Wrabel finds his voice, and his inspiration
Stephen Wrabel attended the vaunted Berklee College of Music and lives in Los Angeles, but the musician spent his formative years in Houston, attending St. Francis Episcopal School and The Kinkaid School in Piney Point. His parents still live in the area, and he remembers great meals at Carrabba’s on Voss and at Pappasito’s.
“I remember being very awkward. But I think that was more me than Houston,” Wrabel, 28, says. The singersongwriter, who simply goes by his last name, returns home Tuesday for a show at House of Blues.
“In some ways, I feel like a completely different person. Like, unrecognizable. And then in some ways, I feel like the same weird, awkward little guy trying to figure out what the heck’s going on.”
It’s taken him some time to work it all out. Wrabel didn’t say the word “gay” publicly until he was well into his 20s. He had moved to Los Angeles and became involved in a “really messed up church situation” that told him being gay was “some sort of golden sin.” He recently recounted the experience on Twitter.
He eventually realized there was nothing wrong with him. But, as for so many, it was a journey to get there.
“I remember my crush in middle school was definitely not a girl,” he says. “By high school, I think, is when it got dark. I started feeling alone in that. I was drinking a lot, doing a lot of drugs, kind of trying to get out of my head about it.”
He cleaned himself up, figured out who he was and began funneling those experiences into his music. He also surrounded himself with people who challenged him to be himself, including pop star Kesha, an early champion of Wrabel’s music. He co-wrote a song on her current “Rainbow” album and has penned tunes for Prince Royce, Phillip Phillips, Adam Lambert and Idina Menzel.
Singles “Ten Feet Tall” with Afrojack and “Ritual” with Marshmello, featuring Wrabel’s warm vocals, became club hits. His breakout solo tune “11 Blocks” was a sweet ode to his first love that earned a warm reception on Houston radio.
His music has continued to evolve in its honesty and urgency. He wrote “The Village” the day after President Donald Trump dismantled federal protections for transgender students in schools. It was inspired by a conversation with those directly affected by the order.
“I feel like I wrote that out of necessity. I was talking to these two fans, these two trans teenagers, that I’d met on tour last year. They were just telling me what it felt like in school that day. It wasn’t good,” he says.
“I just wanted to send it to them originally because I didn’t know really what to say. It’s been the most meaningful thing, to me, that I’ve done. It’s really for anyone who feels marginalized or like a weirdo or a freak.”
The accompanying video follows a teen, played by trans actor August Aiden, struggling with acceptance at home and school. The song and visual have inspired an outpouring of letters, tweets and messages from fans, some of which Wrabel has shared on social media.
Despite the visibility and push for awareness, he’s hesitant to take on the word “activist.”
Instead, Wrabel feels his most essential work comes in being himself, in something as simple as walking down the street with a heart-shaped hoop in his right ear and flower-print shoes.
“Whatever platform you have, you can bring about change and you can inspire someone and you can say something,” he says. “Those two kids that I met on tour affected my life more than almost anyone, just by being themselves and knocking on the backstage door at my show. I’ve just tried to be myself in the simplest of ways. Just living out in the real world as yourself can inspire somebody. And in that way, I think we all have a platform — and even a responsibility — to try to do that.”