Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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San Francisco Examiner - Monday, August 18, 2003
Bill Picture Of The Examiner Staff, bpicture@examiner.com
"I could have used a gay role model to look up to when I was young but there weren't any," he says. "So if I can be that for some kid out there, then great. If I can inspire them to live their lives the way they want, then I'm happy to do it."
Last week, Ginoli and his bandmates celebrated the release of their seventh album, "Total Entertainment" (Alternative Tentacles), and kicked off the first leg of a North American tour that'll take them to some not so homo-friendly parts of our country.
Some gay artists, especially ones so outspoken about their sexuality, might avoid venturing into conservative territory, but the Illinois native says these gigs are an opportunity to show young gay men in these areas that they're not alone and help straight rock fans with little, if any, exposure to gay people see that gays really aren't so different.
"I mean, yes, we're singing from a gay perspective but our songs really aren't specific to the gay experience," he explains. "A lot of them have universal meaning."
The complexities of relationships and the joys of sex are, after all, things everyone, regardless of who or what you're into, can relate to. So it's no surprise that Pansy Division and their music have similarly universal appeal.
"We draw a pretty mixed crowd," says Ginoli. "In fact, I'd probably say that the majority of our fans are straight. But, I mean, I live a pretty mixed life. I don't live in a gay bubble. I don't just have gay friends or go to gay places."
That's because he says being an out gay man, even in a very gay city like San Francisco, doesn't guarantee absolute freedom from prejudice. In fact, it just opens the door to a whole new kind of prejudice. Ginoli says that as young gay men, he and his bandmates all felt pressure from within the gay community to conform to some kind of gay ideal.
"When you come out, you're sort of told what being gay is and if you aren't that, then you're an outsider," he explains. "We were outcasts in rock circles because we were gay and we were outcasts in gay circles because we weren't into the same kinds of things. We didn't listen to the same kind of music or wear the same kind of clothes. So rather than conform to someone else's expectations, we decided to just do what we wanted."
That's what they did in 1998. After five albums' worth of catchy, fun pop-punk, the members of Pansy Division decided to change direction a bit. "Absurd Pop Song Romance" (Lookout) saw Ginoli and the boys put on their serious hats and get introspective, something Ginoli admits fans weren't quite prepared for.
"A lot of people thought they knew what Pansy Division did, what we sounded like," he says. "So when we did something a little different, they just didn't get it."
Do they regret their decision? Absolutely not!
"We didn't want to just keep repeating ourselves," says Ginoli. "We had to be true to ourselves and that's where our heads were at that point in time."
The new album, though, he says, is a little of this and a little of that. "That's why we called it 'Total Entertainment.' It's got a lot of variety, a lot of different moods."
The album is a perfect blend of both styles, sing-alongs about, what else, boys with some pretty powerful (and timely) messages thrown in for good measure, like the song "No Protection," their response, and a dance-floor friendly one at that, to the reported increase of HIV transmission among gay men ignoring recommended safe sex practices.
"I was reading all these stories about barebacking and it just made me really, really mad," he says. "We just went through the whole AIDS crisis and now it's happening again. So I wrote this angry song and then went, 'Wait, this song is a bum trip. People are going to skip right past it.' So Chris (Freeman) and I decided to tell a story instead. We wanted to get our point across but not be preachy. There's that whole balance thing again. We're forever trying to find that balance, balance in our music, balance in our lives. But I think we've finally found it."
For more information on Pansy Division, visit www.pansydivision.com.
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