Over dinner at Azucar, a beautiful Latin restaurant in Downtown San Jose, I met sexy 28-year-old fiery singer Eddie Michael (EM) for dinner. The San Jose native has lived and pursued his music career in the city of Angels (Los Angeles) for the last 10 years and was in town celebrating San Jose Pride for the first time.
With salsa music playing and disco lights adding color to the spicy red walls of Azucar, Eddie and I sat down over a delicious meal and discussed his current single I’m Your Lover, show opener Tekno-Color and everything in between.
As soon as we sat down, EM couldn’t help but share his love for Los Angeles. “I’ve recently celebrated my 10 year anniversary in LA. I love it so much now, as the day I moved there. Actually when I moved there, I hated it because I was so lonely and scared; I didn’t know anyone. Now I love it; can’t beat LA.”
As a fellow Angelino – living in Los Angeles 18 years of my life - I wondered what EM loved about Los Angeles. EM put it simply, “I love the Glitz and the Glam of LA. I love sparkly things.”
Before meeting EM, I checked out his single I’m Ur Lover. Though the song has a strong pop vibe to it, EM’s smooth vocals and fun, teasing lyrics deliver an R&B feel.
EM shares, “I’ve never been in love before. I wrote I’m Ur Lover while I was dating my fiancé. There’s a line in the song that goes ‘Don’t judge me, just love me and know that I’m easy.’ ‘Easy’ is not that I go around and have sex with everyone. ‘Easy’ reflects my attitude, I’m the most easy going person; so non-judgmental. I don’t give a shit.”
As we continued to talk, EM struck me as a fun loving guy and throughout our meeting; he let his intoxicating spirit run free as we discussed his love of pop music.
“I love pop music. I’ve always been a fan of good, ole fashion, ear-candy, pop and dance music that makes you want to dance and have a good time. When I hear my song, it’s a feeling nothing else can give you. No matter what’s going on at the moment, it doesn’t matter because I just feel so amazing inside and that’s what I want people to feel when they hear my music.”
On EM’s myspace (http://www.myspace.com/eddiemichael09) there is a video of him performing I’m Ur Lover for a group of ladies at a winter party hosted by his manager Adrian E. of Doble Mundo Productions. In the video, EM jumps into the gaggle of ladies. He, along with the crowd is having so much fun.
EM expresses, “I have so much fun performing and I love the intimacy level. Sometimes being on a stage, you’re separated from your audience. Because they are looking up at you, it’s almost like this ‘heroic image’ of you. I don’t like that because I don’t want people to think that I’m unapproachable.”
Interestingly, EM has not performed much in Los Angeles. “The industry is very tough out there [in Los Angeles]. Performing the few shows I have in LA was great but the audience tends to seem a little jaded in LA.” Most recently, EM performed at Orange Country Pride and loved the energy!
In comparison to LA, when EM returns home to the Bay, the response is much warmer. “To be honest,” EM began, “people in the Bay like me more. I don’t know if it’s because I’m more comfortable here; my family, my friends, my roots are here. Here in the Bay, it seems a lot easier because it’s a different setting; people appear to appreciate entertainment and value the time you’re taking to entertain them. I appreciate that about the Bay which is why I’ve done a lot more shows here.”
EM has been invited to host and perform at Salinas Valley Pride at Fox Theatre on Saturday, September 25th! He is already getting radio love by DJ Kazzeo of KHDC in Salinas, and club DJ’s such as DJ DROC and DJ Jeuce for the current single EM is featured on by Starrchez, titled Live and Breathe! Coincidentally, EM and Starrchez are excited about their recent nomination as one of the finalist’s in the John Lennon Song Writing Contest, under the “electronic” category.
One of EM’s show opening tracks titled, Tekno-Color was inspired by Kelis’ latest song Accapella. EM said, “Before love, my life was black-and-white. I didn’t know that there were so many different colors to see when you’re in love and when you’re making love. Tekno-Color is more poppy, more bubble-gummy.”
EM continues, “I like to think of music as candy, ear candy and music videos as eye candy. And people love candy. My candy obsession is heavily influenced by Japanese pop culture. Right now their trend is sweets.”
At the time of our interview, there were no plans for a video for either I’m Ur Lover or Tekno-Color. Being a perfectionist, EM said, “Music videos are expensive. When I do release something, it has to be perfect. Until I can have a video that is going to be perfect, I can’t release one.”
Looking at the music industry, gay artists have yet to be fully accepted. Though not gay, Lady GaGa has established a massive gay following for her ability to be over the top, dynamic and bring something to the music scene that has not been seen since the days of Madonna, eccentricity. As an openly gay artist Eddie Michael proclaims, “If you can own whoever you are and whatever you’re doing, people will stand behind that 100%.” Applying his thinking to himself, he concludes, “If I just own that I’m gay, which I do, (I couldn’t hide it if I wanted too) then people will respect that and me ultimately.”
For more information about Eddie Michael
Twitter | www.twitter.com/eddiemichael
Youtube | http://www.myspace.com/eddiemichael09
www.doblemundoproductions.com
For bookings: Adrian@doblemundoproductions.com / www.twitter.com/AdrianofDM
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