Singer-songwriter Tom Goss wants to remind listeners that they have “the power to change their own lives” in his latest single, “La Bufadora.”
HuffPost got an exclusive first look at the music video for the song, which was directed by Michael Serrato and unveiled Monday. In it, Goss appears alongside actor Daniel Franzese ― who audiences will recognize from “Mean Girls” and HBO’s “Looking” ― as one half of a tempestuous couple on an ill-fated vacation along the Mexican coast. Before the song reaches its emotional climax, the pair’s altercations turn violent.
Goss, who is based in Los Angeles, told HuffPost that the song was partly inspired by a recent trip he and his husband took to Mexico. The song’s title, he added, refers to a marine geyser located on Mexico’s Punta Banda Peninsula.
Noting “the similarities of La Bufadora’s power” to “emotional outbursts in a relationship,” Goss said he’d like the video to draw attention on what he describes as the “unspoken issue” of domestic violence among LGBTQ couples.
“As humans, we can be so volatile or wounded at the drop of a hat,” he explained. “Sometimes it is a choice we make, sometimes it is the deep-seated triggers that live within our bodies and minds. Just like La Bufadora, we ebb and flow, rest and explode.”
Although much of the cultural discussion about intimate partner violence has focused on heterosexual couples, recent research by the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control found that 26% of gay men and 37% of bisexual men have experienced rape, physical violence and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime.
For lesbian and bisexual women, those rates are 43.8% and 61%, respectively.
“La Bufadora” also gave Goss the opportunity to collaborate with Franzese. The two men will also appear in a forthcoming, three-song musical short that will be released alongside Goss’s forthcoming album, “Territories.”
“I think what Tom is doing here is showing a real vulnerable side of him and sharing fears and also bad memories along with really intimate thoughts and situations that most artists don’t always let us see,” Franzese said. “I knew it would be an incredible project and I thought he would give good belly rubs. I was right about both.”
Goss, who has cited David Gray and Seal as influences, shot to viral fame in 2016 with his cover of “Son of a Preacher Man.” The music video reimagined the 1968 Dusty Springfield classic as a love story between two gay teens, one of whom happens to be the son of an evangelical preacher. As of Monday, it had received more than 3.9 million views on YouTube.
Since then, he’s emphasized LGBTQ themes in all of his subsequent videos, including “Quayside,” released earlier this year, and 2017’s “More Than Temporary.”
He’s described “Territories,” due out Oct. 11, as his “most powerful” work to date.
“I’ve spent the last two years writing, building, dreaming and creating,” he said. “I can’t wait to see how the world reacts.”
Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
