Hooks, lines and a singer:
Local indie gay pop artist Tom Goss out with new album
Friday, Mar 27, 2009 | Joey DiGuglielmo
Tom Goss is realistic about the mark he’s leaving.
“I’m fairly irrelevant, I mean let’s be real here,” the down-to-earth, Kenosha, Wis., native and seminary dropout says during a chat this week to plug his new album, “Back to Love.”
“In the grand scheme of life, I’m there with everybody else. We live in this world where everybody has this grandiose view of themselves. I just want to do my best to leave the space I impact a more positive space.”
While Goss insists he doesn’t dream of fame and gold and platinum albums, he is hoping “Back to Love,” which drops April 7, will reach as many listeners as possible. A two-night album release party will be held at Nellie’s next week (April 2 and 3 at 9 p.m.) at which Goss will perform with a few of his indie singer/songwriter friends. Washingtonians who attend will be able to get the album for $15 there, though it won’t be available through other outlets (including iTunes) until the 7th.
Goss, who’s gay and lives with his partner in Columbia Heights, isn’t close to selling out arenas and says the music business has changed so much that signing with one of the four major labels (or even a minor or indie label), isn’t his goal. He supplements his income working part-time for Charlie’s Place, a local meal program for the homeless, and does his own booking. He just hired a publicist to help with this project.
Still there are signs that his music is connecting.
A video he shot for a song called “Rise” last year in D.C. Metro stations got heavy rotation on gay cable channel Logo. Another folksy, feel-good video he shot for “Til the End,” which shows various couples — both gay and straight — cuddling in bed, got about 10,000 views the first three days it was up on YouTube. “End” is the first single from the new record.
Goss’s musical colleagues insist he’s the real deal.
“Tom is the epitome of an accomplished musician,” his friend, Jeremiah Clark, who sang on “Back to Love,” says. “He’s sincere with no exceptions.”
“It’s not about fame for me,” Goss says. “It’s about reaching people and communicating with people, sharing my story and listening to their stories.”
The 11-track “Back to Love” project, which Goss recorded over an 11-day period in late November in Steubenville, Ohio, with producer Mike Ofca, was an attempt, Goss says, to celebrate love in its various forms. He and Ofca got in touch through gay singer/songwriter Eric Himan, whom Goss cites as a major friend and influence.
“Tom has a big heart, which is great that his newest CD is centered around it,” Himan says.
Goss says he’s “madly in love” with his partner, Mike Briggs, whom he’s been with for three-and-a-half years and plans to marry this fall. Their relationship is reflected on several of the album’s songs, especially “Lover,” a piano-and-strings ballad Goss wrote about a year ago when Briggs was out of town: “I can hear your whisper close/like the sweetness of a rose/when I turn I hear your voice/you’re my only lover.”
“All the songs on this album are really about love,” Goss says. “Not necessarily just about romantic love, but love between friends, love between family and searching for love and not finding love. But the central focus of everything, at least in what I do and the art that comes out as a result of that, is to have more love and spread love or search for love. That’s where I came from.”
Familial love is reflected in the album’s closing track, “Legacy of You,” a sweeping, string-laden ode to Goss’s maternal grandfather who died last year. He calls it an attempt to “speak to the love he showed us.”
Musically, the album, Goss’s second full-length project (he also released an EP called “Rise” last year) was an attempt to make his songwriting more accessible. Struck by the catchiness of some of his favorite pop songs, Goss holed up for six weeks last year on a mission looking for hooks.
“I wrote a lot [before] with really kind of a different mindset as to the structure of my songwriting. This new album is more pop oriented, like the Beatles or the Monkees, that stuff that really catches you right off the bat. You’re singing it before the song’s over, even if you’ve never heard it before. That’s what I was going for … but also something that has depth. A lot of pop songs you listen to are really vapid, but I wanted to create pop songs with real depth. That’s always what I’m aiming to do.”
Goss came to Washington five years ago to go to seminary to become a Catholic priest. He dropped out after a year and a half, realizing ministry wasn’t his calling. Though he no longer considers himself a Christian, he says many of the factors that got him interested in ministry still motivate him.
“I don’t think my vision has changed too much,” he says. “My platform has changed, my message has changed somewhat. My message is still reconciliation, acceptance and love, but it’s not in a Christian context. It just is. It’s a search for truth. That’s for me what it’s about and what it’s always been about.”
Goss, who’s about to embark on a 50-city tour to promote “Back to Love,” admits to a degree of inner geekdom that’s not fazed by mundane things.
He loves miniature golf and playing Scrabble, things he admits are “really stupid.” He and Briggs plan to exchange vows on a miniature golf course. Goss spends so much time on the road, he enjoys low-key time at home with Briggs when he can manage it.
“I’m pretty tame,” he says with a chuckle.
And though Goss’s music has plenty of easy-listening touches — it’s largely acoustic and many songs have a John Denver-like laid-back flair — he likes to think it has a little edge.
“This isn’t the Partridge Family. This isn’t Christian rock …. We’re gonna rock the shit out of Nellie’s.”
