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Photo by Caleb Ho

Known for his work in the electronic and pop music spaces, James Droll is no stranger to making and releasing music. Now he’s back under a new name, Big Guy & The Very Large Men, aiming to celebrate and highlight his queer Nashville community. Droll took the time to chat with us about his new project, DIY-ing his “Cowboy Boots” music video, and the very important balance of serious and stupid. 

OnesToWatch: Big Guy & The Very Large Men is a new project for you. Tell me a little bit about how it came to be.

James Droll: It stems from my love of queer history, of film, of the intersection of smart and stupid. Of the queer people in my life there are so many colorful characters and I honestly feel like using my personal name is an undersell for what the project is. I think it’s supposed to be a little stupid, a little fantastical, a little campy. It’s about some serious stuff, there’s literally a song about me getting roofied at a leather bar which is an experience everyone has. I crack jokes about it most of the time. To spoil the story so nobody’s worried about me, I was fine, I was with my friend, I had a single drink and passed out. It was wild, I’ve never had such a scary experience. 

I’m so sorry that happened to you.

Honestly, I learned a lot. I consider it now to be a blessing because I made the mistake once and I didn’t suffer the consequences. Whoever’s up there, or down wherever, looking out for me, two thumbs up, thank you for letting me learn these lessons without having the worst case scenario come true. I think there are so many stories about queer people putting themselves in situations that everyone else knows is unsafe but what you do for connection, what you do for love is dire and extreme. We grew up with Romeo and Juliet, how are we not supposed to love that star crossed lovers story and then cast ourselves as the lead? There’s so many interesting queer stories to tell and Big Guy & The Very Large Men is a way we can do it and a way we can do it for a lot of different kinds of people with a lot of different kinds of lived experiences. I work with a lot of trans artists and writers, and I myself do not identify as trans, that is only important as to say that I do not speak for their experience. Some of the things that my trans friends have told me blew my mind! They possess a perspective that is so valuable and interesting and evolved. It is no mystery to me that trans people throughout history have been looked at as shamans or spiritual guides because in my life that is very true. In my life there are things about living a queer authentic life, or surviving the process of being honest with yourself that I love. It’s a campy, good time. There’s a lesson to be learned but if you don’t want to look for that, you don’t have to. 

You just released your first single under this new name. What was it like, both before and after, releasing your first single as Big Guy? 

It’s great. My music before has not necessarily been all over the place. I love all the music I’ve made in the past, I have truly so much love for it, I will for sure play those songs in the future they will always exist with me, but I’ll be damned if this isn’t taking my whole ass attention. I love it! It’s more than just the music, it’s also the dramatics of it all. If I’m talking to my parents I say “Nobody gives a shit about this music,” which, I’m ready to be proven wrong. But when I pitch it to my parents I’m like “At the very least this is my creative director’s resume.” I want every part of it to be in that world. Having the new name to pin it on helps. I don’t know if you’ve ever done Dungeons & Dragons?

I haven’t, but I’m a theater kid at heart so I’m sure I’d love it.

Absolutely. All theater kids should play Dungeons & Dragons, it’s effectively structured improv, and in a lot of ways Big Guy & The Very Large Men to me is the gap between me and my masculinity, me and the experience and life people said I would have. I’m also for sure on the spectrum, I am not diagnosed, or self diagnosed because I am not a doctor, but I am neurodivergent, of that we are sure. I don’t know I’m getting lost in my own sauce here, but I grew up on stories like The Phantom Tollbooth, all of these things that are both serious and unserious at the same time and willing to give you advice but package it in a way that you open it when you need it. It’s given me at the very least the freedom to go big with all the videos and costuming. It’s all DIY, if you’re seeing it, I did it. We’re not using AI for the music, I am building all these pieces physically. It’s a return to the tactical, a return to the analog, and it’s been a really grounding force for the project. Everything online feels like it’s on fire and we’re kind of like arts and crafts! But I took a lot of inspo from Chappell Roan’s set designer. People having an idea and executing it, those people are hot to me. I have a wonderful team around me and we have a community here in Nashville that is very gay, very weird, a little bit country. I’m super excited to share everything we have but I’ve also never had this much stuff in the wings so I’m kind of going insane.

I want to talk about “Cowboy Boots” specifically for a second. You said some of the inspiration for it comes from sharing your queer dating experience with some of your straight friends and they had this look of horror on their faces. Were you telling them this as a funny story, and therefore explored the horror through writing the song? Or did you know it was a complicated situation from the beginning?

They fully had to tell me. I’m saying all of this now after people have told me all these things about my life. I’m not sure that in the moment I realized how different my experience was. The reason I’m in Nashville is because I was dating an in the closet country artist. We dated for six months and then I packed my ass up and I moved from Cincinnati to Nashville and I stayed. I’ve been here for 13 years. I know that part is crazy, but then I started to get more into the parts of my queerness that I didn’t share because they felt TMI. There’s a lower threshold for bedroom details with straight people or it ends up feeling exploitative or fetishized. This experience, when I shared it, kudos to the straight men doing the work because they received it and were like “James, sweetie, that’s crazy. People don’t do that.” And then I was like “What about this one?” and they’re like “Oh, that’s crazier!” I came out when I was 21 and I hit the ground running! I was everywhere, I was going on a first date with everyone, I was experiencing it to the absolute max while also slowly rolling it out to my family. I remember watching “Love, Simon” and being pissed. It was one of the first openly queer love stories that wasn’t just about hard it is, it was just a love story and I hated it. I was like where is the hardship? I experienced the hardship! But I’m excited for more stories to be told without that level of anguish. 

I feel like that’s a thing a lot in lesbian media, like one of them always has to die and it’s like what if they both just live?

Yeah! Or we don’t all need drug problems. And it is indicative of how queer people are treated and societally pressured but also you’re seeing details and you’re applying them for the wrong reasons.

“Cowboy Boots” also has a great music video. How did that come together?

Oh my gosh it was so chaotic. Music videos feel so outside of my budget. We are DIY till we die out here. We are doing what we can, we are building it from construction paper, and hopes and dreams. Cole, my manager, he secured a venue, I ordered a $7 red foam hat off of Amazon and spray painted it brown and we just made it work. I spent 30, 40 hours on animations that probably take up 3, 4 seconds. I was on a camping trip with my dad, in the trailer, editing on my Macbook while it was plugged into my external battery. I finish and I’m like “I did it!” and my dad’s like “That’s it?” I think more than anything it represents perfectly how I feel about my journey in learning to love myself and love others. It is being treated badly by someone while treating someone else badly. It’s being in two separate toxic relationships, the one you don’t want and the one you’d rather be in. That is how I operated, I think that’s how many of us are, we jump into the pool and it's all these big feelings. It’s weird how dumb feelings can make you. The attitude of the video is very I’m perfect and I’ve never done anything wrong, why would anyone treat me this way. And then you watch the footage back and it’s you treating someone else like garbage. Shoutout to the people in my life and the patience they have to teach me the lessons I need to learn when I need to learn them. That’s what we’re trying to do. The video is me getting hit by a car but we tried to infuse the symbolism and the history of the struggle for queerness and we are often the people that put each other down at our lowest because we just cannot be the bottom of the totem pole. Whatever that energy is, let’s get rid of that.

There’s a lot of different sounds on the EP, “Only Sin” has this stripped back acoustic vibes, “NICOTINE BUZZ” has this big hazy cinematic ending. Where do you pull inspiration from for all these different sounds?

Definitely movies. Even in my writing process, I know I like the song when I’m shooting the video in my head. This was definitely an amalgamation of songs that would play at certain moments in your life. A lot of my early music discovery was through film and TV because my parents are very conservative so we were denied a lot of secular materials. We were watching a lot of contemporary Christian programming, so when we went to the movies that was my time to dip into what’s happening in the world. Not to sound like I grew up like a mole person, but I missed a lot culturally. At the very least it gives me an interesting perspective in music. I did what I could, I caught up. My first job was at Hot Topic so I was eager. That was a great first job. 

There are several collaborations on this EP, Fancy Hagood, swim team, Maddie Medley, how did those come together?

Honestly I refer to Big Guy & The Very Large Men as a community garden band. I really want to exploit my incredibly talented friends and get them on songs and use their unexpected, weird flavors, to enhance the songs. We don’t think about the features as like you need to take verse two or sing X amount, it’s just did you contribute? A lot of these songs were curated days with my friends with an idea of what we were going to do. So, the collaborations are mainly friends of mine but I’m really trying to keep it, at least for a bit, to the girls, gays, and theys.

Love that! This is a fun question. You posted some Heated Rivalry edits to your songs. Is there another TV show or movie that you think your songs would work well with? 

That’s such a good question. In like a really moody way, “But I’m A Cheerleader.” Honestly, so many of them could be in Grey’s Anatomy.

Yes! Because anything that could possibly happen has happened in that show.

That is true. This is a deep cut and it’s so classic ex-emo/scene kid of me but it’s an indie movie called “Wristcutters: A Love Story.” Honestly anything that’s gritty, a little bit stupid, and honest fits great. I’m hoping that a TV show exists that can make space for my music. 

I love this theme that you have of serious but stupid, it’s a great concept.

Thank you. I am both very serious and very stupid. 

Can you tease what the rest of the year might have in store for fans?

Nobody knows what to expect and I think that that is my favorite part. We have some live videos, we have some more videos in the works, it’s going to be a very visual rollout for sure. We’re hoping to have a lot of shows in Nashville. We’re trying to do it for the girls, gays, and theys.

Who are your OnesToWatch? 

My girl Gatlin. She’s an absolute icon. My good friend Bridey Costello. And also ggwendolyn. Specifically the song “pawn shop.” I truly have so many. If anyone’s curious just go to my Spotify page, I have a playlist of current faves. A lot of them are locals to Nashville and/or queer artists.

Listen to "soft hands, hard times" below: