More visibility is more power, but more vulnerability.
My bassist Jorgen Jorgensen opened up my life to a lot of great, obscure old soul records.
Learning that someone is gay, queer, trans, doesn't tell you much by itself. They could be any kind of person aside from that particular slice of identity.
My main theme as a songwriter seems to be a feeling of homelessness, of being in motion. The feeling of being somehow unmoored, a radical internal freedom that is very painful and also joyful.
If you get into really learning about the roots of monotheism, it was utterly a radical cultural moment. The Bible was so revolutionary and against all that came before it.
I think there's a large worry in queer communities about imitating straight people, when queerness has its own identity and maybe can be a radical force that should be dismantling stuff that locks people into structures.
Some part of me hopes for a guardian angel to protect me and other people who need protection.
My Jewishness and queerness are very interwoven, and, although they sometimes conflict culturally, intellectually and spiritually they deepen one another for me.
I'm a shy person whose very presence has become a confrontation. I think that's true of a lot of queer people.
I really don't care about what anyone says unless they are also gender-nonconforming. Then I really listen. I love the solidarity felt between us gender failures.
I heard the Velvet Underground and that changed things when I was like, 15.
I wrote 'My Teeth Hurt' in April 2018 when my teeth hurt and I didn't have dental insurance.
As children my grandparents were refugees. Eventually they got to the U.S. - in 1950 or something. They grew up as refugees. Their earliest memories are of living in a home with their family. It's in my blood, I guess, to have a fear about encouraging fascism.
A lot of bands break through with their third record: the White Stripes, the Clash, the Replacements.
We take a lot of inspiration from punk rock and early rock 'n' roll from the '50s and early '60s.
I think most of the work of songwriting is thinking of great phrases - I'm addicted, always on the hunt for a really great phrase.
I was rather obsessed with angels.
We need a lot more visibility of queer people in public life. People gotta get used to it.
I get stage fright really bad sometimes, so touring has been hard on me in a lot of ways. But despite that, I love performing.
I'm interested in God. I'm not interested in religion for religion's sake.
