It’s Pride Month! Throughout June, HollywoodLife is celebrating with The Sound Of Pride, where celebs and stars of the LBGTQ+ community pick songs for the ultimate 2023 Pride Month playlist. It’s the perfect soundtrack to planning your Pride party, researching how to protect LGBTQ+ rights, or reading about the history of Pride Month. On the heels of his new song, “Delusional,” Hayfirtz adds some multifaceted tracks to the playlist.
“I only publicly came out two years ago, and now with each passing year, I feel eons further along in the journey than I did the year before,” Hayfitz tells HollywoodLife when making his selections for The Sound of Pride. Hayfitz channeled the first chapter of this personal journey in “Delusional,” a new single/visual that arrived just before Pride Month. From his upcoming album (Everything Else), “Delusional” details the growth of his relationship with collaborator-turned-best friend Sam Cope and shows how coming to terms with one’s sexual identity can sometimes be confusing and revelatory at the same time.
“I think I’m constantly on a mission to find queer love songs that can help demystify the whole experience, and when I do, they cut so deep,” Hayfitz tells HL. His music, which he describes as “gentle folk,” weaves together elements of dream pop, indie, and folk, offering a soft and warm place for people to lay their heads while they listen.
Since Pride Month celebrates love and life, Hayfitz’s picks are perfect for The Sound Of Pride.
Searows, “Sleeping With the Lights On”
Adrianne Lenker, “Not A Lot, Just Forever”
Indigo Sparke, “Everything Everything”
Perfume Genius, “Jason”
Hayfitz, “Delusional”
Editor’s Note: we’ve also included “Delusional” in the playlist.
“Over the past few years, I’ve come across some of the most sensational queer songwriters and these four are just the tip of the iceberg,” says Hayfitz. “I think I’m constantly on a mission to find queer love songs that can help demystify the whole experience, and when I d,o they cut so deep. I’m so grateful to exist in a time in the world where LGBTQUIA+ artists are starting to finally be at the forefront of the arts and this, I’m positive, is going to have a massive impact on the new queer youth in the years to come.”
HL: How does this year’s celebration feel when compared to last year’s?
Hayfitz: I only publicly came out two years ago, and now with each passing year, I feel eons further along in the journey than I did the year before. I think for the first Pride, I was just happy to witness the community from a distance, and now I’m starting to feel as though I’m participating in a meaningful and confident way. It’s so liberating to find your footing as a queer person and look around at all the beautiful fellow queer humans that you’ve brought into your life because of it.
Pride is a time to celebrate unsung heroes. Is there anyone you’d like to see get some more of the spotlight this year?
Growing up, there was hardly any representation in the media (especially TV and movies) for bi-sexual and pan-sexual people. When there was, it was treated as this huge ordeal that was completely out of the ordinary. This created such a taboo for myself and I think so many others because we had no mirror to look into. Now that this is finally changing, I would love to see even more focus on this group and also would love to see more love stories that focus on the humans themselves instead of the fact that they are bisexual, gay, etc. Pansexuality is all about loving someone for who they are, not what their gender or biological makeup is and it would be so amazing to get past this point where there are ‘gay movies’ vs. all the other movies instead of just normalizing LGBTQUIA+ love and stories.
Do you have a memory of Pride Months past that you’d like to share? Or a moment of Pride when you felt triumph and/or acceptance?
In the summer of 2021, I played a house concert at the house where I grew up playing music. My friend’s parents were more than happy to host the show and invite all their friends. My friend’s mom was actually the mayor of our town at the time. The fact that I could play my set, in which I explicitly sang about my sexuality multiple times and was able to talk about it openly, was mind and heart expanding in every way. I had one of my mentors from high school there who is gay and brought his partner, one of my first bosses was there with her wife, and, of course, my mom was there with friends as well. These kind of full-circle moments are so rare and precious, and I’ll never forget it.
What do you have planned for June (and the rest of 2023?)
I have a new single and Super 8mm video for a song called ‘What’s Wrong’ coming out at the end of this month that I wrote about coming out to my mom. My mom, Lorrie, is featured in the actual video, and it’s something I’ll cherish for the rest of my life. After that, I’ll have a few more singles coming from my sophomore album, Everything Else, which will be released on October 6th, 2023, which is actually my mom’s birthday week :)
Do you have a Pride 2023 message to share with the HollywoodLife audience?
I think I would just say that being a queer person, especially when starting later in life, is an endless journey of twists and turns. The second you feel as if you’ve figured it out, you’re again blindsided by a whole new slew of identity crises. I would encourage anyone who is reading this that is new to being queer or even questioning to be patient and forgiving to yourself and remember that it’s absolutely acceptable and even expected to change your perspective on almost everything at any given moment. The best part about all of that though is that there is a beautiful ever-blossoming community to support and love you and endless amounts of new art coming into the world to help feel less alone in this madness.