Josef Salvat

Singer Josef Salvat strikes a chord as he opens up to Thomas Stichbury about going into meltdown mode, the chemsex scene and finding love through his lyrics

Photography Frank Fieber

Done a Britney and buzzed off your hair? health Check. Attempted to grow a questionable moustache? Check. Deep-cleaned your collection of sex toys? Check. There are only so many ways that us gays can keep ourselves preoccupied during this pandemic.

However, self-isolation should be a cinch for Josef Salvat since this isn’t his first time in quarantine (or “queerantine”). “I’ve done it before. I was in Berlin and I didn’t really leave my flat for about three and a half months,” he discloses. “I also did the shaved head thing. When there’s a massive life shift, or you feel disempowered, you make drastic decisions like, ‘I’m going to grow a ’tache,’ which is obviously wild.”

We’ll circle back to the Australian singer’s own personal lockdown in a moment.

After fleeing from his folks (“spending that much cabin-fever time with your parents, you regress; somehow you end up back in those old roles”), Josef jumps on the phone while holed up in a hotel room in Sydney. “I’m on this embassy list for going back to the UK [he’s normally based in Dalston, London] because my dog’s at home – I miss him so much. He’s called Monty [see opposite]. One of his parents was a miniature poodle and the other was a toy poodle. Super cute.”

Josef’s upcoming album seems to have been tailor-made for the nerveshredding nightmare we find ourselves in – it’s called Modern Anxiety, for fuck’s sake. “It’s everything,” he proclaims. “It’s your relationships, it’s your mental problems, it’s the climate, it’s the unstable political situation, it’s the fucking coronavirus. When you’re a kid, you think you know how the world is and how life is, and then your teenage years and your twenties are a series of unpleasant lessons. Where are the rules? Where is the consistency?”