Years & Years singer Olly Alexander gets ready for Texas accents
RICH LOPEZ | Staff writer
rich@dallasvoice.com
British singer and actor Olly Alexander brings his queer pop sensations to Dallas for Pride this month. As the headliner for AT&T’s Turn Up The Love Tour, Alexander and his outfit, Years & Years, take part in the second annual tour that includes a stop in Big D on June 23. The lineup for the event, being held in the AT&T Discovery District downtown, also includes indie queer artists Kelechi and Wrabel.
Alexander spoke with Dallas Voice from Europe by email about how his queer-forward music just happens, about coming to Dallas for Pride and about waiting to hear all the people talk.
Dallas Voice: Congrats on the Brit Billion for more than a billion streams. That’s a big deal in short time for Years & Years. Olly Alexander: Thank you so much. It’s quite hard to wrap my head around a billion streams in the United Kingdom. I’m just thrilled, really, that the music has reached as many people as it has and connected with people.
It’s overwhelming. It’s a number that I can’t process. I’m just very grateful that people stream my music. It’s quite unbelievable, really, when you think about the numbers. So yeah, I’m thrilled.
Your music is unapologetically queer, but what do you feel is your intent when you create new songs and music? I actually never really have intent. I usually show up to the studio not really having any idea what I’m gonna make that day. I definitely make music instinctively. I just pick up an instrument or whoever I’m working with, we’ll find a beat or a sound or a synth, and just start making something. And then I kind of let that dictate what the song is going to be about.
But it does help to have a sort of catalog of stuff in my head of ideas, phrases and words that I like because I can get an inspiration for a song just from a word or a sign or something I’ve read or a film or TV show or a book — it can be anything.
Shifting gears a bit, how do you remember your time on It’s a Sin? That show received so many accolades in just its five episodes about gay men during the AIDS crisis in England. I had just the most incredible experience on that show. I remember when I got an email I thought to myself, “Oh my God, wow, this is gonna be something special.”
Making the show was just an amazing experience in so many ways. It allowed me to deeply connect with a part of my gay history that I had been quite scared to go towards. On set, I spent a lot of time with people who lived through that time and lost people. And obviously, Russell is such a phenomenal writer and he created such an incredible story with such amazing characters.
It was just a joy to inhabit that world and play Richie. You make a show; you hope that it’s going to do well and connect with people. But I had no idea it would get the reaction that it has, and it was just incredible to be a part of it.
It feels like it opened up a space for people to talk about something that is really difficult. It’s really wrapped up in a lot of trauma, grief and shame, and a lot of what happened in the 1980s and ’90s was really swept under the carpet and tread in so much secrecy that people didn’t talk about it.
There’s still so much to say about what happened, this is really just scratching the surface. I’m just really, really thankful that I got to be a part of it and got to do it.
You are playing Turn Up The Love here in Dallas for Pride. What does that mean to you, and how do you celebrate it? Not just during June here, but every day? I feel very lucky because I get to play a lot of Pride shows, and it’s a really awesome experience to be with a crowd full of people who are there to celebrate themselves and who they are in a way that’s just so beautiful.
Pride isn’t all about partying or events. I think those can be, like, a great way to connect with your community, and with your fellow LGBTQs. But it’s, I think for me, reflecting on just the journey I’ve come on as a queer person and how I’ve learned so much about myself in the years, and I’ve kind of accepted my sexuality. I think, hopefully, I carry that with me every day, and Pride is a good opportunity to let it out.
What are you looking forward to for your concert here? We performed there when we did the Palace Santo tour — I think that was 2018. Could it have been 2019? Oh, I can’t remember.
I can’t begin to tell you how wild it is to even come to a place like Dallas, which is so far away from the U.K. and where I grew up. We had a really, really sweet audience. I’m looking forward to coming back and eating some good food and seeing some friendly faces — and there are some really brilliant accents I heard last time! As a British person, I like hearing the different American accents.
Turn Up The Love is free to attend. Find more info at TurnUpTheLove.com.
