Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with Tommy Boi

Singer-songwriter Tommy Boi is an artist to keep your eye on in 2020. He’s using his platform and music to spread positivity, talk about personal experiences, and address what’s happening in the world.

His newest single, “Blessing in Disguise,” is an uplifting anthem to find the light during the darkest of times.

Pop Culturalist caught up with Tommy to learn more about his start, what he hopes to say with his music, and what inspired “Blessing in Disguise.”

PC: How did you discover your passion for music?
Tommy: I started taking piano lessons when I was seven years old. My parents are pastors. I grew up seeing people play and sing in church. I was like, “I want to play piano. I want to learn.” I started taking classical piano lessons and never stopped. Then I started playing guitar in high school. That led to me playing piano for the orchestra in high school.

And I always loved singing. My mom would always play Shania Twain in the car. I would sing along in the background. I feel like that was the beginning of me loving to sing. My mom was like, “Make sure you sing along with her pitch.” [laughs]

It grew from there. I started writing songs and recording in college.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Tommy: Someone who has had a huge influence on me is Lady Gaga, from her voice to everything that she stands for. From day one, she’s always spoken about the things she wanted to speak about and what mattered. It was always connected with art and pop. From coming out and listening to Born This Way, she’s just had the biggest influence on me in so many different ways. I want to use whatever platform I have to talk about my music and what is going on in the world.

PC: You’ve also been really open about the fact that you moved out to LA and struggled for a bit. During those challenging times, what did you learn about yourself as an artist? Who or what instilled that fight in you?
Tommy: I learned so much about the music industry, recording, and working with producers. I write all my songs, and especially in the past, I’m cowriting now more than I used to. But back in the past, I would write all my songs like on the piano. I really learned during that time how to take a song that I played and sang on the piano to a fully produced pop song. I started that process of learning how to do that—how to convert my songs that I’ve written into fully developed songs. It was really cool. I learned how much I was willing to sacrifice.

I literally slept in my car at night. It’s weird because you hear a lot of people say that, but I genuinely did. At the time, I got with a not-so-great manager, but the music stood. The songs that I have out right now were made during that time. It was cool because I feel like those were the lowest of personal lows to me.

PC: Tell us about “Blessing in Disguise” and the inspiration behind the song.
Tommy: Last summer, I was playing some shows in LA. I realized that I needed to take some time and put all my energy into making a new, bigger project, more like an EP.

“Blessing in Disguise” is the first record off of that project. It’s four new songs. I knew I wanted to write about the concept of life and when it’s tough. I’ve always tried to come at it from a different perspective, like “Hey, maybe this is a good thing somehow.”

That’s me being an optimist. That has definitely bitten me in the butt at times, but that’s what the song is about. There’s a video for it. It’s me singing to myself. For me, it’s about coming out to myself and coming out. I’m praying to God that everything that’s happening is a blessing in disguise. I’m hoping that everything’s going to be okay somehow in the end. It’s an inward track.

PC: This is an incredibly personal song about living your authentic life. Tell us about your own journey to self-acceptance.
Tommy: It’s a journey that I feel like everybody goes on. We don’t realize that we’re going on our own relative level of accepting ourselves. It’s an interesting process. Growing up in a religious household, they were super loving, but that didn’t take away from the fact that me coming out as gay, I was like, “Am I ready to commit to this and take the chance of them not accepting me anymore?”

I don’t know. It’s a tumultuous process. Everybody goes through their own version of it. I hope when people hear this song, they think about how it fits for them and that they’re like, “Okay. I’m going to fight to try to find the good in this.”

When you do that, it manifests a lot of good things in your life. But self-acceptance is so cool because you’ll eventually get to the point where you’re like, “I like myself. I’m cool with myself.”

PC: If you had to pick one song off of the EP that best encompasses who you are as an artist, what would it be and why?
Tommy: I would say “Break Me.” It’s a pop dance song that I feel like I’ve always wanted to make. It’s definitely the beginning of a new direction for me. It’s a feel-good song yet still very vulnerable. It’s something that I want to be playing in the clubs, where you feel amazing listening to it and you just want to dance.

To keep up with Tommy, follow him on Twitter, Instagram, and Spotify.