British singer Sam Smith, who publicly came out gay in May, told The Guardian this week that he's always been out.

Smith first publicly discussed his sexual orientation with The Fader, saying that his hit single In the Lonely Hour is about unrequited love between himself and another man.

In the Lonely Hour is about a guy that I fell in love with last year, and he didn’t love me back,” he said. “I think I’m over it now, but I was in a very dark place. I kept feeling lonely in the fact that I hadn’t felt love before. I’ve felt the bad things. And what’s a more powerful emotion: pain or happiness?”

But in speaking with The Guardian, Smith, 22, dismissed headlines that he had come out.

“I didn't come out,” he insisted. “I came out when I came out of my mum. No, that side of things to me is just normality. I find it weird when people use the expression 'coming out' like it's a massive party of relief.”