Wes Smoot 10/19/22 Wes Smoot 10/19/22

Jake Wesley Rogers Interview | Austin City Limits

Interview by: Wesley Smoot

Jake Wesley Rogers. If you don’t know the name already, you will. He’s an absolute powerhouse— singer, songwriter, showman, and a master on the keys. At 25 years old, he’s done Madison Square Garden (opening for Panic at the Disco), has been a musical guest on The Ellen Show, and currently has a track featured on the major Universal Pictures rom-com, Bros. His lyrics transcend generations with a kind of depth you’d find hard to believe is coming from someone his age.

I got the chance to chat with Jake Wesley Rogers at Austin City Limits.

Pinkies up, now sip!

Jake Wesley Rogers by Chad Wadsworth for ACL Fest 2022

Weslo: Howdy ya’ll, this is Wesley Smoot (Weslo) with Unleashed LGBTQ, in Austin, Texas at ACL– today I get the chance to sit down with Jake Wesley Rogers. How’s your ACL?

JWR: Hey! It’s very hot. Literally. But it has been so much fun.

Weslo: So freakin’ hot. Texas heat!

Well the crowd obviously loved your performance. What are your thoughts on Texas, besides the heat?

JWR: Well, I'm from Missouri, so I understand what it means to come from a complicated place, but I’m always astounded by how much love there is, even in a state where there is a lot of bullshit going on.

Weslo: It’s a big state with lots of fabulous folks, I’m glad you get to see there are all kinds, plenty of like minded people.

JWR: Of course. You sometimes have to remind yourself, we’re everywhere and we’re not going anywhere. So, I’ll always keep coming back.

Weslo: Please do.

I have to talk to you about the movie Bros with Billy Eichner. One of my favorites of the year, not just because it’s a gay film, but it’s just so well done. You have a song featured in the movie— your single Hindsight. What’s it like having your music on such a groundbreaking film?

JWR: It was mind-blowing to hear my song in a movie theater and be part of such a historical film. I would actually call it a surreal moment for me.

Jake Wesley Rogers & Wesley Smoot in Media Tent at Austin City Limits 2022

Weslo: So you’re on the cover of The Advocate this month, it seems like you’re well on your way to becoming a LGBTQ+ icon. How does that feel?

JWR: I don’t want to speak for anyone. I can only tell my story, I do that on purpose. Tony Morrison says “The function of freedom is to free someone else” so I think if I show up, even if I’m not feeling confident, tell my story, the hope is to allow anyone to feel free to be themselves, because that makes everything better.

Weslo: I agree 100%.

I know some LGBTQ+ artists might not care to be labeled or pigeon-holed as a gay artist, I’m sure with you, there’s a lot of crossover with other demographics.. I mean, you have been opening for Panic at the Disco. Have you seen your fanbase grow with the non-LGBTQ+ audiences?

JWR: I'm always surprised how many straight people are at my shows. I think my favorite thing about being queer is that it shows very explicit on the outside. But we all feel different, excluded, even if only to some degree. I think we’re the superheroes that have no choice but to show it.

Weslo: Well you really go into that with your song Pluto. Which I love by the way.

JWR: Yes! Exactly, and thank you. That is very much what the song is about, using Pluto as a metaphor, as the outsider. And just giving everyone permission to embrace it because I think that’s how things change, when everybody realizes we have this tendency to hide something. It’s the queer life. We’re accustom to it and learn it at such an early age. But not only us, everyone feels that on some level, we’re just the lucky, fabulous, beautiful ones that get to show others that it's ok. It’s ok to be free.

Austin City Limits 2022 | Jake Wesley Rogers | Photo Credit: Jakob Wandel

Weslo: Inclusion is incredibly important. I think ACL, it’s organizers, and bookers do an amazing job bringing in queer artists. I have been able to see so many over the last few years. Did you get to see anyone here? Lil Nas X? Boy George, Izzy Heltai?...

JWR: Sadly, because of the tour, no. We have been doing red-eyes to come in and make these events. Usually I come in, play, and go to bed (laughing). So I’m sad I missed Lil Nas X but hoping to catch Kacey Musgraves tonight.

Weslo: That will be a great show.

You covered I’ll Stand by You by The Pretenders. You did it magnificently. It has millions of streams… Do you plan on covering any other artists' songs in the future?

JWR: That’s a great question.

We have been covering Welcome to the Black Parade (My Chemical Romance) on the tour. But we’ll have to see. I enjoy singing so many… I’ll keep you posted.

Weslo: Your outfits for live shows are Everything! What inspires you in picking your wardrobe? Are you inspired by other artists?

JWR: This outfit I’m wearing now is like a red dandy number inspired by the movie The Velvet Goldmine, it’s like an unofficial David Bowie bio pic and there’s this one scene where a character is wearing this dandy outfit — I did a photo shoot for Vogue, they had me wear something similar, and when i wore it, I felt I had been there before. So I wanted to make something, something to recreate that feeling.

But you know before every tour, I think about what I want to wear, feel like, and present to my fabulous audience. But yes, I’m proud to say all the costumes from my tours are made by queer designers— which is always very exciting to me. I love a great collaboration between creative minds.

Weslo: I love that.

Many queer artists I see perform to tracks in the background. You not only have a full band but you are also slaying it on the piano. Has that always been the vision?

JWR: When it comes to music, for me personally, it’s always been me and the piano. I don’t think that will ever change. As far as having a band to perform with, it just feels right to me.

Weslo: Well, I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with us. You’re an amazing talent and we wish you all the success. You have our full support.

JWR: Thank you for that, I appreciate you as well.

Make sure to check out Jake Wesley Roger’s new EP LOVE

The EP includes two brand new songs “My Mistake” and “Call It Love” along with previous releases, “Modern Love,” “Lavender Forever,” which he performed on ELLEN, “Dark Bird” and the most recent “Hindsight” from the Billy Eichner film Bros.

Wes Smoot 10/5/22 Wes Smoot 10/5/22

Jake Wesley Rogers to Perform at Austin City Limits

Rising superstar Jake Wesley Rogers is set to play ACL both weekends with sets Sunday 10/9 and 10/16 @ 1:15pm on the Miller Lite Stage. Attendees will not want to miss this electrifying, live show.

With the release of new song “Hindsight” for gay rom-com film, BROS this past Friday, major buzz is surrounding up-and-coming queer artist and advocate Jake Wesley Rogers.

Jake released his first major-label single “Middle Of Love” last May, Paper Magazine said “Give Jake Wesley Rogers a stadium” and now he is performing in arenas across the country, opening for Panic! at the Disco.

“Hindsight” along with earlier releases from this year including “Modern Love” and “Lavender Forever” which he performed on Ellen and HBO Max’s Legendary can be found on Jake’s upcoming EP.

"My new song Hindsight is very special to me, especially since it will be the end title track in Billy Eichner’s historic new film, “Bros”—the first gay rom-com made by a major motion picture studio. I wrote it with my go-to collaborator Justin Tranter, as well as the producer, Jason Gill. The song is about looking back at the past and longing to make the future better, by actually living and loving (and dancing) to your fullest potential." – Jake Wesley Rogers

Interview coming soon.

Wes Smoot 9/29/22 Wes Smoot 9/29/22

FILM REVIEW: BROS

When Hairy Met Slutty: The unlikely romance of BROS is its blindspot, but the jokes come fast and furious

by Arnold Wayne Jones

Sometimes, the aggressive marketing of a project can actually undermine our confidence in it.

Take Bros. When we first saw the trailer? Pure delight. But in the intervening months, we’ve been inundated by a a chorus reminding us that this is the first mainstream/sex-positive/big-budget/alphabet-inclusive/majority gay cast/R-rated/Hollywood studio-backed/wide-release/yadda yadda/adult gay rom-com EVER!!!! Subtext: It doesn’t matter if it’s good – it’s important. You do want to encourage gay cinema, don’t you? You’re expected to see it, to say you like it, and bring your friends to see it again… all in solidarity. Being entertaining almost seems incidental to our supporting it. And how can we really know if it’s any good, if the messaging is so unrelentingly politicized?

So I was more than a little relieved when I ended up genuinely enjoying Bros as much as a I did. Important? Meh. It’s not the 1990s anymore; we are not starved for gay stories –any gay stories – that we will hungrily pretend to like dreck just so that we don’t have withdrawl. We’re post-Brokeback, post-Moonlight, post-Will & Grace. Even straight rom-coms find avenues of gay outreach. The bar has been raised. And for the most part, Bros sails over the bar like an Olympic pole-vaulter.

The premise is pretty standard in a heteronormative-cliche kinda way: Bobby (Billy Eichner) and Aaron (Luke Macfarlane) are two strands in the late-Gen-X DNA of gay dudes: Both excrutiatingly single to the point of relationship-phobic, but with very different vibes: Bobby is the cynic who thinks marriage is actually some kind of punishment for straight folks and gays should embrace their outsider status; Aaron is the meaningless-hookup gym-rat whose serial anti-monogamy gets him laid without commitment.

Yet both are also walking contradictions: For all his disparagement of mainstream culture, Bobby – an erstwhile podcaster now tasked with running a yet-to-open gay history museum – is filled with righteous anger that gay stories haven’t been drilled into the culture like Washington chopping down a cherry tree or Betsy Ross sewing the flag. He’s determined that the museum will not be fun, but confrontational to the point of chastising. In the words of Sally Field, he wants you to like him, to really like him … and what he represents, which is kind of pill-ish. Aaron, on the other hand, has a sensitive side that isn’t served by the soullessness of Grindr dates. He’s a dull estate lawyer who dreams of something more satisfying; even his ripped body isn’t enough.

The men more-or-less quickly meet up with the agreement that neither, heaven forbid, wants a relationship. It’s When Hairy Met Slutty. But because it is a rom-com, can there be any doubt where they will eventually end up?

The most convincing thread of the plot is the “com” side: The script, co-written by director Nicholas Stoller and Eichner himself, is dense with smart, and smart-alecky, one-liners. Many of the characters, even the small ones or walk-ons by the likes of Debra Messing, are sharply drawn and get their share of zingers. And even when the jokes thin out, the wise observations of gay culture are handled perfectly (for instance, when friends announce they are in a trouple, it’s played less as scandalous than as a lot of work; at the end, the three are still together, without judgment).

It’s the rom that could have used a little tweaking. A downside of the screenplay is something that often arises when the writer is also the star: A tendency to make his character “right.” A major conflict is Aaron asking Bobby to “tone down” his excessive Bobby-ness when they hang out at Christmas with Aaron’s family. Rather than comply, Bobby intentionally antagonizes them until Aaron snaps out of embarrassment. It’s played as “never ask a gay man not to be himself” – that the initial request was the original sin – when, for me, it was more “you don’t have to have an opinion about everything and argue with my elderly parents out of spite.” The script almost never leaves Bobby in the wrong, even when he clearly is (such as his dictatorial attitude about the museum exhibits; he physically assaults his subordinates yet they apologize to him). Bobby is just a bit too sanctimonious, even when he’s right, to make us really believe Aaron would want him… or want him back.

And that’s where the casting of Macfarlane proves to be Bros’s nuclear weapon. Macfarlane is shredded and gorgeous, simultaneously boasting smiling eyes that could melt gold, nipples that could cut glass and a sincerity that sells even the most unlikely twists. You totally buy why Bobby – who objects to the roided out pretty boy culture – would nonetheless be drawn to Aaron, and less understand why the feelings are mutual. Except that you do, because Macfarlane makes you.

The film is produced by Judd Apatow, and it reeks of his brand: the funny, quasi-explicit sex scenes, the raunchiness, the outrageously inappropriate anything-for-a-laughisms. But if it seems formulaic, hey, so is Coca-Cola, and who can resist a Coke?

Peopled with a diverse cast of queer, trans, genderfluid actors – many even in the “straight” roles – Bros ultimately is kinda important. I’m not convinced because some suits at Universal greenlit a film they thought they could make money on, but because a joke-rich comedy delivers the goods …. and we don’t have to endure a bunch of cis-women whining to their girlfriends; we get abs and furry asses. That’s the step in the right direction.

Opens wide on Sept. 30

Wes Smoot 9/1/22 Wes Smoot 9/1/22

SNEAK PEEK: A behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming BROS

By Arnold Wayne Jones

We’ve been excited about seeing the upcoming bromantic queermedy Bros ever since the trailers dropped earlier this summer. But we got an even closer look last night when a mobile activation parked just off the Strip. While technical difficulties prevented the public from getting a walk-through, we were able to screen three extended scenes plus some backstage glimpses of the boy-meets-boy comedy starring (and written by) Billy Eichner, which opens at the end of the month. And the sampler was an appetizing taste of what promises to be a feast of laughter and love.

Virtually the entire cast is made up of LGBTQ actors, from drag artists to twinks, from twunks to trans, from dykes to drama-queens, it’s a panoply of sassy, empowering personalities that expertly captures the complicated dynamics of diverse people unified in their goal of living out loud with a sense of empowerment, responsibility and community… with a hearty dose of shade offering cool relief.

We’ll have a full review prior to the Sept. 30 release date, but plan your moviegoing schedule accordingly!

Wes Smoot 6/28/22 Wes Smoot 6/28/22

THINGS WE’RE LOOKING FORWARD TO: BROS

By Arnold Wayne Jones

By the time the weather gets this stultifying hot – despite the appeal of pool season – we start looking forward to the fall and all that entails: Cooler weather, upcoming holidays and, this year, Billy Eichner.

Eichner has been the secret weapon of various filmed entertainments for a decade. Starting with his YouTube videos Billy on the Street – featured on FunnyOrDie.com, and later a proper series on cable – which were equal parts super-gay, super-funny and super-terrifying, ambushing pedestrians for what must seem like a bipolar flash-mob-of-one game show, he proved mania could be marketable and hysterical. But he’s also lent brilliant comic energy in supporting roles to such diverse properties as the reboot of The Lion King (voicing Timon), Parks & Rec and Friends from College.

He finally will lead his own feature film, set to arrive in late September along with pumpkin spiced lattes and Halloween costume prep. Bros, which he co-wrote with (straight) director Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Neighbors), tells the romantic complications of Eichner’s character, Bobby, a schulbby intellectual loner, and Aaron (out hottie Luke Macfarlane), the athletic hyper-masculine muscle hunk he falls for. But don’t expect some chastely ordinary queer-rom-com. Based on the trailers (the second one dropped last week), it’s outrageous, sexy, winkingly smart at celebrating and skewering queer culture… and incredibly funny. It also seems to be the class reunion of every gay icon and out comedic actor in Hollywood, including Kristin Chenoweth, Debra Messing, Jim Rash, Guy Branum, Guillermo Diaz, Bowen Yang and Amanda Bearse.

How appealing is all this? Just check out the new trailer, and put Sept. 30 on your calendar. We can all bro it up!