The Golden Boy: Arjan interviews Ari Gold

September 26, 2007

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Ari Gold plans to take listeners on a journey this fall. In October, the handsome, openly-gay singer will release his new album "Transport Systems" that is filled with sexy and funked up R&B pop tunes that will please fans and surely make many new ones.

Making this new record was a journey for Gold as well after celebrating the success of 2004's "Space Under Sun." "On my last album, I made some inroads about being an openly-gay artist and I think it put me on the map," he tells Arjan Writes. "For this new album, I wanted to step up my game and make it sound even more tighter and better, and challenge myself when it came to songwriting, singing and production. The pressure was on."

"This record poured out of me creatively. I've made a tremendous growth," he explains. "You learn stuff every day about life and yourself. Coming to the realization that at the end of the day nobody is going to do for you what you can do for yourself was a big lesson for me. I think that's a big lesson for gay people [in general] because we have to really learn how to respect ourselves and learn how to give ourselves the accolades and the props before we can expect it from the outside."

Gold doesn't mind that some people have brushed off his artistic talent and labeled him as just another pretty boy singer. "They said that about Madonna for years too. That she was just some dumb, sexy, pretty chick, so I'm good company there," he laughs, taking the criticism in stride. "[If] people would really take the time to listen to the music and listen to what I'm trying to say then I just can't believe they would still say that. If they still want to hate then the only other I can think of is just that it is a jealousy thing."

"Transport Systems" is inspired by the singer's fascination with "progression, movement, transformation and transportation" that serve as metaphors for the social issues he sings about. He discusses topics like gay relationships, the meth epidemic, gender identity and human rights. "I write about a lot of different things. I like songs that are about having fun, but then there's a more serious side to my music as well," Gold says. He laughs, "Gay people are multi-faceted. We're not all interior designers who want to make straight people look better.

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