Parson James' latest track, "Sad Song," spells out the tough road to emotional recovery ("I'm so sick of, so sick of falling in love / I'm so tired of swinging and missing," one particularly pointed lyric goes) — but make no mistake, the singer-songwriter is flying high.

James, whose debut EP The Temple dropped in February, recently stopped by PopCrush HQ for a Some Like It Pop-offshoot interview, but the conversation traveled far beyond the limits of our humble recoding studio. In less than a half-hour, we chatted about everything from songwriting inspiration (exes, judgmental family members), the social and political pressures gay artists face (he can't be the community's savior, but he's doing the best he can) and what it's like to canvass for peace and humanity while traveling the world performing.

"I'm just all here for equality and I'm all here for love; I can't process what racism and homophobia is — it doesn't make sense to me," he said. "I make songs; it doesn't matter if I'm the gay guy making songs."

Oh, and we naturally talked about Lady Gaga's Joanne (he loved it).

Now, James is hard at work finishing up new material, some of which he said might drop within a few short weeks. And, you know, if Adele, Maren Morris or JoJo have a second to share some studio time before then, he certainly wouldn't hate it.

Listen to James' interview with PopCrush, check out "Sad Song" and download his The Temple EP.

Here Are 2015's Best New Artists:

More From