You posted online saying that you’ve been told you’re “too gay, too feminine, not talented enough, you’ll never make it”, but that you’re “living your dream”. Can you give us some insight into the journey you’ve been on to get to where you are now?

I was on The Voice of Holland four years ago and I decided to do one round in full drag because I wanted to make a statement. I’m not a drag queen, so I called all my friends who knew anything about drag to help me out for this one particular episode. After that, I got a lot of negative attention from people that they didn’t like it. Of course there were people that did like it, but I never experienced something so hateful after that, people were so mean… Years later, now I’m doing what I want and not what other people want. That’s why I started to make music under Not.Your.Regular.Boy. and not my government name.

Would say your home country of Holland is very accepting when it comes to the LGBT?

We say we are accepting, but we’re not accepting enough. We showcase everything going on with pride on television, but I think we still need more attention on the subject… I have a few friends that still don’t say that Amsterdam is the best place for the LGBTQ+ community.

Who are some of your influences in the drag community?

That has to be Lady Bunny because she’s really funny because she doesn’t give a f*ck. I love it. I really love Coco Peru because she’s not over-the-top drag, but it’s still quality. I met Jinkx from RuPaul’s Drag Race a few years ago in Amsterdam. She told me “I’m in Amsterdam so I need something green to smoke” so I told her “come over, I’m gonna fix something for you”. I like her a lot. She’s funny, a great singer.

You recently released a new single, “It’s All Yours”. Is there a story behind this song?

For me, it means that everything is theirs. When you fall in love, sometimes it gets really difficult between you and the other person… It’s a last call for them to know that I want them. That was the message for me behind the song. It’s not a real-life thing because I don’t feel that way, but when we had to record the song, I really felt it.

To listen to the single and more from Not.Your.Regular.Boy., click here.

The post Interview with Not.Your.Regular.Boy., who appeared on The Voice of Holland in Full Drag appeared first on SCAD Radio.

Both of you are Dutch, so what types of music are popular where you’re from that inspired Money & the Man?

I think it’s mostly the lack of music that was popular. [My bandmate] Hank is a big fan of The Black Keys and I used to be a big fan of The White Stripes, so when we started the band, we knew 2-man bands. We started the band because I thought singer/songwriter music was really big at the moment, and we found that men with beards were kind of the hipster thing. I found that they had to be more manly instead of singing old acoustic songs and be really emotional. So we started the band because of the lack of “manly” music in our scene

It’s funny that you mentioned The White Stripes because I had a question about how you guys consider yourselves to be garage-rock artists and if you were fans of arguably the biggest garage rock band ever, The White Stripes. It seems like you are.

I definitely am, Hank was a bit less of a fan, he’s a fan of other Jack White projects like Dead Weather and the Raconteurs, but I grew up listening to The White Stripes a lot, especially songs like “My Doorbell”, how simple of a subject the song can be while it’s still a very strong song. Their music was an eye-opener for me. It doesn’t always have to be politics-intended like Rage Against the Machine or that it shouldn’t always be about love, it can be about small stuff like ringing a doorbell.

How did you come across the name “Money & the Man”?

The start of the band was a bit odd because we really didn’t like each other that much. We had many common friends, but we didn’t see good things in each other until the moment where we accidentally had a jam with just the two of us and then we knew there was a bit more going on than just the two of us hating each other. In June, we decided we were gonna form a band and then we started the band somewhere at the end of August with the next school semester, and somewhere in that Summer break I woke and thought of “Money & the Man”. I texted [Hank] and he said “No, I don’t like it” and I said “You should speak it out loud, it really rolls the tongue”, and I liked the subject that you can see it in a political way or in the way of being the working man not having the money around, so I convinced him that we should take it, and it works pretty good, actually.

What can we expect from the band’s self-titled debut album?

World domination, but that’s kinda hard since we’re not in the power of starting a third world war, so I think we’re there for people who can enjoy the music, and I hope that the words press a little, very underground, have our names around a little, then slowly build up an empire, I think. This is a good start for us to grow as a band and let the name grow a little bit on people. We’ve never been playing outside the Netherlands, and with this album, we can start doing that.

To check out more from this garage rock group, click here.

The post Interview with White Stripes-inspired Garage Rock Duo Money & the Man appeared first on SCAD Radio.

You just released a new single, “Find Someone Who Cares”. I understand you wrote this song for a wedding?

Actually, I wrote it for my father’s wedding, which was in Venice a few years ago. He asked me to play a song before the ceremony starts, and we couldn’t decide on a song to sing, we were going through lots of covers of Bob Marley songs. They just couldn’t decide on what they wanted. In the end, [my father and his fiancé] said “would you like to write a song?” That’s kind of how the song came about.

Would you say most of your song ideas are conceived by real experiences?

Yeah, I think to some degree, you have to get everything from something real. I’m not particularly good at imagining entire scenarios…writing something from a real perspective is a lot easier.

You’ve been acknowledged by Rod Stewart?

Yeah, that came about a few years ago in a radio interview. It’s obviously amazing to get credited by someone so successful and someone that I admire so much… I was working with somebody who used to work with him. There was a lot of back and forth, sometimes we’d turn stuff over to get a critique, or just to see what he thought. There was one thing in particular he really liked and mentioned it.

We’ve been interviewing other musicians from your label recently. Do you all collaborate much with others on your label, or do you tend to stick to your own stuff?

There’s a little bit of collaboration, I think probably more with the guys that are based in the Netherlands. The label (TCBYML) is based in Amsterdam. I’m based in London, but when I’m in Amsterdam, I’ve done a little bit of collaboration with some writers and some recording work as well. They like to put you with people, it’s not something they do everyday, but they like to help out when they can.

What’s the best advice you could give for someone looking to start a music career?

I’d say that as long as you’re doing it for the right reasons and you’re not expecting to be instantly famous or successful… You need to be doing it for yourself. As long as that’s in place and you’re doing it for the right reasons, you can’t go wrong because you’re not expecting much from the world. You can’t expect people to give you things right away, so as long as you’re doing it for your own enjoyment, you should be okay.

Is this single for an upcoming album?

Yes, the album is called Beautiful Decay and it’s gonna be out in the new year sometime. We’re just working on the details of the release at the moment. Essentially, we’re just releasing singles from the album one by one and seeing what the reaction is. It’s going well.

What should we expect from the album? Is it going to be like “Find Someone Who Cares”, slow melodies and the “wedding song” style of songwriting?

That’s going to be the only wedding-style song that’s gonna be out. The entire album is varied to some degree, but it was all played by the same musicians in the same room over about four days. There’s a lot of character to the album that is like a thread running through. There’s the same vibe, same musicians, same kind of ethos running through. The sound is going to be of a particular thread. It’ll sound familiar, but the songwriting is varied in terms of tempo and dynamics and subject matter.

To check out the single and more from Charlie Hole and TCBYML, click here.

The post Interview with Charlie Hole, An Artist Acknowledged by Rod Stewart appeared first on SCAD Radio.