oh, great question. I you know, I grew up on
the movies of like spuebergan Za Mecas who framed Roger
Rabbit in Jurassic Park are two big seminal movies for
me and my journey towards this career. And I just
always struggled to get excited about, you know, a first
feature that was small, and I needed something ambitious, something challenging,

(02:59):
something you know, maybe bigger than you would expect from
a standard indie movie. And when you know, I, when
I was a kid, I had this thing that happen
when I was I was a kid, and my little
sister had drawn this picture of her teacher getting pelted
with arrows and just a comical amount of blood in
the picture, and she had to see a counselor, and
the counselor said, did you really want to see this

(03:21):
happen to your teacher? And my sister said, I did
when I drew it, I don't now, And the counselor said, well,
I think you did the right thing. I think drawing
this was much healthier. It was a much healthier choice
than actually doing it. And I remember as a kid,
just thinking what a badass thing to say to a kid,
Like this thing that made all the adults in your

(03:42):
life nervous and sweaty and scared of you was actually
evidence that you are a good person, making healthy choices
and processing your emotions in a healthy way. And I thought,
that is the adult I want to be in some
kid's life when I grow up. And then one day,
as adult, my daughter, who was in kindergarten at the time,

(04:03):
started bringing home pictures of just an inventive amount of
violence and blood and I'm just like, an unprecedented amount
of gore and blood and parent death. And I'm looking
at these pictures and I'm going, oh, you can believe
two things at once. You can believe that art is
the safest place for violence, well simultaneously believing that your

(04:25):
daughter's a serial killer. And it's somehow your faults and
that tension felt really ritable to me, and it seemed
and I suddenly just that's when the burst of ideas
started happening, and I saw an opportunity to make something
that had somehow both the spirit of Roger Rabbit and
Jurassic part combined along with you know, more recent movies,
like specifically Inside Out, and I saw it as a

(04:47):
Tony Hale role and that was very much like the
genesis of the project.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
I love that. And how did you find the balance
between you know, an emotional ground emotionally uh and these
kind of fantastic visual elements. How did you know? You?
I feel watching the film that you found this perfect
balance of the two where it wasn't one of the other,

(05:14):
you know, one more overpowering than the other. And I
think that was masterful. How did you do how did
you do that?

Speaker 4 (05:22):
Thank you?

Speaker 3 (05:22):
Well, you know, like the it was a very it's
a totally complex film, like it's a it's a it's
a it has several tonal shifts that we worked hard
to make sure feel organic and real and that don't
negat each other. And I think one of the reasons
it works has nothing to do with any of us,
not to negate the incredible work of our cast and crew,
But I think that you know, some of the most

(05:45):
the people in my life who've gone through the hardest
tragedies often also tend to be the funniest people in
my life. And I think that when you know as
a writer, I know for sure when I'm If you
lean hard enough into tragedy and and conflict, you'll find
comedy there. Whether you acknowledge it or not is one thing,
but there is comedy there and the inverse. If you

(06:10):
lean hard into comedy, you will start to reveal things
about the human condition. And I have just found that
if you trust the story in that way, and you
trust the characters to go to those places, that they will.
They'll relieve the tension, they'll find their way out of it.
You'll find their way out of it naturally. And it
just can be this beautiful, almost a metronome going back

(06:31):
and forth, you know, and keeping a story moving in
a way to feel surprising and yet inevitable at the
same time.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
Wow. And you know, you couldn't have done this film
without a great cast, particularly the kids, the talented young
adult Yeah they're some actors. Yes that really it hinges
on their performances. Right, You could have Tony and Darcy
and all these amazing adult actors, but if if the

(07:00):
children aren't doing their part, it all falls apart. And
and you, you guys, did such a wonderful job with that.
How did you find how did you cast them? What
made you say, I want Bianca, I want Callen and C. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
I mean I went to my friend Jessica Sherman, who's
a casting director, summer of twenty twenty two, and I said,
I need three kids. I need them all to be incredible,
and I need them in like two weeks. And she
brought me Bianca Belle and Q Lawrence and Callen Cox,
who are three talent fueled machines built in a lab somewhere,
who are also designed to be incredibly delightful, warm, professional

(07:42):
human beings with really cool parents. And they just embodied
the characters I had written, you know, be A, you
know for example, And at some point I will let
them talk while they sit here and listen to me talking.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
It is more, this is more of just a interview.

Speaker 4 (07:58):
I'm talking now, I'm talking talking.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
I No. I felt be A from the get go
had this just punk rock quality to her. She felt
like she played the character as if there was this
not just like a complex uh maybe like more leaning
toward more darker thoughts and tendencies like her tastes person
in there, but that that person was confident and fully

(08:23):
confident who she was. She was just protecting that person
from the rest of the world by keeping him bottled.
And I don't know if that was her intention, but
that's how she played it. And it was just immediately like,
this is Amber, this is who's in the movie. And Callen,
you know, I wish you were here. I'd speak to
Q too, but Q, well, I'll speak to q. Q.
Lawrence came in and was like I looked at this

(08:44):
kid and was like, this kid is so sweet and
so immediately like sweet and everything about him.

Speaker 4 (08:51):
He says, she's a giant heart walking around.

Speaker 3 (08:53):
I was like, I could watch this kid murder people
and I would absolutely like want to hug him in
adoption h and thankfully he didn't murder anyone. And then
Callen just absolutely crushed the Callen carries so much comedic
weight in the film, and he played every every line
like he was a guy lying through his teeth but

(09:14):
convinced he was nailing it and it.

Speaker 4 (09:16):
Makes this brilliant comedy.

Speaker 3 (09:18):
So i'mnna le I'm gonna shut up and let them talk.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
Well, and for Bianca and Callin, you know, you're doing
this really imaginative film where you're not necessarily dealing directly
with another actor, right, How was that for you both,
you know, doing the film. Do you have any Do

(09:40):
you have any say on that?

Speaker 5 (09:41):
I mean, yeah, for me, it's just kind of came naturally,
I guess because I as a kid, I used to
just make believe all the time.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
I used to just talk.

Speaker 5 (09:51):
To people that weren't even there, and that makes me
sound insane, but.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
I still do it, So you're fine, I guess, Yeah, it.

Speaker 6 (10:00):
Helps with acting.

Speaker 7 (10:01):
Yeah, yeah, how about for you Cala kind I kind
of agree with that. I mean, I don't play make
believe as much as a kid, but yeah, it comes
to me naturally. When Seth showed us the concept art
for it, I could kind of imagine how the scene
would be going, especially for the uh for the scene
of the tadler where I'm like telling it to shoe away,

(10:23):
so I kind of know what it looks like.

Speaker 6 (10:24):
I know, like the correct angle to like shoe it at.

Speaker 7 (10:27):
I know like how i'd be talking to it because
it's kind of just like this silly.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
Little dude almost.

Speaker 7 (10:32):
But one that I did have kind of trouble with
because we didn't really have concept art at the time
with a Sharpie monsters, so like I didn't exactly know
how to like react to it, because I didn't really
have a good concept art of it.

Speaker 3 (10:45):
Yeah, those were figured out really in the game. There's
some monsters that are in the third act that revealed themselves.
But even in that case, it was very much about
we just kind of try and tell you exactly where
your eyeline should be, like where to look, and you
guys would just lock in and you'd nail it every time.
It was really impressive.

Speaker 4 (11:00):
Yeah, well was impressive.

Speaker 7 (11:03):
Yes, I agree, I was impressed by my own performance.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
Good. I will say, Cal and Bianca, you you both
did a great job and I wouldn't have known that
you didn't you know what you were looking at at
that point. So you guys did awesome. I love sketch
and I can't wait for everybody to see it. Thank
you all for speaking with me.

Speaker 4 (11:21):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
Zeth Worlean, Bianca Bell. All right, now here's where we
really get into dangerously funny territory. I'm talking with Tony
Hale and Darcy Cardin, two people so talented they could
make reading a grocery list sound like Shakespeare and funny.
You know, Tony from Arrested Development and Veep, and of

(11:47):
course as the voice of four Ky and Toy Story
four and Darcy The Good Place Barry a league of
their own. Basically, she's in all your favorite shows. So
they're joining me to talk about scat and the sheer
joy of making something this really honestly quirky and heartfelt.
Here they are Tony Hale and Darcy Cart Thank you

(12:12):
Tony and Darcy for joining mere like gosh, thank you
for your great voice.

Speaker 8 (12:17):
Can wear shirt shirt shirty trippy.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
Yes, that's kind of sketch vibes. Thank you sketch. Oh, sketch,
I'm thinking like sketch, like sketchy.

Speaker 4 (12:29):
I'm like it was sketchy.

Speaker 6 (12:30):
But a great thing about the name of the movie
is kind of a.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
Devil on Tom Yes, I love it. Uh And speaking
of that, I love the film. Congratulations to both of
you on that what drew you. You know, it's such
a for me. I I lost my mom a few
years ago. I've kind of been in this thank you.
I've been in this world of grief in the fact

(12:53):
that I, you know one that but too started a
project with iHeart about grief, and so I've been looking
at grief through different lenses and I thought that sketch
is such an interesting lens to look at grief through.
Is that why you were both attracted to it? Or

(13:14):
is there some other you know what, what was it
that brought you to it?

Speaker 6 (13:18):
Great question? So sorry he about your mom working through it.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
Thank you.

Speaker 6 (13:22):
I know it's a long process, but I think, Yeah,
the exploration of grief and the emotionality of this script
was definitely a big draw. Tony Hale was a big draw.
The largeness of the world and the Okay, it was
a big draw.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
Oh, I get it. I don't know draw. Yeah, but
I didn't mean that.

Speaker 6 (13:51):
I mean I meant I was excited to do thee.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
Oh.

Speaker 6 (13:58):
And then you know, like the character behind us stay
like these gigantic monsters, the idea of doing like a big,
like sort of scary, fun kick movie that dives into
such like, you know, intense feelings and emotions. It had
all these pieces that just made me jump jump at

(14:19):
the chance to work with these guys.

Speaker 8 (14:21):
And so I've been in the I've been We've been
trying to get this movie made for eight years, and
we we were championing it, championing, champing, championing it because
miss campioning Champion champion and think we were champing it.

Speaker 9 (14:41):
And because just the soul that it had of allowing
feelings to be processed, parents learning from their kids.

Speaker 8 (14:52):
You know, he really thought it was the best choice.
My character kind of compartmentalized feelings and then he learned
from his daughter. But also knowing that each process of
grief is different. It was different for Amber with these drawings,
but just knowing what Seth could do with it with
his special effects background, and how it is such eye
candy and it puts it frames grief in such a

(15:14):
unique way of I mean not no spoiler, but just
and also just kind of walking through it and letting
parts of it go and letting parts of it fly
and then holding on to Somebody actually said a really
powerful process of grief was it's like you have a
rock in your pocket, and right when it happens, it's
very very heavy. And the more you the more time

(15:36):
goes by, you get stronger, so it gets lighter.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
But the rock never leaves. That's always there. Yeah, you know.

Speaker 8 (15:43):
So it's it's just things like that, just framing grief differently,
and this is this movie is one of them.

Speaker 1 (15:49):
It's interesting that you say that because I was going
to ask you both if it contributed at all, or
if it, you know, did change your outlook on grief
or how you might handle, you know, a situation like this.

Speaker 6 (16:03):
Oh yeah, I mean Tony and I have talked about
this a lot that we're both great compartmentalizers. I do.
I do that with you know, bad news, with grief
with I'm really really good at it have been my
whole life, Thank you so much. I don't know, but
I've been trying to work on it, and I feel
like every time I've watched this movie, it reminds me

(16:25):
that it is okay and right and good to go
through these things and feel your feelings.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
And it's hard. I mean, it's understandable, it's not.

Speaker 8 (16:33):
It's not the favorite thing to do it does it.
It's not easy to feel all this stuff. But just
a reminder that we're all in the same boat and
we're all going to be walking through things.

Speaker 1 (16:44):
Right do if you know you could be in this world,
in the world of sketch, Yeah, would you want your
inner child's drawings to come to life or would you
want today's uh, you know, in her inner to come
to life?

Speaker 6 (17:04):
I mean, gosh, like our imaginations are so alive as kids.

Speaker 8 (17:10):
I think I'd want my my inner child's ones would
be a lot more interesting because they'd be like the
adult ones. Maybe they'd be a little too therapy, I know,
you know, but the children ones are like much like Dave,
it's just.

Speaker 1 (17:23):
Like just plunky, yeah and all over the place, you know. Yeah,
better better movie material for sure.

Speaker 6 (17:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
And how about how you approach you know, both of
your roles. I found with grief that we have to
rely on our support systems, our loved ones, our friends,
our sisters are you know, our loved ones? Where was
I going with that? You see?

Speaker 8 (17:52):
You see, it's a great point because Liz Darcy's character
is kind of my truth teller, Like she was the
one that was speaking end of my life and finally
he kind of opened his eyes. But just those kind
of nudge is not in a mean way, just to
kind of come alongside someone.

Speaker 4 (18:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (18:10):
I do love the way Liz is written and that
she takes it slow with him in the beginning, is
just there to help and is not in his face
with it and just sort of reminding him in the
ways that she does that. You know, if it's something
as small as cleaning up the house, but what she
really means is something larger that by the end of
the you know, when we're getting deep into the movie,

(18:32):
she finally just knocks the walls down metaphorically with him
and you know, really knows what, as hard as it
might be, what would be best for her brother and
lets him know.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
Do you find as actors, you guys have both done
so many things in your careers, do you find it
creatively more challenging when you're facing something that's not really
in front of you.

Speaker 6 (18:58):
I think, yeah, it is challenging. We've talked about this
a little bit on this movie, because there's so much
of it was you know, had to be in our
imagination that somehow this one was easier to do for
me than others because of seth our director and writers
like sort of he had such a clear view of

(19:18):
what this world was going to look like, and it
was so easy for him to describe and honestly was
in the script. And we saw some pictures and it
really felt like I knew what I was seeing and
looking at. And but that is like a leap of faith,
and you do have to put a lot of confidence
and faith into your captain and he really beyond rose

(19:38):
to the occasion. But yeah, I mean it is a
little it can be a little technically challenging to act
with something that.

Speaker 8 (19:46):
Yeah, very There's also the component of, you know, when
you're in a business and people are like, all right,
let's make it real and make it subtle and stuff
like that, and then when somebody goes, okay, there's a
large blue, fuzzy mutt and you just go like, oh, yeah, yeah,
subtlety up there.

Speaker 1 (20:01):
Yeah, k your mind. Yeah, how would you react to that?
It's like, oh that's I lose my mind. Yeah. Yeah,
Thank you both so much. I really really love sketch.

Speaker 4 (20:14):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
It's so deeply layered and so just it's so good
on every layer. And I thank you both for speaking
with me. I can't wait for everybody to see it.

Speaker 6 (20:21):
Thanks so much.

Speaker 8 (20:22):
She kind to yourself man during this process.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
Thank you, Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Tony Allen,
Darcy Carden. All right, we've got more Pop Culture Weekly
coming up, so don't go anywhere because when we come
back in sixty seconds, my conversation with David Archa, let
us starts and it gets real, like call your best friend,

(20:46):
the process, it real stick around see in sixty all right,
thank you for supporting our sponsors. We are back and
I am so excited for this one. David Archiletta first
stole our hearts on American Idol and now he's back
with a stunning new album called Heavenly Bodies. But our

(21:09):
conversation went way beyond the music. We talk about his
personal journey with faith, embracing his sexuality, and what it
means to live authentically while creating art that connects with
people on a soul deep level. Here he is David Archiletta. So,

(21:30):
welcome to Pop Culture Weekly, David arch Aletta. I really
appreciate you talking to me, David.

Speaker 4 (21:35):
Good to be with you.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
Kyle, Thank you. So we're going to talk about your
upcoming new album, Earthly Delights, coming out in a couple
of weeks, but if you don't mind, I'd like to
go back first and then we'll come back.

Speaker 4 (21:48):
Sure.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
So, what would you say to sixteen year old David
coming off of that American Idol stage today? Oh?

Speaker 4 (21:59):
Well, would I say to him?

Speaker 1 (22:01):
Man?

Speaker 4 (22:01):
Well, I would say to him. I was making some
tiktoks about this, actually, so, but I haven't released them yet.
But I would say to him that you care so
much about pleasing other people and wanting them to be

(22:24):
happy with you, and it's okay. It's okay to disappoint people.
It's okay to not be what they expect you to be,
and it's okay to say no and give yourself some
healthy boundaries. Even though you'll feel bad about it, It'll
be it's fine. You know, they'll get over it and
you'll feel a lot better about yourself.

Speaker 1 (22:46):
Would you would you do it again? You know, if
you were if you could do it or not do
it again, would you do American Idol again?

Speaker 4 (22:56):
I've always called it a once in a lifetime experience
for me. I mean if I hadn't done it, then yeah,
I would. I would do it again, and I guess,
and I guess probably at this point, I would be
willing to do it again because I feel like there's
something new for me to learn. I'm a different I
feel like I'm a different person in a lot of ways,

(23:18):
so it would be interesting to to go at it again.
But yeah, I think it'd be fun because I was
a very scared I was a very scared teenager at
when I first did it and it would be interesting
to do it now with a little more perspective. And

(23:41):
but who knows, maybe I'll get maybe the trauma will
come up and I'll get stage fright and freeze in
front of the cameras, because cameras still freak me out.
Like when I like when there's like a red carpet
or a TV interview or TV performance, I get a
lot of anxiety that I didn't used to get when

(24:02):
I was before before American Idol. And you would think
that like after seventeen years and doing it all the time,
you'd get over it. But it's for some reason, like
and it's like maybe I need to talk through myself
in therapy about it, and I just haven't yet because
it's like, why is this bugging me so much? It's
just a camera, but it's like this pressure like you

(24:26):
go you like revert back to maybe like the first
few times or when it was when you're going through
it during a high stress time, and you like your
body just take takes you back to that moment, even
though it's not that moment anymore.

Speaker 1 (24:41):
So it's like PTSD.

Speaker 4 (24:43):
Yeah, like it's yeah, I I it probably isn't a
like a kind of way. I'd said that before, but
like I had all these people getting pissed off at me.
They're like you, I as served in the army. You
don't know what PTSD is like. And I'm like, you know,
I'm not invalidating your experience at all. I just don't
know what other term to use for what I'm describing

(25:04):
right now. It's like you get this anxiety attack and
relive a moment that happened a long time ago, but
you still can't separate your mind and your body from associating.
You know, whatever's trick causing you to it's triggering you
to go back to that place and react the same
way even though it's happened so long ago. And how

(25:28):
to separate yourself I don't know, but you know, I'm
sure there's a way, but you know, I still do it.
I think I've learned. You know, Ken my publicist suits
on the call too. It's like he you know, there
are moments where I'm on the carpet I just need
to like take a moment and just like calm myself down.
I'm just like like crouched and just feel like I'm

(25:49):
in my own little world for a little bit because
you don't know your bias, saying like it's the end
of the world, the worst thing's good about to happen,
and your life's at stake, and it's like why, Like
you're thinking logically, why there's nothing terrible that's happening, but
you can't. You don't know how to tell your body
that it doesn't it's not in survival.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
Mode right now.

Speaker 4 (26:10):
Yeah it's weird, but yeah, seventeen years still, seventeen years later,
still it'll still happen. And I don't know why, but
I'm sure you know, I it's not enough to be
detrimental to my life or anything.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
It's interesting that you say that about the kind of
freak out the panic. I've you know, dealt with panic
disordered my entire life. And the best thing that I
ever learned from anybody on this was my therapist. I
would always tell her like, I feel like I'm going
to freak out sometimes and she's like, well, what do
you mean, And I'm like, well, I don't know like

(26:45):
what that means, but I just like feel like I'm
going to, like, you know, just have this panic and
just like freak out. And she's like, well, what does
freak out mean, and I'm like, I don't I don't know,
I don't know how to describe it. And she was like,
well try and I was like, I don't know, like
I'm just making this up, but like run down the
street screaming or something, and and she's like, uh, next

(27:07):
time you're starting to feel that way, think about number one,
all of the panic attacks that you've had in your
life and what has happened to you. Did you ever
run out in the street, up, running up and down screaming? No?
And and then two because it started becoming for me

(27:28):
prohibitive to a lot of things in my life that
I needed to do, working with in certain you know,
environments and that sort of thing. She had said, You're
you're anticipating the this worst case, this panic attack so
much and you're spending so much time on it. And

(27:50):
she said, next time you start feeling that way, I
want you to egg it on and tell it like,
all right, if you know, I'm not dealing with this
all day worrying about having a panic AT's so let's
just have it right now and get it over with.
And that was so terrifying to me when she said that,
because I'm like, no, I don't want to like invite
it in, and she was like, just try it. If
you're going to have a panic attack anyway, what's the worst.

(28:12):
It just comes sooner than later. And I'm like, all right,
Ever since then, I swear to god, I've never had
a panic attack since then. Ever since they just stopped.
I still get anxiety or whatever, but I've never had
a panic attack since then. So that's what I started doing.
I would be like, all right, you know, I'm going
to have a panic attack about this event tonight. I'm

(28:35):
just gonna have it now. I got a lot of
stuff to do. I can't, you know, sit around all
day worrying about it. Let's just get it on with
it now. And then it's like, okay, nothing's happening, you know,
And then it never comes. So then I went about
my day. It was the most powerful change that I've
ever heard that I implemented in my life.

Speaker 4 (28:55):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (28:57):
So just something you know that I learned that maybe
it'll help somebody that listens or watches this.

Speaker 4 (29:02):
How cool? Yeah, so interesting too, Like yeah, because your brain,
our brains are creating like this feeling of devastation and
like so when you allow yourself to kay react, do
what you gotta do then to protect me, and it's like, oh,

(29:22):
there's nothing really well it's so interesting. Well thanks for
sharing that.

Speaker 1 (29:28):
Yeah, of course, So would you ever do if they
ever did an All Star American Idol season? Would you
be down to hop on?

Speaker 4 (29:38):
You know? I was, I was thinking about that when
you said that. I was like, what, I'm like, what
reason would I have to do it again? I'm like,
probably if they did some kind of throwback All Star thing,
and I'm like, that would actually be it would be scary,
but it would also be I think it'd be really
fun because I know a lot of the previous contestants
now I've had conversations with them, We've talked through how

(30:00):
that experience affected us, and so it'd be it'd be
fun to go through it again because we like understand
what we went through the first time, and it would
be fun. I think it'd be nostalgic and a throwback
and I would I would totally do it.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
I think it'd be fun for fans to viewers, you know,
be it'd be a great thing. So, producers, if you're listening,
so we're gonna take a quick break be back in sixty.
You've been very open about your faith in your life, uh,
in interviews and that sort of thing, and obviously you've

(30:39):
been an artist for you know, over a decade. Did
you did you find a place where you feel like
spiritually and coming out and you know, queerness or whatever
it's called, or whatever one calls it, uh can coexist?

Speaker 4 (31:00):
You know, I feel like I have. It's just funny.
I feel like a lot of people have. I've heard
a lot of people say this in like interviews in public.
But it's like, you find your own spirituality with things
because when you I feel like, especially when you're a
public figure, you get so many opportunities to travel to

(31:21):
mingle with other people, and you're constantly given other perspectives
and meeting people who didn't live the same way as you.
And I grew up very very much in like a
bubble in Utah as a Mormon and kind of with
this this one way of looking at everything and being

(31:43):
told that that is the way for that everyone else
should be looking at it. They just don't have it,
you know, they don't have the perspective we have. If
they only did, the world would be a better place
and so I there are a lot of really beautiful
things about it, which community, like everyone pretty much was

(32:03):
on the same like level, had the same understanding because
everyone shared a common belief and like wanting to serve God,
serve each other, and like this is what's right, this
is what's wrong. So everyone was on the same page
of how we were living our lives. And when you start,
you know, when I as soon as I was going

(32:24):
on American Idol and touring and meeting other artists and fans,
I was like meeting all these other people who didn't
have the same way of looking at life that I did,
and I thought, oh, it's my job to help them
see life more the way I do. But I also

(32:44):
felt like I was learning a lot from other people.
You know. I grew up Mormon and believing in using
the Book of Mormon and the Bible, and I met
people who were like, we we use we don't have
the Book of Mormon and we don't need it, and
we're fine with just the Bible. And then I met
people who use the Koran and they're like, we this
is what gives our life meaning and purpose and value

(33:07):
and community and helps me to be a good person.
Then you meet people who didn't believe in any of it,
and they were good people. They're like, you know what,
I have principles that I found in my life that
I feel helped me to be a good person and
live a better life and help the people around me.
And so I'm like, Okay, my beliefs were pretty specific

(33:29):
with queerness because with my beliefs before I really understood
how queer I was, queer wasn't okay, and it was
something that was something to work on. You're supposed to
have God, through faith in God, have him heal you
from any queer tendencies.

Speaker 1 (33:51):
You might have.

Speaker 4 (33:52):
And as I got older, I thought, well, oh, like,
you know, I think my community just needs some more
perspective and maybe if they learn, you know, a little
bit more insight on what a queer person goes through
and it's not what they think it is, they'll open
they'll broaden their their views on this and how God

(34:14):
may feel about queer people because he keeps making them.
But when I saw that, there was an unwillingness to
not just an unwillingness to hear it, but like a
rejection of me as a person. From when I was
talking to like some I was close to. I was
very involved in my religion, and so I'm writing a

(34:35):
book about all of it right now. But when I
saw yeah, it's it's called Devout, I'm excited to release it.
And it actually was about you know, I did go
through a phase of a process of losing my faith,
and it was scary because I'm like, this is all
I have. This has always been what matters most to me.

(34:57):
This is what's given me purpose. And I'm feeling a
lot of conflict right now because I thought my community,
I mean a lot of my community does understand, and
a lot of them don't. And what's hard is the
ones who don't and are unwilling to are a lot
of the leaders, because they're like you, if we have

(35:17):
to include this, it's going to throw our wrench into
our system of you know, our system is working for
the majority of people, and if we have to consider
how it's not, you know, if we have to like
look at queerness and homosexuality and in a different way,
it's going to throw everything else off. We don't want

(35:37):
to do that. And so it put me in a
really tricky situation because I was like, well, I can
still be queer and be a member of my face,
and they were it was kind of like, you're inconveniencing
our system by trying to publicly be you in our world.

(35:58):
Why don't you just go find somewhere else to belong?

Speaker 1 (36:01):
Wow?

Speaker 4 (36:02):
And I'm like, this is where I belong Like this,
I've thought this was the only place to belong. And
so you have you kind of are forced to look
at your beliefs differently, and you kind of have to
learn how to say, well, why is there not space
for me here? And they're like, no, You're welcome to

(36:24):
be here. You just have to you have to un
you have to not look at yourself as a queer
person the way you do anymore. You've got to change
that in order to stay here. And I'm like, I can't.
Like I've I've come to terms with this, and I've
been trying to change it my whole life, and I've

(36:45):
learned that that's just not how it works. So I
would really love to continue conversation with y'all about the
queer experience, because there are a lot of people in
this same religion going through the same thing as me,
and they're just kind of like, no, And so It's
like when someone doesn't want to have a conversation with you,
even when you're trying to, and you're even to the

(37:06):
point of like forcing it, and they just suddenly are
just like, we're just going to cut you off, so
you stop pressuring us into having to have these conversations
that we don't want to have. You just kind of
are like, you have to come to terms with Okay,
I may not. I just I may have to accept
that I don't this is not the best place for

(37:26):
me to exist. And even though they're the ones who
taught me about a relationship with God and faith and
purpose of life, I have to come to terms with
I may have to shift my own way of thinking.
And if there is a God out there I may
be believed, I may have to just accept that the
God I believe in is different from the God they

(37:48):
look at, because they want to say that the God
that they taught me does not accept me, when the
God they taught me to have a relationship with in
my personal relationship with God is saying you're fine, and
I made you and you're supposed to be the way
you are, which is why, no matter how many times

(38:12):
and no matter how many years, day after day you
asked me to change you, I'm not going to because
you're the way I created you to be. Even though
other people may not see that, I see it, and
that's all that really matters. But it's hard when you're
also taught religion is community and and being one with

(38:36):
the people around you, and it's hard. There's such a
conflict when your community does not when they're it's it
got really complicated. So I consider myself agnostic because the
God that I grew up saying was God is not

(38:59):
the same is the one I've gotten to out. So
it's that's where I'm at now. So that's a very
long winded way of saying it. But I still feel
connected to the grant, this creator of life, and I

(39:21):
still like I would still i'd call it God because
I was taught that God is the creator of everything.
So it's like, got the Creator made me, made other
people made everything in the trees, you know, or whatever
this universe were in there. It was created and I
was created by it as well. And I've tried to

(39:41):
change me and what I am a lot, and the
Creator said, no, I made you, And I'm like, there's
this connection telling you be who you are, and I'm like, Okay,
I'm just gonna trust in that and I'm gonna be
who I am. And it's not bad, even though people
have taught me growing up that it what I am
as bad for being a queer person and living my

(40:03):
life as a queer person, it's not. And I'm happy
and I find purpose and I'm just moving forward.

Speaker 1 (40:13):
When when was if you remember, when was the moment
for you where you you realized who I am is enough?

Speaker 4 (40:23):
Well? I I was still practicing in religion, and I
was I was following uh, I was following the counsel.
I got that if you just continue to marry a woman,

(40:44):
you will be healed and you're you're exercising your faith,
that you're following God's right plan for you. And I
just could tell. I'm like, this is this is not
going to fix my queerness. And you know, I probably
could have been you know, I probably could have made

(41:05):
it work marrying a woman. But I didn't feel like
I was being honest with myself and I didn't feel
like I was being honest with God's plan for me.
And it's hard to just explain that to people of
faith too but I was trying to reject that, and
I was like, nope, I got to be straight. If

(41:28):
I exist as this, I'm bad. And I got to
the point of like I was considering, like in cutting
my life short because I thought I cannot accept myself
this way. And I there's this time of numbness that
I went through, and I finally got on my knees
and I was just like, God, if you were there,
just please change me. I'm so tired of this and

(41:52):
I just want to do what you want me to do.
And that's when I that's when I had this like
pivotal moment, and it was just like I was like, David,
you need to stop asking me this. You've been asking
me for over half your life. Now, brain you see,
I'm not going to change you because you're nothing supposed
to be changed. And I was like, I don't want

(42:14):
to mess up. I don't want to make a mistake though,
and and God was like, then, perhaps you need to
make mistakes because you're allowed to make mistakes.

Speaker 5 (42:24):
David.

Speaker 4 (42:24):
Yeah, I give you permission. Go for it. Make mistakes,
and you'll learn that some of the things you thought
were mistakes weren't even mistakes.

Speaker 1 (42:34):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (42:35):
So that was like the pivotal moment for me. It
was kind of like a like I felt like it
was starting over in the most exciting and most self
loving way that I hadn't experienced because I always thought
I was supposed to hate myself for what I was
and that I was doing the right thing by doing so.

(42:55):
And I realized I can live my life and love
myself and makes all the difference.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
As an artist, did you find that more freeing? You know,
as you're going through these extremely personal kind of essence
of who you are moments, did you find that freeing
in your artistic work?

Speaker 4 (43:18):
Yeah? Absolutely, it felt like I became a new artist.
So and it's kind of funny because all the things,
you know, I became flirtier with my music, I became sexier,
and so it's like all the things that I was
told not to do as a Mormon, which is why
this new EP is, the new music is called Earthly Delights.

(43:39):
I was going to ask you, actually, I'm indulging in
like the earthly, carnal like world that I was told
to always avoid and that I was gonna be punished
if I did it and be cast off. And it's like, well,
I got cast off basically by before I even did that,
So I'm like, you know what I was. It's kind

(43:59):
of like tongue and cheek in a sense for me.
And it was like, how interesting that when I gave
into earthly delights is when I found my meaning and
like a real joy and excitement for my life and
I see myself. I feel like I'm seeing myself of
the first time ever, and I get to create more
freely I can I express. I feel like it's so

(44:22):
much fun. It's so much more fun to work now,
like making music and making these songs. And I went
and I was like, I call it my flirty era
that I'm in, but I think deep down I'm a
lover boy at heart, so I'm now calling it my
lover boy. It's my lover boy era that I'm in.
But I you know, I was too afraid to love before,

(44:44):
so I it's it's fun to be in a lover
boy era.

Speaker 5 (44:47):
I was.

Speaker 4 (44:47):
I was too afraid to be a lover before because
I was like, if I like guys, that's the work.
That's horrible. So I can't love anybody. And so it's
it's a very fun, freeing it's a liberating tongue. I'm
as an artist and just as a person in general.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
Well, Crimberlay, well, first of all our Earthly Delights is
your first project in like five years? The ep right Yeah,
and Crimberlay is a bop. I freaking love that song
so much.

Speaker 4 (45:15):
Thank you?

Speaker 1 (45:16):
Yeah, of course, Why was now after five years? Why
why is now the time that you're like, I'm ready here?
It is?

Speaker 4 (45:26):
Yeah. Well, my album five years ago I released was
called actually Therapy Sessions. I was going through therapy at
the time. I was I was just trying to figure
out a lot of things. And then I came out
four years ago, and so I feel like I've been
in this for the last five years. I've been trying

(45:47):
to figure myself out, figure out what I want to
do as an artist, and now I feel like I've
honed into it. And thus the thirty lover Boy era
has has arisen. It's like risen out of the ocean
and made itself known, and it's it's pretty. Yeah, it's

(46:09):
it's a fun time. It's I've been experimenting with bilingual
writing as well, So I've been writing a lot in
songs that are both English and Spanish because I'm half Hispanic,
and it's just been so fun. I've I've really enjoyed
this next chapter.

Speaker 1 (46:27):
And Can I Call You is another amazing one for
as you're doing this project, as it's coming together. Did
you have this lover boy era in mind? Or did
it just kind of come like, you know, did you
go in being like I'm going to be in my
lover boy era or was it like it just kind
of came out naturally.

Speaker 4 (46:49):
Yeah, it just happened. I was like, I'm going to
be fun and flirty like the Crimbera. I started with
crimble A, and just as life goes on, I was
just like, I'm writing all he's like wholesome. I don't
know if like wholesome wholesome, but definitely like sweet because
some of them are sexy but still very sweet.

Speaker 10 (47:08):
Songs like being in love And maybe I'm like a
bit of a hopeless romantic that probably needs to go
to a bit more therapy before you can make a
healthy relationship work. But uh, yeah, I am a hopeless
romantic and you know, I love I think I love love.

Speaker 4 (47:32):
Or the idea of being in love.

Speaker 1 (47:33):
Not like right? Was that not like a j LO though?
Like where it's like, you know, j Lo, I feel
like love's love to the point where she is like
every you know, the second she breaks up with one,
she's like engaged to another one like three days later.
You're not in that.

Speaker 4 (47:53):
Oh my gosh, am I a j Low type of lover?
Is it the Latin? Maybe it's the Latin. We're very
we're very like I don't know, we can be a
bit all over, but we we definitely are passionate.

Speaker 1 (48:06):
Yes, let's say that.

Speaker 4 (48:10):
And that's what I love writing in Spanish because this
is like you can get more passionate and deep and
just like that. You know, Hispanics love their they're telenovelas
like they're they're TV dramas and it's always very intense
and dramatic, but it's passionate. And I think I need

(48:31):
to go to therapy and to not be such a
mess by fall in love and trying to get someone
to fall in love with me, because oh, there's.

Speaker 1 (48:42):
Got to be tons of guys and probably uh girls
too that are lined up for to you know, sliding
in your d MS.

Speaker 4 (48:51):
Right, I don't know, I guess so I feel like
my friends, I get a lot of d ms. But
also I've noticed that not all the dms come through.
Like someone will be like I d do and I'm
like where, like look and it doesn't even show up.

Speaker 1 (49:09):
Yeah, it's under like requests or something. Yeah, it's weird.

Speaker 4 (49:12):
Oh no, not even the requests. I've gone through the
requests and they'll be like, I sent you a message
earlier today and I'm like, it's not there, and I
have to go to their profile click on messages, and
there it is.

Speaker 1 (49:22):
That's really weird, but.

Speaker 4 (49:23):
It didn't show it. But anyway, so maybe I have
more dms people in my dms, and I I would
like more dms, but you know, I wouldn't mind more
sliding into my dms. But I feel like my friends
who have way less followings than I do, get way
more dms people like sliding into the dms, and like

(49:47):
really hot and cute people sliding into their dms, and
I just don't get as much of that.

Speaker 1 (49:53):
But well, you're opening it up now, right, Yeah, come,
you know, come slide on into the but on.

Speaker 4 (50:00):
And I feel like Instagram is a new way of
meeting people or in person. I'm trying to like meet
people in person now too.

Speaker 1 (50:07):
It's well, and you're about to go on tour, your
first tour in a while, so you're going to be
meeting a lot of people.

Speaker 4 (50:14):
Right, Oh yeah, there you go. Yeah, I'm like, yeah,
I was gonna ask. I'm like, do you have any
you have some advice with like the the panic attacks
and and anxiety, Like, do you have any like dating?
Like what is what have you learned about dating? Like?

Speaker 1 (50:28):
Oh, I what are some of the secrets there? I
need like an Avengers team of therapists to tackle that.

Speaker 4 (50:38):
All right, we'll work through this. We'll work through this.

Speaker 1 (50:40):
Yes, So for your tour again, I just like I
asked you with earthly delights? Why now?

Speaker 4 (50:51):
Why now? Why not? Why not? It's it's been like
this like religious journey to coming into myself. And it's
also just I feel like I've been in touch with
my body for like the first time ever, oddly enough,

(51:13):
and it feels good. It feels good to just feel
what it's like to be a human being and all
the emotions, all the feelings, all the hormones that you
go through and and just you know, right about it,
talk about it. Dance. I'm dancing now. So it's like

(51:35):
choreography and learning the choreos helped me to be in
touch with my body. So, like if anyone's learned feeling
like they're a little stiff and want to just feel
more comfortable in their own skin, dancings of oddly like
a great way. Maybe not oddly, but it's a great
way to do it because you go out of your
comfort zone. You're moving your body, like maybe you're using

(51:58):
parts of your body so that you normally wouldn't and
so you just I feel like you're just more in
touch with yourself. So it's and I've learned a lot
from my dancers too, just to they just they're they're
a fun time.

Speaker 1 (52:16):
So we're gonna on the tour, We're gonna see you
doing some choreo with dancers, and all right, yeah, that's awesome.
What else can we expect?

Speaker 4 (52:26):
Uh, you know, they'll they'll hear this thlirty lover boy
music for sure, and I'll sing some of my old
jams too. You know, I'm known for my song Crush
more than anything still, and you know, so you got
to give the people what they they want. I mean,
I want to do. I'm not gonna I love I

(52:47):
love singing Crush it's the song I've I haven't gotten
sick of singing, and uh yeah, I think I I'll
take moments to share a little bit of not too much.
I used to. I used to talk way too much
in my shows, and now I feel like I've gotten
even that honed into like a system of this is
where I talk. I could share it and then we'll

(53:08):
have fun, have like some more sentimental, heartfelt moments, and
then choreo moments and get people out of their seats
or jumping up or jumping on the dance floor wherever
the show may be. And yeah, it's really just I
think shows are a way of like sharing a journey.

(53:28):
You're telling a story and sharing a journey with people,
helping them feel like they're a part of it. And
for me, like I'm I'm in an exciting part of
my journey in my life. So it's fun to include
people into it. Yeah, so's it's fun to bring people
along the journey.

Speaker 1 (53:46):
I love that, David, Thank you so much for talking
to me. I can't wait for Earthly Delights to come out.
Everybody is gonna everybody's looking forward to it. I know
they're gonna enjoy it based on the two tracks, I'm
in love with h and we'll be seeing you on
the road too.

Speaker 4 (54:03):
Thank you. Kyle's solo to talk.

Speaker 1 (54:04):
To you, Thank you you too. And when your book
comes out, come back on Oh I would love to Awesome, awesome,
Thank you David, Thank you, Kyle, David Artchiletta. You can
get David's album right now wherever you get your music.
And I can't wait to see him on the road.

(54:25):
And there's another episode of pop Culture Weekly in the books.
Huge thanks to Seth Warley, Bianca Bell, Tony Hal, Darcy
Carden and David Archiletta for hanging out and talking with me.
If you love today's episode, make sure to follow or
subscribe wherever you're listening, and hey, share it with that
friend who always knows the latest pop culture gossip. You

(54:48):
know the one because they're a lot like you and me.
I'm Kyle McMahon And until next time, remember life's too
short for boring entertainment. I'll see your next episode. I
love you.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
Thank you for listening to pop Culture Weekly. Here all
the latest at popcultureweekly dot

Speaker 1 (55:05):
Com, Crushyet, Crush Sheet, Prembroulet

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