Rob Anderson Talks Gay Science And His Debut Single – Exclusive Interview – The List

Having heard your debut single, I think all of that comes through in such a really interesting way that sets you apart from other artists.

Thanks. There are definitely some great comedy singers or musical artists, like Bo Burnham and of course “Weird Al” Yankovic, but they do a sort of music that is different. Parody is different than what I’m doing. Bo Burnham is very much his own thing, it’s almost poetry that he does with music overlay. I wondered, “What if it sounds like a song that you would hear, and if the lyrics were something else, it would be just as good.” But the lyrics are what I would want them to be in my own sense of comedy. 

I can’t wait to hear what else you release. I’m assuming you do have plans to do more?

Totally. I definitely do. I’m back in the studio [soon] with the same songwriters and producers. I have a whole list of songs that I’d like to put together. I had such a great time getting the video together as well, which looks great, and I can’t wait for people to see it. I would love to keep doing this … maybe get an EP together.

You talked about how, in Pride Month, it’s about fighting for your rights and protecting the rights we have. I know you’re always very vocal about queer rights in general. What would you say are some of the biggest challenges facing the queer community today?

There’s a lot of them. It’s a great question. We have such a struggle ahead of us and we have had some successes that make us feel very comfortable, like [legalizing] gay marriage in 2015 in the United States. I think a challenge for some people in the community, particularly cis white gay men, is that once things feel great for us, it’s not really time to step back and go, “Well, things are good.” 

There are other more marginalized parts of our communities, including trans people, that really need our help and need us to fight as much as we had been fighting for things that directly impacted us. Because we all have the same thing in common, we’re all living the same shared experience of being a sexual minority, or gender, et cetera. Getting our community to rally together for everything, for everyone everywhere, not just United States, is a big issue and something that we should be thinking about. Also, I had forgotten to mention — “Nothing for You,” 100% of the proceeds of song purchases in the month of June will go to For The Gworls, a trans-led community and organization that I love. They provide funding for gender affirming surgeries for Black trans people, and [pay] their rent too.