by Lesley Goldberg
photo by Dave Morffy

If you haven’t heard of Cassidy Haley yet, don’t worry, you will. The up-and-coming queer singer-songwriter — who happens to be pre-American Idol pals with runner-up Adam Lambert — is on the cusp of making it.

When Lambert, whom Haley met via MySpace and became “fast friends with,” linked to Haley’s sexually charged “Whiskey In Churches” YouTube video via his Twitter account, Haley’s musical career hit an entirely new level of success. Lambert’s tweet to his nearly 150,000 followers propelled Haley’s “Whiskey In Churches” YouTube video to more than 36,000 views within days, and placement in the top 10 on iTunes electronica downloads. The music video is now playing on Logo’s NewNowNext PopLab.

Haley, 29, has achieved success once in his career, rocketing to fame with his leather-infused clothing line Skingraft; Lambert and throngs of other celebrities have worn his designs. But music has always been his passion.

“I’ve been working tirelessly for the past year on this album and the music videos and some of Adam’s fans already knew about me through his promotion of my clothing company, Skingraft, so his tweet was really like throwing a match on an already built fire. A very big match loaded with gasoline,” Haley says.

While he remains unsigned, even after downloads to his songs from the Little Boys and Dinosaurs EP reached the iTunes charts, the son of a “progressive lesbian” who was a “pioneer of the donor insemination process” has always dreamed of a career in music.

Haley writes all of his songs and plays acoustic guitar and piano—his grandmother, in fact, had a grand piano in her home and taught him the basics of the instrument and “exposed me to the masterpieces of classical music.”

“I always wanted to be on stage as a kid,” Haley says. “I would sing and dance and put on elaborate stage shows with my siblings. Then my voice changed and I went through that awkward, insecure phase where my freedom of expression got smashed into millions of repressed little pieces and it wasn’t until I was about 15 that I picked up a guitar and really started taking music seriously again. Songwriting became my therapy and saving grace for an angst-filled teenage life.”

It was as a teen, cleaning his grandmother’s house and attending a lot of raves that Haley would make up “some crazy droning and trancy melodies. When I would play them for my grandmother, she would totally cringe. But she was very supportive,” he recalls.

Haley describes his lyrics as “emotional throw-up,” and says that when “things hurt, I make them into songs.” Now that his fan base has exploded, the out performer has started tapping into something deeper to “think more about using the medium to communicate something intentional.”

“The music for my next album is really coming from a place of wanting to contribute something to people,” he says. “Of course, I still have that emotional throw-up. Recently I fell deeply in love and got my heart broken in less than a week’s time, which was pretty impressive even for an overzealous and romantically delusional fellow such as myself. But let me tell you, the song I wrote after that was worth every gut-wrenching moment of pain and longing. It’s already in the process of being produced and will be on my next album.”

Speaking of albums, Haley has tried relentlessly before and after Lambert’s life-changing Twitter post to connect with a record label. The Downtown Los Angeles-based performer—who most recently played Sunset Strip’s Viper Room—has decided to do it all on his own.

“I have a jack-of-all-trades mentality, so when I set out to do this last album and couldn’t find all the right people to work with, I just did everything myself,” he says. “I wrote the songs, produced the tracks, packaged the album and did the cover art, sold the CDs on my eBay store and promoted it all through word-of-mouth and online communities. I even produced my own music videos with no budget and with an amazing team of friends and colleagues to whom I will be forever grateful.

“Signing to a label might be cool but I’ve come this far on my own so it would have to be a really sweet deal and so far no labels are knocking down my door,” says Haley, who cites Bjork, Ani DiFranco, Ben Harper and out musicians Patrick Wolf and Sam Sparrow among his influences.

As for Lambert’s reach, Haley credits the out singer with showing him “how tangible success is with the right product and the right promotional tool.”

Haley plans to continue to do it all on his own: He plans to continue to gig with his new band, Cassidy Haley and the Sunshine Rebels, in New York and San Francisco this winter, and hopes for a greater U.S. tour in the spring to coincide with his next album. In the meantime, look for Haley online: “I’m upgrading my online musical presence and will be doing even more elaborate YouTube videos and live U-stream concerts,” he says. “The virtual mediums available to a performing artist right now are just incredible. With a little creativity, you can really create a career from your bedroom, which I pretty much have.”

For more on Cassidy, visit cassidyhaley.com.