Jake Wesley Rogers is FASHION’s May Cover Star
When Jake Wesley Rogers pops onto my laptop computer display screen on a gray day in February, I’m immediately blinded by color. And never simply any color — shiny fire-hydrant crimson. Between the wall behind him in his L.A. house and the highest of his head (because of a current hair refresh), the 25-year-old singer is basked in a crimson halo, made extra vibrant by his purple, inexperienced and orange V-neck sweater. The one impartial on this whole pop-art tableau is the black of his thick aviator-style glasses.
Regardless of this vibrant chaos, Rogers is extremely calm. He periodically sips natural tea from an outdated mug all through our dialog and takes nice pleasure in speaking about his tea preferences. (He loves inexperienced or black brew, in the event you’re questioning.) Contemplating the theatrical performances and flamboyant vogue for which he has grow to be identified and the truth that he’s getting ready to superstardom, I’m pleasantly shocked by how serene, sage and introspective he’s.
Like the whole lot else within the Kansas Metropolis-born singer-songwriter’s life, Jake Wesley Rogers didn’t discover fame within the standard approach. After a short stint on America’s Received Expertise in 2012 and a string of singles, he caught the attention of hit songwriter Justin Tranter (suppose Justin Bieber’s “Sorry” and Selena Gomez’s “Lose You to Love Me”) and in 2020 was signed to an imprint of Warner Information. Shortly after, Rogers’s rocket ship took off on TikTok, not due to his music however for spilling the tea on “queer icon” Abraham Lincoln, which he filmed whereas sporting a tea infuser as an earring. His historic musings racked up over 1.eight million views, and thru this atypical portal, followers started to find his true expertise for songwriting.
Since then, Rogers’s pop-rock ballads and campy costumes have earned him the moniker of “Gen Z’s Elton John.” In 2021, John invited Rogers to look on his Apple Music 1 radio present, Rocket Hour, telling the viewers, “I really like Jake as a result of he jogs my memory of me after I was beginning out.” Once I point out this second to Rogers, he gleefully grins. “It’s the most effective compliments anybody may ever obtain,” he says.
Jake Wesley Rogers grew up within the coronary heart of the Bible belt in Springfield, Mo., however he didn’t have a typical conservative small-town expertise. In truth, he says, his upbringing within the Ozarks was crammed with heat, compassion and acceptance. “My hometown has like 40 church buildings on every block, so, after all, it’s very spiritual, however it additionally has Midwestern values like love and kindness,” he shares. “I used to be very fortunate to have discovered a protected place the place I used to be free to be myself.”
The “Center of Love” singer’s popping out was a two-step course of. He advised his mother and father when he was in sixth grade after which his buddies at 16. “Again in 2008, my household didn’t know so much about being queer, and we had been all a bit scared, in order that stored me within the closet till I used to be a teen,” he displays. Apart from the pure fear that he wouldn’t be accepted by his neighborhood, his concern of popping out additionally stemmed from his early viewing of the musical Lease. “I used to be 10 years outdated, and it was the primary time I’d ever seen queer folks,” he shares. “And whereas it was empowering, it was additionally terrifying as a result of I believed being homosexual meant I used to be going to get HIV and die.”
With the Missouri faculty system offering little to no training on the topic, it took a number of years earlier than Rogers absolutely understood and embraced his identification. Fortunately, the Jonathan Larson manufacturing didn’t scare him away from musical theatre fully, and he discovered help via singing. “In highschool, I used to be often called ‘the musician,’ and I felt that due to this, folks had been OK with me being completely different. Like ‘Jake’s actually good at singing so he may be himself.’”
Being the charming rule breaker that he’s, Rogers pushed the bounds on how completely different he might be via vogue. “What I acknowledge now could be that many individuals really feel they need to observe a script — go to school, get married, have infants, and so forth., and if that’s your fact, no shade,” he says. “However I turned these expectations right into a sport. Going to thrift shops allowed me to curate who I used to be and who I wished to be. Being completely different pushed me to be extra completely different, and vogue has at all times been my superhero cape.” Even now, he jokes that his first query to his supervisor every time he books a gig is “What am I going to put on?” “As quickly as I acquired my file deal, I used to be like ‘When do I get a stylist?’” he laughs.
It’s onerous to explain Jake Wesley Rogers’s fashion with out referencing pop icons like David Bowie and Freddie Mercury, however it wasn’t at all times intentional. Whereas he cites Adele and Woman Gaga as his early influences — the Brit for her weak lyrics and the American for her theatrical persona — it wasn’t till faculty that he did a deep dive into precise musical historical past. “Elton John wasn’t a factor in my home rising up, however I acknowledge now that he, Bowie and Madonna clearly influenced Gaga,” he says. “I acquired a number of that inspiration inadvertently via her.” Rogers additionally admits that he has at all times had a love affair with the ’70s — therefore his desire for sporting four-inch platforms, which make him a whopping six ft eight inches. “My primary vogue and the whole lot icon has at all times been Stevie Nicks,” he says. “So on the finish of the day, I’m simply making an attempt to be as cool as her.”
Identical to Nicks’s aesthetic, Rogers’s can’t be categorized with a single adjective. In his music video for “Weddings and Funerals,” Rogers rocks a pair of female 1950s cat-eye glasses, outsized floral earrings and a bloodstained white tuxedo. Then for his newest music, “Darkish Fowl,” he took to Instagram to point out off a patent-leather lace-up corset paired with punk equipment and graphic eyeliner. However he admits that is intentional. “Every music has a special power, so vogue helps me embody what I’m singing.”
What Rogers chooses to sing about is uncooked feelings like ache, love and self-acceptance. A grasp of storytelling, he makes use of poetic symbolism in “Darkish Fowl” to discover themes of resilience, freedom and “metaphorically burning your life right down to make one thing higher.” Speaking about his course of, the singer relates his 11-year-old songwriting experiments to the world of Harry Potter, the place younger wizards by chance carry out magic earlier than they’re conscious of their powers. Over a decade later, Rogers (like Harry) has realized to harness his expertise and discover these magical moments. “I write a number of songs, however most of them by no means see the sunshine of day,” he notes. “The songs I find yourself releasing are those by which I really feel like I’ve transcended myself and I’m carrying a message that’s larger than me.”
@jakewesleyrogers Pre-save in profile, infants!!!! #fy #originalmusic #witchtokrising ♬ Darkish Fowl – Jake Wesley Rogers
However what Rogers is actually chasing along with his music is the component of shock. “It’s my favorite emotion as a result of it takes a lot to really feel shocked as of late,” he shares. He reads my thoughts when he references the Latin proverb “Fortune favours the daring.” “There’s no time left to not make one thing daring,” he says. “If one thing doesn’t lower via the muddle and shock you, I don’t see the purpose. That’s not me or my music.”
And therein lies the reality about Jake Wesley Rogers. As we just about sit collectively considering life, TikTok and dancing in platform heels, someplace alongside the best way, my eyes modify (metaphorically and actually) to the calm fire-hydrant-red determine earlier than me, and now I can’t think about him being every other approach. He’s candid and a bit kooky, and identical to with tea, the longer we’re collectively, the extra flavourful he will get.
“I don’t settle for myself on a regular basis, however I’m within the enterprise of loving myself,” he reveals, pausing to sip from his mug. “It’s onerous, and it takes follow, however via my music, I remind myself that I’m worthy of it.”
Pictures by GREG SWALES. Styling by TOM EREBOUT AND SANDRA AMADOR. Artistic course by GEORGE ANTONOPOULOS. Hair by LISA MARIE-POWELL FOR BALMAIN HAIR COUTURE. Make-up by DARIAN DARLING. Producers: ALEXEY GALETSKIY AND RYAN FAHEY FOR AGPNYC. Style assistant: JAIIN KANG. Manufacturing assistant: SASHA MILOSTNOVA.
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