Arguably the breakout gay pop star of 2015, Years & Years frontman Olly Alexander is the cover guy for Attitude’s new January 2016 issue, which is available to download now!
As well as his explosive, hyper-coloured cover shoot, the 25-year-old features in a full 10-page interview inside, in which he talks about music, mental health and the pressures of fame in a year he’s made waves both on stage and in the press.
“My whole family have mental health issues. I’ve struggled with anxiety and depression since I was around thirteen or fourteen,” Olly tells us in the interview.
“I was quite troubled at school, I was bullied … For whatever reason, like family life and my parents divorcing around that time, I had a messy childhood. Also, being gay feeds into trying to figure out who you are. Being a teenager is ****ing horrible for a lot of people, anyway. Depression and anxiety on top of that becomes a very layered, complicated thing.”
Discussing his position as one of the country’s most prominent young gay figures, he says there was never a chance that he would stay closeted for the sake of his career.
“When the band started taking off, there were one or two questions about what I’d do. Would I be ambiguous? As soon as I was asked that question I realised I would never do that”, he says.
“What’s the point of making this music if I can’t be myself and speak about being myself? As soon as I realised that, I was ready for the interviews and I wanted to answer those questions.”
Elsewhere in the new issue of Attitude, we’ve got a hilarious interview with Alan Carr, a chat with the award-winning star of Transparent, Jeffrey Tambor, a look at gentrification and how it’s affecting London’s queer community, and a hot photo spread with some of the high-profile trans guys making waves in 2015.
the cover is cute!