Caleb Shomo can't put a price on how free he feels right now.
The Beartooth frontman, 33, has no regrets about coming out as gay in May despite being met with a lot of opposition and homophobic remarks ever since.
"This has had an effect on the band, and on a portion of our fan base. And there are a lot of opinions within the music scene and within the greater internet that decided to say their piece about how they feel about me," Shomo tells USA TODAY. "But I truly am at this place where it is so much more satisfying for me to just be able to live my day-to-day life, being honest."
Since coming out, the "In Between" singer divorced his wife of 14 years, Fleur Shomo, in July and has continued focusing on Beartooth, which dropped its latest album,
"Pure Ecstasy," in August. The album, which Shomo wrote with Bring Me the Horizon alum Jordan Fish, dives deep into the inner turmoil of feeling trapped by fear and the overwhelming bliss of refusing to stay afraid a second longer.
Shomo created the band, which also includes bassist Oshie Bichar, drummer Connor Denis and guitarists Will Deely and Zach Huston, in 2014 after previously being in electronicore band Attack Attack!
The Ohio-born rock star said he braced for Beartooth to sell fewer tickets and get fewer streams as fans "distance themselves from this music because they just don't align with who I am."
"If that's the price, then it's worth every penny because I have never felt freedom like I felt on this last tour," he says. "I've never felt support like I felt on this last tour, from our fan base, you know, our real fan base. Like the people that want to be in that room and the people that want to experience that joy that I get to experience every day on that stage."
A confessional lyricist, being vulnerable in his music is nothing new for Shomo, having previously opened up about battling depression and alcoholism on his 2021 album "The Surface." Ahead of the U.S. leg of Beartooth's "Pure Ecstasy" tour in November, he explained how he crafted the scariest album he's ever written.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Question: Sonically, this is a very different record, with the pop tracks featured, but it's also very personal. What does the term "Pure Ecstasy" mean to you as an artist and as a person?
Caleb Shomo: I think that ended up being the title because the goal and the hope of this record is finding that feeling of just complete and utter elation with my life and who I am, and these things that I've strived to feel for a long time, but I've always struggled with.
The whole point of this record is really to describe the duality of the period of life I was in while I was making it, which was either pure ecstasy and this joy of discovery and freeing myself up in my life and allowing myself to be who I am, while also my life as I knew it was completely crumbling around me. I figured I might as well choose the more positive side and hopefully manifest a little more of that in my life.
I think it's telling that you chose "Free" to be the lead single. Can you talk about that decision and why that felt right to you?
That was the first song that I wrote, addressing what was going on with me and my sexuality and actually taking any sort of an inward look at it and writing about it. It was such a surreal song to be writing and to be a part of and something I thought I would never, ever do in my life.
It was honestly just a big step for me to attempt to be fearless in how I present my art.
Can you talk about how comfortable you are being vulnerable as a lyricist and letting your personal experiences translate into your music?
When I'm alone in a studio, that is the most comfortable place I feel to talk about things I'm going through and to be vulnerable. Which is kind of why Beartoth started at all. [I] had no intent of it ever being a full-time band or being a band at all. It was more like a therapy session.
The thing that's changed over time is this reality that now I know it isn't just going to be me and a hard drive that hear these songs; everybody's going to hear these songs. I vowed to myself when I first started this project that anytime I'm making music and writing lyrics, I want to write like no one will ever hear them.
And this record is the peak example of that. I've never been more afraid of releasing music.
Can we expect more pop songs in future records?
Always. I mean, Beartooth really, at its core, is pop songs dressed up in my musical styling of how I play instruments. Because rock music is what I do: playing rock guitar, rock drums, rock bass, screaming, singing, and expressing all this intense energy.
But as a writer, it's very much pop. The structure, the choruses, the mood, the way it all falls has always been influenced by pop from day one.
Can you talk about the response to you coming out? You mentioned that people in your inner circle were very positive and receptive, but some corners of the music scene and the rock space weren't so welcoming.
At this point, I think it's just the nature of the beast. I think it's just the world. For me, all I am trying to do, very simply put, is enjoy this very short life that I have. And I have been on a search to accept who I am. That has always been my biggest struggle. I am so much happier being honest about who I am, living my life openly. And for me, it was really important, truthfully, to come out publicly.Because to me, it was a way to free me up mentally. To not be afraid of this coming out of my control and just giving me the space to be exactly who I am. And that's all I want in my music. Like, I just continue to find that I am happier and happier and happier the more I do exactly what I want to do, and the more I express myself exactly how I want.
And the internet's going to be the internet. The world is going to be the world.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Caleb Shomo says losing Beartooth fans after coming out was 'worth every penny'
