Lemont Native, YouTube Sensation Seeks Fans' Help in Funding Album

A Lemont native and aspiring songwriter whose gay-themed music video attracted millions of views is looking for fans' help funding his album. 

"All-American Boy" YouTube sensation Steve Grand has created a Kickstarter fund to raise $81,000 needed to produce his own record. 

"That will allow me just enough to finish my record, create album art, package it, and film my next music video, which I plan to release on the same day as the album," Grand wrote on the page. "If we can raise this money together, you can count on my album being out sometime in May. And then I’ll see you on tour!"

Grand, who graduated from Lemont High School in 2008, is four songs into his album, working with producer Aaron Johnson. Johnson is tied to bands such as Secondhand Serenade, Katie Herzig and Eve 6, and best known for producing the first records from The Fray. Grand offers up a sampling of their work together, in “Back to California.” The song can be downloaded for free from Bandcamp or iTunes.

His first song touched hearts—a classic tale of unrequited love that, unlike most other country songs, was told from a gay man's perspective. He discovered he was gay in eighth grade, and although the song is based on his own experience falling for a straight friend during summer camp, he said the story is one that transcends sexual orientation.

"The song is not about being gay," Grand told Patch. "I've been able to relate to straight people my whole life and the way they experience love. I hope people are smart enough to realize that everyone has an 'All-American Boy,' whether they're gay, straight, or a man or woman."

That personal feel and approach will resound in his future songs, Grand said. The album will include 12 tracks all written by Grand, about the "roller-coaster ride of being human: love and loss, hope and regret, triumph and the struggles of growing up—all through the lens of my own experiences.

"I believe that a good love song is a good love song," he wrote. "That the ways we love, the ways we ache and hurt, are far more the same than the world might acknowledge. And I refuse to believe that the universal nature of any expression of love in music or art can be trumped by a damn pronoun."

Check out how you can help, and what you get out of the donation. Grand's perks for supporters include autographed, framed photos, t-shirts, the album on vinyl—even a shout-out in the album credits.