BeBe Sweetbriar & DJ Pornstar team for new gay anthem

With the highly anticipated follow-up to dance floor hit "Save Me", San Francisco's drag icon EDGE grabbed the two of them to ask them to bring us inside their music and share a bit about their story. A free listen is available with public downloads, music video and releases available mid-December 2011 on all on-line media outlets.

Here's our conversation with BeBe and DJ Pornstar:

Who inspired who?

EDGE: Tell me about what inspired you to make this music, who inspired who?

DJ Pornstar: Well, I think "Gay Anthem" is in both my and BeBe's blood. It just comes out of us naturally. We inspire each other and believe in each other's work. It had taken a while to get the second track out, but with our careers moving faster and faster, and me flying up and down the coast a lot, it feels like L.A. and S.F. are right up the street from each other nowadays. I can keep the beats coming as long as BeBe gives me those soulful lyrics.

BeBe: Well, "Free To Be Me" is not our first single together. DJ Pornstar and I released "Save Me" in 2008, and we used the same formula with this one as we did then... he writes the music and I write the lyrics. With "FTBM", however, I had written the lyrics sometime back but hadn't had a chance to get with DJ Pornstar for a bit because of our busy schedules.

But, I told him I wanted to do a somewhat anthem-type song this time around, and he sent me the music. We are a perfect pair because porn stars and drag queens are rarely taken seriously about anything except in their respective main professions, so, this is great to join forces and show the world that we have talents beyond having sex and painting a pretty face.

Pigeonholed

EDGE: We all know DJ has two very successful careers, please tell us his sexy body will grace the album cover along with fabulous sequins from BeBe?

DJ Pornstar: I think the next track will include a full photo spread on the cover. This is not the last track for us, just the beginning. Our next track will be released on Swishcraft Records, with a HOT and SEXY cover. Hold tight everybody, it's coming soon!

BeBe: That's definitely one way to sell 1 million copies!

EDGE: Talk about being free to be... what is the significance of that for you and for those you make your music for?

DJ Pornstar: I've been put in a corner for years because of my adult film persona. Not getting respect as a porn star or a DJ. I've had to work harder at both careers to prove that as "DJ Pornstar." I have talent, a hard-driving work ethic, and a street-smart education. What I do is no walk in the park, but it's the life I have chosen, and I love it. I love a very eclectic life style because I choose to. I want to be free to define my life as my own, and so should everyone.

Yes, being gay has its issues, and life comes in strides, but its more complex than that. We should be free to have depth, beyond sexual preference or gender, free to be ourselves in every way. BeBe is a huge inspiration. She proves that being a drag queen is not only a lifestyle but a profession, and believe me, like being both a DJ and a porn star, it's hard work.

BeBe: For me, I have never done too well with someone telling me that I couldn't achieve because I don't fit a certain mold. Hell, there are very few, if any, molds, made for a black gay drag queen and I had gotten used to hearing the things I supposedly couldn't do. The dreams I couldn't reach because of who I am.

This song was my way of saying bullshit to all that, and to give some of the other people out there who have heard what they can't do because they are gay, the wrong skin color, the wrong gender, the wrong size... all that something to celebrate. Screw all that. We are free to be who we are, and the only thing that is going to stop me from reaching my dreams is me. And I am going to reach them without changing one iota about myself.

Catchy tunes

EDGE: Talk to us about the beats, music is shifting these days and getting very creative, as a DJ yourself talk to us about this music and why it is unique, what is new about the concept?

DJ Pornstar: The concept behind my work is pretty straight-forward... fun, happy, inspiring lyrics, and driving sexy beats with warm synths and funky punches. Over all, I like to play catchy tunes. There is a ton of new music and sounds released every week. It's mind blowing. I stick to what I like. I like to blend Dutch House with a Tribal Beat and throw in some Dub Step from time to time.

As a gay man who loves to dance when I am not spinning, I love the T-Dance Tribal House sound, and that's what I like to spin mostly. The beats I produce are more for the gay club, and knowing that, I market to a gay audience. There are millions of openly gay people on the planet, and a lot more still in the closet, so the marketing potential is definitely there to be successful.

There isn't too much new to this marketing game; just new tools in an ever shrinking world. Seems like anyone can buy some software and think they are a DJ, but the art of DJing, though it has changed, not just any one can be one. Those that think they are, sometimes get the hard reality that they aren't too successful at it. Being a DJ just flows naturally within me. In my somewhat short career, I have gone from vinyl, to CD, and now to laptop. It is always changing. I guess you can say I was meant to be a DJ. I live for it.

Tomorrow the world

EDGE: You are known for being very passionate about serving the community, tell us what you are up to? How are you making a difference right now?

BeBe: I don't like to think of whatever it is that I do as making a difference. I just do what I think as a human being I'm supposed to do for, with and to others. And trust, I wish I could do so much more. But I will be working with an upcoming event called "Dancing With The Drag Stars" which is a spin on the reality dance show "Dancing With The Stars," and a major fundraiser for Richmond/Ermet Aids Foundation.

I've also done some recent work with the Queens of the Castro non-profit group in raising money to make things better for gay youth in high school. I'd like to develop a "Free To Be Me" graphic t-shirt that can be sold for charity groups with the purchaser receiving a free download of the single with their shirt. If I am or can make a difference at all it will be to continue to be me and be true to that.

EDGE: What is next? MTV Music Awards?

DJ Pornstar: With gay culture in the media now, it's tempting to shoot for the mainstream, but I am not sure that even MTV is ready for DJ Pornstar or Bebe Sweetbriar quite yet. Music is now being produced faster, and there are more people then ever on the planet so with so many new sounds, so much new technology, and so many innovative young entrepreneurs doors continue to open for musical artist everywhere. It's an exciting time. Who is to say where I, or we, will be next. I just know that right now I am exactly where I wanna be! Today Gaydar Radio, tomorrow who knows. It's kind of cliche to say it, but, tomorrow the world.

BeBe: Well, a music video is in development and will be filmed the later part of November, and MTV has expressed an interest in it based on our video for "Save Me". We are also hoping to make a mini tour over in Europe, London specifically. Gaydar Radio has been just super great with supporting our work and have given us some amazing exposure by playing and promoting "Free To Be Me" on their on air programming, thanks to the most part to one of their DJs Phil Marriott. I met him through dance diva Luciana ("I Like That", "I'm Still Hot"). So, my fingers are crossed on all that.

For more on BeBe Sweetbriar, visit this web page.