Nathaniel Flatt recently caught up with Towleroad.com to chat about all things V Factory, how he caught the singing bug and being gay in Hollywood. Check out what the 27-year-old performer had to say:
On how he became involved with V Factory: “I knew a girl that was running an audition for the label that was interested in putting together a music group. I just knew her from working in L.A.; we had done some jobs together. She called me and said, ‘Hey, I don’t know if this is your thing, but I know you sing, so come on down.’ I kind of thought it seemed a little ghetto, but everybody in L.A. has a record deal or something. It was just down the street from my house so I thought, ‘Okay, I’ll go down at the end of the day.’ I was the last person to audition, 10 minutes late. Even with that I was very apprehensive once this all got rolling. I actually lied about my age! You were supposed to be 21 and I was 24 at the time. She was like, ‘Oh, just say you’re 21!’ So I put down that I was 21.”
On realizing his love for singing and dancing: “I was pretty young. I saw a production of Peter Pan—I can’t remember how old I was—and I saw them flying around and I thought from then on, ‘Oh, my God, I wanna do this.’ I think also being the youngest of four there were probably some attention-starved aspects that also kinda came with it. I just have always sung in musicals and acted in plays and all that.”
On if there were ever any negative reactions about him being gay: “I would say sometimes in high school, yeah, people were cruel just like for everyone, but I always knew there was a bigger picture. Sure, that kind of stuff hurts, but I didn’t let it get to me. Like I said, in college everyone else was gay, too. Now, when I go back to random cities in the country [on tour], I don’t dress differently or alter anything about myself and I don’t notice people cracking jokes or anything, but I don’t know if that’s because I’m not operating on an assumption that someone is gonna think of me differently or what.”
On what he thinks about American Idol runner up Adam Lambert: “I know him, actually. He’s like the most freaking talented singer I’ve ever met in my entire life. I saw something today that Gene Simmons said it was the biggest mistake he could ever make and I feel like that is just an old-school mentality. He’s operating on the assumption that people aren’t gonna respect that or relate to it in Milwaukee. I think Adam is such an unbelievable talent that that’s not really why you’re buying his record; it’s because of his complete authenticity.”
Check out the rest of Nathaniel’s interview at Towleroad.com.