When he calls from Los Angeles in spring 2022, Jake Wesley Rogers is certain of one thing: he is, without a shadow of a doubt, ready to finish the debut album he’s long dreamt of making. He’s confident and cautious in equal measure, he says; the pressure is immense, what with accolades heaped upon him  by the likes ofmajor magazinesand media outletssuch as Billboard, Rolling Stone, and Vogue –who  profiled  Jake  for  their  Youthquake projectas  aGen  Z  creatorwho  ispushing the conversation forward–as well asGLAAD –for whom Jake was nominated this year for Outstanding  Breakthrough  Music  Artist,  alongside  a  show-stopping  performance  at  the ceremony. Then there are people likeElton John(who had Jake perform with Grammy-winning Brandi  Carlile  at  his  feted  30thannual  Oscar-viewing  AIDS  foundation  benefit  this  spring),  Kate Hudson, and countless other A-list devotees who’ve flocked to the singer-songwriter’s pulpit over the past few years.And has he mentioned he’s opening this fall’s eagerly anticipated Panic! At the Disco arena tour alongside Marina?(As PAPER Magazine predicted upon the release of his major label debut, “Give Jake Wesley Rogers a stadium.”)On  the  flipside:  who  has  as  much  material  and  momentum  behind  them  as  Jake,  buoyed  and propelled by the well-earned success of his still-fledgling career? After leaving his Nashville home for New Orleans in search of “blowing up his life in the best way possible,” the performer found creatively springing anew, landing in the city during an artistic renaissance flush with longtime New  York  and  Los  Angeles expats(fellows  queers  and  allies  like  Scissor  Sisters  frontman Jake Shears,White Lotusstar Jennifer Coolidge, and Hedwiglegend John Cameron Mitchell have all taken up residence in the Big Easy in recent years).“So many of my dreams have come true since then,” Jake says. “The past few years woke me up to what being alive is really about, and now I get  to  use  those fulfilled dreams  to  anchor  the  next  chapter  in my  career, my  artistry,  and  my growth.”Born  in  Kansas  City,  MO, Jakecalls his early songwriting experiments at age 11 “like in Harry Potterwhen they accidentally do magic before they go to Hogwarts.”Musical  theater  became his creative outlet; songwriting became his escape. For Jake, music didn’t simply define his childhood; it enveloped it and informed his future.Songs were his ticket to enlightenment; music was the key to connection and commonality.Still working proudly alongsidehit songwriter Justin Tranter(and signed to hisimprint of Warner Records, Facet Records),Jake remains an artist with a melody and a message. Never preachy but always poignant, his lyrics –on breakout singles like the recent “Lavender Forever” as well asthe beloved songsfrom his 2021 EP, Pluto–have enraptured audiences from all over the world. Thecrowds at his shows, powerful pulpits where music and heart mix and mingle freely,area mix of young, music-hungry fans and older menand women, from all walks of life. “Looking out into the crowds  at  my  concertsmakes me realize the power music can have,” he says,  pointing  to upcoming festivalslotsandthe Panic!tour dates as opportunities to keep that momentum–the electricity thatripples through his concerts, long-dormant emotions and feelings bubbling to the surface of everyone in the room. “We all want an excuse to be ourselves. That mentality is driving how I’m going about this album.”

Though his songs have reached millions worldwide, Jake says he’s emboldened by the knowledge that there are still minds and hearts to reach here in the U.S. “I was in Missouri with my mom, in a very small town, and someone started heckling me, asking if I was a man or a woman,” he remembers. “I felt this conviction in my heart, took out my phone, and recorded a responseto the question ‘am I a boy or am I a girl?’ with, simply: ‘I'm neither. I'm a moment! I’m a journey, I’m adestination, I’m across between a leaf and a cloud and a heavy piece ofmachinery.I am!’” The  moment  resonated  deeply  with  followers  and  those  whose  TikTok  feeds  served  them  the powerful video. “Most people, like me, are fluid,” Jake says. “We’re all contradictions. We’re all learning to love ourselves –me especially.”Learning  to  love  himself,  he  notes,  has  meant  leaving  the  “wonderful,  appreciated, overwhelming” outside validation–magazine  covers,  social  media  likes,  glowing  daytime  TV debuts during the final season of Ellen–at the door. “Self-esteem is fickle, butself-compassion is not,” he says with a grin, a lesson he taught himself when, last fall–after a string of sold-out New  York  shows,  book-ended by appearances on James Corden and Seth Meyers’ late night shows –he found himself COVID-positive, isolatingin a single room in Wales. “I just broke down, because I realized I’d been relying so heavily on other people telling me Iwasdoing a good job,” he says. “Since then, I’ve been relearning to love myself, to love art and creating art, and to love telling stories again. That’s the headspace I never knew I needed to get back to, and that’s the headspace into which I’m planting my feet down as I write and record these next few months.”As for the sorts of stories he plans to tell with his debut album? “I've  heard  if  you  survive childhood, you have enough material for the rest of your life,” he says, punctuating the thought with a belly laugh. “I’ll just keep chasing that feeling.”

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