David Archuleta has a lot to celebrate these days, especially following the release of his brand new single “Afraid To Love”. During our exclusive sit-down, Archuleta reveals that the initial goal for this single, was to get people to dance. David admits, “I can’t help but make the songs message personable to my journey, it’s just a habit. It was about trying to come to terms with transitioning from one world in to another world — into the queer world. Coming from a very religious, conservative upbringing, that meant  a lot to me and wanting to help people understand my journey of why I was transitioning in to this different phase that everyone was familiar with. Some of the not so nice comments that would come from people. I was showing a part of myself that they didn’t understand. I think that whenever something is different, it’s scary, it’s uncomfortable for people, it foreign — so they start dehumanizing you.” While that became a very difficult time for Archuleta to live through, he began to prioritize self-love and that shines through his songwriting. David continues, “I feel like I’ve always tried to be honest where I am. The amount of how much I understand myself has evolved. When I was back here, I was speaking honestly, I just didn’t understand the queer part of myself. Which is the part I’m now exploring and expressing.”

 

With “Afraid To Love” specifically, you can hear a new confidence in David’s voice, which stems from the new energy in his music. Archuleta reveals, “I just wanted to surprise people with energy. Something I haven’t really expressed is an exciting, happy, get you moving type of energy. I think I’ve always been in that pensive, frustrated space. The conflict in my head, I didn’t understand all of the conflict, there are several things, that including the struggle inside myself — not understanding how to fully do that. Not know that I needed to come out to get rid of huge chunk of that conflict inside me. This time I’m just like, ok, hopefully people feel like dancing to this.” 

 

Considering “Afraid To Love” is such a fun song with great energy, it only made sense for the video to translate that feeling on camera. David joined forces with Brad Hammer to bring video to life and that is exactly what they did. This video is full of life, color, happiness, acceptance and perseverance. Archuleta admits, “I was a little nervous because before I worked with videographers that my former label set me up with, but on my own I was in Tennessee or Utah, both kind of little bubbles as well. So, to go with someone in LA, who was in the queer world — he had a similar upbringing. He was raised religious and we talked about that. He was like “I understand what you want to do.”. I want to express what a lot of us, like before we come out, we feel like hide like this. That’s kind of why everyone bursts with color. He understood the level — I didn’t want to go too far, but I still wanted to have some pizazz in the video. I wanted to push myself with dancing, so we had choreography. That was pretty frustrating because I only had a couple of days to learn it. Before I spent weeks practicing something. But it was a great challenge and I had so much fun.”

 

“Afraid To Love” isn’t the only thing that fans have to look forward to, David has more music on the way! The best part about Archuleta’s catalog is the wide range of diversity. David continues, “If people are in to that, they want to hear a little bit of everything, you’re going to hear a little bit of everything. I guess it all ties together, other than the fact that I’m singing all the songs, is that it’s about my journey and what I’m learning, discovering about myself and the joy that I’m feeling in my life because I’m learning to embrace a side of me that I always felt I was suppose to be ashamed of and suppose to hate. To switch self-hatred to self-love is a really, really wonderful thing and I hope people can experience that journey as well."

​

David Archuleta's brand new single "Afraid To Love" is out now!