Exclusive Interview | Assuming the Position With Paul Lekakis
Written by: Kage Alan

        I’m beginning to realize with each interview I do just how much we don’t know about the people we listen to on the radio, watch on the screen or who are responsible for putting artists on the radio or screen.  Take Paul Lekakis for instance.  He was discovered by a couple of record producers during a modeling stint in Italy and I remember all too well when the native New Yorker broke into the dance music scene in 1986 with the club hit “Boom Boom (Let’s Go Back To My Room)”.  His full length CD on Sire titled “Tattoo It” was finally released in 1990 and met with decent success while spawning singles for “My House” and the title track, “Tattoo It”.  After that, Paul disappeared from the mainstream.

Up until a year ago, most remembered him as an incredibly hot looking guy who had a hit song in the 80s.  Is it possible to get anymore shallow and cliché than that?  Well, the 37-year-old singer/songwriter/actor is back in the spotlight after a successful acting debut in the independent film “Circuit”, is touring to promote the film and the upcoming DVD release on TLA Video, singing to audiences and also back in the studio working on a new album.  Does that sound like a man willing to sit back and rest on his laurels?  Furthermore, when it comes to connecting with his fans and the media, he’s very candid about his experiences, sexuality, politics within the industry and his future.

Kage Alan: I was excited to read on your website www.PaulLekakis.com that you’re recording a new album.  How’s it coming along?

Paul Lekakis: It’s coming along, slowly but surely.  Basically I’ve just been doing a lot a demos and picking material from a lot of different writers and writing some myself.  We might be doing a remix in the next month of a song I did for the film “Circuit” that’s on the soundtrack.  When I perform, I actually do an extended version of the song, but we’re working on a remix to release as a single.  It’s going to be faster, a Club Mix kind of thing.

KA: Are you producing it yourself?

PL: I guess I am producing it.  I’m basically picking the remixer and sending him an idea of how I want it to sound, like what BPMs and that kind of thing.  He’s like “Why don’t you just do it yourself?” I told him “You know, I’m not that savvy with the equipment, so I need to basically hire someone to do it and say this is what I want, this is how I want it to be and I’m totally open to you doing it your way also because that’s why I’m coming to you.”

KA: Based on the demos that you’re talking about, what kinds of things can we expect from the album?

PL: Different than all of my high energy past, more of like a Housier flavor.  I did this one ballad that I’m really fond of.  It’s more personalized than on my first album.  Some stuff I got to do and some stuff I couldn’t do on “Tattoo It” because it was very political over there.  I’m just doing my thing…a little bit of everything.

KA: Have the politics changed?

PL: Well, I think today the politics in the record business are a lot different than they were 10 or 15 years ago.  Today you have to deal with the whole Napster kind of Internet frenzy, which is a political issue within the industry where sales are concerned and that directly effects artists, so that’s a factor today that wasn’t around 10 years ago.  Also the whole sexuality thing isn’t as much an issue as it was back then.  There’s a lot more independent companies today than there were before, so basically that kind of politics.

KA: Do you think there’s more freedom today for music artists than there was then?

PL: I think there’s more freedom today because there’s a vast consumer population out there.  Even though there’s lots of talk about what might be considered crossover music and what’s not, there are still markets that a lot more people can appreciate today than they did 10 years ago.  It’s just a lot more diverse audience today.

KA: Speaking of new markets and freedom, did you happen to watch American Idol?

PL: Actually, I never saw a show.  I saw portions of it and I’ve heard the girl on the radio who won and she has a nice voice, but I really didn’t see too much of it.

KA: And here I thought I was the only one who didn’t see it!  Now, you’re going to be in Detroit for Affirmations’ New Year’s Eve Blast performing a live show.  I haven’t had an opportunity to see you live before, so I’m wondering what to expect.

PL: What can you expect from me in a live show?  (laughs)  I have a lot of energy.  I usually like to be theatrical on stage.  Oh, God.  It depends on what mood I’m in.  Sometimes I’ll be really flashy, sometimes I’ll be really…it depends on what I wear, or what don’t I wear I should say, a little skin here and there.  I put on a very seductive, energetic, soulful performance and I think that’s probably my usual.

KA: Is there a regular play list that you do or is it a combination of new and old material?

PL: It depends.  (For a three-song show) I usually do “Boom Boom (Let’s Go Back To My Room)” and “Come On Over To My House” because there was a video to that and I usually do a song from “Circuit”, then I might end up doing another track depending on what I have and what I feel like doing.  There are extended mixes.  If they want more, I can whip out more from my closet or some new stuff depending upon what they have in mind.  I can do anywhere from 2-5 songs, sometimes mixes that people haven’t heard, the ones you can’t get.  They’re a little longer. 

KA: Do you still perform the song “Tattoo It”?

PL: I don’t perform “Tattoo It” and I don’t really perform “Come On Over To My House” unless they want three songs.  You know, a lot of places just want two songs.  I’ve gone to shows and every once in a while they’re like “Okay, you need to do 40 minutes.” Then I get to change things and I throw some theatre stuff in there, like something from “Rent”.  That’s basically where I’m at today.  I’ve been auditioning a lot for “Rent” and “Aida” and kind of heading in all sorts of different directions that I hadn’t really explored in the past.

I’m really looking forward to Detroit too because I’ve never been there.  I’ve been to Ohio like 5 times, Wisconsin 2 or 3 times, Chicago of course and I never made it to Detroit, so maybe we’ll fling out a couple of song from “Tattoo It”.  Who knows?

KA: When I was looking on-line at some of the movies that were playing at the local art house theatre, I came across an ad for “Circuit” and saw your name in the list of credits.  My first thought was “Is that the singer?  It can’t be him.  Whatever happened to him?” You had a number of singles off your debut album and then it seemed as if you disappeared from the mainstream.  What happened to you between then and “Circuit”? (roughly a 10 year period)

PL: What happens politically is that they don’t pick up your option.  My option wasn’t picked up, so I was basically looking for a record company.  I did a couple of singles after that. One was called “Let It Out”, which was on ZYX, but I was kind of disillusioned with the whole system at that point.  I went under ZYX again because that’s where “Boom Boom” was on in the beginning, but then I couldn’t even get them on the phone.  It’s like “What am I doing with these people?”

After that, I guess mostly it was a sobriety issue for me along with the fact that I’ve been (HIV) positive for a long time, even back before “Tattoo It” was released, which was in the 80s.  Back then it was more of a hiding and kind of not wanting to say anything situation.  People were dying and they weren’t giving record contracts to people who mysteriously had this newfound disease, however the hell they got it, so that was going on.  Then, because I was depressed about the whole…everything, life, I started drinking more, then I ended up getting sick from HIV.  I’ve been sober now for 5 years and I’m really grateful for that.  So, basically, what I’ve been doing is 5 years going downhill and then another 5 years of rebuilding myself.

I started acting about 3 ½ years ago and that’s when I decided it’s what I wanted to do along with the singing.  I started auditioning for a lot of projects and when “Circuit” came across my desk, I loved the part.  I had a friend who had died of a drug overdose…  You know, I just want to point out how cliché this all sounds.  It is what it is and what happened did happen, so it just amazes me how cliché it sounds.  So a friend of mine had passed away from an overdose, my road manager, and he was one of my closest friends.  It was a real shock to me and when I read “Circuit” a year later and I’m going “This is a role where I know exactly who this person is and it would be really fun because I never really went that far and now I can as an actor.  I can run with it.  I really know what this is and I can be a part of telling a story and this can be my swan song, coinciding with my acting debut of course.”  I really wanted to do that project.

KA: Dirk Shafer, the director of “Circuit”, was quoted in Next Magazine as saying how much he admired you for being openly gay early on, very much like your character in the film.  How much of yourself, if any, did he let you bring to the role?

PL: Basically everything.  We always talked about Bobby (the character Paul plays in the film) and how Bobby was and actually, 2 weeks before we filmed, my hair is light brown and he was like “Bobby’s gotta be blond”.  No problem.  That’s part of who Paul Lekakis is at times, so it’s part of me.  I related to the HIV thing and the whole character of Bobby.  There’s a method to his madness.  He was doing this because he was driven to do what he did, then he wanted to get out.  I wanted to help tell that story of that’s what happens when life throws you these turns.  It changes you.  It changes your perception of life and then you realize…the whole Bobby thing where he thought he was going to die and now he’s not going to die.  Now what?  Like, oh shit.  Now I have to think back to where I was before I found out.  It’s like this whole life change that people go through and that really attracted me to the role.  I had known people like that in the script.  Even though I had to do some research on some of the porn stuff that I had to do, I knew people who I could actually call, friends of mine, and say “Okay, how do you do that?”

KA: One of the questions I see that gets asked a lot has to do with a certain scene in which Bobby strips during a performance and there’s nothing but a curtain between the camera and his…shadow.  There was a definite audible gasp in the audience when I saw the film, but the director stated that it was a prosthetic.

PL: (laughing) Well, it wasn’t me.  Actually, it’s owned by me!  It was my contribution to this film.  I actually went shopping for that and it’s sitting in the top drawer of my dresser.

KA: There’s a piece of trivia!  Now, I almost didn’t want to bring this up, but there seems to be a huge emphasis these days on who’s gay and who isn’t.  I’ve always felt that at the end of the day it’s the performance that should be remembered, not the person’s sexuality, yet in many ways it is the sexuality that stays with audiences.  I wondered what your experience has been with this and what your thoughts are.

PL: It is about the performance, always about the performance, always about the work.  I’ve been gay since I was 16-years old, so I’ve been gay for 21 years.  A lot of the people in the film were straight and I also see how that effects their careers.  I work on a lot of straight stuff in class and in plays that I do and it really comes down to what you can do on film.  Is it really believable?  Do you really get it?  That’s part of the work and if that’s what you’re supposed to do, then that’s what you’re supposed to do.

Of course, today’s media is this frenzy of taking on this ultra-persona of yourself, which usually isn’t the person.  It’s personified, but sometimes it’s just magnified press media.  It’s not really what’s going on with that person.  Sometimes I get caught up in the gossip and stuff too and I really don’t know what’s going on with these people.  You know, Bruce Vilanch said it very well; “Unless you fuck them, you don’t know if someone’s gay or not.” If they are or they aren’t, isn’t it just about the work?  Ultimately it’s about the work and in music it’s about the music.  It’s not about anything else.  A lot of people who really enjoy Elton John are not sitting contemplating what he does in bed.  His music speaks for itself and I think that acting should speak for itself too.

KA: Ahem…speaking of the music speaking for itself, I checked out the soundtrack to “Circuit” and saw the title of your song on there was “Assume The Position”.  If that’s not slightly suggestive, I don’t know what is.

PL: (laughing) Yeah it is!  I mean, it was actually written for me by Bruce Roberts and Alan Rich.  I liked it when I heard it and I knew exactly where they were going to use it in the movie.  As much as I love that kind of suggestive stuff at times and as much as I don’t, love/hate with me, this is just the particular project that it’s for.  I play a stripper/porno/video guy, so it was very appropriate for the film.  It was fun.

KA: As far as I’m concerned, you earned quite a bit of respect for your performance in “Circuit”.  Are there any other film roles that you’ve either accepted or are looking into?

PL: I did a little film last year called “Sex, Politics and Cocktails”, which is starting to make its rounds at the film festivals.  It’s like a pilot and it’s only an hour long, but it’s played in 3 or 4 film festivals so far, so I think it’s going to be around again.  I had a small part in that.  It was kind of a fun comedy, kind of a “Sex and the City” meets “Queer as Folk” kind of thing.  I did that and I just got finished working on a play called “Christopher’s Yard” here in L.A.  Basically, in between that, I’ve been reading scripts and I work continuously.  I still study and I’ve been auditioning for Soaps and Rent and Aida.  I feel really good at this point because the work I did over the last three years along with “Circuit” has basically gotten me in the door in Hollywood.  I can get the auditions and when I do the work I get on the short lists.  It’s just basically whether I’m right for the next project that comes up and if the politics are right.

Between that, I’ve been touring.  I did about 6 cities with “Circuit” so far and I’m supposed to go to Israel on January 2 because the film is opening there.  That’s going to be a hoot and I’ll be performing over there as well.  I’ve just been promoting the film and that’s new for me as an actor.  Sometimes I show up, I get all gussied up, and I go to an event or a screening and I go to the party afterwards and I’m like “Oh, this is it?” I think I’m supposed to sing or something and I don’t have to because the work is already done.  That’s why I think it’s fun to also have a song on the soundtrack and show up as an actor and also go and sing, which makes it twice as fun for me.

KA: Have you considered any television roles at all?  Like Will & Grace?

PL: I’m not actually in the union yet, which tends to be a problem.  I was eligible years ago and then what happens is that there’s a lapse in time and you have to start all over again.  I’m kind of on the verge of starting all over again.  What’s interesting with these low budget movies is that you can be in a lot of independent films and not be in the union.  Soaps and musical theatre are about the only auditions I’ve been getting so far.

KA: I’m curious as to what’s important to you right now in your life and what’s out there next that you’ve set your sights on to conquer.

PL: What’s important to me now is my sobriety because it directly effects everything else in my life, my health and my relationships with the people around me.  The rest is just up to the Gods.  What’s also important to me is just doing the work, especially when someone comes up to me and they like my work and it’s not having anything to do with what I look like or anything to do with some sort of 80’s media crap.  They just like what I do and that is really important to me.  I do the work and I show up and I do the best job that I know how to do.

KA: Without asking for a name, but for all those fans out there who are curious, are you involved?

PL: As a matter of fact, I am.

KA: And how is that going?

PL: It’s going great!  It’s new and it’s going great.

KA: This is getting to be a regular question for me to ask, but every artist tends to have a larger-than-life image that accompanies them.  What would you like your fans to think of you both as a person and as an artist?

PL: A survivor, a man, a gay man and everything that kind of comes along with that.

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