Singer and songwriter Lostchild may be from a small town, but he’s hoping to make a big impact on the youth of today. With an exclusive look at his new video for Blacklist, he opens up about his insecurities, why pop stars trump politicians and creating a problem-distracting party.
In your own words, how would you describe your sound/style?
Let’s say…neurotic electronic pop music with a heavy influence from the 80s and 90s.
You state that your EP is a snapshot of “me, my (lack of) self-esteem and I”, can you tell us more about your struggle with self-esteem?
I grew up just wanting to fit in because I was so different to all the other kids in my town, too shy and too awkward and unsure of myself. Even though I eventually found the gay community where I felt more at home, I could never quite tell myself that not being able to pigeon hole myself was ok. I always compared myself to others and to this day am still ultra-critical of myself. Although I have developed a way of acknowledging and dismissing these negative thoughts, I’m fairly certain they’ll never go away.
It’s very common for gay people to lack confidence, why do you think that is?
We don’t know what it is that we have to offer the world. Suddenly after we come out we aren’t able to just make our family proud just by living our lives, we feel like we have something to prove. We don’t have anyone telling us what our goals in life should be. And having that weight on our shoulders, trying to figure out that all ourselves can be really disheartening. That was certainly my experience, it meant I never quite shook that feeling of not being good enough…I wasn’t sure what good enough looked like.
Do you think in the current political climate it’s important for artists to have a voice?
Particularly for the LGBT community, yeah. Role models are so important for us as we might not have grown up with anyone in our life telling us how to deal with being gay, trans or simply unsure of our position on the sexuality and gender spectrum. Politicians are unlikely to consider this a priority any time soon, so it’s super important that artists speak up about their own experiences and insecurities. I hope people can listen to my music and realise it’s ok to be completely clueless and feel lost.
Tell us more about your latest single ‘Blacklist’, what inspired it and it’s retro sound?
Retro is kinda my thing, I actually tried to make Blacklist more modern but the ghost of 80s Madonna is always hovering. It was definitely inspired by the sounds of ALMA, and I wanted to do a party song with a slightly bittersweet message, something you would dance around to so drunk that you think you’re killing it but actually people are moving away from you. It’s basically how I’d like my music to be from now on – a party to distract from the problems in your life.
We really think he nailed it, we can definitely see ourselves slurring our way through this . Watch it: