Last week, we shared a wonderful video of The Homeless Gospel Choir frontman, Derek Zanetti, covering Pat the Bunny’s “I’m Going Home.” Today, we’re happy to be premiering an interview between A Fistful of Vinyl’s Alec Hodgman and Derek who opens up about community, vulnerability, mental health, finding inspiration, protest songs, the meaning of The Homeless Gospel Choir, his latest record Normal, and how to create an atmosphere that can be inclusive towards everyone.

“The best thing we can do is offer our true selves in any arena…when I was recording Normal, I had a desire to be heard in regards to the war going on inside my own head…The more I’ve talked about it, the more of a connection I’ve been able to have with other people who wish they could talk about it in a more free way.”

A Fistful of Vinyl is a DIY crew of volunteers run by KXLU veteran Alec Hodgman. They create live music sessions and interviews for YouTube in Los Angles with artists in and around the punk and folk music scenes. Their coverage helps to raise notoriety of small artists who make phenomenal music but don’t have a platform to share it, and celebrate the larger artists who share that mission of supporting those up-and-coming prodigies. A Fistful of Vinyl airs on KXLU 88.9 FM/Online Thursday nights at 9pm PT.

Watched the whole interview below and make sure you check out THGC’s cover of “I’m Going Home”