Canadian Lucas Silveira, lead singer for The Cliks, is coming out in a big way with a new album entitled Black Tie Elevator. This time, the band is leaning toward a soulful blues sound being produced by Hill Kourkoutis from Toronto.
Founded by Silveira in 2004, The Cliks is still going strong. The group is the first to be signed by a major record label with an open trans man as the leader. There have been several lineup changes with Silveira remaining the focal point, playing on the True Colors tour and appearing on the L Word Soundtrack in the past.
Windy City Times talked by phone to ChartAttack.com's elected Sexiest Canadian Man.
Windy City Times: Hi, Lucas. Tell me about yourself. What is your nationality?
Lucas Silveira: I was born in Canada but my parents are Portuguese. I call myself a Portuguese-Canadian even though that is not necessarily where I was born although I did live there for about six years when I was a kid from ages 6 to 10. I have a deep attachment to my roots.
WCT: Do you speak Portuguese?
Lucas Silveira: Fluently, my friend. It's good for picking up girls!
WCT: I bet. What part of Canada?
Lucas Silveira: Toronto.
WCT: Were you always into music?
Lucas Silveira: Absolutely. I lived in a little teeny village on an island. Music is what people used to get rid of their boredom. Every little village had a marching band. That was my first exposure to music. My dad played trumpet in one, my brother played the drums, my sister played the sax, so I had a very musical family. My dad thought he would be the next Elvis Presley one day! I had The Beatles and Elvis Presley records all over the place. It has always been around me.
WCT: It must be rewarding to play music yourself now.
Lucas Silveira: Absolutely, man. It feels like it is just so innate to me, you know?
WCT: Are you able to incorporate that kind of performance when you play live?
Lucas Silveira: I wish I could take a horn section with me, to be honest. That is a hard thing to incorporate into a live show. The music on the new record is very soulful, blues and R&B but not in the way that the '90s are but there is a rhythm-and-blues feel to it.
I feel like I have lived out of the hard rock genre. I think that has a lot to do with the other music that I grew up with. When I got back to Canada I was really into artists like Michael Jackson. Then I went through a stage of '60s blues bands like The Doors. It was like all of that put into one. I really feel like I went back to my roots in that capacity.
WCT: It sounds like you have grown up a bit, also.
Lucas Silveira: I've grown up a lot! You know my story. I lived my life trying to be someone that I wasn't. I think in my last three years in my transition it has been a natural movement where I feel more connected to my past musically as well. It is a very interesting thing to me. I'm still trying to figure it all out. I always tell people that I'm a mirror three years old in this body and this mindset. I did a lot of growing up and I have a lot more growing up to do. For me it works because I'm an artist. I sort of thrive off of that.
WCT: What advice can I give our transgender readers?
Lucas Silveira: One thing I always tell people is don't always think that your transition is going to be the same as anyone else's. Everybody is so different. Don't grasp onto the steps of anyone's journey of being transgender. It is not like that. Accept that you can be different than other people just like people that are born into their gender are. We all have our own path. That is truly my own advice.
When I first came out I thought it would be the same. I would take testosterone. I would get muscular. My voice would deepen. I would get hairy and that would be it. It has been such a different situation, especially for me as an artist. Nobody told me that hormones completely manipulate your personality. They change who you are, whether you want that to be the case or not. I think that is a combination of who I am physically but it really changed me. It is not like I'm a completely different person, like Jekyll and Hyde, but my emotional pathways are not the same as they used to be. It has taken a lot to get used to.
WCT: Were you concerned about your voice?
Lucas Silveira: Oh, yeah. My voice was the scariest part of all of it because I was told for such a long time that I would lose it. That was the case with many trans of the past in the earlier days when people were on T because the doses were so highat least, that is my theory. When I discovered a bunch of younger guys that were doing it and singing, this was only after five years when I was transitioning that I realized it was possible. They just told me that I had to go really slow and sing every day.
WCT: Being voted Canadian's Sexiest Man must be so rewarding and unexpected.
Lucas Silveira: It was completely unexpected! I'm a trans guy and at the time I wasn't even on testosterone. So it was stranger to even hear someone say that to me. I took it for what it was and found it to be quite comical to be honest. To be voted something like that is a little bit funny. For me, it felt neat to be validated in that way and to have the public vote for it. It wasn't a committee that made me win it was actually readers that voted for it. It gave me a lot of hope. I think the main thing for me was I wish when I was a kid that I could have seen someone like me in the public. I got so many emails from young trans kids saying how much hope they were given through it. I had nothing to do with it since it was the publication but it made me feel good and the media was moving in that direction.
WCT: Why stick with The Cliks? Did you think about going solo?
Lucas Silveira: Absolutely. That was the struggle I had. I talked to my manager toward doing this record. I said that it didn't feel the way it used to. I'm not a band anymore and it has always been just me but I have always had a band. She fought me on it and it was completely based on her feeling that I had branded myself this way. The music industry is in a very volatile place. I've changed so much not only with the personality but also in the music. To also change my band name could be a huge mistake. I'm a stubborn artist but I trusted her. I kept it.
One day I was sitting with a friend of mine who I had known for a long time and met as a Cliks fan and grew to be friends. I told him about changing the band name and he was really disappointed. He felt he had grown with the band and all the changes that I had been through he felt like he had been through them with me. He felt part of the storyline and felt like it would be dropping it. I was intrigued by that emotional response. That is what I am about. I'm about change and The Cliks is about change. I think life is about change. It is another extension of who I am so why not keep the name?
WCT: The new album comes out in March.
Lucas Silveira: Yes, at the end of March. We just decided to add another track so we are hoping to make the deadline. That is our goal. If not the end of March, it will definitely be an early spring release like in April, for sure.
Also, I waned to mention that we are going to go on tour and will be playing at Township on May 8.
WCT: You took the question right out of my mouth. See you at the show!
Keep up with The Cliks as www.thecliks.com .