AfterElton.com: Your new album, Rollercoaster, opens with the suitably named dance track “Move.” I often wish that we heard more gay artists being played in dance clubs. Is that a motivating factor for you in recording dance tracks?
Jim Verraros: To be honest with you, being an openly gay male going to those clubs, I’m constantly disappointed in a lot of the music. I’m such a huge fan of vocal artists and people who can sing, quite frankly. It’s funny to see that these gay men are oblivious to vocals. Clearly you go to a club to dance and if the beat moves you, you dance. With me, I wanted to write songs that were a) vocally challenging and b) different from the rest of the stuff that’ s out there.

There are a lot of idols who haven’t tapped into the whole gay fan base and with me it was really important to do that because there are gay men who can relate me in a lot of way. The record is written very ambiguously because I didn’t necessarily want to rule out my female fan-base, but I just think it’s important for gay artists to appeal to their (diverse) fan-bases. There’s got to be a pioneer out there. So many artists who are gay are considered to be independent, they can’t be mainstream. I disagree with that. My record is so incredibly top forty. That sound is very versatile and it appeals to so many different demographics. It was very important for me to write songs that appealed to everyone, including my gay fan-base.

AE: “Move” also has these references to children’s games and rhymes (“Ollie Ollie Oxen free” and “make a dollar out of 15 cents”). Do you have a favorite childhood game?
JV: My childhood was a lot different than most. I was raised by two deaf parents. I didn’t have that proverbial throwing of the Frisbee or the football in the yard with my father type of thing. I was busy answering phone calls for them and interpreting for them at dentist appointments and real estate closings with our family lawyer at a very young age. It’s all I’ve known. I’m not saying that I had zero childhood experiences, but the ones that are most memorable are helping my parents. I guess just the typical playground (games), hanging out on the monkey bars with my girls.

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