by mariah estran
photo courtesy of sheldon riley
Back in July, an America's Got Talent audition was a topic of conversation. The performance occurred over a hundred thousand views on YouTube and grew larger on social media. It was an Australian singer by the name of Sheldon Riley that graced the stage in a jaw-dropping crystal veil and hand-made ostrich feather wings. The look captured the attention and needed no introduction. Instead, his haunting vocals spoke for themselves. "When people started to hear me, and they liked it, that gave me this voice," Riley says. "Being a kid that did not speak at all, I was like, 'This is going to be my way to communicate with people.’"
Riley’s popularity spread in the United States due to AGT, but singing competitions are quite familiar to the artist. “I come from a family that couldn’t afford to do anything in this industry,” he explains. “I’ve grown up on auditions on tv shows.” At fourteen, he joined The X-Factor and made it to the Top 12.
While being coached by pop-singer Adam Lambert, Riley remembers Lambert expressing that his voice was good, but he needed to find himself. “Someone like Adam Lambert, who I am so inspired by, saying my voice is so solid, I didn’t care what people thought of me,” he recalls. “My talent is strong. Now, I need to be confident in what I am wearing and who I am.” After taking time to self-evaluate, he proceeded to The Voice Australia, where he put his unique dismal twists on chart-topping songs like Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings.” Each performance left the audience in awe as they simultaneously wondered what Riley had planned next.
Fans continued to request new music. However, for Riley, the timing didn't feel right. As the singer says, “Music was just for me." But now, at twenty-one, he is armed with the experience and confidence to release his debut single “More Than I." “Writing music now, releasing my first single, it's a big insight as to why I dress the way that I do and sound the way that I do,” he says. The three-minute tune is vulnerable yet a powerful ballad that puts his extraordinary talent on a pedestal. “The song is about hesitation, that fight or flight attitude that I have always had,” the singer says when describing the track. “It’s about coming out, not only in a sense, of me being gay, but coming out as me.” He compares the single to a movie trailer, explaining how it’s a preview of the bigger picture, an upcoming album, and his own story. A fitting parallel, considering the songs cinematic-score likeness, that is wrapped in Riley's angelic vocals as the lyricism recites a heavy scenario. “As a gay person coming out, there’s that moment between coming out and the response of the person you’re coming out to,” he shares. “That dead silence of what they’re going to say."
The awareness of the momentary pause stems from his own experience, as well as from stories he has heard. He confides that he felt secure in coming out to those he loves, and even on television, but acknowledges that not every experience ends in such a positive manner. “It’s not just written for me; it’s written for so many other people that tell me they’ve been kicked out of their homes or abandoned by their families. This song is the reminder that you need to have your own back first before anyone else can.”
As the full-length album is in the works, Riley has put his emotions and honesty at the forefront. Living in an age where music is easily accessible, artists churn out singles instantly, which has made Riley wonder if they are sincere. “This album to come, there is a story behind everything that I am singing. I want people to take from the single and album that there are people who write music who haven’t got it all, and do have the same feelings that they do,” he expresses. Riley adds that the break-up trope isn’t for him. We experience a variety of pain outside of a media-friendly love story narrative. “I want to relate to an audience that’s been through something that is so much darker than that. I want them to know that there is light at the end of it.”
He’s gathered a handful of songs written as a pre-teen back when he stepped into life in the public eye. Even though Riley excelled at these talent competitions, exchanged words with celebrities, and got published on entertainment websites, there was still a side he wasn’t able to tell. “A lot of people have seen me grow up through TV, but what they don’t know is how scary it is when you come off these shows,” he explains. The singer went from stepping out on expensively designed stages in head-to-toe avant-garde costumes to sitting back at home. There was pressure to keep up an expectation that hindered the singer’s mental health. “I did a lot of hiding; I went through a lot of pain and fear,” he says. “Everyone knows everything about me deconstructed through TV. So, I feel like this album is my side of the story.”
Even though the real story is just beginning, listen to "More Than I." You can tell it is honest and full of admirable fearlessness. That same fearlessness that has allowed Riley to perform for the world and be who he is with no hesitation. He’s a tremendous force that needs no justification, which is what he hopes to sustain. “I want my art and my fashion to be what makes me remembered,” he reveals. “I know that what I do and my craft, my music, in the most humble way, I must be pretty good at it because that’s what got me to get talked about in the first place."
As he considers the potential impact of his solo career, he concludes with a few poignant words. “A lot of people out there are so afraid to speak up from themselves and be proud of who they are because it’s scary. But if I can let anyone know anything, what you do can speak just as loudly as the words you could say as well.”