Get Out! GAY Magazine – Issue 391 –October 31, 2018

I feel like it’s very Bowieesque.
There is definitely Bowie
in there. There’s a little bit
of U2 in there, and that’s
not accidental either.
The last track on the
album, the record’s
namesake, “Life”—what
inspired that?
I suppose in a funny
little way, it kind of ties
in what I was talking
about in “God and Love,”
because “Life” is about
faith. It’s about believing
in the universe, it’s about
believing things will get
better, having patience,
waiting for the train and
hoping that the train
is going to take you
where you want to go.
I’ve always had this kind
of strange optimism.
Even in the weirdest,
darkest moments of
my life, I’ve always had
this weird feeling that
things are going to get
better. I suppose in a
way when I was writing
the lyrics to that song, I
was consciously trying
to write something that
meant something to me.
I wanted to write a lyric
that resonated with who
I am now, and how I feel
right now. I hope that
everyone has someone
in their life that inspires
them to be the best
person of yourself every
day. With the whole trust
thing, and as cynical as I
am, I have a strange faith
in other people, faith in
humanity, and obviously
faith in myself.
I’ve been on a very
interesting journey the
last 15 years. I’ve been
through a lot of stuff.
I think “Life” is a song
to myself. There was a
point in my life where I
was down a hole with no
ladder, and I remember
saying to myself, “How do
I make this better? You
really fucked this up, and
now you have to fix it.”
And that’s what I’ve been
doing for the last 15 years.
I really think that this
record is kind of proof of
all that. When we talked
about getting the band
back together four or five
years ago, I remember
saying, “We have to have
new music.” For me,
nostalgia, as beautiful
as it is, it isn’t enough
for me. So I said to them
that we had to make
new music. There was
a little bit of resistance.
Having made this record,
what is really beautiful
is that everybody said,
“You’re right.” When we
were doing the video
for “Let Somebody Love
You,” the joy was really
palpable. I was saying to
Mikey, he was so happy,
and I was reminding him
of a conversation we
had a couple years ago.
I said, “Remember that
conversation?” And he
said, “Yeah, I hated you.”
I said, “Yeah, but I was
right, right?”