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Brian Falduto is opening up about his personal memory of romance and heartbreak that stirred his passion for storytelling and songwriting.
Falduto remembers his first real, queer relationship during his senior year of college. The actor and singer-songwriter shared during a recent conversation with iHeartCountry that the couple came out of the closet together, and ended up calling it off after college. What began as a happy relationship changed when “I had heard from some friends that he referred to our relationship as ‘just a phase.’”
Now, Falduto is sharing the breakup story with listeners in his haunting, powerful new single, “Just A Phase,” making its debut on Friday (October 27). Falduto calls attention to the differing perspectives with thoughtful metaphors to the moon and its phases (“you know the moon never actually changes/ We just take what we can see and we call it phases”), so he not that it’s fitting that the ballad would release in time for the next full moon over the weekend.
“I felt like that was so belittling of everything we went through together,” Falduto said of his ex’s comment, particularly of a young romance that led to a sense of self-discovery. “I felt like we did that together, which is a really vulnerable thing, and this song is kind of just calling that out, and the difficulty I experienced afterward.”
That’s when Falduto tried songwriting, to help get through the breakup. He was working in country music radio at that time, and had surrounded himself with the genre known for its captivating storytelling. So, naturally, songwriting seemed to be “a therapeutic tool” to move forward. Falduto never intended to share “Just A Phase” with anyone, but when he eventually revealed it to a few friends, their support shifted his perspective.
“The song is just pure truth. It’s start-to-finish chronicling the experience of finding out how (my ex) referred to our relationship and then how I ended up feeling about it,” Falduto said. “In the end, there’s a line at the end (to) sort of call him out… ‘You know the moon never actually changes/ We only change what we can see and we call it phases.’ That’s just a line on perspective, right? Because I feel like as humans, we can be very ego-centered and we’ve gone so far as to make the moon about us. We can only see a portion of it, so it’s ‘this phase’ of the moon, but the moon’s never changing. The moon is always what it is. And I just was commenting on his perspective, and that just because his perspective of relationships might’ve been smaller than it was, it doesn’t mean that it wasn’t large for me.”
Falduto admitted he struggled with the production of “Just A Phase” in ways he hadn’t with previously-released tracks, aiming to get its sound exactly right. He teamed up with Brooklyn producer Brett Castro to achieve the fresh, new sound that takes on a natural evolution from his debut album, Gay Country. Falduto released the project earlier this year, aiming for a 90s- and early 2000s-country vibe.
Falduto, long known for his role in the Jack Black-led film School of Rock in 2003, offered “an anthemic, playful and heartfelt” energy on his 8-track LP. It nodded to Dolly Parton, Faith Hill, Carrie Underwood, Shania Twain, Rascal Flatts, The Chicks and other artists who have inspired Falduto throughout his life. Gay Country included tracks like “Same Old Country Love Song,” “Big Boys Club” and more. He released an energetic, pop remix of “Big Boys Club” in honor of Pride Month in June.
Falduto shared with iHeartRadio that he’s working on an extended version of Gay Country to release in early 2024.
“Country music has always been my heart and soul, ever since I was a little kid,” Falduto previously said of his album. “I’m really proud of what I’ve done here. I am loving all the new and exciting sounds that are out there these days, particularly much of what’s coming from emerging queer artists who are pushing the envelope. But with this project, I wanted to return to the classic 90’s / early 2000’s vibe that ‘little me’ used to bop around to but could never quite see himself in. I’ve always wondered what it would have been like if smack dab in the middle of the latest Tim McGraw and Jo Dee Messina hits, a song came on the radio that normalized who I was. I hope Gay Country provides some joy, some laughter, and some sense of belonging to those who need it most. If nothing else, it’s certainly done so for the little kid inside of me.”
“Just A Phase” builds from Gay Country’s inspiration while sounding “a little darker and a little moodier.” Falduto described the single as a story heartache and perspective, describing how it feels when two people “have different views of a relationship” after it ends. He predicts that “Just A Phase” will be as relatable as the rest of his music, which fans connected with at Pride festivals over the summer and other live shows. Falduto said some fans felt similarly growing up.
“If you don’t see two things tied together, you think they can’t go together. Sometimes there is even messaging that country music and being gay can’t go together, depending on who you’re talking to,” Falduto said. “So, to have something so ‘in your face’ about it, that was boldly country and boldly queer, I think was exciting for people.
“I think this song is relatable in a lot of the same sense. I think especially if you take the queer element to it, queer relationships, especially early queer relationships, there’s a lot of self-development on both ends. And for someone to just summarize it so casually and to not really pay attention to that nuance that can be hurtful. I think people can relate to that sentiment. …I think we’ve all had different phases of relationships or maybe felt like a relationship we were in was belittled. So, I feel like a lot of people can relate to just what’s being said in the chorus in general.”