Exclusive Interview: A Great Big World ‘Say Something’ About Gay Rights And Much More!
A Great Big World have had huge amounts of success this year so we caught up with Chad Vaccarino and Ian Axel from the group to discuss: gay rights, their brand new single and working with Christina Aguilera!
We're pretty sure that most of you will have heard their number one hit 'Say Something' before or maybe even their amazing new single 'Already Home' but another great track by the pop duo is 'Everyone Is Gay.' The song features on their debut album 'Is Anybody Out There?' and it's all about equality. LGBT rights are something that both boys feel really passionate about; especially as Chad is openly gay himself.On the album, you have a track titled ‘Everyone Is Gay’. It’s got a great message but for anyone who hasn’t heard it, how would you explain the meaning of the song?
Chad: 'Everyone Is Gay' is a super special song to us. Our friends run a website called EveryoneIsGay.com and they give advice to kids who are struggling with their sexuality and they wanted us to write the gayest song ever for a compilation album they wanted to put out. I think, for me, I wanted to have this song and the message behind it relate to what I experienced growing up; like the bullying that happened. I feel like as a kid, it's a super confusing time and kids make fun of you and call you all sorts of names and things and it really messes with your head. Anyway, the message behind the song is that it doesn't matter if you're gay or straight, or inbetween, you can be whoever you are any day of the week and it's totally ok."
Ian: "It's a song about love."
Have you had any fan encounters where people have said that the song's really helped them?
Chad: "We have had some pretty intense reactions for the song. I remember one in particular was in Huntsville, Alabama and a girl came up to me after the show and she was balling. She fell into my arms and thanked me for the song and the message saying that her parents don't support her at all and tried to give her an exorcism because she's gay. It was a really, really heavy moment for me to take in that someone is affected by our music in that way."
It just goes to show that music really can help people through hard times. A Great Big World aren't the first singers to show support for LGBT rights through their music either; Macklemore and Ryan Lewis also released 'Same Love' last year and Sara Bareilles encouraged fans to come out with her song 'Brave'.
Stonewall are one of the world's leading charities pushing for gay rights and they love it when celebrities speak out for equality. We spoke to James Lawrence, a communication officer for Stonewall, who said;
"It’s really helpful in terms of visibility. The more role models there are for lesbian, gay and bisexual people - the easier and more supportive it is for young people to come out when they’re ready to. It’s fantastic when a celebrity comes out. The knock-on effect of people in high profile positions coming out is that it provides young people with far more confidence and support and it makes their coming out process a lot easier too."
Here at OnePopz, we 100% support LGBT rights too and equality is also something that we're definitely passionate about. For more information about Stonewall and what they do, you can visit their website here.
Back to A Great Big World, we know that they support LGBT rights but we asked them what the one thing they would change in this great big world would be if they could. Check out their answers below;
If you could change one thing about the world; what would it be and why?
Chad: "If I could change one thing about the world, I would make it impossible for there to be any hate in the world and for only love to exist."
Ian: "That was beautiful, I would like everyone to be doing what is in their heart and what they're passionate about and what they love. I feel like everything will kind of like balance each other out."
If you weren't singer-songwriters, what other careers would you consider?
Chad: "Another career I would totally be into is... I'm very big into alternative and holistic healing. I dunno, I could see myself diving deeper into eastern medicine and acupuncture, maybe I'd be a chiropractor. I'm not sure, maybe something like that."
Ian: "I think I'd be some sort of scientist or something. Some sort of outer space cadet/scientist, I dunno, I would do something cool and smart. I'd have grown my afro out bigger."
We can definitely imagine Ian being a space cadet; especially as A Great Big World often use rockets as part of their logo. We're glad they're sticking to music though because we'd miss their songs otherwise!
As mentioned before, it really has been an incredible year for A Great Big World so far. Their debut single 'Say Something' was a massive hit worldwide and it featured vocals from the one and only Christina Aguilera.
The track rocketed straight to number one in several countries including; Australia, Belgium and Canada. It also went 3x platinum in America and peaked at number four on both the Billboard and UK singles charts. The music video for 'Say Something' has also received over 92 million hits on Youtube. Pretty impressive right?
We couldn't help but ask them more about their past year and rise to fame;
You’ve had huge success with your album and ‘Say Something’, congratulations on that. How would you say you’ve you found the past six months?
Chad: "The past 6-8 months have been I think the craziest of our entire lives, we never expected success to look like this and we never expected Christina Aguilera to come into our lives. We never expected to be playing Las Vegas opening for Maroon 5 on New Year's Eve. There's been way too much to process."
Ian: "Yeahh, it's all mushed together, like all the best experiences of our lives mushed together. I don't think we've really sifted through it all and processed it yet but we feel incredibly lucky."
How did you find working with Christina Aguilera on ‘Say Something’ and what was it like performing the song together at the American Music Awards?
Chad: "Getting into the studio with Christina was one of our favourite moments in our lives. We kind of jumped right into the studio and jumped right into recording and there was really no down time or getting to know each other. It was kind of like hit record and see what comes out and we had to build our confidence super quick in order to feel like we belonged there and feel like we were on the same level as Christina is, in some ways, to collaborate."
Ian: "I was definitely more shy than Chad, we were arguing in the control booth about who would press the red button and talk to her and sing through the microphone. It was Chad most of the time. One thing from the AMAs I will always remember is that it was the second time I had sung the song with Christina and we did a different version. She took the second verse and just being able to sit back and play the piano, and just listen and absorb, and not actually sing for 10-15 seconds and hearing the cheers from the back of the theatre just kind of ripple forward, that was a moment for me. It just all happened so fast and Lady Gaga, Christina Perri, Justin Timberlake and One Direction were all in the first row and it was just crazy."
Before releasing 'Say Something', Chad and Ian also put out a promotional song titled 'This Is The New Year.' It fast became really popular online and was even covered by the cast of Glee. Since then, it's also been used on various TV programmes including: One Tree Hill, The Amazing Race, ESPN and Good Morning America.
Your song ‘This Is The New Year’ was covered by the cast of Glee, how did that come about and what was it like seeing your song get so much exposure?
Chad: "When we wrote 'This Is The New Year', we actually had this little inkling of a dream to see that song on Glee because Glee is this iconic television show that kind of matches our music really well. They really do a good job of merging pop and theatre together so when we got the phone call that Glee was going to cover 'This Is The New Year', we both freaked out. We could not be happier with how they did it and their version is amazing, almost better than ours if not better."
Ian: "I remember when it aired, we threw a giant party at our apartment. When it aired live, just knowing that 10 million people or whatever were watching that and hearing the song that we wrote in a dorm room, there's just no words to describe it."
A Great Big World's brand new single 'Already Home' is another fantastic ballad and it's just recently been sent out to UK radio stations so prepared to hear it everywhere pretty soon. Keeping in with the Glee connection, the music video features Darren Criss and he's joined by Gossip Girl's very own Jessica Szohr.
What made you choose ‘Already Home’ as your next single and how would you say it’s different to the other tracks on your album?
Ian: "We chose 'Already Home' for our next single because we felt like it was a good transition from a really raw stripped down ballad into our more upbeat and theatrical music. We have a full band, Chad also sings, and it was just a good transition. And the lyrics are meaningful to what we're going through right now."
If you had one message to leave for your fans; what would it be?
Ian: "If we had one message for our fans, it'd be that we love you guys very very much. You make us feel less alone and you're the whole reason why we're doing this. We write these songs for you, they're your songs. Thank you for giving us purpose and meaning to our lives."
For those of you who haven't yet listened to A Great Big World's album, we'd definitely recommend that you purchase a copy. It's undeniably one of our favourite albums this year and aside from the singles, personal favourites of ours include: 'Land Of Opportunity', 'I Really Want It' and 'There Is An Answer.'
