Tracing their distinguished pop lineage all the way back to Liberace, and with the likes of such gay musical giants as Elton John and Freddy Mercury mixed in to their pianistic heritage, today’s gay indie pop scene offers a veritable rainbow within a rainbow of queer keyboard talent. The sheer variety of today’s successful queer keyboard celebrities is staggering, with virtually every conceivable style of music, as well as every conceivable style of sexual orientation, represented.

Well-known queer keyboard talents range from Christopher Sean Lowe of the poppy Pet Shop Boys to Broadway/cabaret enthusiast Michael Feinstein to transgendered classical maestro Wendy Carlos.

In this article, AfterElton.com profiles some popular queer indie musical artists who are also accomplished keyboardists.

One of the more notable gay keyboard talents to out themselves in recent  history is pioneering gay rock/metal musician Roddy Bottum. Bottum was keyboardist in the proto metal/rap 1990’s band Faith No More (on the video of the group’s mega-hit “Epic”, that’s him playing the solo piano part at the end while the fish-out-of-water goldfish flops around on the floor)

In this ultra-testosterone genre of pop music, which harbors few “out” gay musicians but is nonetheless very popular with gay youth, Bottum may be considered a role model of sorts, especially for today’s queer teens who may not be comfortable with typical gay stereotypes. Bottum himself came out in 1993. Whether his bandmates knew it was homosexually oriented at the time or not, one of Roddy’s songs "Be Aggressive", for Faith No More (on the 1995 CD Angel Dust) is about oral sex.

After Faith No More’s demise, Bottum went on to form the band Imperial Teen, which included two openly gay members. Bottum always down-played his coming out publicly as not ever causing any reaction among Faith No More's hard-core fans. He maintains his coming out has been mostly positive, on a personal level.

For fans of instrumental music, pianist/composer/playwrite/actor Jerry Rabuska’s CD Piano 362 offers up a sonic experience that is at once reflective, soothing, lush & appealing. Piano 362 consists of 8 instrumental keyboard pieces, each around 5-6 minutes in length. All make for very accessible listening. There's an overall harmonic quality reminiscent of Dan Fogelberg in much of Rabushka's musical approach.

Stylistically a rock/country/cabaret/classical/Broadway/new-age hybrid, Piano 362 is a great background to evenings-in-front-of-fireplaces, dinners-by-candlelight, bubble-baths, quiet contemplation and other moody/relaxing situations. In 2002 it was nominated for an Outmusic “OMA” Award.

Jerry Rabuska’s  has released CDs for 3 three musicals, The Soviet Tango (2001), Angel Project (2002), and Ship in a Bottle (1999). His original score for the musical The Soviet Tango won a St. Louis, MO "Arts For Life Award".  Additionally, he has another piano CD called One More Flash of Goodbye. Jerry is currently touring the U.S. in his one-man show Somebody Else’s Life.

Page 1 / 2 - Next