Gay Twins Search for Stardom in "Nemesis Rising"

AE: You were signed onto Curb Records for five years, right?
Joshua: Yeah, it’s been a long and slow process. A lot has happened in those five years, but it’s an unusual amount of time, I think, to be signed to a record label before the album is released.

AE: Let’s talk about the inclusion of the Jehovah’s Witness religion in the show. I was actually raised a Jehovah’s Witness as well.
Jacob: You’re kidding me! Were you baptized?

AE: No, I was not …
Jacob: Really? Was your brother?

AE: Yeah.
Joshua: Were you born and raised?

AE: Yep.
Joshua: Was your brother disfellowshipped?

AE: Yeah … he was disfellowshipped when he was 18.
Jacob: Wow! Does your family still talk to him?

AE: Yeah. … My mom really has no problem with it. My dad actually kicked him out of the house, though.
Jacob: Wow.

AE: You’ve made being raised a Jehovah’s Witness a prominent part of your story. Why?
Joshua: Well, we didn’t make it that. … We were going home to come out to Mom and Dad. … Everybody who impacted our lives for the whole time that we were growing up were Jehovah’s Witnesses … and it affected the way we … evaluated life as gay young men.

Jacob: As you know, anyone who’s raised in the Truth is profoundly impacted by that. You can’t separate that from who you are; it is part of who you are. … My dad was an Elder, Josh and I were regular pioneers, my mom was an regular pioneer. I mean —

Joshua: She wasn’t regular, she was auxiliary.

Jacob: No, she wasn’t. She was regular … but it was a very serious part of our life. We didn’t make it part of our story. It’s simply part of our story. There’s no way around it.

AE: How did you cope with being gay while in the religion?
Jacob: Growing up in Montana was … somewhat helpful. We didn’t know what gay was. There were no gay people up there. I always had girlfriends through high school. I dated a girl for a long time. It wasn’t until we moved away to Nashville and started to see life in a little different perspective … that we were exposed to gay people. … I was immediately curious. I’m not saying I wasn’t [curious] growing up, because I remember going and renting porn. I would rent gay porn when it was available because I was fascinated by it. But I didn’t identify myself as being gay at the time.

Joshua: Um, I think … that is an odd explanation …

Jacob: Mine was?

Joshua: A little bit.

Jacob: Well, it’s my true explanation.

Joshua: I didn’t say it wasn’t truthful. I just said it was odd. For me, I think I wasn’t a sexual person really at all growing up. I refused to be, because I was Jehovah’s Witness and all I thought about was, you know, serving Jehovah and being a child of God. You just go into this whole mental place, and you just stay there. And leaving it behind is very scary. That didn’t happen until after high school, after we left home, and I started branching out on my own. I never had sex with anybody growing up. … [As a Witness] you don’t go to prom, you don’t date, you don’t see anyone … unless you’re contemplating marriage. So I just wasn’t a sexual being until later.

AE: I know for me personally, there’s still some resentment toward the stringent rules Jehovah’s Witnesses have. The often hypocritical stances that plague most religions. Does that make its way into your songwriting?
Joshua: I was going to ask you about that. I could talk to you for hours about that, and the short answer is, for me, no. I’ve never experienced any resentment. … Once I left it behind, I didn’t identify with it anymore. It was their truth; it was someone else’s truth. Had it affected me growing up and possibly done things that people would think were damaging? Yes. But that’s made me who I am. Maybe if I had been disfellowshipped when I was younger, that would have been painful and caused more hurt. But because we lived away from home … and that didn’t happen, I’ve grown beyond it.

Jacob: It did affect our songwriting, yes. We have both written songs that are directly related to it. Joshua has; I have.

Joshua: No, I haven’t. Name a song.

Jacob: What was that song about the Elders slap[ping] your hand and tell[ing] you not to do this …

Joshua: Oh! Well, I haven’t recorded it. I would like you to hear that. It’s not recorded but if you listen to the lyrics … if it’s on our second album, which it probably will be, you’ll know exactly what it’s about.