Billy Cullum gears up to release his debut studio album, with his latest single Gold giving us a sense of what we can expect. Taking a folk-pop style, Billy explores themes of stripping one’s authentic self away to fit heteronormative expectations.
The gentle guitar instrumentation allows Billy’s vocals to shine, further heightening the emotive lyrical subject matter. The thematic territory of Gold is further encapsulated in a gently absorbing video from filmmaker Darius Shu.
Billy describes the thematic territory of his latest track: “Gold is about reflecting back to your younger authentic self. As a queer person, I was always told to act a certain way to fit into society, to dress a certain way as a boy to fit the heteronormative way of being. I reflected back to my instincts of wearing dresses, high heels and escaping to my room listening and dancing to the Spice Girls. When someone tells you as a young boy you shouldn’t be doing all those things, your authentic self wears away and you slowly become someone you’re not for the sake of fitting in. You gradually end up hiding and disguising layers of who you truly are which is so damaging and leaves stains of shame in our lives.”
Billy talks about the stripped back sound of Gold: “I wanted to use the acoustic folk/pop style to capture the simplicity and natural way of being. The sounds of birds and laughter that surrounded me and my brother as we ran around the garden in my mum’s dresses establishes the hopeful beginning to the song. The female backing vocals are all my close friends which not only elevates the sound of the song into this magical dream like chorus but brings an encouraging and personal supportive hold into this track. This song is to my younger self and a reminder to anyone to live authentically in themselves.“
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