Joey Schuman has a fondness for bees. They work hard. They collaborate. They pollinate gardens. But they’re also “misunderstood.”
“People are scared that they’re going to get stung,” he says. “But what makes a bee sting is when they’re provoked or frightened.”
Schuman, 22, performs as Jem Wilde, a folk-rock alter ego delivering a delicate take on love and life from a queer perspective. As Wilde, Schuman finds kinship with his beloved insects.
“A lot of the project is about exploring the idea of being out of place,” he says.
The stage name originates from record company executive turned rock star Jem of 1980s cartoon lore and gay poet, novelist, and playwright Oscar Wilde. Jem Wilde plays the Pocket Nov. 20, alongside bandmates Jarrett Karner on bass (also plays for Joey Howard), drummer Molly Izer (of Grlztoy and Hotel Sewing Kit), guitarist Hailey Cook (Hotel Sewing Kit), and Aidan Rodeschin on percussion.
Schuman’s identity as a queer man shapes rather than defines his music, he says. “Not everything that I write is a gay love song or a song about gender, but the lens that I experience the world with is queer.”
A poet and classically trained dancer, Schuman graduated with a BFA in dance this May from George Mason University, where he also first delved into songwriting and played shows. Now back in his hometown of Baltimore, he continues to use music as a form of processing. “It’s not about the song itself but about what needs to be said, what needs to be shared,” he says.
Schuman posts confessional-style videos of original material and covers on social media, performances that are technically polished but emotionally raw. In a rendition of his song “Sissy,” Schuman stares down the camera and sings, “I didn’t want the world/ I only asked for something softer.”
It’s a response to misogyny he has experienced as a self-described feminine queer man. While Schuman says he could never fully know the sexism that women experience, there’s a particular brand of it that can emerge in queer male relationships.
“All men are secretly jealous of healthy femininity,” he says. “Everyone desires softness, but for so many men, they don’t know how to want it or inhabit it in a way that doesn’t claim and conquer it.”
“Sissy” is a familiar term for Schuman, who was bullied as a child. While at home, his parents encouraged him to be himself, free to dance around in tutus and Tinker Bell costumes. But at school, the rules were different. His kindergarten teacher once called his mother to express her concern over Schuman’s femininity.
“I have this unique lens with which I look at men because I am one, and I know what that conditioning feels like,” Schuman says. “I know what it feels like to be a boy in public school and have all of those confusing messages. And I also know this other experience of having my femininity be embraced and encouraged.”
Schuman’s joy is electric, something he can easily leverage as he makes connections as an emerging artist in the DMV. When he enters a new space, he makes a point to introduce himself: “I believe that community is made actively; I think you have to work for it a little bit.”
As Jem Wilde, Schuman says the band will release their first recording project next year, but looking at the bigger picture he hopes to grow a sizable audience for his music and serve as “the songwriter that I never saw.” In a world where many well-known queer male artists perform pop or dance music, he feels “lonely” in the folk-rock world but also inspired to present something different to those who may need it.
“Songs have changed my life, and I hope in some way that mine could be a little glitter in somebody else’s.”