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LOS ANGELES, June 16 (UPI) -- Singer-songwriter Nicholas Hamilton said his new single, "Spins," being released Friday, is about his second date with his boyfriend, Jackson. "I was so drunk, I couldn't close my eyes to kiss him," Hamilton told UPI in a recent Zoom interview. "The whole world was spinning so I had the spins. That's where the song comes from."
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Hamilton met Jackson on dating app Hinge when he was living in New Jersey while filming the upcoming movie, Brave the Dark, in Pennsylvania. Hamilton said he was in love by date No. 2, but as he sings, "I'll stop myself from saying that I love you but it's hard to when I'm only thinking of you."
Hamilton said his first date with Jackson was a simple dinner followed by live music in New York City. One week later, Jackson texted Hamilton wanting to meet again.
Between having drinks earlier in the day and being gifted shots by a waiter, Hamilton said he overdid it. The couple concluded the night sitting on a bench on the Hoboken campus of Jackson's college, looking at New York City over the Hudson River, where they kissed.
"We just sat there and looked at the skyline," Hamilton said. "It was a really poignant night."
The next morning, Hamilton began writing "Spins."
"Songwriting has always been a bit of a therapy for me," Hamilton said. "Just being able to sit down and write about what I was feeling and how much I was feeling really did help."
Hamilton released his first EP, Pretty Young, in 2021. He said he saved "Spins" on his laptop for a year before deciding it was one of his best songs to produce and release for Pride Month.
As a singer-songwriter, Hamilton said he can "play enough keyboard to write" songs. Music producer Arthur Pingray assembled the session musicians to back up Hamilton's voice on the released track.
So far, Hamilton's songs have reflected the romantic ballad aesthetic which "Spins" continues. Hamilton said this music reflects his current state of mind.
"This more sappy romantic side of my songwriting is what I want to release now," Hamilton said. "It's the stuff I usually like to listen to, anyway. Right now, that's what I want to put out and what I want people to hear."
Hamilton calls Lewis Capaldi, Hozier and Adele among his favorite current artists, adding that he also is inspired by "oldies" artists.
"I love Bill Withers, Etta James and Stevie Wonder, the Commodores," Hamilton said. "I really, really like the crooning style of ballads and romantic songs so I'm starting to really get into that in my writing."
As an actor in movies like It, The Dark Tower and Captain Fantastic, Hamilton was living in Los Angeles until the COVID-19 pandemic. He moved back to his native Australia before Brave the Dark, and turned to music as a creative outlet during the pandemic.
"Part of it was a financial thing, just trying to find any way to make money," Hamilton said. "By that point, I was really proud of what I was writing and what I was making. I had the time to put stuff out."
Hamilton said he had been writing music privately since he was 18. Before releasing his music, he used it as an outlet over which he'd have more control than acting.
"Acting requires so much work from other people," Hamilton said. "It's still creative, and I still love it, but you're saying other people's words in front of a camera that someone else is holding, and then all that is going to be edited by someone else you probably never met."
When productions resumed during COVID-19, Hamilton's acting career picked back up. He filmed the Australian series, Action Royale, and an episode of Love, Victor.
In addition to Brave the Dark, the movies Creepers and Things Like This, as well as the Freevee series The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh, are forthcoming. In Brave the Dark, Hamilton plays Nathan Williams, a role inspired by Nathan Deen, who also produced the film.
"In the '80s, a kid named Nathan Deen was orphaned at a very young age," Hamilton said. "He swapped from foster home to foster home until he ran away and just lived in his car.
"It's his story of how he survived. He ended up getting through life and his teacher took him under his wing -- his drama teacher."
Creepers returns Hamilton to the horror genre after It. Based on the David Morrell book, Creepers is about two rival groups of explorers who encounter supernatural forces in an abandoned hotel.
"It was entirely night shoots, so we would get off at 6 a.m, have a five-hour sleep and then drink all day and then go back on set at night," Hamilton said.
Hamilton confessed he does not watch horror movies because "I'm a bit of a wuss."
