David Archuleta; Tony Hale, D'Arcy Carden (Sketch)

0:00 In this episode of pop Culture Weekly, the cast of the New film Sketch, including Tony Halen, Darcy Cardin, and then the one and only David arch Aletta, joins to discuss his new albums. Let's go. Welcome to pop Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon from my Heart Radio, your pop culture news, views, reviews and celebrity interviews on all the movies, TV, music and pop culture u CRABE Weekly. Here's Kyle McMahon. NTT Nana Net Hello and welcome to pop Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon. I of course am Kyle McMahon, and as always, I appreciate you so much joining to talk to me about pop culture. I'm so excited because we have a great show today and we've got not one, not two, but three sets of amazing interviews, and honestly, I don't know how I'm gonna emotionally recover from this lineup.

0:57 We'll be diving into the wild, weird, and wonderfully created world of the new movie Sketch with director Seth Warley and star Bianca Bell plus later comedy Royalty. Tony Hale and Darcy card enjoin me to talk about making this hilarious and heartfelt movie. And then I sit down with Archie himself, David Archiletta, to talk all about his brand new album Heavenly Bodies, and we go deep in faith music, his journey with sexuality. Yep, you know we're going there, So buckle up, grab your snacks, and let's get into it all right. First up, we're gonna kick it off with the brains and the brilliance behind sketch. This movie is literally like if your trauma doodles came to life, but instead of getting detention for drawing in class, you end up with a short to be award winning heartfelt comedy film. So I sat down with director Seth Warley, who has the kind of imagination that makes you wonder if he's secretly a part wizard, and with star Bianca Bell, who brings so much heart and charm to the film, like you'll just love her two pieces. She's just so great.

2:08 So here they are, Seth Worley and Bianca Bell. Thank you all for joining me. I really appreciate it. Oh thanks for having us me of course. So Seth, if I may, I'd like to start with you. This is kind of your big feature film debut. Why was this story important for you to be the one the first. Oh, great question. I you know, I grew up on the movies of like spuebergan Za Mecas who framed Roger Rabbit in Jurassic Park are two big seminal movies for me and my journey towards this career. And I just always struggled to get excited about, you know, a first feature that was small, and I needed something ambitious, something challenging, something you know, maybe bigger than you would expect from a standard indie movie. And when you know, I, when I was a kid, I had this thing that happen when I was I was a kid, and my little sister had drawn this picture of her teacher getting pelted with arrows and just a comical amount of blood in the picture, and she had to see a counselor, and the counselor said, did you really want to see this happen to your teacher? And my sister said, I did when I drew it, I don't now, And the counselor said, well, I think you did the right thing. I think drawing this was much healthier. It was a much healthier choice than actually doing it. And I remember as a kid, just thinking what a badass thing to say to a kid,

3:40 Like this thing that made all the adults in your life nervous and sweaty and scared of you was actually evidence that you are a good person, making healthy choices and processing your emotions in a healthy way. And I thought, that is the adult I want to be in some kid's life when I grow up. And then one day, as adult, my daughter, who was in kindergarten at the time, started bringing home pictures of just an inventive amount of violence and blood and I'm just like, an unprecedented amount of gore and blood and parent death. And I'm looking at these pictures and I'm going, oh, you can believe two things at once. You can believe that art is the safest place for violence, well simultaneously believing that your daughter's a serial killer. And it's somehow your faults and that tension felt really ritable to me, and it seemed and I suddenly just that's when the burst of ideas started happening, and I saw an opportunity to make something that had somehow both the spirit of Roger Rabbit and Jurassic part combined along with you know, more recent movies, like specifically Inside Out, and I saw it as a Tony Hale role and that was very much like the genesis of the project.

4:52 I love that. And how did you find the balance between you know, an emotional ground emotionally uh and these kind of fantastic visual elements. How did you know? You? I feel watching the film that you found this perfect balance of the two where it wasn't one of the other, you know, one more overpowering than the other. And I think that was masterful. How did you do how did you do that? Thank you? Well, you know, like the it was a very it's a totally complex film, like it's a it's a it's a it has several tonal shifts that we worked hard to make sure feel organic and real and that don't negat each other. And I think one of the reasons it works has nothing to do with any of us, not to negate the incredible work of our cast and crew, But I think that you know, some of the most the people in my life who've gone through the hardest tragedies often also tend to be the funniest people in my life. And I think that when you know as a writer, I know for sure when I'm If you lean hard enough into tragedy and and conflict, you'll find comedy there. Whether you acknowledge it or not is one thing, but there is comedy there and the inverse. If you lean hard into comedy, you will start to reveal things about the human condition. And I have just found that if you trust the story in that way, and you trust the characters to go to those places, that they will.

6:24 They'll relieve the tension, they'll find their way out of it. You'll find their way out of it naturally. And it just can be this beautiful, almost a metronome going back and forth, you know, and keeping a story moving in a way to feel surprising and yet inevitable at the same time. Wow. And you know, you couldn't have done this film without a great cast, particularly the kids, the talented young adult Yeah they're some actors. Yes that really it hinges on their performances. Right, You could have Tony and Darcy and all these amazing adult actors, but if if the children aren't doing their part, it all falls apart. And and you, you guys, did such a wonderful job with that.

7:08 How did you find how did you cast them? What made you say, I want Bianca, I want Callen and C. Yeah. I mean I went to my friend Jessica Sherman, who's a casting director, summer of twenty twenty two, and I said, I need three kids. I need them all to be incredible, and I need them in like two weeks. And she brought me Bianca Belle and Q Lawrence and Callen Cox, who are three talent fueled machines built in a lab somewhere, who are also designed to be incredibly delightful, warm, professional human beings with really cool parents. And they just embodied the characters I had written, you know, be A, you know for example, And at some point I will let them talk while they sit here and listen to me talking.

7:55 It is more, this is more of just a interview. I'm talking now, I'm talking talking. I No. I felt be A from the get go had this just punk rock quality to her. She felt like she played the character as if there was this not just like a complex uh maybe like more leaning toward more darker thoughts and tendencies like her tastes person in there, but that that person was confident and fully confident who she was. She was just protecting that person from the rest of the world by keeping him bottled. And I don't know if that was her intention, but that's how she played it. And it was just immediately like, this is Amber, this is who's in the movie. And Callen, you know, I wish you were here. I'd speak to Q too, but Q, well, I'll speak to q. Q.

8:41 Lawrence came in and was like I looked at this kid and was like, this kid is so sweet and so immediately like sweet and everything about him. He says, she's a giant heart walking around. I was like, I could watch this kid murder people and I would absolutely like want to hug him in adoption h and thankfully he didn't murder anyone. And then Callen just absolutely crushed the Callen carries so much comedic weight in the film, and he played every every line like he was a guy lying through his teeth but convinced he was nailing it and it. Makes this brilliant comedy. So i'mnna le I'm gonna shut up and let them talk. Well, and for Bianca and Callin, you know, you're doing this really imaginative film where you're not necessarily dealing directly with another actor, right, How was that for you both, you know, doing the film. Do you have any Do you have any say on that?

9:41 I mean, yeah, for me, it's just kind of came naturally, I guess because I as a kid, I used to just make believe all the time. I used to just talk. To people that weren't even there, and that makes me sound insane, but. I still do it, So you're fine, I guess, Yeah, it. Helps with acting. Yeah, yeah, how about for you Cala kind I kind of agree with that. I mean, I don't play make believe as much as a kid, but yeah, it comes to me naturally. When Seth showed us the concept art for it, I could kind of imagine how the scene would be going, especially for the uh for the scene of the tadler where I'm like telling it to shoe away, so I kind of know what it looks like.

10:24 I know, like the correct angle to like shoe it at. I know like how i'd be talking to it because it's kind of just like this silly. Little dude almost. But one that I did have kind of trouble with because we didn't really have concept art at the time with a Sharpie monsters, so like I didn't exactly know how to like react to it, because I didn't really have a good concept art of it. Yeah, those were figured out really in the game. There's some monsters that are in the third act that revealed themselves. But even in that case, it was very much about we just kind of try and tell you exactly where your eyeline should be, like where to look, and you guys would just lock in and you'd nail it every time. It was really impressive. Yeah, well was impressive. Yes, I agree, I was impressed by my own performance.

11:06 Good. I will say, Cal and Bianca, you you both did a great job and I wouldn't have known that you didn't you know what you were looking at at that point. So you guys did awesome. I love sketch and I can't wait for everybody to see it. Thank you all for speaking with me. Thank you so much. Zeth Worlean, Bianca Bell. All right, now here's where we really get into dangerously funny territory. I'm talking with Tony Hale and Darcy Cardin, two people so talented they could make reading a grocery list sound like Shakespeare and funny. You know, Tony from Arrested Development and Veep, and of course as the voice of four Ky and Toy Story four and Darcy The Good Place Barry a league of their own. Basically, she's in all your favorite shows. So they're joining me to talk about scat and the sheer joy of making something this really honestly quirky and heartfelt.

12:05 Here they are Tony Hale and Darcy Cart Thank you Tony and Darcy for joining mere like gosh, thank you for your great voice. Can wear shirt shirt shirty trippy. Yes, that's kind of sketch vibes. Thank you sketch. Oh, sketch, I'm thinking like sketch, like sketchy. I'm like it was sketchy. But a great thing about the name of the movie is kind of a. Devil on Tom Yes, I love it. Uh And speaking of that, I love the film. Congratulations to both of you on that what drew you. You know, it's such a for me. I I lost my mom a few years ago. I've kind of been in this thank you.

12:50 I've been in this world of grief in the fact that I, you know one that but too started a project with iHeart about grief, and so I've been looking at grief through different lenses and I thought that sketch is such an interesting lens to look at grief through. Is that why you were both attracted to it? Or is there some other you know what, what was it that brought you to it? Great question? So sorry he about your mom working through it. Thank you. I know it's a long process, but I think, Yeah, the exploration of grief and the emotionality of this script was definitely a big draw. Tony Hale was a big draw.

13:34 The largeness of the world and the Okay, it was a big draw. Oh, I get it. I don't know draw. Yeah, but I didn't mean that. I mean I meant I was excited to do thee. Oh. And then you know, like the character behind us stay like these gigantic monsters, the idea of doing like a big, like sort of scary, fun kick movie that dives into such like, you know, intense feelings and emotions. It had all these pieces that just made me jump jump at the chance to work with these guys.

14:21 And so I've been in the I've been We've been trying to get this movie made for eight years, and we we were championing it, championing, champing, championing it because miss campioning Champion champion and think we were champing it. And because just the soul that it had of allowing feelings to be processed, parents learning from their kids. You know, he really thought it was the best choice. My character kind of compartmentalized feelings and then he learned from his daughter. But also knowing that each process of grief is different. It was different for Amber with these drawings, but just knowing what Seth could do with it with his special effects background, and how it is such eye candy and it puts it frames grief in such a unique way of I mean not no spoiler, but just and also just kind of walking through it and letting parts of it go and letting parts of it fly and then holding on to Somebody actually said a really powerful process of grief was it's like you have a rock in your pocket, and right when it happens, it's very very heavy. And the more you the more time goes by, you get stronger, so it gets lighter.

15:39 But the rock never leaves. That's always there. Yeah, you know. So it's it's just things like that, just framing grief differently, and this is this movie is one of them. It's interesting that you say that because I was going to ask you both if it contributed at all, or if it, you know, did change your outlook on grief or how you might handle, you know, a situation like this. Oh yeah, I mean Tony and I have talked about this a lot that we're both great compartmentalizers. I do. I do that with you know, bad news, with grief with I'm really really good at it have been my whole life, Thank you so much. I don't know, but I've been trying to work on it, and I feel like every time I've watched this movie, it reminds me that it is okay and right and good to go through these things and feel your feelings.

16:31 And it's hard. I mean, it's understandable, it's not. It's not the favorite thing to do it does it. It's not easy to feel all this stuff. But just a reminder that we're all in the same boat and we're all going to be walking through things. Right do if you know you could be in this world, in the world of sketch, Yeah, would you want your inner child's drawings to come to life or would you want today's uh, you know, in her inner to come to life? I mean, gosh, like our imaginations are so alive as kids. I think I'd want my my inner child's ones would be a lot more interesting because they'd be like the adult ones. Maybe they'd be a little too therapy, I know, you know, but the children ones are like much like Dave, it's just.

17:23 Like just plunky, yeah and all over the place, you know. Yeah, better better movie material for sure. Yeah. And how about how you approach you know, both of your roles. I found with grief that we have to rely on our support systems, our loved ones, our friends, our sisters are you know, our loved ones? Where was I going with that? You see? You see, it's a great point because Liz Darcy's character is kind of my truth teller, Like she was the one that was speaking end of my life and finally he kind of opened his eyes. But just those kind of nudge is not in a mean way, just to kind of come alongside someone.

18:10 Yeah. I do love the way Liz is written and that she takes it slow with him in the beginning, is just there to help and is not in his face with it and just sort of reminding him in the ways that she does that. You know, if it's something as small as cleaning up the house, but what she really means is something larger that by the end of the you know, when we're getting deep into the movie, she finally just knocks the walls down metaphorically with him and you know, really knows what, as hard as it might be, what would be best for her brother and lets him know. Do you find as actors, you guys have both done so many things in your careers, do you find it creatively more challenging when you're facing something that's not really in front of you.

18:58 I think, yeah, it is challenging. We've talked about this a little bit on this movie, because there's so much of it was you know, had to be in our imagination that somehow this one was easier to do for me than others because of seth our director and writers like sort of he had such a clear view of what this world was going to look like, and it was so easy for him to describe and honestly was in the script. And we saw some pictures and it really felt like I knew what I was seeing and looking at. And but that is like a leap of faith, and you do have to put a lot of confidence and faith into your captain and he really beyond rose to the occasion. But yeah, I mean it is a little it can be a little technically challenging to act with something that.

19:46 Yeah, very There's also the component of, you know, when you're in a business and people are like, all right, let's make it real and make it subtle and stuff like that, and then when somebody goes, okay, there's a large blue, fuzzy mutt and you just go like, oh, yeah, yeah, subtlety up there. Yeah, k your mind. Yeah, how would you react to that? It's like, oh that's I lose my mind. Yeah. Yeah, Thank you both so much. I really really love sketch. Uh. It's so deeply layered and so just it's so good on every layer. And I thank you both for speaking with me. I can't wait for everybody to see it. Thanks so much. She kind to yourself man during this process. Thank you, Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Tony Allen, Darcy Carden. All right, we've got more Pop Culture Weekly coming up, so don't go anywhere because when we come back in sixty seconds, my conversation with David Archa, let us starts and it gets real, like call your best friend, the process, it real stick around see in sixty all right, thank you for supporting our sponsors. We are back and I am so excited for this one. David Archiletta first stole our hearts on American Idol and now he's back with a stunning new album called Heavenly Bodies. But our conversation went way beyond the music. We talk about his personal journey with faith, embracing his sexuality, and what it

21:16 means to live authentically while creating art that connects with people on a soul deep level. Here he is David Archiletta. So, welcome to Pop Culture Weekly, David arch Aletta. I really appreciate you talking to me, David. Good to be with you. Kyle, Thank you. So we're going to talk about your upcoming new album, Earthly Delights, coming out in a couple of weeks, but if you don't mind, I'd like to go back first and then we'll come back. Sure. So, what would you say to sixteen year old David coming off of that American Idol stage today? Oh?

21:59 Well, would I say to him? Man? Well, I would say to him. I was making some tiktoks about this, actually, so, but I haven't released them yet. But I would say to him that you care so much about pleasing other people and wanting them to be happy with you, and it's okay. It's okay to disappoint people. It's okay to not be what they expect you to be, and it's okay to say no and give yourself some healthy boundaries. Even though you'll feel bad about it, It'll be it's fine. You know, they'll get over it and you'll feel a lot better about yourself.

22:46 Would you would you do it again? You know, if you were if you could do it or not do it again, would you do American Idol again? I've always called it a once in a lifetime experience for me. I mean if I hadn't done it, then yeah, I would. I would do it again, and I guess, and I guess probably at this point, I would be willing to do it again because I feel like there's something new for me to learn. I'm a different I feel like I'm a different person in a lot of ways, so it would be interesting to to go at it again. But yeah, I think it'd be fun because I was a very scared I was a very scared teenager at when I first did it and it would be interesting to do it now with a little more perspective. And but who knows, maybe I'll get maybe the trauma will come up and I'll get stage fright and freeze in front of the cameras, because cameras still freak me out.

23:50 Like when I like when there's like a red carpet or a TV interview or TV performance, I get a lot of anxiety that I didn't used to get when I was before before American Idol. And you would think that like after seventeen years and doing it all the time, you'd get over it. But it's for some reason, like and it's like maybe I need to talk through myself in therapy about it, and I just haven't yet because it's like, why is this bugging me so much? It's just a camera, but it's like this pressure like you go you like revert back to maybe like the first few times or when it was when you're going through it during a high stress time, and you like your body just take takes you back to that moment, even though it's not that moment anymore.

24:41 So it's like PTSD. Yeah, like it's yeah, I I it probably isn't a like a kind of way. I'd said that before, but like I had all these people getting pissed off at me. They're like you, I as served in the army. You don't know what PTSD is like. And I'm like, you know, I'm not invalidating your experience at all. I just don't know what other term to use for what I'm describing right now. It's like you get this anxiety attack and relive a moment that happened a long time ago, but you still can't separate your mind and your body from associating. You know, whatever's trick causing you to it's triggering you to go back to that place and react the same way even though it's happened so long ago. And how to separate yourself I don't know, but you know, I'm sure there's a way, but you know, I still do it.

25:34 I think I've learned. You know, Ken my publicist suits on the call too. It's like he you know, there are moments where I'm on the carpet I just need to like take a moment and just like calm myself down. I'm just like like crouched and just feel like I'm in my own little world for a little bit because you don't know your bias, saying like it's the end of the world, the worst thing's good about to happen, and your life's at stake, and it's like why, Like you're thinking logically, why there's nothing terrible that's happening, but you can't. You don't know how to tell your body that it doesn't it's not in survival. Mode right now. Yeah it's weird, but yeah, seventeen years still, seventeen years later, still it'll still happen. And I don't know why, but I'm sure you know, I it's not enough to be detrimental to my life or anything.

26:24 It's interesting that you say that about the kind of freak out the panic. I've you know, dealt with panic disordered my entire life. And the best thing that I ever learned from anybody on this was my therapist. I would always tell her like, I feel like I'm going to freak out sometimes and she's like, well, what do you mean, And I'm like, well, I don't know like what that means, but I just like feel like I'm going to, like, you know, just have this panic and just like freak out. And she's like, well, what does freak out mean, and I'm like, I don't I don't know, I don't know how to describe it. And she was like, well try and I was like, I don't know, like I'm just making this up, but like run down the street screaming or something, and and she's like, uh, next time you're starting to feel that way, think about number one, all of the panic attacks that you've had in your life and what has happened to you. Did you ever run out in the street, up, running up and down screaming? No?

27:21 And and then two because it started becoming for me prohibitive to a lot of things in my life that I needed to do, working with in certain you know, environments and that sort of thing. She had said, You're you're anticipating the this worst case, this panic attack so much and you're spending so much time on it. And she said, next time you start feeling that way, I want you to egg it on and tell it like, all right, if you know, I'm not dealing with this all day worrying about having a panic AT's so let's just have it right now and get it over with.

28:02 And that was so terrifying to me when she said that, because I'm like, no, I don't want to like invite it in, and she was like, just try it. If you're going to have a panic attack anyway, what's the worst. It just comes sooner than later. And I'm like, all right, Ever since then, I swear to god, I've never had a panic attack since then. Ever since they just stopped. I still get anxiety or whatever, but I've never had a panic attack since then. So that's what I started doing. I would be like, all right, you know, I'm going to have a panic attack about this event tonight. I'm just gonna have it now. I got a lot of stuff to do. I can't, you know, sit around all day worrying about it. Let's just get it on with it now. And then it's like, okay, nothing's happening, you know, And then it never comes. So then I went about my day. It was the most powerful change that I've ever heard that I implemented in my life.

28:55 Wow. So just something you know that I learned that maybe it'll help somebody that listens or watches this. How cool? Yeah, so interesting too, Like yeah, because your brain, our brains are creating like this feeling of devastation and like so when you allow yourself to kay react, do what you gotta do then to protect me, and it's like, oh, there's nothing really well it's so interesting. Well thanks for sharing that. Yeah, of course, So would you ever do if they ever did an All Star American Idol season? Would you be down to hop on?

29:38 You know? I was, I was thinking about that when you said that. I was like, what, I'm like, what reason would I have to do it again? I'm like, probably if they did some kind of throwback All Star thing, and I'm like, that would actually be it would be scary, but it would also be I think it'd be really fun because I know a lot of the previous contestants now I've had conversations with them, We've talked through how that experience affected us, and so it'd be it'd be fun to go through it again because we like understand what we went through the first time, and it would be fun. I think it'd be nostalgic and a throwback and I would I would totally do it. I think it'd be fun for fans to viewers, you know, be it'd be a great thing. So, producers, if you're listening, so we're gonna take a quick break be back in sixty.

30:32 You've been very open about your faith in your life, uh, in interviews and that sort of thing, and obviously you've been an artist for you know, over a decade. Did you did you find a place where you feel like spiritually and coming out and you know, queerness or whatever it's called, or whatever one calls it, uh can coexist? You know, I feel like I have. It's just funny. I feel like a lot of people have. I've heard a lot of people say this in like interviews in public. But it's like, you find your own spirituality with things because when you I feel like, especially when you're a public figure, you get so many opportunities to travel to mingle with other people, and you're constantly given other perspectives and meeting people who didn't live the same way as you.

31:29 And I grew up very very much in like a bubble in Utah as a Mormon and kind of with this this one way of looking at everything and being told that that is the way for that everyone else should be looking at it. They just don't have it, you know, they don't have the perspective we have. If they only did, the world would be a better place and so I there are a lot of really beautiful things about it, which community, like everyone pretty much was on the same like level, had the same understanding because everyone shared a common belief and like wanting to serve God, serve each other, and like this is what's right, this is what's wrong. So everyone was on the same page of how we were living our lives. And when you start, you know, when I as soon as I was going on American Idol and touring and meeting other artists and fans, I was like meeting all these other people who didn't have the same way of looking at life that I did, and I thought, oh, it's my job to help them see life more the way I do. But I also felt like I was learning a lot from other people.

32:48 You know. I grew up Mormon and believing in using the Book of Mormon and the Bible, and I met people who were like, we we use we don't have the Book of Mormon and we don't need it, and we're fine with just the Bible. And then I met people who use the Koran and they're like, we this is what gives our life meaning and purpose and value and community and helps me to be a good person. Then you meet people who didn't believe in any of it, and they were good people. They're like, you know what, I have principles that I found in my life that I feel helped me to be a good person and live a better life and help the people around me. And so I'm like, Okay, my beliefs were pretty specific with queerness because with my beliefs before I really understood how queer I was, queer wasn't okay, and it was something that was something to work on. You're supposed to have God, through faith in God, have him heal you from any queer tendencies.

33:51 You might have. And as I got older, I thought, well, oh, like, you know, I think my community just needs some more perspective and maybe if they learn, you know, a little bit more insight on what a queer person goes through and it's not what they think it is, they'll open they'll broaden their their views on this and how God may feel about queer people because he keeps making them. But when I saw that, there was an unwillingness to not just an unwillingness to hear it, but like a rejection of me as a person. From when I was talking to like some I was close to. I was very involved in my religion, and so I'm writing a book about all of it right now. But when I saw yeah, it's it's called Devout, I'm excited to release it.

34:42 And it actually was about you know, I did go through a phase of a process of losing my faith, and it was scary because I'm like, this is all I have. This has always been what matters most to me. This is what's given me purpose. And I'm feeling a lot of conflict right now because I thought my community, I mean a lot of my community does understand, and a lot of them don't. And what's hard is the ones who don't and are unwilling to are a lot of the leaders, because they're like you, if we have to include this, it's going to throw our wrench into our system of you know, our system is working for the majority of people, and if we have to consider how it's not, you know, if we have to like look at queerness and homosexuality and in a different way, it's going to throw everything else off. We don't want to do that. And so it put me in a really tricky situation because I was like, well, I can still be queer and be a member of my face, and they were it was kind of like, you're inconveniencing our system by trying to publicly be you in our world.

35:58 Why don't you just go find somewhere else to belong? Wow? And I'm like, this is where I belong Like this, I've thought this was the only place to belong. And so you have you kind of are forced to look at your beliefs differently, and you kind of have to learn how to say, well, why is there not space for me here? And they're like, no, You're welcome to be here. You just have to you have to un you have to not look at yourself as a queer person the way you do anymore. You've got to change that in order to stay here. And I'm like, I can't.

36:39 Like I've I've come to terms with this, and I've been trying to change it my whole life, and I've learned that that's just not how it works. So I would really love to continue conversation with y'all about the queer experience, because there are a lot of people in this same religion going through the same thing as me, and they're just kind of like, no, And so It's like when someone doesn't want to have a conversation with you, even when you're trying to, and you're even to the point of like forcing it, and they just suddenly are just like, we're just going to cut you off, so you stop pressuring us into having to have these conversations that we don't want to have. You just kind of are like, you have to come to terms with Okay, I may not. I just I may have to accept that I don't this is not the best place for me to exist. And even though they're the ones who taught me about a relationship with God and faith and purpose of life, I have to come to terms with I may have to shift my own way of thinking.

37:40 And if there is a God out there I may be believed, I may have to just accept that the God I believe in is different from the God they look at, because they want to say that the God that they taught me does not accept me, when the God they taught me to have a relationship with in my personal relationship with God is saying you're fine, and I made you and you're supposed to be the way you are, which is why, no matter how many times and no matter how many years, day after day you asked me to change you, I'm not going to because you're the way I created you to be. Even though other people may not see that, I see it, and that's all that really matters. But it's hard when you're also taught religion is community and and being one with the people around you, and it's hard. There's such a conflict when your community does not when they're it's it got really complicated. So I consider myself agnostic because the God that I grew up saying was God is not the same is the one I've gotten to out. So it's that's where I'm at now. So that's a very long winded way of saying it. But I still feel

39:13 connected to the grant, this creator of life, and I still like I would still i'd call it God because I was taught that God is the creator of everything. So it's like, got the Creator made me, made other people made everything in the trees, you know, or whatever this universe were in there. It was created and I was created by it as well. And I've tried to change me and what I am a lot, and the Creator said, no, I made you, And I'm like, there's this connection telling you be who you are, and I'm like, Okay, I'm just gonna trust in that and I'm gonna be who I am. And it's not bad, even though people have taught me growing up that it what I am as bad for being a queer person and living my life as a queer person, it's not. And I'm happy and I find purpose and I'm just moving forward.

40:13 When when was if you remember, when was the moment for you where you you realized who I am is enough? Well? I I was still practicing in religion, and I was I was following uh, I was following the counsel. I got that if you just continue to marry a woman, you will be healed and you're you're exercising your faith, that you're following God's right plan for you. And I just could tell. I'm like, this is this is not going to fix my queerness. And you know, I probably could have been you know, I probably could have made it work marrying a woman. But I didn't feel like I was being honest with myself and I didn't feel like I was being honest with God's plan for me.

41:16 And it's hard to just explain that to people of faith too but I was trying to reject that, and I was like, nope, I got to be straight. If I exist as this, I'm bad. And I got to the point of like I was considering, like in cutting my life short because I thought I cannot accept myself this way. And I there's this time of numbness that I went through, and I finally got on my knees and I was just like, God, if you were there, just please change me. I'm so tired of this and I just want to do what you want me to do.

41:57 And that's when I that's when I had this like pivotal moment, and it was just like I was like, David, you need to stop asking me this. You've been asking me for over half your life. Now, brain you see, I'm not going to change you because you're nothing supposed to be changed. And I was like, I don't want to mess up. I don't want to make a mistake though, and and God was like, then, perhaps you need to make mistakes because you're allowed to make mistakes. David. Yeah, I give you permission. Go for it. Make mistakes, and you'll learn that some of the things you thought were mistakes weren't even mistakes. Wow. So that was like the pivotal moment for me. It was kind of like a like I felt like it was starting over in the most exciting and most self loving way that I hadn't experienced because I always thought I was supposed to hate myself for what I was and that I was doing the right thing by doing so.

42:55 And I realized I can live my life and love myself and makes all the difference. As an artist, did you find that more freeing? You know, as you're going through these extremely personal kind of essence of who you are moments, did you find that freeing in your artistic work? Yeah? Absolutely, it felt like I became a new artist. So and it's kind of funny because all the things, you know, I became flirtier with my music, I became sexier, and so it's like all the things that I was told not to do as a Mormon, which is why this new EP is, the new music is called Earthly Delights.

43:39 I was going to ask you, actually, I'm indulging in like the earthly, carnal like world that I was told to always avoid and that I was gonna be punished if I did it and be cast off. And it's like, well, I got cast off basically by before I even did that, So I'm like, you know what I was. It's kind of like tongue and cheek in a sense for me. And it was like, how interesting that when I gave into earthly delights is when I found my meaning and like a real joy and excitement for my life and I see myself. I feel like I'm seeing myself of the first time ever, and I get to create more freely I can I express. I feel like it's so much fun. It's so much more fun to work now, like making music and making these songs. And I went and I was like, I call it my flirty era that I'm in, but I think deep down I'm a lover boy at heart, so I'm now calling it my lover boy. It's my lover boy era that I'm in.

44:40 But I you know, I was too afraid to love before, so I it's it's fun to be in a lover boy era. I was. I was too afraid to be a lover before because I was like, if I like guys, that's the work. That's horrible. So I can't love anybody. And so it's it's a very fun, freeing it's a liberating tongue. I'm as an artist and just as a person in general. Well, Crimberlay, well, first of all our Earthly Delights is your first project in like five years? The ep right Yeah, and Crimberlay is a bop. I freaking love that song so much. Thank you? Yeah, of course, Why was now after five years? Why why is now the time that you're like, I'm ready here?

45:24 It is? Yeah. Well, my album five years ago I released was called actually Therapy Sessions. I was going through therapy at the time. I was I was just trying to figure out a lot of things. And then I came out four years ago, and so I feel like I've been in this for the last five years. I've been trying to figure myself out, figure out what I want to do as an artist, and now I feel like I've honed into it. And thus the thirty lover Boy era has has arisen. It's like risen out of the ocean and made itself known, and it's it's pretty. Yeah, it's it's a fun time. It's I've been experimenting with bilingual writing as well, So I've been writing a lot in songs that are both English and Spanish because I'm half Hispanic, and it's just been so fun. I've I've really enjoyed this next chapter.

46:27 And Can I Call You is another amazing one for as you're doing this project, as it's coming together. Did you have this lover boy era in mind? Or did it just kind of come like, you know, did you go in being like I'm going to be in my lover boy era or was it like it just kind of came out naturally. Yeah, it just happened. I was like, I'm going to be fun and flirty like the Crimbera. I started with crimble A, and just as life goes on, I was just like, I'm writing all he's like wholesome. I don't know if like wholesome wholesome, but definitely like sweet because some of them are sexy but still very sweet.

47:08 Songs like being in love And maybe I'm like a bit of a hopeless romantic that probably needs to go to a bit more therapy before you can make a healthy relationship work. But uh, yeah, I am a hopeless romantic and you know, I love I think I love love. Or the idea of being in love. Not like right? Was that not like a j LO though? Like where it's like, you know, j Lo, I feel like love's love to the point where she is like every you know, the second she breaks up with one, she's like engaged to another one like three days later.

47:51 You're not in that. Oh my gosh, am I a j Low type of lover? Is it the Latin? Maybe it's the Latin. We're very we're very like I don't know, we can be a bit all over, but we we definitely are passionate. Yes, let's say that. And that's what I love writing in Spanish because this is like you can get more passionate and deep and just like that. You know, Hispanics love their they're telenovelas like they're they're TV dramas and it's always very intense and dramatic, but it's passionate. And I think I need to go to therapy and to not be such a mess by fall in love and trying to get someone to fall in love with me, because oh, there's.

48:42 Got to be tons of guys and probably uh girls too that are lined up for to you know, sliding in your d MS. Right, I don't know, I guess so I feel like my friends, I get a lot of d ms. But also I've noticed that not all the dms come through. Like someone will be like I d do and I'm like where, like look and it doesn't even show up. Yeah, it's under like requests or something. Yeah, it's weird. Oh no, not even the requests. I've gone through the requests and they'll be like, I sent you a message earlier today and I'm like, it's not there, and I have to go to their profile click on messages, and there it is. That's really weird, but.

49:23 It didn't show it. But anyway, so maybe I have more dms people in my dms, and I I would like more dms, but you know, I wouldn't mind more sliding into my dms. But I feel like my friends who have way less followings than I do, get way more dms people like sliding into the dms, and like really hot and cute people sliding into their dms, and I just don't get as much of that. But well, you're opening it up now, right, Yeah, come, you know, come slide on into the but on. And I feel like Instagram is a new way of meeting people or in person. I'm trying to like meet people in person now too.

50:07 It's well, and you're about to go on tour, your first tour in a while, so you're going to be meeting a lot of people. Right, Oh yeah, there you go. Yeah, I'm like, yeah, I was gonna ask. I'm like, do you have any you have some advice with like the the panic attacks and and anxiety, Like, do you have any like dating? Like what is what have you learned about dating? Like? Oh, I what are some of the secrets there? I need like an Avengers team of therapists to tackle that. All right, we'll work through this. We'll work through this. Yes, So for your tour again, I just like I asked you with earthly delights? Why now?

50:51 Why now? Why not? Why not? It's it's been like this like religious journey to coming into myself. And it's also just I feel like I've been in touch with my body for like the first time ever, oddly enough, and it feels good. It feels good to just feel what it's like to be a human being and all the emotions, all the feelings, all the hormones that you go through and and just you know, right about it, talk about it. Dance. I'm dancing now. So it's like choreography and learning the choreos helped me to be in touch with my body. So, like if anyone's learned feeling like they're a little stiff and want to just feel more comfortable in their own skin, dancings of oddly like a great way. Maybe not oddly, but it's a great way to do it because you go out of your comfort zone. You're moving your body, like maybe you're using parts of your body so that you normally wouldn't and so you just I feel like you're just more in touch with yourself. So it's and I've learned a lot from my dancers too, just to they just they're they're a fun time.

52:16 So we're gonna on the tour, We're gonna see you doing some choreo with dancers, and all right, yeah, that's awesome. What else can we expect? Uh, you know, they'll they'll hear this thlirty lover boy music for sure, and I'll sing some of my old jams too. You know, I'm known for my song Crush more than anything still, and you know, so you got to give the people what they they want. I mean, I want to do. I'm not gonna I love I love singing Crush it's the song I've I haven't gotten sick of singing, and uh yeah, I think I I'll take moments to share a little bit of not too much.

52:57 I used to. I used to talk way too much in my shows, and now I feel like I've gotten even that honed into like a system of this is where I talk. I could share it and then we'll have fun, have like some more sentimental, heartfelt moments, and then choreo moments and get people out of their seats or jumping up or jumping on the dance floor wherever the show may be. And yeah, it's really just I think shows are a way of like sharing a journey. You're telling a story and sharing a journey with people, helping them feel like they're a part of it. And for me, like I'm I'm in an exciting part of my journey in my life. So it's fun to include people into it. Yeah, so's it's fun to bring people along the journey.

53:46 I love that, David, Thank you so much for talking to me. I can't wait for Earthly Delights to come out. Everybody is gonna everybody's looking forward to it. I know they're gonna enjoy it based on the two tracks, I'm in love with h and we'll be seeing you on the road too. Thank you. Kyle's solo to talk. To you, Thank you you too. And when your book comes out, come back on Oh I would love to Awesome, awesome, Thank you David, Thank you, Kyle, David Artchiletta. You can get David's album right now wherever you get your music. And I can't wait to see him on the road. And there's another episode of pop Culture Weekly in the books.

54:29 Huge thanks to Seth Warley, Bianca Bell, Tony Hal, Darcy Carden and David Archiletta for hanging out and talking with me. If you love today's episode, make sure to follow or subscribe wherever you're listening, and hey, share it with that friend who always knows the latest pop culture gossip. You know the one because they're a lot like you and me. I'm Kyle McMahon And until next time, remember life's too short for boring entertainment. I'll see your next episode. I love you. Thank you for listening to pop Culture Weekly. Here all the latest at popcultureweekly dot Com, Crushyet, Crush Sheet, Prembroulet