Jason Walker Interview: He's Flexible ... But Not Like That

Here is an exclusive interview with the amazing talent that is Jason Walker. it was taken from LOGO's NEWNOWNEXT. Most of the programming on LOGO pretty much sucks, but what i do give them prope for is supporting amazing talent. It's good to finally see Jason getting some press. Anyways read all about him below and check out his music at myspace.com/jasonwalker

A Pittsburgh-New York transplant, a self-proclaimed "raver-boy" and a Click List favorite, Jason Walker gets plenty of love and support from his community. It doesn't hurt that his music, including his latest Flexible album, is unabashed gay-club fare either.

And with high-energy singles such as "I Can't Get You Off My Mind" (watch the music video after the jump) and "Can't Stop," the DJ Junior Vasquez protege reminds he still has a place in gay dancefloor hearts ... if not in musical theater.



Check out the Q&A to learn Jason's video inspirations, what it's like to perform at a gay porn studio event and how a bad breakup influenced his newest project...

So your next Flexible single is “Can’t Stop,” right?

It’s funny you should ask - I was just talking to [New York DJ-producer] Quentin Harris, and that song is on my record and on his record; his album just came out. He’s the man right now with house music, he’s killing it. He produces, he remixes ... he's a self-contained artist.

And will this be another Click List favorite?

I hope so.



Since you’ve been on The Click List a lot - what’s your secret for other aspiring, gay musicians?

I would send, like, mass emails to people who were on my mailing list, and I’d post bulletins on MySpace ... I mean, I hoped that it would do well, and it did better than I thought it would. That’s all that I did, though.

For the "I Can't Get You Off My Mind" video, you kind of beat yourself up. Why did you go for that violent element?

That was all Karl Giant: his concept for the video was Madonna’s "Human Nature" meets The Entity. That’s the mind of Karl ... he’s disgusting, he’s so awesome. He’s like a little kid - he has the mind of a little kid - and he's just so much fun.

Gay music and video from NewNowNext.com

And you’re covered in silver - what was that like?

They sprayed the silver on ... and then they painted some of it on ... and then they blew glitter all over me. It took, like, half-an-hour to put on, and it took two hours to get off. For a week I would find glitter in the strangest places.



Did you do anything special for Pride? I read you appeared at a Virgin Mega-Store...

Yeah, I did that on Saturday. It was a lot of fun; the crowd was great.

Wasn’t it for, like, Raging Stallion Studios?

You know what? Yeah, and I was kind of confused. I was like, Virgin Mega-Store and ... porn? There were all these hot, shirtless men on the right-hand side of the café - it was an eclectic mix of folks - and a lot of young kids.

These really, really young girls came up to me after I was done, and they wanted an autograph on the CD. I don’t think people really got that it was porn unless you were into it, because it wasn’t like there was a lot of pornography being shown...

Did you love house and dance music before you moved to New York?

I’m a raver baby. I’ve loved dance music since I can remember. I actually moved to New York because I wanted to do dance music ... not to say that I don’t want to do other things, because I do: I would love to do a cross-over record of acoustic soul and, like, big Celine Dion.

That’s my goal, but it’s not like I settled for dance music, because I couldn’t do anything else. I wanted to do it.

So tell me what’s behind that album title?

It’s not what you think.

Yes it is.

I’m actually not flexible at all; I took ballet, and I was the worst in class. Bill Meyers wrote the title track, and I just thought it could be an interesting name for a record. There are certain songs that are reminiscent of the first album [This Is My Life], but we wanted to try a few different things and try to be flexible about showcasing different songs and different styles of music.

I read that when you were making this album, you were mid-breakup?

No, it was post-breakup: right when I started to do the record is when we broke up.

Was that a coincidence?

No. Looking back I’m glad that’s how it happened, because I needed an outlet. It was really bad. The record is better for it because everything had that much more meaning, and it helped to anchor my emotional state. When I wasn’t working I was mess, but when I could channel that energy into something ... it was tolerable.

So is there much of a gay scene in Pittsburgh? Or do you prefer New York?

You know? There is, especially now. A few years ago, it was so-so, but it's experiencing somewhat of a Renaissance. Which makes me happy because I remember having my issues with Pittsburgh, especially when I moved here. I was kind of down on it, but now when I go home, it's cool.

I actually went to school [in Pittsburgh] for musical theater for a semester, and I hated it. The people were great, I just remember going in for my first day of class - it was, like, a vocal placement for students - and I started off on the wrong foot: I go in and I sing for these people, and they said, Well, you know, with your voice type it’s going to be very hard for you to get parts. It was like they were totally discouraging me; there wasn’t one ounce of positivity. They said I was a tenor-1 contralto, which is a really high male voice. It was discouraging...

And the musical theater chair and I did not get along at all. She was actually a really great professor, but we butted heads a lot: she wanted me to sing theater pieces and opera, and I wanted to sing Patti Labelle.

And what do you think of the state of industry for a gay musician right now?

I feel like things are changing; I feel like things are getting better, especially with the emergence of LOGO ... it’s like gay is becoming more out in the open and mainstream. Don’t get me wrong, we still have a lot of work to do, but compared to ten years ago, I would say that things are a lot better. But, I mean, I’m just a singer who happens to be gay. That’s all.

Jason Walker "I Can't Get You OFf My Mind" New Video