May 14, 2025 • 58 mins
David Archuleta is done holding back. In this episode, he joins host Caitlynn McDaniel for a candid conversation about stepping into his full self—from navigating public life as a queer former child star to finding joy and confidence through music, raves, and (surprisingly) the Evil Queen at Disneyland.They unpack everything:
- His accidental viral “short king” moment
- What’s hiding in the new single “Can I Call You”
- The queer roots of EDM and why rave culture feels like home
- Letting go of internalized shame (and writing a book about it!)
- How being vulnerable in public has become a form of healing
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Straw Hut Media.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
The only time I waited overnight was t audition for
American Idol. Really, I did not have a blanket, I
did not have a sleeping bag. I was just sitting
on the parking lot asphalt, just everyone around you singing
the whole time, and so you couldn't sleep.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Not even worth it. Why did you do that yourself?
It was not worth it. Nothing good came out of it.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
I waste What a waste of time.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Right. I'm Kaitlin McDaniel, and I'd like to welcome David
Archiletta to Pride.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Thank you so much, thank you, good to see you, Kaitlin.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
It's so good to see you. I love every time
I see your face makes me so happy. Thank you absolutely.
And so here on Pride, we're always all about coming out,
and I want to welcome you. This is a safe space.
So if there's anything that you want to come out as,
I'd love for you to do that here.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Come out as well. Can I come out with how
much I love the Evil Queen.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Okay from Disneyland specifically or just.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Like specifically the one who's going viral. Yes for all
of her comebacks.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yes, she is really great.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Oh, my gosh, it did things to me. M h okay,
like it does things to me. But when I saw
her in person, I don't know something about it. I
was just like, I guess I didn't realize how much
I liked to be talked to like that by a
strong woman.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Was it like a sexual awakening kind of thing or
what was what was in your head?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I feel like, yeah, I think I kind of figured
that about myself. But like the evil Queen being as
quick as she was, like she was pretty like fabulous,
you know, and she owned it and the way she
made people grovel at her for being a great and
(02:16):
she looked so good.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
She was like, give me a compliment and I was like,
I really like your lipstick and she's like, thank you,
it's natural. Actually give me something else and I was like, okay,
I like the jewel thing on your I don't remember
what she said. I was like so befuddled, Yeah, like
kind of taken by her presence. I didn't I couldn't
(02:40):
really take it all in. Ye was she made me nervous.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
I love a confident woman, but also I like melt
into a puddle where I can't Yeah, I can't speak
if someone comes across that confident, but it's so attractive.
But then I'm like, I am not worthy of being
in the presence right now.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
She I say, kind I take a picture with you?
And she said, of course, what else are we going
to do together?
Speaker 1 (03:04):
So we do have a pick then.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
And I was like, I was like, I can't say.
I didn't say what else. I'm like, what else can
we do together? I was like, I'm thinking of all
kinds of things.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
This is it for children?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yeah, they're literally children right there. So I didn't say it,
but I felt like she almost like wanted me to
say that she knew I felt some kind of tension there.
I think that I wasn't expecting.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Honestly, I feel like she knows she's flirting with everyone.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, but oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
She tries to play it off that.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
She was amazing. I'm like, I wonder if the Evil.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Queen is pan Oh, that's a good the character.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
But I don't know. Maybe she's just into herself, right,
I was like, and she's obsessed with anyone who's obsessed
with her, and I think she could tell that I was.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
I mean, I too am into anyone that's obsessed with me.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
But I love it. Oh elaborates.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
I mean, I don't know, what.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
What do you obsess over when someone like what kinds
of things are you into when someone's obsessed with you?
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Okay, now you're taking over my job on the podcast. U.
I mean, obviously I'm just a sucker for attention. And
I also feel like I am the type that if
you're not really outward about it, I'm not gonna know.
Like I just like, like if if you're trying to
be like subtle, I won't pick up on it, so
(04:27):
you have to just kind of be over the top.
And then at the same time, I don't really like PDA,
so it's like it has to just be to me
same the obsession.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I hate PDA. Yeah, what do you not like about PDA?
Speaker 1 (04:39):
I mean I don't want to just say like it's cringey,
because that feels obvious. Like I I mean, obviously I
can't be those Disney couples that people make fun of,
or just like theme park couples where they're just like
on each other in lines and oblivious to everyone around them.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
I'm like, power to you.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Yeah, I do not care. I love that. I know.
I was telling my roommate the other day that there
was this couple in the elevator with me that were
just obsessed with each other. But the second they entered,
they were just groping each other, all upon each other
with me in there, and I was like, I just
feel like that just feels wrong. I don't know, like
I love that you're in.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Love, yeah, but I feel like being more like in
tune with other people's emotions, it's just kind of like
I just don't need that right now. I don't need
to be in tune with it. And when I see you,
it's like, do you ever like take on other people's energy?
And I'm just like I don't feel like going there, yeah,
with you, but it's like in front of me, So
what do I do? Like I try to, but it's
like this is like being an EmPATH EmPATH or something
(05:37):
like highly sensitive person, but it's just like you feel
and it's just like I don't need this, Yeah, I
don't want to feel this. No, And I don't want
to be involved in it. And same with other like
I don't want other people involved in my intimacy, and
which is why I do not like PDA. It's like
I can't help I'm not trying to think of it.
I just do. I think about other people. I feel
(05:59):
their eyes on me, and I'm just like, it makes
it not enjoyable. So if there's PDA happening, it's because
the only reason I'm doing it is for you, and
grudgingly and resentfully, so it's just not a good thing
for me. It's not a good experience for me because
in the end, I'm going to resent you for it. Yeah,
so do you really want that?
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Now? Have you been in a situation where someone else
really liked PDA and you felt like you had to
like put on a show.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Yeah, okay, and I just had to tell them I'm sorry,
I need to stop.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I can't do this.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
This is not me. And they like take it personally
because they're like they feel like you don't or you
aren't proud of them, you don't want to be seen
with them, and it's like it's not that, like I
love being with you, but it's I just don't like
involving everybody into my world. Like I think I'm very
personal and private and I want to enjoy this myself
rather than involving everyone we're around into my world.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
I know I'm not even a like launch on Instagram
kind of person. Yeah, I wouldn't, like, that's not their business.
Like I love posting, but I'm like not about Yeah,
the people really.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Like same yeah. Same. It's like some things I just
it's like we have to post so much now. It's
like then it's nice to share, But there's some things
it's nice to keep to yourself because everyone has opinions
about things, and I like people's opinions on things. I'm like, oh,
what should I wear? Whatout fit do you think? Or
what do you think of this or this or that?
What do you think of the song? Or what I'm
(07:24):
working on? Like I'm excited to share that with you.
But there are other things where it's like I don't
need everyone involved in my familial relationship things or like
things that are going on in my family or people
I'm dating. It's like it just not it doesn't make
sense to involve everyone into it, especially when you are
already kind of all over the place that other people's
(07:45):
opinions will throw you off. It's like, I don't need
that in my one on one relationships.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, how do you navigate right now? Just like the
Internet in general, because it is so fun to share
and like you have like I love when you post
just like little snippets or fun keep but like how
are you navigating being like how much do I share
versus how much do I not?
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Thank you? Well, I feel like there's like the public,
like there's your job, and I also feel like so
it's like you're the artist. You try to you're creating
like this space for people to enjoy because they're trying
to escape their world that they want to be a
part of something else and just get excited about something.
(08:26):
And so I'll post on that and then there's like
people like and then I have like subscribers where it's
like okay, I'll like get a little more personal with them,
like I might show them like my workout like my
post pump more often than when I do on my
normal or I'll like vent to them, like I'll be
like complaining about stuff I'm like, oh my gosh, or
like give them insight on like the behind the scenes
part of like building my career, which I like, I
(08:49):
like it, but it's smaller, like I don't like doing
that with everybody, like subscribers, I don't. I do it
more for myself because it's like I like to connect
with people on a more personable level. And if there's
too many people, then I feel like then I'm like
I can't escape into this smaller world with a closer
knit people who are like more genuinely interested in like
me as a person, like the day to day because
(09:10):
you have like the the audience where you get the
peanut gallery where anyone can look at it and comment
and like may even be hateful or sarcastic or just
say mean things or rude just because they're bored. And
I feel like people are like pain to be a
part of your world. It's like I can open up
a little more to you, which I like. But then
there's a thing where it's like, you know what, this
(09:31):
is just for close friends, just like I'm with my family.
Sometimes i'll post it, but like if I'm like with
one of my best friends, we're hanging out and being silly.
I feel like there's some things that are meant to
be smaller because there's certain parts of your life that
are meant to be with a closer like your closer
(09:51):
little circle of trust of people who know you, who've
seen you to an extent you have like your fans
who've been there with you. But then also like relationship
familial things like I was saying, Oops, I'm stepping on.
There's just sometimes you just need to feel like you
can be fully. You don't have to be on as
(10:12):
an artist, like you don't have to be looked up to,
and sometimes when you're in the public eye, like people
just look up to you and they admire you, and
they'll look at you as an example or as like
a role model or someone that they feel like they
know really well. But you've never met them before, you know.
And I think there's some things that are meant to
be with people who you haven't and you have been
(10:32):
able to let your guard down and they've known you
for a long time and they know your mistakes and
they know that you're just trying to figure your life
out and don't have to always put you on a pedestal.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
I agree one hundred percent. And while you were just
talking about that, I was thinking of this moment where
something that you posted had actually gone viral and then
it was it was a trend I think where you
pointed to a ruler and.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
You had oh, oh my gosh, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
And I wanted to ask you just because I feel
like that's something yes, right, yeah, And I was just like,
don't talk to me if this is you.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Yeah, it's like the three inch yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah, and I feel like it's something silly you just
never think about posting your like no one's going to
see this whatever. And then it blew up and it
made headlines. I remember writing about it.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Oh my gosh, it was like David.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Archiletta just did this, you know, like what was going
through your mind.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
When I found out what the actual trend was, just
the whole thing. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
At first I thought it was short because I'm like, okay,
short King's cool, Like awesome, I'm short. But then and
I was actually told by like someone I work with,
their like, oh, there's this trend it's about short people
on this. I'm like, oh yeah, that sounds so fun.
I love like owning my height.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
The pain in your eyes, right, I mean.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Like you know what, I just when I saw how
people were like I'm dying and stuff. And so then
I got like a message and they're like, just so
you know, it's being taken this way. Yeah, and they're
like it's blown up, but because it's being taken this way.
And then I realized the actual trend was about your
your size down here. So I was like, mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
For sure, because people are still people still like was
he lying or.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Did not know? I was mortified, but also I was
kind of like, oh, this is kind of fun to
step into this because I never would have let myself
go there, and so to unknowingly go there was probably
the only way I could. And so then I was like, well,
since now that we're there, it was like, now I
(12:45):
can loosen up, I can be a little more like
just easy going and not so uptight and like, oh,
you're not supposed to talk about that kind of stuff.
I'm like, okay, we can just be real here. And
so that was refreshing.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
To be honest.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Yeah, so it's like yeah, I mean, like I don't know,
I'm not going around with this huge dick around it,
you know. But so I was like, Okay, I guess
now people don't have to I don't know, guess or whatever.
I don't know if if they didn't know it was
a joke or whatever.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
I don't Anyone can make assumptions, you can think whatever
you want. No one knows the truth, even.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Yeah, but for me, it's kind of like, you know,
it's it's for people that I'm decided to be close
to find out. Yeah, it's not really something to go
about like telling everyone just those kinds of I mean,
some people don't care about I think I do them, like,
you know, just some things I want to keep for
(13:38):
whoever I'm with. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah, And you've been in the spotlight for a while,
so like because you auditioned when you were sixteen, right, yeah, okay,
so then did you feel like you were like really
in a spotlight for a while. I mean, I know
that you continue to do music. I know that you
also went on like Disney shows. Yeah, but like what
was what was like the attention and internet like back then,
(14:01):
I feel.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Like it was a lot more concentrated. So the different
out now, like every single person, every single public figure, artist, actor, influencer,
comedian can have their own page, have their own space
that people can go to and enter, and they can
have their own podcast, They can have their own reality
(14:23):
TV show in a sense on their own channel essentially,
like it's we didn't have that before. It was you
are on one of the networks. You're on Fox or
ABC or NBC or MTV, and that was it. Like
(14:44):
if you looked out to be on one of those,
then you had an audience and everyone had the same
amount of places to go see their the stars. So
it's like I feel like they're a lot less public
figures because I mean there were newspapers and magazines as well,
(15:05):
but even though like there's like so many that people
get their hands on, and it could be affected by
where there were locally, you know what information they got
the radio station, whatever the radio station played for you,
that's where you look. But now you can look up
any person and look at the biography, look up what
they're doing. Like you could literally look, oh, I wonder
what they posted on their story the last twenty four hours.
(15:28):
And before you had to wait for a magazine to
interview for you to talk about your upbringing, your life,
and then that magazine would send it out to everybody
and they had the power. But now the person has
the power. So it's such an interesting landscape, the shift
of the landscape. And had a MySpace page, you know,
but you could you had your top eight and like
(15:50):
that was like the more personal you could write a
blog on your website. I guess the website was more
of like the but it was still not nearly as
personal and up in up and close as now.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Yeah, so it's pretty wild. Did you feel like you
were a big star right after American Idol?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
I did not feel myself like I was a stark
and I felt like I was tricking everybody. I'm like,
why is everyone treating me this way? Yeah? But literally,
like everyone watched American Idol at that time yea, or
at least a very large percentage of the US and
(16:33):
even beyond watched it where they were like they were
getting like ten percent of people in the country watching
every week, so one out of ten people was in
tune invested in seeing what was going to happen next,
And so everywhere I would go, it was just like panemonium,
and I was like why. I'm like, I didn't do
(16:54):
anything that I thought was worthy of a star power stardum,
and suddenly everyone's freaking out and I'm like what, I'm
not ready for this, Like I felt so unprepared because
I was like, I wasn't looking to be a star.
I was just like, yeah, I learned a couple of
songs and I sang them and that was it. But
(17:15):
I wasn't like I wasn't learning choreography. I wasn't like
ready to be like have my swag on and and
media training, how to do interviews and how to take
on people's attention, Like I wasn't anticipating any of that.
So for it just to suddenly just happen and happened
(17:35):
every week, like I it was. It was wild because
it was one of the few outlets people had to
It was like our show and watching us was the
way they connected to their family, their friends, to pop culture.
Even at the time, like it was the thing to do.
So other people connected by tuning into your performance. And
(18:02):
it was a lot of pressure, but it was and
it was exciting. But I think looking back it was more.
It's more exciting to look back on because at the
time it was just like you're in over your head.
You don't realize what's going on. It's moving so fast
and behind like you're not on social media to see
it happen in real time. So the only time you
(18:23):
get a glimpse of the progress of people's panemonium is
each week when you're recording the live show and like
after performance and then like you go out and see
people looking at you and like wide eyed and screaming
because they don't know how to control their emotions by
from seeing you. And I'm like, oh wow, so it
(18:46):
was pretty interesting.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
People still don't know how to control their emotions when
they see people. It's crazy. Yeah, I mean American Idol
(19:08):
and like, so you think you can dance? Were like,
my big that's what I watched.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
So you think you can dance? Okay?
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Yeah? Is that right?
Speaker 2 (19:16):
I was thinking of Dancing with the Stars because Dancing
with the Stars was filmed right across from the studio
that American Idol was filming, So we would like pass
each other in the halls, like me, like Derek Couff
and Juliana and we'd use the same bathrooms and whatnot.
And but so you Think you Can Dance was happening
and simultaneously as well.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yeah yeah, yeah, did you know like many of the
stars when you'd see them.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
I don't really remember. I remember seeing Derek right because
I'm like, oh, you're Mormon. Two, we're both from Utah.
We were both just getting started. Yeah, so he would
say like hey, like I'm from Utah too, and I
was like or like not YouTube. I don't know if
he was from Utah, but like went to BYU or
something or like the college in Utah or something. I
don't know, but we had that connection. So we just
(19:59):
like say hi each week, but there was so much
happening that was just kind of like a quick like hey,
like one second and then there wasn't even time to
talk really.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Yeah, So would you be on dancing?
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Sure?
Speaker 1 (20:12):
It's not an excited sure no, like I guess the grudgingly,
but you've been dancing, You're doing all this choreography.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
I'm trying. You are trying, thank you?
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Yeah, and your new music? When did you start doing choreography?
Because you didn't always have that right.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Right, Like I want to say, like four years ago, Okay,
when I first started, like it was the first video
I did, like real choreography in a music video. It
was a song called move In and it was fun
to do.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
So I feel like at some point, I don't know,
I'm not a singer, but you kind of have to
decide what your like stage presence is and if you're
going to say like dance or not. Like I remember
when I grew up with One Direction, they were very
like we're not going to dance ever. Yeah, you cannot
make us and that was okay. You know, like they
had their other things, but you kind of have to
like lean into it or decide you're just gonna sing.
(21:06):
So how did you build your like stage presence?
Speaker 2 (21:09):
I guess just through trial and error. My parents helped
me to be aware of stage presence. My mom was
a performer and she danced, and she had naturally stage presence,
so when I would watch her, I'm like, oh wow,
so and then American Idol, to be honest, taught me
what stage presence looked like, yeah, and how much of
a difference it would make on a performance from someone
(21:33):
just standing there to someone who the movement just made
you feel it more, it made you believe it. It
got the message across, it got the emotion across, and
so you just kind of mirror and channel it. And
from there, I just on American Idol and other shows
i'd been on when I was a kid, they'd say like, hey,
(21:54):
like move around the stage if you can't, and I'm like,
oh my gosh, that's like too many going on. I'm like,
I'm trying to focus just on singing, and you're telling
me to move around. I'm like, I can't keep track
of all that. Just when I was on American Idol,
like Top twelve week, They're like, we want you to
start up the stairs right here and then walk down
and reach the When you get to this song lyric,
(22:15):
we want you to walk across the stage. I'm like,
oh my God, like I can't, and I forgot the
lyrics because there was like I was trying to think
of where do I stand now, and then by the
time I was like where where when do I cross
the stage? I was like, oh, I was supposed to
say these lyrics, and I I like just became a
deer in headlights. So I was like, there's too much
(22:36):
going on. So now I learn like I need to
get myself like a month time to learn a song
and then learn choreography and then practice doing both of
them together. Because my brain can only do one thing
at a time. I can't learn a song like that
and then just choreography and put them together. It's like
moving around uses one part of my brain versus singing
(22:59):
uses another part of my brain. So I have to
like muscle memory the song and how it like just
letting it come out of my mouth so that I
can do it on autopilot when I'm learning the choreo,
and then get both of those on autopilot so that
I don't think about it too much when I'm on stage.
But I still do think about it on stage. I'm like, Okay,
how do I move here? Oh, I'm supposed to engageing
(23:19):
my dancers.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Yeah. I did want to ask about Crimberwlay, your new single,
because we did talk about it a little bit before,
and you were giving me a little taste of how
you're entering your flirty era.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Yes. Right, I've fluffed up my hair too.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Now, yeah, for the flirting, are you are you a
big flirt?
Speaker 2 (23:44):
I wouldn't say. I wouldn't say I'm a big flirt. Okay,
it's gotta be the right person to get me flirty. Okay,
but I guess I'm picky.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
But do you have like a you think you're a
good at flirting?
Speaker 2 (23:55):
No?
Speaker 1 (23:55):
No, okay, That's.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Why I'm like manifesting it through Crimberlay.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Okay. That's so, yeah, you're like, this is how.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Yeah, I'm like, the only way to get better is
by practice. I see true. So I feel like crimberlet
Era is my developing my skills okay.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Okay, do you have like a go to flirting move
right now?
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Not really, I think it. I like to get my
feel off of the individual. So whoever I'm with, I
it's catered to them.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Would that's so nice? Yeah, you're like each person's different.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Yeah, whenever they want special special, everyone is special. It's
a Barney song the Dinosaur really everyone in his or
her own way. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
I don't remember any Barney songs. Honestly.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
It's okay, I should it's it's an old show.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Well yeah, but I mean I grew up on it.
I feel like I should know those things. But yeah,
I don't remember at all. But yeah, anyways, it's.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Weird thing that Selena Gomez was on was a Barney
child I know? And it wasn't Demila v Otto too,
was she? Or Am I making that up?
Speaker 1 (25:12):
I don't know. I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
But she definitely Selena was.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean Demi definitely was still
a child star back then. But I don't know if
she was on Barney gotcha.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Yeah, I'm kind of curious now, can look up?
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Yeah, go ahead?
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Back?
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Why weren't you ever on Wizards of Waverley Place Barney too.
All the shows you only did two or did you
do more?
Speaker 2 (25:39):
I just did those two.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
The guest appearances, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Yeah, I was never invited to do Wizards of Waverley Place.
Who else was on Barney? I swear was on it?
Speaker 1 (25:50):
I know, And I'm thinking of The Mickey Mouse Club
and that's with like Brittany. That's different.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
In the O Barney and Friends featured actors like Selena Gomez,
Demula Auto, and Debbie Ryan.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Really were they ever at the same time? I feel
like I've feel.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Like Demmy and and Selena were on on this at
the same time.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
You should have been on Barney too, then, I guess
I know where was the Barney Like, hello.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Barney is a dinosaur m and like that yellow dinosaur
what was her name? There's like a yellow dynast.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Really coming out?
Speaker 2 (26:31):
This is before your time? Or or was she? Or
was she green? Maybe she was a green one and
there was like a yellow Trisa tops one.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Did you like acting on those shows?
Speaker 2 (26:41):
I was terrified.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
I don't know if it was really acting. Were you
always yourself? I don't remember.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
I was myself.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
So it wasn't a character. You were just joining as yourself.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Yeah. I was scared. Yeah, I was petrified because I'm like,
I'm not an actor. I'm like, I never thought I
would be doing this. What am I supposed to do? Yeah?
I've never done acting before. Okay, so I'm like, how
am I supposed to do it now? But I just
did it and it was fun. Yeah, it was. It
was very fun to do. I mean, like so many
people know me from just those two appearances. Really they
(27:13):
thought I was a made up character.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
They come up to you and they're like, you're the
guy from My Carly Yeah exactly. Yeah, that's so funny.
I would never think.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
That, especially like people in like their mid twenties. Yeah, yeah,
the twenties, even early twenties. They'll be like, wait a second,
like you're the guy from my car.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
I mean, I say that, but then I do know that.
I I grilled you one time because I was like,
where is the the mile?
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Yeah? Do I know your lab song that.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
It's still I still play that so much all the time,
but you're not on it.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yeah, I don't know. Hate me.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
It still gets to me. I mean I really I
really need you to call it.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
I didn't want to pay me my like the royalties.
They're like, let's screw you over so that we only
have to pay one person and we get more of
a chunk for ourselves. Maybe that's what it was.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
I don't know. I really need I need you to
get to the bottom of.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
It because I tried. What is wrong?
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Man? Okay? But like, would you re record it? Like
if we could get this to happen, because I will
watch out to Miley if I have to.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Oh my gosh, I don't think she ever wants to
see any like touch any of those songs again.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
I just I just this one, Like, I don't need anything.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Miley if you're down, or we could do a new song.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
I don't know really though, Like who would you want
to do that with?
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Miley? Would be pretty fun.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Actually, Demi would be fun.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Oh yeah, Demi would be fun too, because we did
go on tour together.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Oh how was that?
Speaker 2 (28:41):
It was fun?
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Yeah, we did like a it's like a co headlining tour.
People are like, oh, you opened up. I was like,
well it was technically co headlining tour, there you go,
But it was it was. It was fun.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
My first ever concert was actually it was Jonas Brothers,
but Demi was opening. Yeah, So technically she was like
the first artist I ever saw live whoa I know,
and I was so tiny, like I don't I barely
remember it. I remember I got nachos and we called
(29:14):
them Nick Nachos because I was obsessed with Nick Jonas.
And then that Alison Stoner was so close to me
that my mom kept saying I could spin on her
and I was like, but what why is that like
the measuring Yeah, but she was like right over there
and we were freaking out about it. Wow, that was
my first concert.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
I know, it was great. I literally go time for
it at all.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
You don't remember it? No.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
I have this thing where like in those high suspense moments,
I just black out, like I went and saw one
direction and I don't remember it all. Like I couldn't
tell you.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Why do you think that happens?
Speaker 1 (29:52):
I you know, I think it's I think it's definitely
like a stress kind of yeah thing that reacts.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
That's why I do with American now. I mean the
reason why I remember is because people talk about it
with me so much, exactly like show me clips and
I would like go back and I'm like, oh, okay,
so that's what happened.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
All of my memories of it are like things that
people fed to me, Like my mom told me about
like the nacho thing and everything, and I was like,
I don't even know if it's real anymore.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
That's so interesting. Do you still do that when you
go to concerts or do you feel like you've found
like a flow how to pace yourself so that you
can get overwhelmed.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
I feel like it's just like these like the big ones.
Like I go to a lot of concerts where I'm
just kind of mellow in the back, like I used
to be like barricade or nothing, and and it was
like high intensity. We'd sleep on the streets. WHOA Like
I slept. I slept overnight one time for this concert.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Like we got there each one.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
It was for five seconds of summer.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
WHOA.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Yeah, got out of college, like got out of class,
went to the venue. There was like four other people there,
and we were like, yes, we early. It's the day before,
Like it's like four pm the day before, and we're
like great, perfect, put out our stuff. I like texted
my mom. I was like, Hey, I'm going to be
sleeping here. It's the side of the road in Phoenix, Arizona. Wow.
(31:14):
She's like, I don't I don't love that. And I'm like,
there's a cop around the corner, so we probably won't die.
And she like came and brought us like sleeping bags
and a cooler. She was supportive.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
And then I just slept there the whole night, woke
up the next day, went to class again, we like
took shifts.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Yeah, and then like went home to shower.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Oh my gosh, I know.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
I don't do that anymore, even though that wasn't that
many years ago.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Commitment, I know, dedication. The only time I waited overnight
was ta audition for American Idol.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Really, what time did you get there? Then?
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Trying to remember. One time it was like eleven or
twelve that night, and then the other time was like
two thirty am because we had to go back like
once we got like our thing, then we had to
go back another day and wait in line again.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
But it was sleeping on the streets or just waiting waiting,
that's not too bad.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Then I did not have a blanket, I did not
have a sleeping bag. I was just sitting on the
parking lot.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Asphalt, no cell phone to play video games, on.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
No, just everyone around you singing the whole time, and
so you couldn't sleep.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Not even worth it? Why why did you do yourself that?
It was not worth it? Nothing good came out of it.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
I waste What a waste of time?
Speaker 1 (32:36):
Right? Mine too, Nothing good came out of mind. I
just went and saw some people. And you're going. Speaking
of concerts, you're going to be at World Pride.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Yeah, yeah, right before.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Cynthia Revot right hear.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
How are you feeling about that?
Speaker 2 (32:56):
It's it's a lot to you know, people love Cynthia.
I love Synthia. Yeah, so to go on before is
a lot. But I've I mean, I've had to go
on before some pretty big acts before, so I'm excited.
I feel like I it's when I do shows, I
(33:18):
have a lot of fun. So I think it especially Pride,
because everyone's there to celebrate, like we've whatever trauma we've
gone through and whatever things we're having to deal with
and put up with, all the homophobia or the misunderstandings
of that people have of queer people. We just come
to get away from that and we're with our people.
They get us, and we're going to celebrate everything we've
(33:40):
had all the shit we've had to put up with
and and we don't have to worry. We can just
like and so it's just nice to be with everybody
and just have a good time where you feel like
you can let loose, like you don't have to worry
about keeping yourself in or like hiding or like, oh
someone may not like that how gay I am or whatever?
Queer and bring your you know your bay or you
(34:03):
know your I don't know, do they have pride bays.
I know there's rave bays.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Oh, I was gonna say. I was like, I never
say bay, but if it's like a rave bay, that
makes sense. I don't know yah bays. I haven't said
bay since like middle school.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
That feels christy, I know. Yeah, I only say it
with the rave bay because people still say that. I'm like, oh,
rave Bay.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Have you had rave Bays?
Speaker 2 (34:29):
Yeah? I've had a Rave Base?
Speaker 1 (34:31):
What is it? Just just like a situationship at a
rave like.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Some like a relationship that you I feel like you
can bring someone. You can bring someone to be your
rave bay or you can find a rave bay.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Yeah, Okay, have.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
You been to a rave No, you haven't been to
like an m festival.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
No, I feel like they'd eat me alive. I'm scared.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Oh my gosh. So the thing about festivals is it's
so inclusive. Yeah, you could be dressed up like a
pokemon or a furry or like a fairy. Yeah, or
in a bikini, or or just as you are a
shirt and jeans. You could wear a hoodie. You could
(35:18):
I mean, you could go in like pajamas, like no
one cares. You can just be however you want to be.
And everyone's just there to have a good time, and
everyone gives each other compliments and it's so sweet, like
everyone's just like, oh I love I love your energy,
I love your vibe, and here have this bracelet like
have a great day, be safe, and it's just so
(35:42):
like community, Like there's such a community that is so sweet.
I mean not everyone acts that way. Some people go
and they don't understand the Polor culture. But I would
say for the most part, people are pretty great and
like everyone's there just to like let loose kind of
like pride, like just to get away. A lot of
nurses and they're a lot of nurses I've found that
go to really raves and eatiom festivals and they just
(36:06):
go Ham. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
They really they need freedom, they need free time to
just be. That makes sense. I need to go. I
know that you've been doing like more like rave things
with your concerts recently, right.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
I just did one last Yeah, yeah, I just did
when we said after hours. Yeah. Yes, I did a
full show still like an hour set and had three
DJs come and play music and they killed it. Love
introducing my fans to rave culture a little bit, Yes.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
What would you say your fans are right now? Like,
are like, is it a lot of mixture of like
old fans or new fans? Like what do you think
it's predominant.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
I would say it's a mixture for sure. It's been
really interesting because I have a lot of like the
American Idol audience fans, who a lot of them will
like at the mean greets, they're like, I've never been
to a rave before, I don't know what to expect,
And I'm like, oh, you'll be totally fine. It's all good.
And so it's pretty funny because I feel like a
lot of like my queer fans have been to raves
(37:07):
because it's like a very queer yeah almost, I feel
like it's like very adjacent to queer culture, rave culture.
It came from creating a safe place where people didn't
feel safe, you know. The music media music came from
house music where like people didn't I think especially like
(37:29):
I feel like a lot of it comes from like
the most oppressed, like of the queer community versus the
black trans community, who didn't have somewhere to go. It
was illegal for them to be who they are and
to be out, and so they would have like these
underground like warehouse parties and would play like start djaying
and playing this music where they could just be themselves
and didn't have to worry and didn't care. And so
(37:51):
then like the warehouse music, they'd be like, what was
that music? Like the house music. So it's like it
went from that's what they would call it house music.
And so I feel like a lot of that has,
you know, continued, So it's like EDM music and etim
vessels and comes because of the queer community, you know,
trying to create that space, and they continue trying to
(38:14):
create that space. So I feel it when I went there,
and when I went to my first time, I was
like I felt that just free liberation. I'm like, I
don't have to worry. I could let my hair down
and just wear whatever I want and jam out to
music and jump all night and and just completely let
(38:34):
myself go and not have to worry. And and it's
it's very sweet.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Have you been bringing that like freedom into your music?
I mean I wanted to ask too, like, how has
it been since coming out and writing new music and
being able to like write he in songs and and
just talk about that kind of thing, and how that
freedom has been.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
It's scary for me because a part of me is like,
oh my gosh. If I put like he and my
guy talking like they're going to be straight, people are
going to be repulsed by that, like oh why did
he have to say that? And but it's kind of
like refreshing too that it's like, oh my gosh, I
can be myself. Yeah, people know in advance before they
even see me or talk to me and meet me
in person, Like I don't have to worry about what
(39:35):
if they find this out about me. It's already out there,
so I don't have like all the the hard work
is out of the way of like well introducing them
to who I am, the secret part of me that
they may not, they may hate, despise and you know,
finding the community of people who accept me for that.
And the only way to do that and to find
people who accept you and build your community to accept
(39:59):
you for who you are is you have to be
willing to show yourself, which is scary. Yeah, it's like
Elsa where she's says show yourself.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
Yeah, right, I'm like we're just talking about how I
don't like to show myself sometimes, like I'm like hiding
on the internet, don't look at me too closely. So yeah,
it's hard when it.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
Can be overwhelming. Yeah, I just want to keep it
to myself. That's why I go into raves. Right, there's
design just for you to go without having anyone care
too much about what you're doing.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Yeah, because music can be so vulnerable, especially when you're
writing about your experiences, so then you're you are sharing
like a big part of you you are.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Yeah, it's like a great way of cryptically showing yourself
and rebelling yourself because I feel like music and is
like art, so you can be you can do it
in a more artistic way that people can digest it
without you know, being too offended by it or being
too repulsed because they can take it from like a
(41:02):
metaphoric or symbolics way, or if they're not smart enough
to catch onto it, they'll just glaze over it and
be like, oh, yeah, that's pretty, or I like the beat,
or it's catchy. But a lot of times it's cool
that you can hide more meaningful things in those catchy
beats and melodies.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
And you have a new song can I call you? Right?
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Yeah, coming out this week?
Speaker 1 (41:26):
What are you hiding in that song? What am I looking?
Speaker 2 (41:30):
Oh that's a good question. What is David hiding? And
can I call you? I would say it's like it's
still my flirty era, like this Cumberlet era awakening of
just being more sensual and a little more sexy. But
I I feel like all this whole new EP that
(41:51):
I'm working on is more grounded. It's talking about flirtiness
and opening myself up, but I'm still myself And so
it's kind of fun to show and share with fans
like my approach to what that's like, Like, what is
it like for it for someone who's who grew up
(42:15):
Mormon and like the boy next door all his life
to then accept his sexuality and what it feels like
to get in touch with it. Not I wasn't in
touch with it. So I'm like learning how to get
in touch with it and what that process is, the journey,
and then to describe how it feels like, it feels
(42:36):
good and to get a little sexier. And so I
would say, can I call you like that? But it's
also sweet because when you come out a lot of times,
I was told all the time, like gay people can't
really have relationships because all they care about is sex,
so they don't have the depth to have relationships. And
(42:58):
I've been I've seen for myself that's clearly false, clearly
a stereotype. It's discriminative because like even my publicist Ken
who's here, he's been in his relationship with his husband
for over thirty years thirty eight years. Wow, And so
(43:20):
I was like, oh, I'm like, there have been together
since they were even allowed to you know, they weren't
allowed to get married when they met each other. Now
that they and now they've been able to grow into
like finally being allowed to have a ceremony to where
they could lawfully like be be spouses. So and then
(43:41):
I've met more people like that, more and more. I'm like, Okay, yeah,
they're clearly people who are still like just never saddle.
But I'm like why, I wonder why they tell that narrative.
It's like they don't want queer people to be happy,
and it's almost like people to prove themselves right of
their discrimination or fear of queer people. It's almost like
(44:02):
they want to sabotage queer people's progress in their lives
so that they can justify their fear and and miss
like misunderstandings of them, which causes hate because you can
it's easier to hate something that you don't understand, and
usually when you don't understand something is why you can
(44:24):
hate it, because once you understand it, it's it's like, oh,
you have more compassion for it. And they're just like me.
They want the same things, like they want someone to
be there. But when you have people on the outside
of you always trying to sabotage that, it's like y'all
are causing the trauma that's preventing these people from having
the relationships that you have. Like let's make sure they
(44:45):
can't get married, because they won't have happy relationships, they
won't have happy families. It's like y'all are manifest like
y'all are preventing them from it's they actually can do
it quite easily if you stopped traumatizing them so much
and taking it away from them. And it's like, what
what is it to you that they find happiness the
way you have? And I think a lot of straight
people it's like, well, we had to fit in this mold.
(45:06):
And I think a lot of the people who are
their pressers are not happy with their lives, and a
lot of them are probably even closeted. I think a
lot of the people who be the biggest haters are closeted,
and they're like, I had to put myself through this
misery and I didn't allow myself to get what I
wanted because I was supposed to. So I'm going to
make sure that your life is a hell because I
(45:27):
never gave myself the freedom that you have. But it's like,
can I Call You? Is talking about the sweetness that
you can have in yes, even a queer relationship.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
I love that you just went on that like whole
amazing rant and then you were just like so like
that's what can I Call You? Is about?
Speaker 2 (45:48):
Is? Look how sweet a gay relationship, yes, a queer
relation No.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
I mean, and you're right, And I loved everything you
were saying. And I hadn't really thought about weaponizing like
stereotypes because obviously we talk about stereotypes in the queer community,
and we you know, make jokes about like U haul
lesbians like and it's it's normal, and it's like that's fine.
But then if the straits get to it and they're like, no,
this is why you can't have nice things because like
(46:15):
you said, like be like, oh, gay men can't commit
blah blah blah, so that's not okay. It's like, oh no,
that's not for you, like that is for us, thank you? Yeah, crazy,
I love that. I can't wait to hear the song
about that whole that whole rant. I'm going to be
playing it in.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
Like how do you prove them wrong by simply showing
you're happy and you're right? And yeah, to keep fighting
for your happiness because the people, like, they keep calling
LGBT people like pedophiles and sexual offenders. It's like, who
are the sexual offenders? It's it's the people who are
making themselves miserable. Gay people are not making themselves miserable.
(46:57):
It's the people who are suppressing all their emotions, who
are bitter and prey upon weaker people and people who
do not have more of a say, Like they victimize
the children, women, other like people who are vulnerable. They
victimize those vulnerable people because they they hate something about themselves.
(47:23):
They despise something about themselves there and so for them
to keep projecting it onto the queer community is outrageous.
It's it's like, are their sexual offenders who are queer, probably,
but like, look at what most of the cases are,
and people like drag queens are pedophiles. It's like I
(47:43):
try to look at it up. I'm like, how many
how many drag queens. I'm like, oh, there's like three
in the whole country. Like one of them was actually
and one of them was a woman who I don't like,
and another one was like they were both young, like
they're both teenagers, but one of them technically like a miner,
and one of them technically wasn't because I was like
there was like sixteen eighteen, like and I'm like okay,
(48:08):
And then I'm looking at like the other side, like
the people who are attacking the drag queen saying you
can't do the shows because their pedophiles are gonna interctor
noted children. And these are the politicians who are getting
arrested buying found out for for child pornography, for like
doing things with miners and their priests. They're conservative judges,
(48:31):
they're Scout leaders, they're church leaders by the thousands, and
I'm just like looking at each side, I'm like, uh,
do you guys not?
Speaker 1 (48:42):
But like I love pulling up but they won't read them.
They don't care I want to.
Speaker 2 (48:46):
They just want to believe. They want someone to blame
for their unhappiness, and unfortunately it's it's the queer community.
Speaker 1 (48:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
So I'm like, but that's so interesting. I'm like, look
it up. Look up, look up. How many religious like
church leaders and of all kinds, how often that they're
getting arrested versus drag queens. No, Like, look how I'm like,
(49:15):
And it's like, drag queens aren't suppressing they're they they
have accepted themselves, they love themselves. They're not gonna try
and harm other people.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
Their mind, in their business. Yeah, they don't have time
for that.
Speaker 2 (49:25):
Whereas all these conservatives, like like conservative people are attacking
the trans community, the LGBT community and children and like
all these So it's like very interesting to see how
much how damaging it can be to suppress and to
suppress your own emotions and to create that self hatred.
(49:47):
It's like, oh so, but it really bugs the hell
out of it, Like annoys me to watch people say
this narrative that they and it's like, look at your
look in your own church walls. You're not saying you
just keep looking the other way for that. So I'm
just like, it boggles my mind that you will hate
(50:08):
on a false narrative being fed to you when it's
happening all around you in your own in your safe
little bubble.
Speaker 1 (50:18):
And it's like you said on like newsplash, we're all gay,
Harry Style said so and that's.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
The rules, But is it?
Speaker 1 (50:26):
Yeah, because I mean I think everyone's a little gay.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
You think so. I mean some I've met some people
who are gay and they're like, I have no attraction
to women, like they're like guys. I feel They're like
I just they're like no, there's like I'm like really
because I'm like, oh, I was like I thought everyone
kind of like like but like both and they're like
(50:49):
some gay people, they're like, no.
Speaker 1 (50:51):
You can't even say they're pretty.
Speaker 2 (50:53):
Said they're pretty, but they're like to find them Like yeah,
I'm like, oh, that's interesting because like that's not my experience.
So I'm like in my head, I'm like, well, every
straight person's like but I'm like, well, if gay people
can say, like, no, I'm one hundred percent gay, I'm like,
maybe straight people can say they're hundred percent straight, so true, true,
that's not my experience. You're right, I'm not one hundred
(51:13):
percent of either.
Speaker 1 (51:14):
But no, I was like, I can't commit to anything
at all period.
Speaker 2 (51:19):
Let alone, Let's not just say queer yeah, because I'm
like I mean I prefer guys. But it's like, you know,
then the evil queen comes up and right, like how
always talk to me? She does? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (51:28):
Yeah, Like I was like me as a kid, I
was like I liked, you know, Milo from Atlantis. But
then I was like, but she goes kind of hot,
like I don't know, Oh, I can't I can't be
picking right, Like I was just thinking about like the
sexual awakenings. I was like, I know, I don't know,
I can't ever choose. I don't know. I envy people
that can choose if that's what you want to do.
Speaker 2 (51:50):
But it's like allow yourself to explore it, like allow
it to come forward, and like don't be judgmental towards yourself,
Like just see, like, okay, this is what I'm feeling.
This like yourself to process your because it does not
do you any good to suppress it. Let me just
tell you that, Okay, it's damaging in one way or another,
whether you damage yourself or you hurt other people. And
(52:12):
so you know, before I I'm actually writing a book,
I'm writing a book and talking about all this because
I was. I was engaged three times because I didn't
process all my emotions. It started bubbling and I was like,
if I don't do something about this, I'm going to
hurt someone that I'm supposed to love. I'm like, that
is not what I want. And I'd heard of other
(52:33):
people in religion, in church and Mormons who tried to
They were queer, but they tried to live a heatero
life without ever prossing their emotions, and they started being
aggressive to the people that were supposed to love. And
I was just like, that is not going I do
not want to be that person so or you start
hurting yourself. And so it's like, you know, what, what
(52:56):
if you just gave yourself a chance to if you
even look at it from religion, like you look at
it as a mistake. What if you gave yourself a
chance to make a mistake by allow being attracted to
the same sex and see what happens. If you believe
in religion, then you believe in forgiveness. You believe in
like someone who can redeem you and save you and
(53:16):
heal you. But my experience has been that that accepting
it is the healing, and it'll heal from so much
other pain that is unnecessary. And if you really are
afraid of that, just have that confidence, like have faith
in your beliefs. You know that you can find But
(53:37):
it's like you will find that actually, like if there's
a God there and like the supreme Creator or being
that you believe in God that you believe in will
actually it's like actually they'll say, like I'm glad you
figured it out finally that there's nothing wrong with being queer, okay,
Like you're designing that way for happiness and it's whole.
(53:57):
It can be wholesome and it is whole some like
you know, it's yeah, but I'm I'm doing a whole
I'm writing a whole book that it touches like on
things like American Idol and like the Growing Up Mormon
and like how it's like, how did how do you
come to terms with your sexuality when you've resisted it
(54:20):
all your life and we're told it was about all
your life? Like how do you, like, how do you
like program yourself out of thinking you're the worst thing
to exist on the planet to find love and compassion
for yourself? And yeah, I'm hoping it, hoping it will
help people who've been on this, you know, dealt with
(54:40):
the same things I had to deal with, like self
hatred and yeah, like feeling like you don't deserve to
live and just because you're queer. Like now, I'm like
I would back. I'm like, oh my gosh, I can't
believe I thought that way, but I did. So hopefully
we can get less people feeling that way.
Speaker 1 (54:57):
Yeah, I mean I definitely Even when you're saying, like
how do you you like fight that, I'm like, I
don't know, how do you please tell us? Like, oh
my gosh, I'm ready to read it. Like I need
the I need to know now because I have no clue.
But yeah, so it's definitely going to resonate with people.
When did you just start writing it or I've.
Speaker 2 (55:18):
Been working on it for a little bit, Yeah, I've
I've probably I pushed it back because it was going
to come out this year, but I'm like working on
it some more. So I'm going to push it next
year and focus on the music, like those new songs
EP tour that's going to happen this year. Yes, and
then hopefully once that's all out of the way, I
can just with the book. But in the meantime, like
(55:39):
you know, talk about it like here with you and like,
but I'm very excited about the book. I think it's
It was encouraged by one of my friends. We were
talking about life and she was just like, have you
thought of writing a book? And like I'm like, I
have thought about it, and she's like, let me introduce
you to my team, and so she did, and now
(56:00):
I'm working on a book. So it's fun.
Speaker 1 (56:04):
Yeah, and now you can say that you're writing a book,
which is crazy. Well, I don't want to steal you
for too much, too much longer, but is there anything
else that you want to cover?
Speaker 2 (56:16):
Anything else? I feel like that was a lot.
Speaker 1 (56:20):
It felt like a therapy session.
Speaker 2 (56:21):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (56:24):
Maybe because we had to like dive into I.
Speaker 2 (56:26):
Mean, I know I always go to no.
Speaker 1 (56:29):
I love it that even just asking though, like why
I black out at concerts? Yeah, I know, we were
doing intrigue.
Speaker 2 (56:35):
By it, I don't. I love I love getting to
know that side of people.
Speaker 1 (56:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (56:40):
Yeah, I'm just talking about it like it's it's like therapeutic.
Speaker 1 (56:44):
It is to just like, wow, be.
Speaker 2 (56:47):
Self aware and you know what's going on in yourself.
Speaker 1 (56:49):
Yeah. I think you should be a therapist. Now.
Speaker 2 (56:52):
Yeah, I did do an album called Therapy Sessions. Okay,
Like back in I did want to be a therapist.
At one point I was taking the closest I got
was like an intro to psychology class that I took.
But my my psychology the intro to psychology teacher pulled
me aside and she's like, have you ever thought about
(57:14):
like getting in more into psychology? And I was like
I really like it, and she's like I can tell.
She's like just so you know, She's like, you're like
my top student in the class. I'm like well, it's
just an intro to psychoic. It doesn't go that deep.
But she's like, just you know, she's like, I think
like you're performing well enough that if you like want
to look in that. She's like, I think you should
highly consider it. Like, oh okay, that's well, that's a compliment. Okay,
(57:36):
she's bettering me up.
Speaker 1 (57:38):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (57:39):
I didn't I didn't pursue it necessarily continue with music.
But I feel like you can be you can do
therapyesque stuff in music, you know, true.
Speaker 1 (57:48):
True, Yeah, because even the messages of your books, of
your book that's coming in your songs.
Speaker 2 (57:55):
So yeah, it's.
Speaker 1 (57:56):
All full circle. Yes, well I love that. Well, thank
you so much.
Speaker 2 (58:00):
Thanks Kaylen.
Speaker 1 (58:03):
I know I want to be here for another hour.
I'm not ready, but we'll just have to do it again,
okay please, yes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (58:10):
We'll do it again.
Speaker 1 (58:17):
Thank you so much for listening to this episode with
David Archiletta. Make sure to go stream his new songs
and be sure to subscribe to Pride wherever you listen
and watch your podcast, and follow us on social media
at Pride. See you next week.
Straw Hut Media.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
The only time I waited overnight was t audition for
American Idol. Really, I did not have a blanket, I
did not have a sleeping bag. I was just sitting
on the parking lot asphalt, just everyone around you singing
the whole time, and so you couldn't sleep.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Not even worth it. Why did you do that yourself?
It was not worth it. Nothing good came out of it.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
I waste What a waste of time.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Right. I'm Kaitlin McDaniel, and I'd like to welcome David
Archiletta to Pride.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Thank you so much, thank you, good to see you, Kaitlin.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
It's so good to see you. I love every time
I see your face makes me so happy. Thank you absolutely.
And so here on Pride, we're always all about coming out,
and I want to welcome you. This is a safe space.
So if there's anything that you want to come out as,
I'd love for you to do that here.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Come out as well. Can I come out with how
much I love the Evil Queen.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Okay from Disneyland specifically or just.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Like specifically the one who's going viral. Yes for all
of her comebacks.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yes, she is really great.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Oh, my gosh, it did things to me. M h okay,
like it does things to me. But when I saw
her in person, I don't know something about it. I
was just like, I guess I didn't realize how much
I liked to be talked to like that by a
strong woman.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Was it like a sexual awakening kind of thing or
what was what was in your head?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I feel like, yeah, I think I kind of figured
that about myself. But like the evil Queen being as
quick as she was, like she was pretty like fabulous,
you know, and she owned it and the way she
made people grovel at her for being a great and
(02:16):
she looked so good.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
She was like, give me a compliment and I was like,
I really like your lipstick and she's like, thank you,
it's natural. Actually give me something else and I was like, okay,
I like the jewel thing on your I don't remember
what she said. I was like so befuddled, Yeah, like
kind of taken by her presence. I didn't I couldn't
(02:40):
really take it all in. Ye was she made me nervous.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
I love a confident woman, but also I like melt
into a puddle where I can't Yeah, I can't speak
if someone comes across that confident, but it's so attractive.
But then I'm like, I am not worthy of being
in the presence right now.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
She I say, kind I take a picture with you?
And she said, of course, what else are we going
to do together?
Speaker 1 (03:04):
So we do have a pick then.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
And I was like, I was like, I can't say.
I didn't say what else. I'm like, what else can
we do together? I was like, I'm thinking of all
kinds of things.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
This is it for children?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yeah, they're literally children right there. So I didn't say it,
but I felt like she almost like wanted me to
say that she knew I felt some kind of tension there.
I think that I wasn't expecting.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Honestly, I feel like she knows she's flirting with everyone.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, but oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
She tries to play it off that.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
She was amazing. I'm like, I wonder if the Evil.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Queen is pan Oh, that's a good the character.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
But I don't know. Maybe she's just into herself, right,
I was like, and she's obsessed with anyone who's obsessed
with her, and I think she could tell that I was.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
I mean, I too am into anyone that's obsessed with me.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
But I love it. Oh elaborates.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
I mean, I don't know, what.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
What do you obsess over when someone like what kinds
of things are you into when someone's obsessed with you?
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Okay, now you're taking over my job on the podcast. U.
I mean, obviously I'm just a sucker for attention. And
I also feel like I am the type that if
you're not really outward about it, I'm not gonna know.
Like I just like, like if if you're trying to
be like subtle, I won't pick up on it, so
(04:27):
you have to just kind of be over the top.
And then at the same time, I don't really like PDA,
so it's like it has to just be to me
same the obsession.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I hate PDA. Yeah, what do you not like about PDA?
Speaker 1 (04:39):
I mean I don't want to just say like it's cringey,
because that feels obvious. Like I I mean, obviously I
can't be those Disney couples that people make fun of,
or just like theme park couples where they're just like
on each other in lines and oblivious to everyone around them.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
I'm like, power to you.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Yeah, I do not care. I love that. I know.
I was telling my roommate the other day that there
was this couple in the elevator with me that were
just obsessed with each other. But the second they entered,
they were just groping each other, all upon each other
with me in there, and I was like, I just
feel like that just feels wrong. I don't know, like
I love that you're in.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Love, yeah, but I feel like being more like in
tune with other people's emotions, it's just kind of like
I just don't need that right now. I don't need
to be in tune with it. And when I see you,
it's like, do you ever like take on other people's energy?
And I'm just like I don't feel like going there, yeah,
with you, but it's like in front of me, So
what do I do? Like I try to, but it's
like this is like being an EmPATH EmPATH or something
(05:37):
like highly sensitive person, but it's just like you feel
and it's just like I don't need this, Yeah, I
don't want to feel this. No, And I don't want
to be involved in it. And same with other like
I don't want other people involved in my intimacy, and
which is why I do not like PDA. It's like
I can't help I'm not trying to think of it.
I just do. I think about other people. I feel
(05:59):
their eyes on me, and I'm just like, it makes
it not enjoyable. So if there's PDA happening, it's because
the only reason I'm doing it is for you, and
grudgingly and resentfully, so it's just not a good thing
for me. It's not a good experience for me because
in the end, I'm going to resent you for it. Yeah,
so do you really want that?
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Now? Have you been in a situation where someone else
really liked PDA and you felt like you had to
like put on a show.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Yeah, okay, and I just had to tell them I'm sorry,
I need to stop.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I can't do this.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
This is not me. And they like take it personally
because they're like they feel like you don't or you
aren't proud of them, you don't want to be seen
with them, and it's like it's not that, like I
love being with you, but it's I just don't like
involving everybody into my world. Like I think I'm very
personal and private and I want to enjoy this myself
rather than involving everyone we're around into my world.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
I know I'm not even a like launch on Instagram
kind of person. Yeah, I wouldn't, like, that's not their business.
Like I love posting, but I'm like not about Yeah,
the people really.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Like same yeah. Same. It's like some things I just
it's like we have to post so much now. It's
like then it's nice to share, But there's some things
it's nice to keep to yourself because everyone has opinions
about things, and I like people's opinions on things. I'm like, oh,
what should I wear? Whatout fit do you think? Or
what do you think of this or this or that?
What do you think of the song? Or what I'm
(07:24):
working on? Like I'm excited to share that with you.
But there are other things where it's like I don't
need everyone involved in my familial relationship things or like
things that are going on in my family or people
I'm dating. It's like it just not it doesn't make
sense to involve everyone into it, especially when you are
already kind of all over the place that other people's
(07:45):
opinions will throw you off. It's like, I don't need
that in my one on one relationships.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, how do you navigate right now? Just like the
Internet in general, because it is so fun to share
and like you have like I love when you post
just like little snippets or fun keep but like how
are you navigating being like how much do I share
versus how much do I not?
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Thank you? Well, I feel like there's like the public,
like there's your job, and I also feel like so
it's like you're the artist. You try to you're creating
like this space for people to enjoy because they're trying
to escape their world that they want to be a
part of something else and just get excited about something.
(08:26):
And so I'll post on that and then there's like
people like and then I have like subscribers where it's
like okay, I'll like get a little more personal with them,
like I might show them like my workout like my
post pump more often than when I do on my
normal or I'll like vent to them, like I'll be
like complaining about stuff I'm like, oh my gosh, or
like give them insight on like the behind the scenes
part of like building my career, which I like, I
(08:49):
like it, but it's smaller, like I don't like doing
that with everybody, like subscribers, I don't. I do it
more for myself because it's like I like to connect
with people on a more personable level. And if there's
too many people, then I feel like then I'm like
I can't escape into this smaller world with a closer
knit people who are like more genuinely interested in like
me as a person, like the day to day because
(09:10):
you have like the the audience where you get the
peanut gallery where anyone can look at it and comment
and like may even be hateful or sarcastic or just
say mean things or rude just because they're bored. And
I feel like people are like pain to be a
part of your world. It's like I can open up
a little more to you, which I like. But then
there's a thing where it's like, you know what, this
(09:31):
is just for close friends, just like I'm with my family.
Sometimes i'll post it, but like if I'm like with
one of my best friends, we're hanging out and being silly.
I feel like there's some things that are meant to
be smaller because there's certain parts of your life that
are meant to be with a closer like your closer
(09:51):
little circle of trust of people who know you, who've
seen you to an extent you have like your fans
who've been there with you. But then also like relationship
familial things like I was saying, Oops, I'm stepping on.
There's just sometimes you just need to feel like you
can be fully. You don't have to be on as
(10:12):
an artist, like you don't have to be looked up to,
and sometimes when you're in the public eye, like people
just look up to you and they admire you, and
they'll look at you as an example or as like
a role model or someone that they feel like they
know really well. But you've never met them before, you know.
And I think there's some things that are meant to
be with people who you haven't and you have been
(10:32):
able to let your guard down and they've known you
for a long time and they know your mistakes and
they know that you're just trying to figure your life
out and don't have to always put you on a pedestal.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
I agree one hundred percent. And while you were just
talking about that, I was thinking of this moment where
something that you posted had actually gone viral and then
it was it was a trend I think where you
pointed to a ruler and.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
You had oh, oh my gosh, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
And I wanted to ask you just because I feel
like that's something yes, right, yeah, And I was just like,
don't talk to me if this is you.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Yeah, it's like the three inch yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah, and I feel like it's something silly you just
never think about posting your like no one's going to
see this whatever. And then it blew up and it
made headlines. I remember writing about it.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Oh my gosh, it was like David.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Archiletta just did this, you know, like what was going
through your mind.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
When I found out what the actual trend was, just
the whole thing. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
At first I thought it was short because I'm like, okay,
short King's cool, Like awesome, I'm short. But then and
I was actually told by like someone I work with,
their like, oh, there's this trend it's about short people
on this. I'm like, oh yeah, that sounds so fun.
I love like owning my height.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
The pain in your eyes, right, I mean.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Like you know what, I just when I saw how
people were like I'm dying and stuff. And so then
I got like a message and they're like, just so
you know, it's being taken this way. Yeah, and they're
like it's blown up, but because it's being taken this way.
And then I realized the actual trend was about your
your size down here. So I was like, mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
For sure, because people are still people still like was
he lying or.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Did not know? I was mortified, but also I was
kind of like, oh, this is kind of fun to
step into this because I never would have let myself
go there, and so to unknowingly go there was probably
the only way I could. And so then I was like, well,
since now that we're there, it was like, now I
(12:45):
can loosen up, I can be a little more like
just easy going and not so uptight and like, oh,
you're not supposed to talk about that kind of stuff.
I'm like, okay, we can just be real here. And
so that was refreshing.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
To be honest.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Yeah, so it's like yeah, I mean, like I don't know,
I'm not going around with this huge dick around it,
you know. But so I was like, Okay, I guess
now people don't have to I don't know, guess or whatever.
I don't know if if they didn't know it was
a joke or whatever.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
I don't Anyone can make assumptions, you can think whatever
you want. No one knows the truth, even.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Yeah, but for me, it's kind of like, you know,
it's it's for people that I'm decided to be close
to find out. Yeah, it's not really something to go
about like telling everyone just those kinds of I mean,
some people don't care about I think I do them, like,
you know, just some things I want to keep for
(13:38):
whoever I'm with. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah, And you've been in the spotlight for a while,
so like because you auditioned when you were sixteen, right, yeah, okay,
so then did you feel like you were like really
in a spotlight for a while. I mean, I know
that you continue to do music. I know that you
also went on like Disney shows. Yeah, but like what
was what was like the attention and internet like back then,
(14:01):
I feel.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Like it was a lot more concentrated. So the different
out now, like every single person, every single public figure, artist, actor, influencer,
comedian can have their own page, have their own space
that people can go to and enter, and they can
have their own podcast, They can have their own reality
(14:23):
TV show in a sense on their own channel essentially,
like it's we didn't have that before. It was you
are on one of the networks. You're on Fox or
ABC or NBC or MTV, and that was it. Like
(14:44):
if you looked out to be on one of those,
then you had an audience and everyone had the same
amount of places to go see their the stars. So
it's like I feel like they're a lot less public
figures because I mean there were newspapers and magazines as well,
(15:05):
but even though like there's like so many that people
get their hands on, and it could be affected by
where there were locally, you know what information they got
the radio station, whatever the radio station played for you,
that's where you look. But now you can look up
any person and look at the biography, look up what
they're doing. Like you could literally look, oh, I wonder
what they posted on their story the last twenty four hours.
(15:28):
And before you had to wait for a magazine to
interview for you to talk about your upbringing, your life,
and then that magazine would send it out to everybody
and they had the power. But now the person has
the power. So it's such an interesting landscape, the shift
of the landscape. And had a MySpace page, you know,
but you could you had your top eight and like
(15:50):
that was like the more personal you could write a
blog on your website. I guess the website was more
of like the but it was still not nearly as
personal and up in up and close as now.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Yeah, so it's pretty wild. Did you feel like you
were a big star right after American Idol?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
I did not feel myself like I was a stark
and I felt like I was tricking everybody. I'm like,
why is everyone treating me this way? Yeah? But literally,
like everyone watched American Idol at that time yea, or
at least a very large percentage of the US and
(16:33):
even beyond watched it where they were like they were
getting like ten percent of people in the country watching
every week, so one out of ten people was in
tune invested in seeing what was going to happen next,
And so everywhere I would go, it was just like panemonium,
and I was like why. I'm like, I didn't do
(16:54):
anything that I thought was worthy of a star power stardum,
and suddenly everyone's freaking out and I'm like what, I'm
not ready for this, Like I felt so unprepared because
I was like, I wasn't looking to be a star.
I was just like, yeah, I learned a couple of
songs and I sang them and that was it. But
(17:15):
I wasn't like I wasn't learning choreography. I wasn't like
ready to be like have my swag on and and
media training, how to do interviews and how to take
on people's attention, Like I wasn't anticipating any of that.
So for it just to suddenly just happen and happened
(17:35):
every week, like I it was. It was wild because
it was one of the few outlets people had to
It was like our show and watching us was the
way they connected to their family, their friends, to pop culture.
Even at the time, like it was the thing to do.
So other people connected by tuning into your performance. And
(18:02):
it was a lot of pressure, but it was and
it was exciting. But I think looking back it was more.
It's more exciting to look back on because at the
time it was just like you're in over your head.
You don't realize what's going on. It's moving so fast
and behind like you're not on social media to see
it happen in real time. So the only time you
(18:23):
get a glimpse of the progress of people's panemonium is
each week when you're recording the live show and like
after performance and then like you go out and see
people looking at you and like wide eyed and screaming
because they don't know how to control their emotions by
from seeing you. And I'm like, oh wow, so it
(18:46):
was pretty interesting.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
People still don't know how to control their emotions when
they see people. It's crazy. Yeah, I mean American Idol
(19:08):
and like, so you think you can dance? Were like,
my big that's what I watched.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
So you think you can dance? Okay?
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Yeah? Is that right?
Speaker 2 (19:16):
I was thinking of Dancing with the Stars because Dancing
with the Stars was filmed right across from the studio
that American Idol was filming, So we would like pass
each other in the halls, like me, like Derek Couff
and Juliana and we'd use the same bathrooms and whatnot.
And but so you Think you Can Dance was happening
and simultaneously as well.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yeah yeah, yeah, did you know like many of the
stars when you'd see them.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
I don't really remember. I remember seeing Derek right because
I'm like, oh, you're Mormon. Two, we're both from Utah.
We were both just getting started. Yeah, so he would
say like hey, like I'm from Utah too, and I
was like or like not YouTube. I don't know if
he was from Utah, but like went to BYU or
something or like the college in Utah or something. I
don't know, but we had that connection. So we just
(19:59):
like say hi each week, but there was so much
happening that was just kind of like a quick like hey,
like one second and then there wasn't even time to
talk really.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Yeah, So would you be on dancing?
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Sure?
Speaker 1 (20:12):
It's not an excited sure no, like I guess the grudgingly,
but you've been dancing, You're doing all this choreography.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
I'm trying. You are trying, thank you?
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Yeah, and your new music? When did you start doing choreography?
Because you didn't always have that right.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Right, Like I want to say, like four years ago, Okay,
when I first started, like it was the first video
I did, like real choreography in a music video. It
was a song called move In and it was fun
to do.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
So I feel like at some point, I don't know,
I'm not a singer, but you kind of have to
decide what your like stage presence is and if you're
going to say like dance or not. Like I remember
when I grew up with One Direction, they were very
like we're not going to dance ever. Yeah, you cannot
make us and that was okay. You know, like they
had their other things, but you kind of have to
like lean into it or decide you're just gonna sing.
(21:06):
So how did you build your like stage presence?
Speaker 2 (21:09):
I guess just through trial and error. My parents helped
me to be aware of stage presence. My mom was
a performer and she danced, and she had naturally stage presence,
so when I would watch her, I'm like, oh wow,
so and then American Idol, to be honest, taught me
what stage presence looked like, yeah, and how much of
a difference it would make on a performance from someone
(21:33):
just standing there to someone who the movement just made
you feel it more, it made you believe it. It
got the message across, it got the emotion across, and
so you just kind of mirror and channel it. And
from there, I just on American Idol and other shows
i'd been on when I was a kid, they'd say like, hey,
(21:54):
like move around the stage if you can't, and I'm like,
oh my gosh, that's like too many going on. I'm like,
I'm trying to focus just on singing, and you're telling
me to move around. I'm like, I can't keep track
of all that. Just when I was on American Idol,
like Top twelve week, They're like, we want you to
start up the stairs right here and then walk down
and reach the When you get to this song lyric,
(22:15):
we want you to walk across the stage. I'm like,
oh my God, like I can't, and I forgot the
lyrics because there was like I was trying to think
of where do I stand now, and then by the
time I was like where where when do I cross
the stage? I was like, oh, I was supposed to
say these lyrics, and I I like just became a
deer in headlights. So I was like, there's too much
(22:36):
going on. So now I learn like I need to
get myself like a month time to learn a song
and then learn choreography and then practice doing both of
them together. Because my brain can only do one thing
at a time. I can't learn a song like that
and then just choreography and put them together. It's like
moving around uses one part of my brain versus singing
(22:59):
uses another part of my brain. So I have to
like muscle memory the song and how it like just
letting it come out of my mouth so that I
can do it on autopilot when I'm learning the choreo,
and then get both of those on autopilot so that
I don't think about it too much when I'm on stage.
But I still do think about it on stage. I'm like, Okay,
how do I move here? Oh, I'm supposed to engageing
(23:19):
my dancers.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Yeah. I did want to ask about Crimberwlay, your new single,
because we did talk about it a little bit before,
and you were giving me a little taste of how
you're entering your flirty era.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Yes. Right, I've fluffed up my hair too.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Now, yeah, for the flirting, are you are you a
big flirt?
Speaker 2 (23:44):
I wouldn't say. I wouldn't say I'm a big flirt. Okay,
it's gotta be the right person to get me flirty. Okay,
but I guess I'm picky.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
But do you have like a you think you're a
good at flirting?
Speaker 2 (23:55):
No?
Speaker 1 (23:55):
No, okay, That's.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Why I'm like manifesting it through Crimberlay.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Okay. That's so, yeah, you're like, this is how.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Yeah, I'm like, the only way to get better is
by practice. I see true. So I feel like crimberlet
Era is my developing my skills okay.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Okay, do you have like a go to flirting move
right now?
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Not really, I think it. I like to get my
feel off of the individual. So whoever I'm with, I
it's catered to them.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Would that's so nice? Yeah, you're like each person's different.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Yeah, whenever they want special special, everyone is special. It's
a Barney song the Dinosaur really everyone in his or
her own way. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
I don't remember any Barney songs. Honestly.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
It's okay, I should it's it's an old show.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Well yeah, but I mean I grew up on it.
I feel like I should know those things. But yeah,
I don't remember at all. But yeah, anyways, it's.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Weird thing that Selena Gomez was on was a Barney
child I know? And it wasn't Demila v Otto too,
was she? Or Am I making that up?
Speaker 1 (25:12):
I don't know. I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
But she definitely Selena was.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean Demi definitely was still
a child star back then. But I don't know if
she was on Barney gotcha.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Yeah, I'm kind of curious now, can look up?
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Yeah, go ahead?
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Back?
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Why weren't you ever on Wizards of Waverley Place Barney too.
All the shows you only did two or did you
do more?
Speaker 2 (25:39):
I just did those two.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
The guest appearances, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Yeah, I was never invited to do Wizards of Waverley Place.
Who else was on Barney? I swear was on it?
Speaker 1 (25:50):
I know, And I'm thinking of The Mickey Mouse Club
and that's with like Brittany. That's different.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
In the O Barney and Friends featured actors like Selena Gomez,
Demula Auto, and Debbie Ryan.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Really were they ever at the same time? I feel
like I've feel.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Like Demmy and and Selena were on on this at
the same time.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
You should have been on Barney too, then, I guess
I know where was the Barney Like, hello.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Barney is a dinosaur m and like that yellow dinosaur
what was her name? There's like a yellow dynast.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Really coming out?
Speaker 2 (26:31):
This is before your time? Or or was she? Or
was she green? Maybe she was a green one and
there was like a yellow Trisa tops one.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Did you like acting on those shows?
Speaker 2 (26:41):
I was terrified.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
I don't know if it was really acting. Were you
always yourself? I don't remember.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
I was myself.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
So it wasn't a character. You were just joining as yourself.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Yeah. I was scared. Yeah, I was petrified because I'm like,
I'm not an actor. I'm like, I never thought I
would be doing this. What am I supposed to do? Yeah?
I've never done acting before. Okay, so I'm like, how
am I supposed to do it now? But I just
did it and it was fun. Yeah, it was. It
was very fun to do. I mean, like so many
people know me from just those two appearances. Really they
(27:13):
thought I was a made up character.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
They come up to you and they're like, you're the
guy from My Carly Yeah exactly. Yeah, that's so funny.
I would never think.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
That, especially like people in like their mid twenties. Yeah, yeah,
the twenties, even early twenties. They'll be like, wait a second,
like you're the guy from my car.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
I mean, I say that, but then I do know that.
I I grilled you one time because I was like,
where is the the mile?
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Yeah? Do I know your lab song that.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
It's still I still play that so much all the time,
but you're not on it.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yeah, I don't know. Hate me.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
It still gets to me. I mean I really I
really need you to call it.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
I didn't want to pay me my like the royalties.
They're like, let's screw you over so that we only
have to pay one person and we get more of
a chunk for ourselves. Maybe that's what it was.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
I don't know. I really need I need you to
get to the bottom of.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
It because I tried. What is wrong?
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Man? Okay? But like, would you re record it? Like
if we could get this to happen, because I will
watch out to Miley if I have to.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Oh my gosh, I don't think she ever wants to
see any like touch any of those songs again.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
I just I just this one, Like, I don't need anything.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Miley if you're down, or we could do a new song.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
I don't know really though, Like who would you want
to do that with?
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Miley? Would be pretty fun.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Actually, Demi would be fun.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Oh yeah, Demi would be fun too, because we did
go on tour together.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Oh how was that?
Speaker 2 (28:41):
It was fun?
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Yeah, we did like a it's like a co headlining tour.
People are like, oh, you opened up. I was like,
well it was technically co headlining tour, there you go,
But it was it was. It was fun.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
My first ever concert was actually it was Jonas Brothers,
but Demi was opening. Yeah, So technically she was like
the first artist I ever saw live whoa I know,
and I was so tiny, like I don't I barely
remember it. I remember I got nachos and we called
(29:14):
them Nick Nachos because I was obsessed with Nick Jonas.
And then that Alison Stoner was so close to me
that my mom kept saying I could spin on her
and I was like, but what why is that like
the measuring Yeah, but she was like right over there
and we were freaking out about it. Wow, that was
my first concert.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
I know, it was great. I literally go time for
it at all.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
You don't remember it? No.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
I have this thing where like in those high suspense moments,
I just black out, like I went and saw one
direction and I don't remember it all. Like I couldn't
tell you.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Why do you think that happens?
Speaker 1 (29:52):
I you know, I think it's I think it's definitely
like a stress kind of yeah thing that reacts.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
That's why I do with American now. I mean the
reason why I remember is because people talk about it
with me so much, exactly like show me clips and
I would like go back and I'm like, oh, okay,
so that's what happened.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
All of my memories of it are like things that
people fed to me, Like my mom told me about
like the nacho thing and everything, and I was like,
I don't even know if it's real anymore.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
That's so interesting. Do you still do that when you
go to concerts or do you feel like you've found
like a flow how to pace yourself so that you
can get overwhelmed.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
I feel like it's just like these like the big ones.
Like I go to a lot of concerts where I'm
just kind of mellow in the back, like I used
to be like barricade or nothing, and and it was
like high intensity. We'd sleep on the streets. WHOA Like
I slept. I slept overnight one time for this concert.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Like we got there each one.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
It was for five seconds of summer.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
WHOA.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Yeah, got out of college, like got out of class,
went to the venue. There was like four other people there,
and we were like, yes, we early. It's the day before,
Like it's like four pm the day before, and we're
like great, perfect, put out our stuff. I like texted
my mom. I was like, Hey, I'm going to be
sleeping here. It's the side of the road in Phoenix, Arizona. Wow.
(31:14):
She's like, I don't I don't love that. And I'm like,
there's a cop around the corner, so we probably won't die.
And she like came and brought us like sleeping bags
and a cooler. She was supportive.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
And then I just slept there the whole night, woke
up the next day, went to class again, we like
took shifts.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Yeah, and then like went home to shower.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Oh my gosh, I know.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
I don't do that anymore, even though that wasn't that
many years ago.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Commitment, I know, dedication. The only time I waited overnight
was ta audition for American Idol.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Really, what time did you get there? Then?
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Trying to remember. One time it was like eleven or
twelve that night, and then the other time was like
two thirty am because we had to go back like
once we got like our thing, then we had to
go back another day and wait in line again.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
But it was sleeping on the streets or just waiting waiting,
that's not too bad.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Then I did not have a blanket, I did not
have a sleeping bag. I was just sitting on the
parking lot.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Asphalt, no cell phone to play video games, on.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
No, just everyone around you singing the whole time, and
so you couldn't sleep.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Not even worth it? Why why did you do yourself that?
It was not worth it? Nothing good came out of it.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
I waste What a waste of time?
Speaker 1 (32:36):
Right? Mine too, Nothing good came out of mind. I
just went and saw some people. And you're going. Speaking
of concerts, you're going to be at World Pride.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Yeah, yeah, right before.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Cynthia Revot right hear.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
How are you feeling about that?
Speaker 2 (32:56):
It's it's a lot to you know, people love Cynthia.
I love Synthia. Yeah, so to go on before is
a lot. But I've I mean, I've had to go
on before some pretty big acts before, so I'm excited.
I feel like I it's when I do shows, I
(33:18):
have a lot of fun. So I think it especially Pride,
because everyone's there to celebrate, like we've whatever trauma we've
gone through and whatever things we're having to deal with
and put up with, all the homophobia or the misunderstandings
of that people have of queer people. We just come
to get away from that and we're with our people.
They get us, and we're going to celebrate everything we've
(33:40):
had all the shit we've had to put up with
and and we don't have to worry. We can just
like and so it's just nice to be with everybody
and just have a good time where you feel like
you can let loose, like you don't have to worry
about keeping yourself in or like hiding or like, oh
someone may not like that how gay I am or whatever?
Queer and bring your you know your bay or you
(34:03):
know your I don't know, do they have pride bays.
I know there's rave bays.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Oh, I was gonna say. I was like, I never
say bay, but if it's like a rave bay, that
makes sense. I don't know yah bays. I haven't said
bay since like middle school.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
That feels christy, I know. Yeah, I only say it
with the rave bay because people still say that. I'm like, oh,
rave Bay.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Have you had rave Bays?
Speaker 2 (34:29):
Yeah? I've had a Rave Base?
Speaker 1 (34:31):
What is it? Just just like a situationship at a
rave like.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Some like a relationship that you I feel like you
can bring someone. You can bring someone to be your
rave bay or you can find a rave bay.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Yeah, Okay, have.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
You been to a rave No, you haven't been to
like an m festival.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
No, I feel like they'd eat me alive. I'm scared.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Oh my gosh. So the thing about festivals is it's
so inclusive. Yeah, you could be dressed up like a
pokemon or a furry or like a fairy. Yeah, or
in a bikini, or or just as you are a
shirt and jeans. You could wear a hoodie. You could
(35:18):
I mean, you could go in like pajamas, like no
one cares. You can just be however you want to be.
And everyone's just there to have a good time, and
everyone gives each other compliments and it's so sweet, like
everyone's just like, oh I love I love your energy,
I love your vibe, and here have this bracelet like
have a great day, be safe, and it's just so
(35:42):
like community, Like there's such a community that is so sweet.
I mean not everyone acts that way. Some people go
and they don't understand the Polor culture. But I would
say for the most part, people are pretty great and
like everyone's there just to like let loose kind of
like pride, like just to get away. A lot of
nurses and they're a lot of nurses I've found that
go to really raves and eatiom festivals and they just
(36:06):
go Ham. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
They really they need freedom, they need free time to
just be. That makes sense. I need to go. I
know that you've been doing like more like rave things
with your concerts recently, right.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
I just did one last Yeah, yeah, I just did
when we said after hours. Yeah. Yes, I did a
full show still like an hour set and had three
DJs come and play music and they killed it. Love
introducing my fans to rave culture a little bit, Yes.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
What would you say your fans are right now? Like,
are like, is it a lot of mixture of like
old fans or new fans? Like what do you think
it's predominant.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
I would say it's a mixture for sure. It's been
really interesting because I have a lot of like the
American Idol audience fans, who a lot of them will
like at the mean greets, they're like, I've never been
to a rave before, I don't know what to expect,
And I'm like, oh, you'll be totally fine. It's all good.
And so it's pretty funny because I feel like a
lot of like my queer fans have been to raves
(37:07):
because it's like a very queer yeah almost, I feel
like it's like very adjacent to queer culture, rave culture.
It came from creating a safe place where people didn't
feel safe, you know. The music media music came from
house music where like people didn't I think especially like
(37:29):
I feel like a lot of it comes from like
the most oppressed, like of the queer community versus the
black trans community, who didn't have somewhere to go. It
was illegal for them to be who they are and
to be out, and so they would have like these
underground like warehouse parties and would play like start djaying
and playing this music where they could just be themselves
and didn't have to worry and didn't care. And so
(37:51):
then like the warehouse music, they'd be like, what was
that music? Like the house music. So it's like it
went from that's what they would call it house music.
And so I feel like a lot of that has,
you know, continued, So it's like EDM music and etim
vessels and comes because of the queer community, you know,
trying to create that space, and they continue trying to
(38:14):
create that space. So I feel it when I went there,
and when I went to my first time, I was
like I felt that just free liberation. I'm like, I
don't have to worry. I could let my hair down
and just wear whatever I want and jam out to
music and jump all night and and just completely let
(38:34):
myself go and not have to worry. And and it's
it's very sweet.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Have you been bringing that like freedom into your music?
I mean I wanted to ask too, like, how has
it been since coming out and writing new music and
being able to like write he in songs and and
just talk about that kind of thing, and how that
freedom has been.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
It's scary for me because a part of me is like,
oh my gosh. If I put like he and my
guy talking like they're going to be straight, people are
going to be repulsed by that, like oh why did
he have to say that? And but it's kind of
like refreshing too that it's like, oh my gosh, I
can be myself. Yeah, people know in advance before they
even see me or talk to me and meet me
in person, Like I don't have to worry about what
(39:35):
if they find this out about me. It's already out there,
so I don't have like all the the hard work
is out of the way of like well introducing them
to who I am, the secret part of me that
they may not, they may hate, despise and you know,
finding the community of people who accept me for that.
And the only way to do that and to find
people who accept you and build your community to accept
(39:59):
you for who you are is you have to be
willing to show yourself, which is scary. Yeah, it's like
Elsa where she's says show yourself.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
Yeah, right, I'm like we're just talking about how I
don't like to show myself sometimes, like I'm like hiding
on the internet, don't look at me too closely. So yeah,
it's hard when it.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
Can be overwhelming. Yeah, I just want to keep it
to myself. That's why I go into raves. Right, there's
design just for you to go without having anyone care
too much about what you're doing.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Yeah, because music can be so vulnerable, especially when you're
writing about your experiences, so then you're you are sharing
like a big part of you you are.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Yeah, it's like a great way of cryptically showing yourself
and rebelling yourself because I feel like music and is
like art, so you can be you can do it
in a more artistic way that people can digest it
without you know, being too offended by it or being
too repulsed because they can take it from like a
(41:02):
metaphoric or symbolics way, or if they're not smart enough
to catch onto it, they'll just glaze over it and
be like, oh, yeah, that's pretty, or I like the beat,
or it's catchy. But a lot of times it's cool
that you can hide more meaningful things in those catchy
beats and melodies.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
And you have a new song can I call you? Right?
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Yeah, coming out this week?
Speaker 1 (41:26):
What are you hiding in that song? What am I looking?
Speaker 2 (41:30):
Oh that's a good question. What is David hiding? And
can I call you? I would say it's like it's
still my flirty era, like this Cumberlet era awakening of
just being more sensual and a little more sexy. But
I I feel like all this whole new EP that
(41:51):
I'm working on is more grounded. It's talking about flirtiness
and opening myself up, but I'm still myself And so
it's kind of fun to show and share with fans
like my approach to what that's like, Like, what is
it like for it for someone who's who grew up
(42:15):
Mormon and like the boy next door all his life
to then accept his sexuality and what it feels like
to get in touch with it. Not I wasn't in
touch with it. So I'm like learning how to get
in touch with it and what that process is, the journey,
and then to describe how it feels like, it feels
(42:36):
good and to get a little sexier. And so I
would say, can I call you like that? But it's
also sweet because when you come out a lot of times,
I was told all the time, like gay people can't
really have relationships because all they care about is sex,
so they don't have the depth to have relationships. And
(42:58):
I've been I've seen for myself that's clearly false, clearly
a stereotype. It's discriminative because like even my publicist Ken
who's here, he's been in his relationship with his husband
for over thirty years thirty eight years. Wow, And so
(43:20):
I was like, oh, I'm like, there have been together
since they were even allowed to you know, they weren't
allowed to get married when they met each other. Now
that they and now they've been able to grow into
like finally being allowed to have a ceremony to where
they could lawfully like be be spouses. So and then
(43:41):
I've met more people like that, more and more. I'm like, Okay, yeah,
they're clearly people who are still like just never saddle.
But I'm like why, I wonder why they tell that narrative.
It's like they don't want queer people to be happy,
and it's almost like people to prove themselves right of
their discrimination or fear of queer people. It's almost like
(44:02):
they want to sabotage queer people's progress in their lives
so that they can justify their fear and and miss
like misunderstandings of them, which causes hate because you can
it's easier to hate something that you don't understand, and
usually when you don't understand something is why you can
(44:24):
hate it, because once you understand it, it's it's like, oh,
you have more compassion for it. And they're just like me.
They want the same things, like they want someone to
be there. But when you have people on the outside
of you always trying to sabotage that, it's like y'all
are causing the trauma that's preventing these people from having
the relationships that you have. Like let's make sure they
(44:45):
can't get married, because they won't have happy relationships, they
won't have happy families. It's like y'all are manifest like
y'all are preventing them from it's they actually can do
it quite easily if you stopped traumatizing them so much
and taking it away from them. And it's like, what
what is it to you that they find happiness the
way you have? And I think a lot of straight
people it's like, well, we had to fit in this mold.
(45:06):
And I think a lot of the people who are
their pressers are not happy with their lives, and a
lot of them are probably even closeted. I think a
lot of the people who be the biggest haters are closeted,
and they're like, I had to put myself through this
misery and I didn't allow myself to get what I
wanted because I was supposed to. So I'm going to
make sure that your life is a hell because I
(45:27):
never gave myself the freedom that you have. But it's like,
can I Call You? Is talking about the sweetness that
you can have in yes, even a queer relationship.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
I love that you just went on that like whole
amazing rant and then you were just like so like
that's what can I Call You? Is about?
Speaker 2 (45:48):
Is? Look how sweet a gay relationship, yes, a queer
relation No.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
I mean, and you're right, And I loved everything you
were saying. And I hadn't really thought about weaponizing like
stereotypes because obviously we talk about stereotypes in the queer community,
and we you know, make jokes about like U haul
lesbians like and it's it's normal, and it's like that's fine.
But then if the straits get to it and they're like, no,
this is why you can't have nice things because like
(46:15):
you said, like be like, oh, gay men can't commit
blah blah blah, so that's not okay. It's like, oh no,
that's not for you, like that is for us, thank you? Yeah, crazy,
I love that. I can't wait to hear the song
about that whole that whole rant. I'm going to be
playing it in.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
Like how do you prove them wrong by simply showing
you're happy and you're right? And yeah, to keep fighting
for your happiness because the people, like, they keep calling
LGBT people like pedophiles and sexual offenders. It's like, who
are the sexual offenders? It's it's the people who are
making themselves miserable. Gay people are not making themselves miserable.
(46:57):
It's the people who are suppressing all their emotions, who
are bitter and prey upon weaker people and people who
do not have more of a say, Like they victimize
the children, women, other like people who are vulnerable. They
victimize those vulnerable people because they they hate something about themselves.
(47:23):
They despise something about themselves there and so for them
to keep projecting it onto the queer community is outrageous.
It's it's like, are their sexual offenders who are queer, probably,
but like, look at what most of the cases are,
and people like drag queens are pedophiles. It's like I
(47:43):
try to look at it up. I'm like, how many
how many drag queens. I'm like, oh, there's like three
in the whole country. Like one of them was actually
and one of them was a woman who I don't like,
and another one was like they were both young, like
they're both teenagers, but one of them technically like a miner,
and one of them technically wasn't because I was like
there was like sixteen eighteen, like and I'm like okay,
(48:08):
And then I'm looking at like the other side, like
the people who are attacking the drag queen saying you
can't do the shows because their pedophiles are gonna interctor
noted children. And these are the politicians who are getting
arrested buying found out for for child pornography, for like
doing things with miners and their priests. They're conservative judges,
(48:31):
they're Scout leaders, they're church leaders by the thousands, and
I'm just like looking at each side, I'm like, uh,
do you guys not?
Speaker 1 (48:42):
But like I love pulling up but they won't read them.
They don't care I want to.
Speaker 2 (48:46):
They just want to believe. They want someone to blame
for their unhappiness, and unfortunately it's it's the queer community.
Speaker 1 (48:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
So I'm like, but that's so interesting. I'm like, look
it up. Look up, look up. How many religious like
church leaders and of all kinds, how often that they're
getting arrested versus drag queens. No, Like, look how I'm like,
(49:15):
And it's like, drag queens aren't suppressing they're they they
have accepted themselves, they love themselves. They're not gonna try
and harm other people.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
Their mind, in their business. Yeah, they don't have time
for that.
Speaker 2 (49:25):
Whereas all these conservatives, like like conservative people are attacking
the trans community, the LGBT community and children and like
all these So it's like very interesting to see how
much how damaging it can be to suppress and to
suppress your own emotions and to create that self hatred.
(49:47):
It's like, oh so, but it really bugs the hell
out of it, Like annoys me to watch people say
this narrative that they and it's like, look at your
look in your own church walls. You're not saying you
just keep looking the other way for that. So I'm
just like, it boggles my mind that you will hate
(50:08):
on a false narrative being fed to you when it's
happening all around you in your own in your safe
little bubble.
Speaker 1 (50:18):
And it's like you said on like newsplash, we're all gay,
Harry Style said so and that's.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
The rules, But is it?
Speaker 1 (50:26):
Yeah, because I mean I think everyone's a little gay.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
You think so. I mean some I've met some people
who are gay and they're like, I have no attraction
to women, like they're like guys. I feel They're like
I just they're like no, there's like I'm like really
because I'm like, oh, I was like I thought everyone
kind of like like but like both and they're like
(50:49):
some gay people, they're like, no.
Speaker 1 (50:51):
You can't even say they're pretty.
Speaker 2 (50:53):
Said they're pretty, but they're like to find them Like yeah,
I'm like, oh, that's interesting because like that's not my experience.
So I'm like in my head, I'm like, well, every
straight person's like but I'm like, well, if gay people
can say, like, no, I'm one hundred percent gay, I'm like,
maybe straight people can say they're hundred percent straight, so true, true,
that's not my experience. You're right, I'm not one hundred
(51:13):
percent of either.
Speaker 1 (51:14):
But no, I was like, I can't commit to anything
at all period.
Speaker 2 (51:19):
Let alone, Let's not just say queer yeah, because I'm
like I mean I prefer guys. But it's like, you know,
then the evil queen comes up and right, like how
always talk to me? She does? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (51:28):
Yeah, Like I was like me as a kid, I
was like I liked, you know, Milo from Atlantis. But
then I was like, but she goes kind of hot,
like I don't know, Oh, I can't I can't be
picking right, Like I was just thinking about like the
sexual awakenings. I was like, I know, I don't know,
I can't ever choose. I don't know. I envy people
that can choose if that's what you want to do.
Speaker 2 (51:50):
But it's like allow yourself to explore it, like allow
it to come forward, and like don't be judgmental towards yourself,
Like just see, like, okay, this is what I'm feeling.
This like yourself to process your because it does not
do you any good to suppress it. Let me just
tell you that, Okay, it's damaging in one way or another,
whether you damage yourself or you hurt other people. And
(52:12):
so you know, before I I'm actually writing a book,
I'm writing a book and talking about all this because
I was. I was engaged three times because I didn't
process all my emotions. It started bubbling and I was like,
if I don't do something about this, I'm going to
hurt someone that I'm supposed to love. I'm like, that
is not what I want. And I'd heard of other
(52:33):
people in religion, in church and Mormons who tried to
They were queer, but they tried to live a heatero
life without ever prossing their emotions, and they started being
aggressive to the people that were supposed to love. And
I was just like, that is not going I do
not want to be that person so or you start
hurting yourself. And so it's like, you know, what, what
(52:56):
if you just gave yourself a chance to if you
even look at it from religion, like you look at
it as a mistake. What if you gave yourself a
chance to make a mistake by allow being attracted to
the same sex and see what happens. If you believe
in religion, then you believe in forgiveness. You believe in
like someone who can redeem you and save you and
(53:16):
heal you. But my experience has been that that accepting
it is the healing, and it'll heal from so much
other pain that is unnecessary. And if you really are
afraid of that, just have that confidence, like have faith
in your beliefs. You know that you can find But
(53:37):
it's like you will find that actually, like if there's
a God there and like the supreme Creator or being
that you believe in God that you believe in will
actually it's like actually they'll say, like I'm glad you
figured it out finally that there's nothing wrong with being queer, okay,
Like you're designing that way for happiness and it's whole.
(53:57):
It can be wholesome and it is whole some like
you know, it's yeah, but I'm I'm doing a whole
I'm writing a whole book that it touches like on
things like American Idol and like the Growing Up Mormon
and like how it's like, how did how do you
come to terms with your sexuality when you've resisted it
(54:20):
all your life and we're told it was about all
your life? Like how do you, like, how do you
like program yourself out of thinking you're the worst thing
to exist on the planet to find love and compassion
for yourself? And yeah, I'm hoping it, hoping it will
help people who've been on this, you know, dealt with
(54:40):
the same things I had to deal with, like self
hatred and yeah, like feeling like you don't deserve to
live and just because you're queer. Like now, I'm like
I would back. I'm like, oh my gosh, I can't
believe I thought that way, but I did. So hopefully
we can get less people feeling that way.
Speaker 1 (54:57):
Yeah, I mean I definitely Even when you're saying, like
how do you you like fight that, I'm like, I
don't know, how do you please tell us? Like, oh
my gosh, I'm ready to read it. Like I need
the I need to know now because I have no clue.
But yeah, so it's definitely going to resonate with people.
When did you just start writing it or I've.
Speaker 2 (55:18):
Been working on it for a little bit, Yeah, I've
I've probably I pushed it back because it was going
to come out this year, but I'm like working on
it some more. So I'm going to push it next
year and focus on the music, like those new songs
EP tour that's going to happen this year. Yes, and
then hopefully once that's all out of the way, I
can just with the book. But in the meantime, like
(55:39):
you know, talk about it like here with you and like,
but I'm very excited about the book. I think it's
It was encouraged by one of my friends. We were
talking about life and she was just like, have you
thought of writing a book? And like I'm like, I
have thought about it, and she's like, let me introduce
you to my team, and so she did, and now
(56:00):
I'm working on a book. So it's fun.
Speaker 1 (56:04):
Yeah, and now you can say that you're writing a book,
which is crazy. Well, I don't want to steal you
for too much, too much longer, but is there anything
else that you want to cover?
Speaker 2 (56:16):
Anything else? I feel like that was a lot.
Speaker 1 (56:20):
It felt like a therapy session.
Speaker 2 (56:21):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (56:24):
Maybe because we had to like dive into I.
Speaker 2 (56:26):
Mean, I know I always go to no.
Speaker 1 (56:29):
I love it that even just asking though, like why
I black out at concerts? Yeah, I know, we were
doing intrigue.
Speaker 2 (56:35):
By it, I don't. I love I love getting to
know that side of people.
Speaker 1 (56:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (56:40):
Yeah, I'm just talking about it like it's it's like therapeutic.
Speaker 1 (56:44):
It is to just like, wow, be.
Speaker 2 (56:47):
Self aware and you know what's going on in yourself.
Speaker 1 (56:49):
Yeah. I think you should be a therapist. Now.
Speaker 2 (56:52):
Yeah, I did do an album called Therapy Sessions. Okay,
Like back in I did want to be a therapist.
At one point I was taking the closest I got
was like an intro to psychology class that I took.
But my my psychology the intro to psychology teacher pulled
me aside and she's like, have you ever thought about
(57:14):
like getting in more into psychology? And I was like
I really like it, and she's like I can tell.
She's like just so you know, She's like, you're like
my top student in the class. I'm like well, it's
just an intro to psychoic. It doesn't go that deep.
But she's like, just you know, she's like, I think
like you're performing well enough that if you like want
to look in that. She's like, I think you should
highly consider it. Like, oh okay, that's well, that's a compliment. Okay,
(57:36):
she's bettering me up.
Speaker 1 (57:38):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (57:39):
I didn't I didn't pursue it necessarily continue with music.
But I feel like you can be you can do
therapyesque stuff in music, you know, true.
Speaker 1 (57:48):
True, Yeah, because even the messages of your books, of
your book that's coming in your songs.
Speaker 2 (57:55):
So yeah, it's.
Speaker 1 (57:56):
All full circle. Yes, well I love that. Well, thank
you so much.
Speaker 2 (58:00):
Thanks Kaylen.
Speaker 1 (58:03):
I know I want to be here for another hour.
I'm not ready, but we'll just have to do it again,
okay please, yes, yeah.
Speaker 2 (58:10):
We'll do it again.
Speaker 1 (58:17):
Thank you so much for listening to this episode with
David Archiletta. Make sure to go stream his new songs
and be sure to subscribe to Pride wherever you listen
and watch your podcast, and follow us on social media
at Pride. See you next week.
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