Arts & Entertainment
From music to fashion, catching up with Steve Grand
‘All American Boy’ now focused on his clothing brand
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of gay singer/songwriter turned fashion designer Steve Grand? Some folks will undoubtedly answer his breakout hit single, “All American Boy,” and the accompanying video. Both were significant in that the song was an unabashedly queer country tune with visuals to match. Of course, it didn’t hurt that Grand was model-handsome and had a flawless body on display. So far, we have his singing voice, songwriting chops, and impressive looks and physique. It’s that gym body, and his own personal interest in the kinds of garments that show them off, that has led him to create his Grand Axis (shopGrandAxis.com) clothing line, featuring men’s underwear and swimwear. Steve was kind enough to make time for an interview, and after you finish reading it, you’ll want to follow him on his socials: @GrandAxis (Instagram), @GrandAxis (TikTok), and @Grand_Axis (Twitter). You won’t be disappointed.
BLADE: Since the release of your debut single in 2013, the country-oriented “All American Boy,” several other male country artists, including Ty Herndon, Billy Gilman, Orville Peck, and TJ Osborne have come out as gay. Do you feel that your being an out musician had anything to do with that?
STEVE GRAND: I think, more than anything, it had to do with the major cultural shift that was happening across this country. According to the Gallup polls, public support for gay marriage went from 40% approval in May 2009, to 60% approval in May 2015. Gay marriage was a big topic of discussion in the early 2010s for a lot of reasons. You had artists like (Lady) Gaga frequently talking about her gay fans, you had gay characters coming out in TV shows; you had the repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” in 2011, and then Obergefell in 2015. I think the internet, and the rise of social media had more to do with it than anything. Before social media, corporate press and big movie and TV studios drove the narrative on these sorts of things. And because they are beholden to advertisers, which are more conservative and risk-averse, they would often avoid even acknowledging LGBTQ+ people for fear it would upset large sections of the country. But I think social media gave regular people an opportunity to be their authentic selves. And it gave artists/content creators like me the ability to make music and videos that could be seen by millions without needing the backing of a big record label.
BLADE: Almost 10 years ago, in 2015, you released your full-length debut album “All American Boy.” When you look back on that time, how would you describe it?
GRAND: It was a whirlwind. I remember being cognizant of the fact that it was all moving fast and that I needed to make a conscious effort to stop and take in all the cool, special, unique experiences I was having. Looking back, I don’t think I listened to that voice inside me enough. I always felt like my best days were ahead; that my moment had yet to come, and that I just needed to hunker down and keep working. And, unfortunately, that often kept me from embracing the present moment.
It’s funny, my best memories of that time end up being all the times in between, like the road trips with my tour manager and whatever members of the band I was traveling with. I was always thinking about what I needed to be doing better or focused on the show, but it is those conversations on the road when we were tired, hungover, and stressing about where we needed to be, traveling from one venue to the next, that I remember most fondly.
BLADE: What kind of music are you listening to for enjoyment these days?
GRAND: I am loving the new Billie Eilish record. And the country record Post Malone just made. I continue to appreciate him more and more. Whenever I see him in interviews I am just so impressed with how centered and genuine he is; how he seems to know exactly who he is. There is a real depth and a goodness in him, and I think that really comes through in his voice.
BLADE: Am I remembering correctly that for a while, you left Chicago for LA? If that’s correct, what was that experience like for you?
GRAND: I spent some time in LA while I was making my first record. I stayed with a friend of a friend. Funny enough, I had never met them before the day I showed up at their door with my bags. It was on my 24th birthday. They gave and gave to me and never expected anything in return. I don’t think I ever went out and did any nightlife there. The friends I stayed with had a large group of friends and threw a lot of parties and events, so I really benefited from having their sort of built-in group of guys to hang out with when I stayed out there.
BLADE: How long have you been back in Chicago?
GRAND: Other than the several months I’ve spent in LA, my summers in Ptown, and winters in Puerto Vallarta, I’ve been in the Chicago area the whole time.
BLADE: What do you like best about being in Chicago?
GRAND: The lakefront in the summer. The fact that the crumby winters are something we all endure together, which means we also experience the beauty and aliveness of the spring and summer together. The winters are so cold and dead, but it makes you appreciate the beautiful weather in the summer, and all the plant life that comes back to life. The whole city comes alive when it starts getting nice. Everyone’s mood is lifted and there is a real sense that we need to make the most of the summer because it’s fleeting. I also love the people. Chicago is not as transient as cities like LA and New York where most people are not from there. Most Chicagoans have roots here. And people are genuinely nice and kind.
BLADE: In 2019, you launched Grand Axis, a clothing line designed by you that includes underwear, swimwear, shorts, socks, T-shirts, and hats. How did you come up with the name Grand Axis?
GRAND: I was about two weeks from going into production with the name “Grand.” I stupidly assumed I could use it because it was my name, but decided I should hire a trademark attorney just to be sure. I was told there were about 200 other companies that could have a copyright infringement claim, so I needed to come up with a name very quickly. I used word generators and all sorts of other methods of coming up with names. I went with “Axis” because I just like how it sounded together; I thought the word “Axis” was very strong, and I liked that it had the letter X in it, which just looks cool and strong.
BLADE: Was designing this kind of clothing a lifelong passion of yours, or was it something you stumbled upon and decided to run with it?
GRAND: Like a lot of gay men, I had my sexual awakening in the men’s underwear aisle at our local department store [laughs]. And personally, I’ve always found an attractive guy in a Speedo, briefs, or jockstrap even more sexy than seeing him naked. Even when I was a college student working a $10 an hour job and didn’t even have many regular clothes, I was buying more of this attire for myself than anything else. I started to get very fixated on the design and fit. I didn’t know how to sew, but I learned enough to make basic alterations to design and fit. Then I found some sites that made custom pieces. I began drawing my own patterns and having them sewn up. When I posted them on Instagram, I’d get lots of guys asking where they could buy them. And at that point I decided I should just produce them en masse. I thought it would be a side gig. I had no idea all that was involved. I think if I knew how hard it would be I may not have started it [laughs]! So, my ignorance kind of worked out to my benefit, because now I am deep in it and I’m happy I made it all work. So far at least.
BLADE: What’s the most rewarding part of Grand Axis?
GRAND: Going to the beach and seeing guys I don’t even know wearing my brand! It is so rewarding to see guys enjoying and looking great in something I spent hundreds of hours obsessing over every detail. That makes it all so worth it.
BLADE: What’s the most challenging part?
GRAND: A few things: Delegating. Dealing with factories to get them to make the pieces exactly how I want. Always having to make decisions about every aspect of the products and the business. The stress of wiring tens of thousands of dollars of my own money before I see any product. At the end of the day, if the factory goes under, you really don’t have any recourse. I’ve heard horror stories from other brands.
BLADE: You shared your recent pec tear workout injury, as well as your recovery, on social media. Are you fully back to 100% or still taking it easy?
GRAND: I am very grateful to be able to say recovery has been easy and painless. I had an excellent surgeon. The first surgeon I saw said it could not be repaired so I am very glad I got a second opinion. The worst part has been not being able to move much weight with it. There are so many exercises I can’t do, I’m afraid to say I have only had a handful of workouts in the last 10 weeks. I will be 75% healed at 12 weeks, but it will still be a few months before I can lift heavy. But in the scheme of things, I am just grateful I had a problem that could be fixed.
BLADE: Your second album, “Not The End of Me” was released in 2018. Because most people came to know you as a singer/songwriter first, I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask if there was more music from you in the works.
GRAND: I still will write music, but most songs are incomplete. I wish I could say I had another record ready to go, but when the pandemic happened and I wasn’t able to perform and lost 90% of my income that year, I had to make Grand-Axis my full-time job to pay the bills. And now that it has, I struggle to find the time and creative energy to make that happen. But I am still hopeful I will get back to it one of these days.
The LGBTQ+ Victory Fund National Champagne Brunch was held at Salamander Washington DC on Sunday, April 19. Gov. Andy Beshear (D-Ky.) was presented with the Allyship Award.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
The umbrella LGBTQ sports organization Team D.C. held its annual Night of Champions Gala at the Georgetown Marriott on Saturday, April 18. Team D.C. presented scholarships to local student athletes and presented awards to Adam Peck, Manuel Montelongo (a.k.a. Mari Con Carne), Dr. Sara Varghai and the Centaur Motorcycle Club. Sean Bartel was posthumously honored with the Most Valuable Person Award.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Television
‘Big Mistakes’ an uneven – but worthy – comedic showcase
In the years since “Schitt’s Creek” wrapped up its six season Emmy-winning run, nostalgia for it has grown deep – especially since the still painfully recent loss of its iconic leading lady, Catherine O’Hara, whose sudden passing prompted a social media wave of clips and tributes featuring her fan-favorite performance as the deliciously daft Moira Rose. Revisiting so many favorite scenes and funny moments from the show naturally reminded us of just how much we loved it, even needed it during the time it was on the air; it also reminded us of how much we miss it, and how much it feels now like something we need more than ever.
That, perhaps more than anything else, is why the arrival of “Big Mistakes” – the new Netflix series starring, co-created and co-written by Dan Levy – felt so welcome. We knew it wouldn’t be the Roses, but it seemed cut from the same cloth, and it had David Rose (or at least someone who seemed a lot like him) in the middle of a comically dysfunctional family dynamic, complete with a mother who gets involved in town politics and a catty sibling rivalry with his sister, and still nebbish-ly uncomfortable in his own gay shoes. Only this time, instead of running a pastor of the local church, and instead of a collection of kooky small town neighbors to contend with, there are gangsters.
As it turns out, it really does feel cut from the same cloth, but the design is distinctly different. Set in a fictional New Jersey suburb, it centers on Nicky (Levy) and his sister Morgan (Taylor Ortega) – he openly gay with an adoring boyfriend (Jacob Gutierrez), yet still obsessive about keeping it all invisible to his congregation, and she drudging aimlessly through life as an underpaid schoolteacher after failing to achieve her New York dreams of show biz success – who inadvertently become enmeshed in a shady underworld when a gesture for their dead grandmother’s funeral goes horribly awry.
They’re surrounded by a crew of equally compromised characters. There’s their mother Linda (Laurie Metcalf), whose campaign to become the town’s mayor only intensifies her tendency to micromanage her children’s lives; Yusuf (Boran Kuzum), the Turkish-American mini-mart operator who pulls them into the criminal conspiracy yet is himself a victim of it; Max (Jack Innanen), Morgan’s live-in boyfriend, who pushes her for a deeper commitment and is willing to go to couples’ therapy to prove it; Annette, his mother (Elizabeth Perkins), who lends her society standing toward helping Linda’s campaign against a misogynistic opponent (Darren Goldstein); and Ivan (Mark Ivanir), the seemingly ruthless crime boss who enslaves the siblings into his network but may really be just another slave in it himself. It’s a well-fleshed out assortment of characters that helps our own loyalties shift and adapt, generating at least a degree of empathy – if not always sympathy – that keeps everyone from coming off as a merely “black-and-white” caricature of expectations and typecasting.
To be sure, it’s an entertaining binge-watch, full of distinctive characters – all inhabiting familiar, even stereotypical roles in the narrative – who are each given a degree of validation, both in writing and performance, as the show unspools its narrative. At the same time, it makes for a fairly bleak overall view of humanity, in which it’s difficult to place our loyalties with anyone without also embracing a kind of “dog eat dog” morality in which nobody is truly innocent – but nobody is completely to blame for their sins, anyway.
In this way, it’s a show that lets us off the hook in the sense that it places the idea of ethical guilt within a framework of relative evils as it permits us to forgive our own trespasses through our acceptance of its lovably amoral – when it comes right down to it – characters, each of whom has their own reasons and justifications for what they do. We relate, but we can’t quite shake the notion that, if all these people hadn’t been so caught up in their own personal dramas, none of them would have ended up in the compromised morality that they do, and that they are all therefore, at some level, to blame for whatever consequences they endure.
However, it’s not some bleak morality play that Levy and crew undertake; rather, it’s more an egalitarian fantasy in which even “bad” choices feel justified by inevitability. Everybody has their reasons for doing what they do, and most of those reasons make enough sense to us that it’s hard to judge any of the characters for making the choices – however unwise – that they do. In a system where everyone is forced to compromise themselves in order to achieve whatever dream of self-fulfillment they may have, how can anybody really blame themselves for doing what they have to do to survive?
Of course, all things considered, this is more a relatable comedy than it is a morality play, and it is, perhaps, taking things a bit too seriously to go that “deep.” As a comedy of errors, it all works well enough on its own without imposing an ideology on it, no matter how much we may be tempted to do so. Indeed, what is ultimately more to the point is how well this pseudo-cynical exercise in the normalization of corruption – for that is what it really about, in the end – succeeds in letting us all off the hook for our compromises. In a reality in which we can only respond to corruption by finding the ethical validation for making the choice to survive, how can we judge ourselves – or anyone else – for doing whatever is necessary?
In the end, of course, maybe all that analysis is too deep a dive for a show that feels, in the end, so clearly to be focused merely on reminding us of how much necessity dictates our choices –for truly, the fate of all its characters hinges on how well they respond to the compromised decisions that must make along the way. The more important observation, perhaps, has to do with the necessity to make such moral choices along our way – and it comes not from a moralistic urge toward making the “right” choice as much as it does from a candid recognition that all of us are compromised from the outset, and that’s a refreshing enough bit of honesty that we can easily get on board.
It helps that the performances are on point, especially the loony and wide-eyed fanaticism of Metcalf – surely the MVP of any project in which she is involved – and the directly focused moral malleability of Ortega, Levy, of course, is Levy – a now-familiar persona that can exist within any milieu without further justification than its own queer relatability – and, in this case, at least, that’s both the icing on the cake and substance that defines it. That’s enough to make it an essential view for fans, queer or otherwise, of his distinctive “brand,” even if he – or the show itself – doesn’t quite satisfy in the way that “Schitt’s Creek” was able to do.
Seriously, though, how could it?
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PHOTOS: National Champagne Brunch
PHOTOS: Night of Champions
‘Big Mistakes’ an uneven – but worthy – comedic showcase
Science said stop; the Supreme Court said no
Response to a personal attack against me
Queery: Meet artist, performer John Levengood
Charlie Kirk Act advances in Tenn.
