With his fourth studio album After the Sun Goes Down, Khalid has never felt so liberated.
It’s been less than a year since the Grammy nominee publicly came out as gay — a moment that followed an ex outing him on social media — and now, he’s approaching his artistry with a newfound sense of confidence.
Describing his previous album Sincere as an “acceptance of myself, acceptance of my sexuality, acceptance of my place in the world,” Khalid says the follow-up represents pure “freedom.”
“I feel like [After the Sun Goes Down] is my fantasy right now,” he tells Gay Times. “This is my time to have fun and to give an ode to the people who inspire me and made me want to be a pop boy.
“And for me, it’s all about duality. Just because I’m accepting feminine traits doesn’t make me less of a man. I feel like there’s beauty in freedom of expression; there’s beauty in duality.
“I feel like that’s what it is to be queer — to embrace both sides of the puzzle.”
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After the Sun Goes Down bursts with that freedom: shimmering house grooves, early-00s-inspired R&B and dance-floor-ready hooks that radiate queer joy.
Its second single, ‘out of body,’ notably became Khalid’s first music video to feature a male love interest.
“Usually, my demeanour might come off as shy or coy, but I feel like the people who know me personally know that I aspire to be liberated,” Khalid explains.
“So expressing myself like that on camera with a man didn’t feel unnatural at all. If anything, it felt too natural. It wasn’t like I was nervously shaking, like, ‘Oh my god, I’m really about to do this.’
“I was just doing it — and I was gagged. I was like, ‘Okay, this is spicy!’ But it was exciting. It was fun. Shit, I really did that!”
In his Gay Times cover debut, Khalid dives further into his complex (and very public) coming-out journey, how embracing his sexuality shaped the sound and lyrics of After the Sun Goes Down, and the Black LGBTQIA+ artists he plans to collaborate with next.
You can read Khalid’s full cover interview in the new issue of Gay Times — click here to subscribe.
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