Tom McCormack Interview:

Click to hear the interview

Introduction:

This is JD Doyle for Queer Music Heritage. I featured Tom McCormack on my QMH show for February of 2002, but could really only use a few minutes of his interview. It's now December of 2003 and I've listened to it again and decided it was just too good not to share the whole thing with you. I need to give a little explanation of how it was set up. At that time I was not technically able to do telephone interviews, so my practice was to email questions to an artist and he or she would record the answers onto a tape or CD, and mail it back to me. Then I would do what editing was needed to clean it up and take out extraneous remarks, and usually add in my voice asking the original questions. I won't need to add the questions back in this time, as Tom explains things so well you will quickly know what he's describing.

The interview Tom gave me is a marvel. It was recorded on January 20, 2002, and I am amazed at how articulate he is. I usually have to edit out all the "ahs" or "you knows" that we all use in common conversation, and the false starts at answering a question, but he did none of that, and his remarks are structured in a very organized fashioned. He is able to get to the point, but to also make comments that are thought-provoking and revealing. I asked him to talk about a number of his songs, and about his involvement with the organization Outmusic, and of course the GLAMAs. His remarks are personal and also touch sometimes on the spiritual. For the second part of the interview I asked him, because of his work with GLAMA, to just make some remarks about some of the artists he's come to know. Well, he gave me about a half hour of interesting brief observations about over 30 artists, covering a wide spectrum of musical styles. Just amazing. And as I look back I marvel at Tom's patience with all my questions, and graciousness and generosity. On to the interview, click to hear Tom McCormack.

Some of the artists Tom offered brief comments on (in order):