Tom Goss<\/a> is an acclaimed indie artist whose work spans pop, rock, and electronic music and typically blends raw emotional storytelling with LGBTQ+ themes. With over a decade of touring and over 20 million streams to his name, Tom continues to be a fearless voice for authenticity, inclusion and joy in the queer community.<\/p>\nThis summer, Tom dropped a bold, hilarious, and irresistibly catchy new single entitled\u00a0\u201cGay Stuff.\u201d Accompanied by an outrageously playful music video directed by longtime collaborator Michael Serrato, the song is an unapologetic celebration of queer joy, individuality, and the absurdity of labels.<\/p>\n
\u201cGay Stuff\u201d is a follow-up to another recent release, \u201cBear Soup\u201d, which serves as a musical love letter to the bear community. This cheeky, bass-heavy anthem and accompanying video. packed with hilariously sexy visuals, not only is a perfect dance track but another example of how Tom uses music to uplift queer bodies and stories.<\/p>\n
We had the chance to catch up with Tom to talk about his new music, pushing boundaries, the importance of being oneself and lots more in our exclusive interview.<\/p>\n
\u200aI love the video for \u201cGay Stuff\u201d. It\u2019s such a fun summer song. I heard it had been in the vault for quite a while so what finally made this the right moment to release the song?<\/strong><\/p>\nYou know, honestly. It was like kind of Trump, you know? It\u2019s like just the milieu in which we\u2019re living in. I had just made this big, fun record and done some videos behind it last year, over the course of the last 18 months. I\u2019m also finishing up this this record that\u2019s really like Americana, which is like stories from the heartland, but from a really queer perspective. It\u2019s very acoustic, it\u2019s very queer, but it\u2019s also a little slow sometimes and a little heady. I just felt like given what the world is going through and given what the country is going through, that it would be apropos to release some stuff that\u2019s just really fun.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s really where my main focus was. I have been working on this song back and forth with my producer, Austin Danson, just kind of as a joke between us, to be honest with you, for like 10 years and finally I was like, you know what? We should just release this because it would be great and it would be a moment of levity in a time where we really need it.<\/p>\n
I do think just being unapologetically queer in this moment in time is subversive and I feel like I\u2019ve done a lot of stuff that\u2019s really heady and really serious and really on the nose when it comes to political stances and I feel like it\u2019s more effective often just to do something that\u2019s really sneakily subversive and fun and I felt like that\u2019s what we wanted to do in this moment.<\/p>\n
There is something very subversive about how the lyrics of the song embrace and mock stereotypes at the same time. Was that a hard balance for you to strike?<\/strong><\/p>\nNo, not at all, because I live in this world, you know? I\u2019m at Fire Island right now. I just stepped out of drag bingo to talk to you. I\u2019m sitting on a pier. There\u2019s the biggest Pride flag you\u2019ve ever seen in your life flying over me, and I cannot be happier to be here, and I cannot be happier to see my queer community and all of the ridiculousness that we are \u2026and that\u2019s the thing\u2026you walk down the street and you see these outfits that are so outrageous. No society would allow that to exist just on its streets \u2013 without judgment, without sneers, without cattiness \u2013 but we queer people just do it every single day and we look at each other and we say, yes, girl, do it. Right?<\/p>\n
I can only speak for myself, but part of me is like, man, that\u2019s crazy. I would never do that. But at the same time, I think, wow, that\u2019s amazing. What courage does it take to be a queer person publicly in the world? And so, I really think that\u2019s the balance of loving who I am, loving who my community is, and also just knowing that we are ridiculous and relishing in that.<\/p>\nYou were quoted as saying that \u201ceverything is gay, everything is straight, everything is in between.\u201d What do you hope people will take away from that sentiment?<\/strong><\/p>\nI think that is what I hope people take away from it is, you know, I\u2019m talking about the outfits in Fire Island. I hope people realize that they can wear those outfits in Nebraska. They can do whatever they want, anywhere they want, and they can also go join a football team, right?<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t have to be flamboyant. It doesn\u2019t have to be feminine. It could be hyper masculine, it could be hyper straight. If you love fishing, go fishing. You know what I mean? Nobody\u2019s saying that trout fishing is a gay activity. However, I know gay people that love trout fishing, so go do it. I just think that the idea that something is gay or something is straight is so ridiculous at this point in time. I just want people to do whatever brings them joy. That\u2019s always my intention. Like what brings you joy? Is it hurting anybody? No. Perfect. Do it!<\/p>\n
Humor is a huge part of this song \u2013 and so is freedom. Why do you think comedy is such an effective tool in queer activism?<\/strong><\/p>\nI think there\u2019s a really large degree of self-reflectiveness that has to exist if you are a queer person. We don\u2019t get the luxury of seeing the social mores and these paths that the heterosexual community has laid out for us. They don\u2019t fit us. We don\u2019t embrace them without question and they often rub against us. And so, from an early age, we have to really start questioning why is the world this way? And how do I fit in that world? And I think ultimately humor comes from a place of initial disconnect, then introversion, then discovery and then embrace.<\/p>\n
You can look at these things that are the disconnect and you can poke fun at them, even if they wholly are you because you\u2019ve already gone through the process of saying like, yeah, I\u2019m weird and I\u2019m okay with that weirdness. You can poke fun of the weirdness because you are the weirdness and it\u2019s also not coming from a place of insecurity. It\u2019s coming from a place of complete security, so much so that you\u2019re secure even though the world is judging you for that. I think that\u2019s what makes great comedy and I think that\u2019s why queer people are so funny and creative.<\/p>\n
How do you balance the line between being funny and being meaningful when you\u2019re writing a song like \u201cGay Stuff\u201d? Do you start with the joke or do you start with the message?<\/strong><\/p>\nIt was always the joke. It was just gay stuff. I have to credit Austin because it\u2019s changed so many times in the iteration in which it is now. I would say that he did a lot of the writing on it. It\u2019s been very different over the course of 10 years. And when he sent it to me like eight months ago with some of these different things in it, I just was like, this is too good to not exist in the world.<\/p>\n
I think that\u2019s oftentimes how songwriting goes is you\u2019re like, oh my God, this is hilarious. I love it. You know, there was an episode of This American Life<\/em> that I listened to once that was in the writer\u2019s room of The Onion and they were saying like, they sit around a table and they just pitch their ideas everybody\u2019s there. There are 10 people in the room and 10 people have 10 headlines. And they pitched the headlines and they said, oftentimes the thing that has the funniest headline that has people cracking up, there\u2019s nothing behind.<\/p>\nThere are so many jokes. You know how you\u2019re hanging out with a friend and you\u2019re just like, oh my God, this is hilarious and that\u2019s it, you know? But if that thing keeps coming back to you and if that thing keeps developing in your mind, then you know, there\u2019s something else there. I think it always starts with the punchline, and then you try to figure out, oh, is there meat to this punchline? And, if so, then you continue with it.<\/p>\nThe music video for \u201cGay Stuff\u201d is so much fun and you, you\u2019ve pulled it off in 48 hours. How are you able to get such a polished video out put together in just two days?<\/strong><\/p>\nYou know, it\u2019s funny because Michael Serrato and I have worked together for so long, so we really do have a shorthand and we also really trust each other implicitly. Michael\u2019s really brilliant at creating characters and he\u2019s really brilliant at fashion. He has a really keen vision and we knew like, oh, we want to go on the desert. We had just shot \u201cBear Soup\u201d, which was a huge undertaking and took so much planning and took so many people, and it was really specific what we wanted.<\/p>\n
And so, when we were driving out afterwards, we just started talking. We knew this was going to happen. We knew we wanted some dancers. We had booked the dancers, and that\u2019s all we had. So, we knew who they were and then we decided we wanted, like, you know, I think there was like three main outfits, but we went to the thrift shop and if you ever need to go thrift shopping, you should go with Michael Serrato because he is just the best at finding everything. And I was texting while I was driving, sorry, mom, and just like texting my friends. And the thing about Palm Springs is that \u2013 and I\u2019m getting the sense that Fire Island is the same \u2013 is that the queer community is so tight and everybody who\u2019s there is there for a reason that\u2019s not like people in LA, because they want to be famous. People are in LA because they want something to be given to them. People in Palm Springs want to give something back and so it\u2019s really easy to establish friendships and connections and find a party and find an adventure.<\/p>\n
If you need a poodle, if you need a gym, if you need a coffee shop, it just started flowing in. People just started texting me, \u201cI heard you\u2019re looking for things. I can do this, I can do this, I can do this\u201d \u2013 which is an anomaly in this world. People are not trying to give you something and trying to create art. People want to be a part of something as long as it is good for them and there was no point in this process where that happened. I also think there\u2019s no place in the world that this could have come together like it did then in Palm Springs.<\/p>\n
If someone\u2019s feeling unsure or afraid to embrace like their weirdness or gay stuff, like what would you tell them?<\/strong><\/p>\nHmm. I guess I tell them that I value them and appreciate them and love them for who they are. That\u2019s a really interesting question. It\u2019s making me a little emotional. I\u2019m trying to not cry, you know? I think that\u2019s it. I don\u2019t know that it\u2019s something that anybody can do for anybody, right? But I also think that we can all be a support and to embrace other people\u2019s authenticity regardless of how fully that matches our own.<\/p>\n
Now, can I ask you about \u201cBear Soup\u201d? What was the inspiration behind it?<\/strong><\/p>\nI was walking around Barcelona \u2013 and again, the punchline came and I thought, oh my God, wouldn\u2019t it be hilarious if there was a bear? Well, first I thought, why is there not a bear song that is a twerk anthem? There are all these bears. They\u2019ve got all this meat to shake and nobody\u2019s writing that. I Googled and looked for it. I was like, does this exist? \u00a0And it didn\u2019t exist. And I was like, oh, this has to exist and it has to be \u201cbear soup\u201d, which is a bear pool party.<\/p>\n
Then I just started walking around Barcelona, which again is like a really queer city full of so many bears. And I just started writing different iterations of lyrics that made me laugh and that was really it. Honestly, the verses are kind of improvisational. I wrote the chorus and then I recorded the chorus and I was like, oh, this is great. But I knew that the verses had to have a really different energy and I wasn\u2019t exactly sure what was going to happen. Sometimes I just play the track and go in the studio and just go off and that\u2019s essentially what happened, I think especially on that second verse, that was my first improvisational take of the song. Sometimes you capture a moment so perfectly when you\u2019re not overthinking it that you\u2019re like, I\u2019m not going to do another take. I\u2019m not going to do anything else with this. This is too funny \u2013 because you\u2019re being honest in the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n
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