Brennan Villines Talks About Going from the Conservative South to Being a Queer Singer-Songwriter

Brennan Villines is a singer and songwriter who grew up queer in the conservative South.

Coming from a background of religious oppression, Villines struggled to come out in an area where LGBTQ people weren’t widely accepted. Today, he’s left the deep South behind him for the most part, living in Los Angeles and pursuing his dream. He released his debut EP Make It Work in 2018 with Grammy-award-winning percussionist Benny Reiner producing the album. Since then, Villines has put out a steady stream of singles, the latest of which is his proud queer anthem “Ahead of Your Time.”

Channeling some of the styles of music that was popular where he grew up, “Ahead of Your Time” is a unique blend of pop, Americana, folk, and a little bit of country. Along with the single comes his powerful new video for the song which celebrates the joy in all parts of the LGBTQ spectrum. OFM sat down with Villines to talk about his new song, the video, and how his small-town upbringing influenced the single. 

Can you tell us a little bit about, about this song “Ahead of Your Time” and what it’s about?

So I grew up in rural, conservative, western Kentucky (with a) religious, conservative—not family, per se, but area—(and I) struggled, as one would, in those environments. And then in the 90s, (I was) coming out and coming to terms with my sexuality. I started this song a few months ago, and it just blossomed into this message of pride. And there’s a nod to the It Gets Better campaign; that’s one of the lines in there, just to inspire others to hang in there.

I was the only person in my high school that I knew of at the time that was out in my small town. So I felt kind of lost, alone, leading up to the point where I came out. This is a call-back to the rebellion that I had in that period of getting high and partying. Then I have some moments in there where I talked about growing up in church as well singing in the choir, all of these things that are experiences of a young Southerner that one might expect. And once we got the song ready to go, we’re like, “We have to put this out in Pride Month to help inspire the youth who are unfortunately still struggling, especially all the anti-trans legislation, particularly in the South.”

What would you say your main musical influences were with this song?

It took on a little Americana country vibe, which is not my normal approach. But we were really channeling some Springsteen and, with some of my previous releases, (I) have been heavily influenced by Fleetwood Mac with some of those harmonies. (I) really thought that that style is a great juxtaposition for this Americana vibe in the music video. You’ll see we’ve got an upside-down American flag representing that distress that we’re going through as a country with all of that legislation and negativity that’s coming out to attack the LGBTQ community. That Americana vibe fits in there really nicely.

Where did this idea for the video come from?

So we have our directors, and they’re called Zachs Studio; it’s two different Zachs: Zach Bass, who was the main editor, and then Zachary Wright, who was the director. They came up with the concept of the cast of people bringing in their childhood photos. And we really wanted a joyous video displaying people on all sides of the queer spectrum displaying their joy now and showing where they came from. I’m 35 years old. I, of course, felt an immense amount of pressure to come out whenever I did back in my junior year of high school. And unfortunately, that’s still a troubling thing for people to get through today. But we really just wanted to highlight the joy that everyone possesses in this video.

What’s your next what’s next for you in terms of your music?

So right now, because of everyone’s short attention spans, our strategy is to just put out singles at the moment. I’d love to put out an album, maybe next year. We do have another single arriving in the fall, which we will hopefully have another music video for as well. And then I’m new-ish to LA, so I’ve been here for about two years, and starting to get out there and perform a little bit more. So the future for me is adding more live performances and continuing on with the singles.

Photo courtesy of Brennan Villines