Defying gender, living his life online, sharing everything while making electro music and being shamelessly honest about his desire for celebrity, Lucas Brenton is a pop star for the 21st Century. However to say Lucas Brenton makes dance music is simply not telling the whole story.
Brenton released his debut song Party Trick in 2010, followed it up with Riders on the Night in April this year and is currently working with US based producers on a third single to be released soon.
Brenton loves to challenge our ideas of gender and we were intrigued by his desire to shock his audience,
‘A good shock, a confusing shock, I don’t want people to be scared,’ he confesses over the phone, ‘I want people to question what they know. I want people to question what they’re used to.
‘I find just the two genders that we have, male and female just so boring. I think my biggest fear in life would be just to blend in and be ordinary. I hate just looking like everybody else. Life’s too short, why put yourself in a box? Ever since I can remember I’ve never personally felt like I had to be a boy or a girl. I just like both.
Plus he points out girls have way more shopping choices than boys,
‘I was shopping… and I was saying to the shop assistant, “Boy’s clothes are just boring.†Jeans and a shirt and a hoodie maybe, that’s boring to me. I love to mix it up and be creative. I want people to notice me. I want attention, but not in an egotistical vain way. I want people to look at me and question, is that a boy or a girl? What is he wearing?
While other artists may hit the tour circuit to build up an audience and fan base Brenton found his followers online through prolific posting to Facebook, Twitter and question based social network Formspring. To Brenton no part of his life is off limits as he answers questions about his sexuality and reveals intimate details of his sex life.
‘Nothing is off limits. Literally nothing, I’m such an open person now. For so long I was trying to hide and keep who I really was inside of me. I was always open about being gay, I’ve never really hidden that online, but more the androgyny, not wanting to look like a boy 24-7, and pushing the limits of gender and what I want to look like and be perceived as.
‘Now, as I’ve opened up about that and people have accepted me for that, and people know me for that, I have nothing else to hide, what is there to hide, I’m an open book. I think being very androgynous and gender bending in general, how much more vulnerable can I be?
‘Sometimes my friends and my boyfriend say “You really need to think before you speak or answer peopleâ€, and I don’t. I just don’t ever see a problem. If people ask me a question, I’ll answer it.’
Brenton has also been open with his followers about his battle with an eating disorder. He’s just finished five months of rehabilitation and says he’s now on the road to recovery. Breaking the cycle of the disorder has been a tough challenge and he’s blunt about the state he was in at the beginning of the year.
‘The only thing that pushed me into recovery was my health was at stake, my hair was falling out, my teeth are chipped and my body is permanently damaged now. That scared me, because what comes next? Next comes hospital and next comes death. That’s what I saw it as and I didn’t want that.
‘I am honestly the happiest I have ever been in my life right now. I’m healthy and I’m happy and I’m definitely not a stick thin figure like I used to be. I’m happy, I confident and I’m comfortable.
‘I’m happy in the skin I’m in and I’m so…’ he pauses, ‘It’s strange for me to say this, I’m so excited to show people my new shape. I’m really excited about that. I’m already pushing the limits of gender. I want to push the limits of what people think is beautiful, especially in the music industry where everyone need to be a stick thing, especially pop singers. I think shape, and an arse and curves are beautiful whether you’re a male or female. I never used to think this prior to treatment, and recovery.
‘This hasn’t been easy at all. This is probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, emotionally, mentally, physically, spiritually as well. I don’t know, I could go into depth about how much the eating disorder, the depression and the social anxiety and the body dysmorphic disorder affected me. It’s affected me horribly. I haven’t lived my life and I’m able to now.
Living a life in public though has brought detractors to Brenton and he’s learned to develop a thick skin to deal with online criticism.
‘A few years ago when I first started social networking and online things I took everything to heart, every single comment. I mean a hundred people could leave positive comments and one person would be negative and I’d just dwell on that comment. Now I’m living for me, they don’t pay my bills, they don’t buy my food, It’s kind of like, I’m doing me – they can do them.’
Lucas’s singles are available on iTunes
Graeme Watson
***
