Arts :: Music
Your Daddy Does Rock n’ Roll by Scott Kearnan
Arts EditorWednesday Mar 25, 2009If your only image of gay dads is of well-coiffed urbanites in pea coats, navigating baby strollers through the cobbled streets of the South End or a summertime mob scene on Commercial Street, think again. Gay dads don’t just roll; they rock.
"My family life comes on the road with me," says Derek Nicoletto, front man for the New York-based rock band Telling on Trixie. Speaking by phone, Nicoletto has just arrived in Austin, Texas, where the group is promoting their new album Ugly, Broke & Sober at the massive South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival. He’s on his way to a series of press interviews, and is stoked that he’ll be conducting at least one of them alongside gay favorites like comedian Margaret Cho and Boston’s own Dresden Dolls. As he speaks, car doors slam in the background; static from an interfering parking garage nearly cuts us off; and he pants under the hot Texas sun as, like any harried dad, he rushes to make his next appointment.
"The baby comes with!" says Nicoletto, of his nine-month-old son Asher, who he parents with his husband DJ Hanson. "He’s a rock and roll baby!"
Telling on Trixie is used to serving up unabashedly "tried and true rock-pop music," says Nicoletto, and Ugly, Broke & Sober is no exception to the rule: lead single "Crash Me Up" is the kind of mournfully swaying rock confection perfectly suited for Top 40 radio, while the title track has a swaggering attitude that is tailor made for swilling beers over broken dreams.
But Telling on Trixie also unashamedly wears its gay heart on its (album) sleeve: though Nicoletto is the only gay member of the band, the group regularly conducts interviews with LGBT press, proudly trumpets its success on LOGO ("Best of 2007"), and traffics in gay-friendly iconography, such as the image of legendary Cherry Grove drag queen Zondra Foxx that graces their latest record, which includes a rock-ified remake of the Belinda Carlisle hit "Mad About You." Then of course, there are the club remixes of their romping rock tunes.
"This is where I have to flash my gay card," laughs Nicoletto. "I loves me a remix. [The other guys] are like, ’Jesus Christ, do we need to spend our money on all this?’ My answer to that is yes! Absolutely!"
Nicoletto has a few other questions to answer on life as the gay lead singer of an indie rock act, so Bay Windows passed him the mic.
So how are you enjoying Austin?
It’s so intense this week! There’s an interview practically every hour. We have an acoustic show at the gay bar though. Coming here from New York, we’re like ’Where are the queers?’ ... And I’m getting interviewed with Margaret Cho and Amanda Palmer from the Dresden Dolls! It’s so fun for me, cause I’m also a music fan, not just a musician. That’s what propels me, getting to hang out with colleagues that I admire.
In 2006 we did the whole spooge in a cup thing and chucked the embryo up the hoochie-cooch and it stuck. Now we have the most wonderful, hilarious baby boy in the world. Sounds like a blast!
Well get this: the house we’re staying in, I don’t know if the woman who owns it is a gymnast or a circus lady, or what. But the living room is empty except for these big, mammoth freaking fabric things [like Cirque du Soleil ribbons] hanging from the ceiling. I have rug burns all over my hands now! We had to take them down for my own safety.
Any chance you’ll be swinging over to Boston soon? Maybe talk to Amanda about it.
We’d love to. It’s so pretty there. But Boston is very protective of its own musicians so it’s super hard for a new act to book a good venue. You want a nice venue for your fans so that you can do it well. We need to lay the groundwork. When we get over there I want to make sure I’m on the Homecoming Court. I don’t need to be the Homecoming Queen; just on the Court is fine.
Ahem, speaking of queens - tell me about married life.
We did the whole Canada thing [to get married]. We don’t have a state like yours! Went to Toronto and were married on September 15, 2006. Then we did something small in the States with all our friends and family. I had everyone [in my family] up from Indiana. My mother had her shoes off at the reception hall. In front of all my New York friends, she’s walking around with shoes off and a piece of straw in her mouth. [Laughs]
Well, you’re a parent now too, aren’t you?
In 2006 we did the whole spooge in a cup thing and chucked the embryo up the hoochie-cooch and it stuck. Now we have the most wonderful, hilarious baby boy in the world. He’s so awesome, his name is Asher. Although he’s inspired me to sign up for separate YouTube and Facebook accounts, because I’ve been posting things about him [on the band sites] and it’s funny... there was one fan, let’s call him Bob from Pennsylvania, he saw our show and came up to [my partner DJ] and says, "Are you DJ? Tell Asher that Uncle Bob says hi." DJ goes, "Um, you need to take out a new Facebook page cause this is getting weird." [Laughs]. It’s kind of funny, right now if you go to my YouTube page there’s a music video of [Project Runway contestant and AIDS activist] Jack Mackenroth tying me up in chains, right next to a video of my nine month-old in a baby bouncer.
Well you’re known for getting interactive with your fans. Ugly, Broke & Sober has a cool story in terms of how you let your fans help shape it.
Yeah, we wanted to make a new album [and] had a whole body of music ready, but no money to record it. ... There were a couple of bands and artists, like Jill Sobule, who came up with this crowd sourcing idea [where fans] donate money and get certain things in exchange; a tiered donation model. We turned ours into a peer participation model where depending on how much you contributed you got to be in our video, contribute lyrics, or play on the album. The girl who won that prize didn’t show up. She wrote back like, ’I’m a lawyer in Midtown. I’d come but I can’t sing. Thanks anyway!’"
That’s hilarious!
What we learned was that some people just wanted to give money and others wanted to be super involved. ... We didn’t put them in the driver’s seat. We ultimately decided where to go, but we let them guide some things along the way.
And whose idea was it to cover Belinda Carlisle?
I liked the idea of taking a sugary song and making it rock. Some people were like, "Do Matchbox 20!" First of all, I’m not doing freaking Matchbox 20. I want to take Belinda Carlisle "Mad About You" and make it the stalker version.
Telling On Trixie’s album Ugly, Broke & Sober is available now. For more information, visit tellingontrixie.com.
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