Written By: Michael D. McClellan |
To underestimate Michael Fairman is to do so at your own risk.
Drop him on a red carpet and he outshines the cabal of nervous journalists fidgeting around him; throw a high-profile tribute package his way and he turns it into high art; give him a show to produce and he gives you an experience worthy of the 16 Daytime Emmy broadcasts that include his fingerprints. Clearly, Michael Fairman has built a standout career on daytime television, his name synonymous with soap operas, his brand the gold standard for celebrity journalism, but it’s the way that he’s gone about his business that sets him apart. The multihyphenate comes at you from all angles – writer, producer, content consultant, content creator, editorial director, and now, singer/songwriter – infusing his work with passion while refusing to wallow in the muck.
“I hope, my reputation is one of the things that sets me apart,” Fairman says from his home in Los Angeles. “I’ve worked hard to earn the trust of the stars that I interview, and they know that I’m going to treat them with respect. At the end of the day, you’ve got to be able to live with yourself. This isn’t about making a quick buck.”
Fairman’s do-it-the-right-way approach has served him well. He’s on a first-name basis with some of the biggest names in daytime television, from Eric Braeden to Dr. Oz, and he’s as equally at home on a soap opera set as he is in his own living room.
“At least until COVID happened,” he says with a laugh. “That changed everything.”
The pandemic, which shut down production across daytime programming, also cost Fairman his job as Digital Content Producer for the Days of Our Lives’ groundbreaking DOOL app, a project he helped to bring to life for over four-and-a-half years. The DOOL app provided weekly updated content with the cast, and Fairman had been a driving force behind its success. The news was a gut punch. Knocked down but not knocked out, he regrouped and poured even more of his energy into YouTube Channel, aptly called “The Michael Fairman Channel,” which contains his music videos (original songs and covers), celebrity interviews, a clever new game show (more on that below), red carpet and backstage coverage from award shows and events, and segments that he’s produced for the Daytime Emmys. He’s also continued his long-running entertainment news and celebrity features website, Michael Fairman TV and has been developing a few top-secrets projects. It’s the kind of pivot that speaks to Fairman’s evolutionary mutability – the quicksilver ability to grow and change and live spectacular multiple lives in the public eye – and guarantees that his is a brand that can’t be pigeonholed.
“The pandemic forced content creators to come up with a unique approach to engage their audience,” Fairman says. “It gave me the chance to expand my celebrity interviews and give fans even more video content in exciting, fun, and interactive ways.”
Fairman has done that and more with his new game show, Soap Opera Know-it-All. Online and interactive, Soap Opera Know-it-All is the first-ever virtual game show for diehard soap fans, pitting contestants from all over the country in a battle over the soaps and the trivia they love. This latest addition to the Michael Fairman digital universe is already a huge hit with fans.
“I’ve received so many submissions from people wanting to be on the show,” he says of the eight-episode series. “The graphics are cool, as we riff on Jeopardy! We’ve got buzzers and music and everything else you’d want in a game show. Stars from The Young & the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful even appeared on the second episode, and the stars of Days of Our Lives are appearing in the third, asking questions about their characters and their shows. If you’re a diehard soap fan, what more could you ask?”
Available on the Michael Fairman YouTube Channel, Soap Opera Know-it-All has already generated considerable buzz.
“It’s so funny, I had an epiphany to put this show out, and everybody – the soap community, the pundits, the journalists – seemed to embrace it. More than one person has wondered why this hasn’t been done before. It was truly an untapped experience.”
Adding to the intrigue, contestants compete for the ultimate prize: A virtual meeting with their favorite soap star.
“The winner will get to have a Zoom or Facetime conversation with the star of their choice,” Fairman says. “If the star isn’t available for some reason, then we’ll go with choice number two. Along the way, the contestants are winning swag bags and other fun things from different shows. Soap Opera Know-it-All is another fresh way to connect with fans. You have to stay relevant and ever-changing, given the digital climate that content creators live in today.”
Reinvention comes naturally for Michael Fairman. He’s the ultimate showbiz chameleon, a celeb-connected force-of-nature who, as a child, worshipped his favorite characters and devoured their storylines, an itch that’s never let up. It’s unsurprising then that soaps turned into a career, even though he didn’t set out to make it so. His love of music has reemerged, surprising many; Fairman, at an age when most others are winding down, has launched a music career with a string of infectious singles. Up next: Better Late Than Never, a follow-up to his deeply personal – and insanely danceable – Other Side.
“Putting together Better Late Than Never was an interesting experience, because the pandemic made it impossible to record in the studio. Everybody recorded from home. I used an SM7B mic, which is the kind that Michael Jackson used to record Thriller. We had to do everything virtually with my engineer, to track all the vocals and all of that, but you can’t tell if it was produced in a studio or not. The quality is that good. It really speaks to the technology available today, and the creative ways to get product out during a pandemic. I was in awe of so many top artists and unknown acts, who dropped new albums and singles during the past year when touring and playing live was impossible to do.”
Better Late Than Never stays true to Fairman’s roots, a pop-and-R&B-infused track that’s at once Spotify-fresh and decidedly old school, in that infectious, groove sort-of-way.
“It’s Tinashe meets Stevie Wonder meets, perhaps, Nick Jonas,” Fairman says. “I wanted a really cool vibe that was both current and throwback at the same time. I’m really excited for this song to drop.” Look for Michael’s new single to debut just in time for summer.
Fairman’s honeyed voice on Better Late Than Never proves that he’s more than a soap wunderkind. There’s a playful seriousness to his music; he’s not Katy Perry, who made an art of excess – maximalist pop, bras squirting whipped cream, carnivalesque live shows – but his songs compel you to have fun, even if the lyrics are rooted in adversity.
“Everyone goes through dark times in their lives,” Fairman says. “For me, it’s about overcoming them. You can either give up or fight back. My music is about hope.”
While Michael Fairman’s music career is better late than never, it underscores the success he’s had doing everything else with his career; producing the Agnes Nixon and General Hospital 55th Anniversary tributes, creating SoapCity for Sony, hosting and co-producing the Inside Salem: Days of our Lives Podcast launching Michael Fairman TV, and so much more. Most of us realize, as we age, that we can’t make the puzzle pieces of our lives fit and we make peace with that. Michael Fairman keeps reaching into his past to discover more and more about himself. The experiences act as rocket fuel for his art, with moments big and small serving as inspiration for the next chapter in an already amazing career. The world may have changed, but Michael Fairman is going to keep doing his thing, with no regret for yesterday and no fear of tomorrow.
Read the entire Q&A with Michael Fairman, below:
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You grew up in the Midwest. Please tell me a little about your childhood.
I am from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. When I was growing up, I felt unsafe to go to school. I was bullied by the other kids. So, I took solace with my mom at home, and there was a period of time where I wouldn’t go to school at all. So, I would watch soap operas with her. I would watch One Life to Live, which was my favorite show, but I’d also watch All My Children, General Hospital, and The Young and the Restless to name a few. I became a sponge; I soaked up every character, every important date, and every storyline. When it came to soaps, I knew it all. I loved the genre because I felt like these people were my family. These were the friends I didn’t have at school. So, the bullying that I experienced as a kid proved to be invaluable to me later in my life and career. That’s really how it all started. Nowadays, when I hear and read about young people who have been on the receiving end of cyber-bulling or attacks for just being there authentic selves and who they are, or whatever makes them different than the “norm”, it always strikes a chord in me. We all have to do better, and pay attention, to what we say and how we say it, as it can leave a lasting impression on a young person’s life.
You originally had dreams of being a singer.
As a very young kid, I knew that I wanted to do music. I wanted to sing, I wanted to have an album out, I wanted to do pop, soul, and R&B. I had no interest in Broadway. My dream was to be on top of the music charts. There just wasn’t much opportunity to do that in Milwaukee. There was Chicago, which was geographically close, but it wasn’t Los Angeles or New York. So, I left Milwaukee at age 17, moved to L.A. I struggled to connect with the L.A. music scene at that time. I thought, “I don’t know if I’m in the right place for the kind of music I want to do.” Back then, in the early ‘80s, New York was amazing. You had Studio 54 and all of that. I was like, “You know what? I think I’m gonna go to New York.” I moved cross-country and played a lot of nightclubs in Manhattan, like Sweetwater’s, which was primarily an R&B club. That’s the kind of music that I gravitated towards.
Y&R‘s Sharon Case, Mark Grossman and Jordi Vilasuso
How did you end up getting into the world of soaps?
As a young kid, I loved producing things. I loved the aspect of taking all these different elements and putting them together into something entertaining. I would make my mother and my sister sit through my little shows, but I never thought, “This will be a career.” Fast forward. I’d moved to New York, and there was a popular nightclub called Tatou. The Daytime Emmy Awards were held in New York City at the time, and I started doing a benefit called ‘Night of the Daytime Stars’ the evening before the actual Emmy ceremonies, which featured the casts, nominees, and presenters from daytime television. We did it to raise money for AIDS research, and it became a staple event. That’s how I got into the soap opera world, professionally.
When did you put your singing career on hold?
I had reached a point in New York where the grind of doing the showcases became too much. Back then, there was no Digital Age like we have now. You had to play live, and if the A&R rep from the record label didn’t come down to that venue, you were screwed. Let’s say you hired a band, you did all the promotion, and you put out the leaflets or whatever you did to promote it…and then nobody on the A&R side shows up. It had nothing to do with how good you were. You’d fronted this money, had done all of this work, and gotten your hopes up that you might get signed to a deal. They RSVP, and then the A&R rep doesn’t make it because he had another commitment that suddenly came up. It was an emotional rollercoaster, and I got burned out.
At one point, you started splitting your time between L.A. and New York. How come?
I flew out to L.A. in 1991 and worked for Dick Clark Productions on the Daytime Emmys. They needed somebody who knew the soaps, so I was brought in to help the head writer craft the script for the Daytime Emmy Awards Show. I was living in L.A. and doing TV production half of the time; I was living in New York and working in the music business the other half. Ultimately, I decided to move back to L.A. permanently, and started getting a lot of production gigs for television. It was a fun time. I did the Soap Opera Digest Awards, the Daytime Emmy Awards, and the American Music Awards. Then, I got a job at E! working as a writer/producer for a talk show called Pure Soap. So, that’s kind of how my involvement in TV production evolved.
You worked for E! from 1994-97.
E! was very different back then. I was a writer/producer working on several shows, including one called Celebrity Close-Up. I might get a Nicole Kidman assignment, so I would have to put together footage of Nicole Kidman and then write the story around that. You don’t actually have Nicole Kidman there. You’re just writing around the footage. It was a great boot camp, a great place for learning. And then, with Pure Soap, we were the first talk show in soap operas. It was great, because I would do all the segment packages, interview most of the people, and then put it all together. E! was a great place to learn things that would help me later on in my career.
In 1997, you left E! and moved over to Sony, where you executive-produced the soap opera website, SoapCity.
Sony had Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy in an interactive gaming environment on the Internet. They wanted to do something with The Young and the Restless and Days of Our Lives, because they owned these properties. Since I had all of the expertise and knowledge when it came to these shows, I was made the executive producer of SoapCity.
There was nothing like this at the time on the web. Soaps were still a big deal – there were 13 or 14 shows at that time – so we literally created the individual show sites for Y&R and Days, and also created the brand SoapCity to market them. Our content included news and exclusive interviews. We then built show sites for The Guiding Light and As the World Turns, and expanded our coverage to include ABC’s shows, even though we didn’t have their official sites. I had a four-year contract and a team of 10 people, and am so proud of how much content we produced within that time.
SoapCity ended up going defunct. What happened?
The business executives wanted to monetize it, which I get, but this was the early 2000’s timeframe and they were so far ahead of the game in terms of trying to make money on downloads. That was the beginning of the end for SoapCity. Up until that point, it was this amazing platform that soap fans could just enjoy and eat up. Still, I look back on it as an amazing experience. We were pioneers in the respect that it was something that hadn’t been done before, and I’m very proud of what we created.
Is it true that you produced a special for Prince?
I worked for ABC in Concert when I lived in New York, and one of our specials was The Ryde Dyvine by Prince. We flew to Paisley Park to shoot it during the dead of winter in Minneapolis, there was snow all around, and it was freezing cold. At one point, I’m standing there as a producer, still in disbelief that I’m at Paisley Park. Prince was, and is, a huge idol of mine. I remember turning around at one point, and Prince was right there in front of me! He smiled at me and said, “Hi, friend,” and that was it [laughs]. He just stood there, not talking, because Prince didn’t talk much at that time to anyone! It was a bit of an awkward moment, but in the most beautiful way possible. It was Prince for God sakes!
As a producer of the Daytime Emmy Awards, what are some of your favorite moments?
I have been fortunate that on several of the years I have been involved in the production that some major soap opera milestones happened, and some, of course, have remained my favorites. I produced the General Hospital 55th Anniversary Tribute, the Guiding Light tribute when it took its final bow, and Days of Our Lives’ Bill and Susan Seaforth Hayes Lifetime Achievement Award package. I’m very thankful that so many of these have landed in my lap. Over the years, depending on the structure of the production, I’ve also created many nominee packages, where I’ve had to pick that one moment to showcase that nominee in their category. I’ve also been a frequent advisor to the executive producers, providing them insight on what happened during the year in soaps or daytime television as a whole.
However, the one segment I’m most proud of is the Agnes Nixon tribute. Unfortunately, when you’re doing an award show on a network or cable channel, all you have is two, maybe two-and-a-half minutes to tell the story. So, you have to make cuts. It’s very difficult to do, because the powers-that-be often force your hand and you have to cut people out. On my “Michael Fairman Channel,” I extended the Agnes Nixon tribute to a 20-minute version. I feel it’s such a great piece, because I was able to interview former One Life to Live and All My Children stars for it, including: Cameron Mathison, Erika Slezak, Kim Delaney, Robert S. Woods, Peter Bergman, Michael E. Knight, Thorsten Kaye, Andrea Evans, and so many more, and all of these people gave it its full life and impact, and showed the power of Agnes’ storytelling, and the legacy she has left behind.
Tribute packages are highly visible. There must be a tremendous amount of pressure to get them done on time, and to get them right.
That’s where the producing skills come in. I really do like the challenge of putting it all together. What’s the look and feel going to be? What are the clips going to be? Who needs to be represented? How do we tell this story? How do we do it in an effective way that’s done in a short amount of time? So, that’s basically what I’ve done on most of the shows.
I’m sure that this type of work challenges both sides of your brain.
I think one of the things I’ve had to learn about producing, is that you need both the left and the right side of your brain to succeed. Your product comes from the creative side, and but then you have to be able to organize it. A lot of time is spent putting the pieces together. It’s not necessarily the most fun, but the key is being able to put it all together from a practical standpoint and also still be creative with it.
Being independent as my own brand and not aligned with a known media entity has been a double-edged sword, because a lot of the time I’m a lone wolf. I’m one of only a few reporters that has their own website, Michael Fairman TV, while most soap opera sites are ran by the networks or media companies and conglomerates. It was a conscious decision to go that route. I do my own thing because I felt I had to make my own space. It gave me much more freedom to create what I feel is relevant and important. The downside is that we’re in a difficult economy. I don’t have a marketing team behind me like a Soap Opera Digest may have. So, it’s always been this yin-yang for me. There are always questions running around in the back of my mind: Can I keep doing this independently? Does it make sense being my own guy? Should I do something else as part of a bigger organization? I wrestle with that constantly.
What ranks as your biggest soap moment?
My all-time favorite performance ever was Judith Light as Karen Wolek in One Live to Live, when Karen takes the stand and admits that she’s a prostitute. It was the most amazing performance I’ve ever seen, and to this day it holds up well. It was such a transcendent, captivating moment. In terms of pure talent, I think Judith is one of the greatest actresses ever. Period. She’s amazing.
Coincidental story; I was an extra on a film when I was an actor in L.A., and she was dating Robert Desiderio at the time, who eventually became her husband. She was on the set that day, and I was like, “Oh, my God, Judith Light is here! I’ve got to meet Judith!” So, I get my chance to introduce myself, and I explained that I was torn between living in New York and living in L.A. At the time, she herself was living in New York doing One Life to Live. I nervously asked her what she thought, and what she would suggest…should I go to New York? Should I stay in L.A.? All the while, she’s looking at me like I’m probably certifiably insane [laughs]. But I made a friend that day, and when I came to New York, Judith got me a part as an under-five on One Life to Live. I am very fortunate, because Judith has been in my life in some way for many years.
Biggest soap thrill?
Fast forward. Outfest is an LGBTQ film festival here in Los Angeles, and I got hired to produce a 25-year retrospective of HIV/AIDS in film and television. We’re talking Philadelphia, Angels in America, the whole gamut, and I had to put together this nine-minute tribute for the event. Then they told me that the presenter of my retrospective was going to be Judith Light. My mouth dropped! That was a thrill of a lifetime!
What is the greatest misperception when it comes to daytime TV?
There is something to be said about daytime television. These are some of the hardest working people in the industry. They always figure out a way to get their scenes and episodes done with no time to spare. I never like it when they get a bad rap. I don’t think people understand how hard it is to do these shows. I’ve seen it firsthand. I know how hard it is to do eight shows a week. It’s a grind. The actors are doing an obscene number of pages of a script on a daily basis. It’s not like it used to be in the ‘70s, ‘80s, or even the 1990s, when the actors had time to rehearse. The day was blocked and structured so much differently back then. Now, they hardly have any time to rehearse. Think about it; they get all of this dialogue thrown at them, they barely have time to look at it, and then they go do it with only one take. That’s what goes on.
You make interviews look easy. Are you naturally introverted or extroverted?
That’s a great question. In my personal life, I think I’m more of an introvert, but when the camera is on and it’s time to go, then I’m able to turn it on and become an extrovert. When I was doing my Soap Nation Live! podcast, or when I hosted the NBC Days of Our Lives podcast, I knew that I had to be on my game when we went live. The same is true today; whenever I do a show or conduct an interview, something in me clicks. Interestingly, many of the actors that I interview are the same way. They aren’t showy and flashy in real life as fans might expect. They’re not out there trying to be the life of the party. But they can turn it on for an interview or a PR event.
What’s your secret to a great interview?
The number one rule is that you’ve got to make the subject feel comfortable. Whether you’re a journalist, a reporter, or a host, it is absolutely critical that you earn the trust of the subject. They have to feel comfortable with you, otherwise you’re not going to produce a great interview. It’s not always easy, but you have to win them over so they feel at ease. I have been very fortunate, because the people that I’ve built relationships with know that I’m not going to do anything to them that is going to harm them. I’m not going for the jugular. My reputation makes it easier for me to earn the trust of someone new, but I still have to back it up when we start talking.
The second rule is to be authentic. I don’t know how to be anything other than my authentic self. I’m probably the worst person to have on your poker team because you see everything in my face [laughs]. The only way that I can live with myself and get through each day is to be me. I don’t know how to do it any other way.
Lastly, I think you also have to have fun with people. Nobody wants to go into an interview feeling like, “Am I going to hate this?” You want them to want to talk to you, and not feel like it’s drudgery. Imagine being an actor, and you’ve just done 20 interviews, and then Michael Fairman comes in for the final interview of the day. You’re exhausted, but you’ve still got to do this interview. Well, I think it helps if Michael Fairman is on point, keeps it light, injects a little humor, and helps make the experience as painless as possible…and, maybe even a little fun.
What are some of your biggest interview pet peeves?
As someone who’s interviewed people for many years, you know when you’re in the hands of a good interviewer. There’s nothing that I hate more than watching somebody interview someone, and they’re not listening to what the other person is saying. The subject has just said something meaningful, and the interviewer isn’t responding to it in real time. A lot of interviewers are so focused on running through their list of questions that they won’t deviate from the script. I’m like, “Get off the paper, know who you’re talking to, and act like a human being. Have a real conversation.” I guarantee you, the piece that you’re doing is going to be great if you choose to have a real conversation with your subject.
The other thing that drives me nuts is when someone doesn’t do their homework. I might be standing on my spot on the red carpet at the Daytime Emmy Awards, and there might be someone from a fashion magazine standing next to me. They might know fashion, but they don’t have a clue who many of the soap stars are, and they’re asking me to give them the details. I’ve got a job to do, too. So, do some preliminary research before you show up.
Journalism is not for the faint of heart.
I’m sure we all have those moments of like, “Am I a glutton for punishment?” And you wonder if you’re making a difference. There are times when I don’t know. I could write a story, and I’m convinced that it’s going to get so much traction, and that people are going to love it…and then nobody reads it. And then I’ll write something that I think isn’t going to command attention, and then I get this incredible feedback. It makes you wonder if you’re barometer is off [laughs]. Journalism can be a thankless job. It’s very hard, and I don’t think people even understand the amount of work it takes. At the end of the day, you want people to read or see your work. That’s why you do it in the first place.
It’s same thing with my music. As I’ve said, a big reason for getting back into music is because I don’t want to regret anything. Making music is fulfilling, but I still want people to hear it. I would love to get one of my songs on any of the pop, R&B, A/C or dance charts. People say it’ll never happen, but that’s something that I aspire to. You have to keep challenging yourself. I keep challenging myself to write another catchy song from my heart and my experiences, and to make sure when my voice comes on listeners streaming platforms (and hopefully one day the radio), that they know its identifiably me with my own distinct vocals and sound. At the end of the day, you don’t want to look back at your life and have regrets.
COVID impacted every corner of our economy, including Hollywood.
There was so much at stake, as I’m sure is the case in every industry, so there was a lot of pressure to figure out ways to get back to work while staying safe. A lot of money has been put into these productions just for the safety protocols that didn’t exist pre-COVID. They’re getting tested at all times of the day, there’s Plexiglas put in between the stations, and they’re shooting a whole different way. Each show’s doing it a little bit differently, but that’s just what they’ve had to do. And congratulations to them for getting up and running. And I want to say that daytime did it first. The Bold and the Beautiful was the very first American network show back in production, not just the first soap opera. The other shows were quick to follow their lead. Because of COVID, I still can’t go to the set and interview the stars, but I can bring the stars to the fans by doing Zoom interviews virtually.
COVID also changed the way actors connect with their fans.
When I first started in the digital space, there were only a few outlets out there. With social media, anything is possible. COVID helped change the landscape as well; actors are interviewing other actors. They’ve launched their own shows on YouTube. They’ve launched their own podcasts. The space also has become more saturated and it forces you to up your game. I don’t want to be the eighth person to interview someone – by then everyone is already sick of seeing and hearing the same thing [laughs].
Please tell me about the Michael Fairman YouTube channel.
I really want my Michael Fairman YouTube channel to be all things, Michael Fairman. I want it to be the place to go when you want those in-depth celebrity interviews. The content runs the gamut from short clips to longer interviews that range from 30-to-60 minutes. The short clips are from interviews that I’ve done on the red carpet at award shows. I hope that the channel connects with those avid fans out there; I try to maintain a balance of being the voice of the fan, being a subject matter expert, and helping promote shows. There are other people out there that are much snarkier in their stance and brand, but that’s not the way I’ve chosen to go. Not saying I’m right, either. They have been extremely successful.
You started out pursuing music before moving into TV production. Now, you’ve coming full circle.
The really hard part is that I buried the singing to focus on TV production, and I didn’t let anybody know about my secret passion until a few years ago. Getting back into singing has been the greatest. Interestingly enough, part of the problem is that people see celebrities – or anyone with an audience, for that matter – as single-faceted. They associate them with one thing. Fans associate me with soap operas, so they want to know if Genie Francis is going to be on General Hospital. It’s been a little difficult with that audience to say, “I’m singing, download my single, check out my music video.” Some people in the soap universe have been supportive, but others just don’t want any part of it. That’s why I’m trying to develop a separate audience for my music career.
Were people surprised when you started making music again?
Most people in that world were shocked. We live in an interesting time – there was a day when motion picture actors were only in motion pictures. They weren’t on TV. We’re not in that time anymore. It’s liberating. I like seeing the actors that I love on daytime television doing something else. The soap fans support over the years to my work in that field does not go unnoticed by me. They have been amazing, So, I hope they will come around, and welcome the fact that I’m also doing other things now.
Other Side is a fantastic song. How did it come to be?
Interestingly, the song was very easy for me to write. That isn’t always the case, but this one was different because a couple of things happened in my life. First, my mother had passed away of Alzheimer’s, which was devastating. There’s something to be said about a mother and son bond. She was the one in the family that loved the soaps, and she was a very big champion of my music. Then, I was at a Christmas party when I learned that George Michael had passed. He was my absolute favorite singer-songwriter. He had those amazing, beautiful, soulful lyrics, and he was a master at the delivery of those songs. When I heard the news, I was so upset that I couldn’t breathe. To this day, I am not sure I have fully recovered from it.
My point being, those losses gave me pause. I thought, “Why am I wasting whatever time I have left? Why am I not writing and singing?” I was blessed with this natural gift to sing, but I had been neglecting it to focus on other things. So, that was the impetus to write Other Side.
What’s the meaning behind Other Side?
The song is really about facing your darkest times. How do you find hope amidst whatever is in front of you? How to you rise above? For me, I had suffered from chronic back pain for many years and I had already been through multiple spinal surgeries. Suddenly, I was facing the prospect of another surgery. At that time, I also didn’t feel like I had the support of people around me. It was cause for reflection; when you step back and look at the big picture, you only have yourself at the end of the day. The message of the song is simple: If you can find one thing to hold onto during the darkest, most horrific times in your life, regardless of how small it may seem to others, it can get you through to the other side.
Please tell me about the video for Other Side.
I released the song on Spotify and Apple Music on March 5, 2020, and then COVID hit and everything shut down. The timing wasn’t good; we were going to shoot the music video in March, but we were suddenly locked down in L.A. and production stopped, so I had to keep rejiggering the concept of the video and how it would go with the song. It was the end of summer before I was able to get a crew together in a place that would let us shoot. The video wasn’t originally going to be shot in a boxing ring, but it was such a perfect analogy of fighting the fight, and of getting back up no matter what life throws in your way.
Then, to have what happened with COVID and racial injustice and everything else that transpired, it made perfect sense to include imagery associated with the pandemic and Black Lives Matter and equality. It also shows some of the struggles that our war veterans go through, as well the struggles of those suffer from domestic violence. The message being, whoever you are, whatever you’re going through, you can persevere and get through to the other side.
Your song, Can’t Let You Go, has a great dance groove.
First of all, I love Dua Lipa, I think she’s amazing artist. I was inspired to write Can’t Let You Go based on what Dua Lipa had been doing before the release of her most recent album, Future Nostalgia. I actually did a cover of Dua Lipa’s song, Electricity, on the Michael Fairman YouTube channel. I wanted to have something that you could dance to, so I wrote Can’t Let You Go with her in mind.
I’ve read where your song, Thing About Me is a response to some Twitter trash-talk.
I remember being in the recording studio and someone said, “What do you want to write about?” And I was like, “You know, I’m really sick of the way people are coming at me on Twitter.” There was just a lot of negative stuff. Fans were convinced that I was favoring one soap star over another, and I was getting trash-talked all over Twitter. There were so many haters. I was like, “Alright, here’s the deal. I’m going to come out with my first single, and you’re going to be surprised that I even sing. You don’t know a thing about me.” It was really a strong stance to come out with; you hate on me, but you don’t know a thing about me. It’s easy to sit behind a keyboard, faceless, and tear somebody down. It’s really an act of cowardice played out on social media.
Can’t Let You Go is another song with a great dance vibe. The lyrics sound deeply personal.
I wanted to write a dance/pop/R&B song. I wanted it to be something really cool. Can’t Let You Go has been used on The Doctors syndicated talk show. As far as the lyrics go, it’s really about what you do when a relationship ends and you’re trying to move on, trying to move yourself forward, but you just can’t let go. You’re stuck. So, this song is about breaking free in order to move forward and love again.
Is ageism a factor in what you do as an artist?
I am so inspired by the young artists of today. There are so many amazing singer-songwriters and pop artists out there. I listen to their stuff all the time, and when I try to converse with people my age, they’re like, “I don’t know who that is.” My point is, age is a number because in your mind, you’ve got to keep up, keep young mentally, and stay involved with what’s going on with pop culture. I want to know what’s going on. I think a curious mind and a desire to be on top of what’s happening keeps you young.
Final Question: If you had one piece of advice for other aspiring journalists, what would that be?
I would say that I think the key to success in this kind of field is to remain relevant and find a topic or niche that perhaps no one is doing or approach it in a new way. We’re at a time where there are so many people pushing into this space. If they’ve got a ring light, a camera, a computer, and a microphone, and they’ve set up shop in their homes, they can create content. So, constantly evolve and hone your craft and find your voice – the thing that makes your work distinctly you is what ultimately will make people take notice whether in print, online, or on video.