I’m not sure if it’s fascinating to me or just the reality in which I exist but music has really taught me now to be: how to be in the world, in my body, in relationship.  All of these things are deeply informed by music.  I’m not sure if I could survive without it, it’s something of a teacher and a life force and a catalyst and a bridge between inside and outside.

I am the latest to the part, haha, but have been obsessively listening to Billie Eilish these last few weeks (after watching the documentary about the making of her first record, which made me cry on a train).  Also, Halsey’s new record is really awesome.  Both of these people are incredibly strong writers and they use their voices in powerful, subtle, novel ways.  I’m learning a lot from the vocal writing of both of these artists and feeling really inspired.

I feel like all of these tracks have a feeling attached, they carry a strong universe either emotionally (David Bowie’s ‘Afraid’, for example), or physically (the Manni Dee ‘Betamax Interlude’).  I tried to make a trip between contemporary and earlier tracks, lyrical and instrumental, pop and dance music, stuff that I am really feeling right now.  I hope it accompanies listeners on some good adventures, evenif it’s just inside themselves.

‘Post-Alternative Industrial Pop’: techno music for punks, punk music for ravers.

I am a massive fan of Matthew Williams and Alyx.  I find the brand’s aesthetic universe and references deeply compelling and cohesive with my own.  Since playing Alyx’s first Paris Fashion Week party in 2016, they’ve been super generous and supportive of my work and really dear to me on a personal level.  To be able to do this collaboration means a lot.

I am a massive fan of Matthew Williams and Alyx.  I find the brand’s aesthetic universe and references deeply compelling and cohesive with my own.  Since playing Alyx’s first Paris Fashion Week party in 2016, they’ve been super generous and supportive of my work and really dear to me on a personal level.  To be able to do this collaboration means a lot.

One of the earlier Alyx collections was called ‘Love/Chaos’, and the lyrics to the first single on my album ‘The Practice of Freedom’ are ‘instrument of: love/chaos/love’, so the connection was strong to begin with.

The album’s title is borrowed from bell hooks’ magnificent work ‘Teaching Transgression: Education as the Practice of Freedom’.  This meaning of freedom, for me, keeps evolving.  As a person in recovery from addiction, I am obsessed with freedom as the opposite to the bondage of self; as a self-described ‘féministe submissive,’ the idea of power exchange and notions of toying with freedom as a perverse delight are fascinating.  As a society, we are surviving(?) late stage capitalism, the concept of freedom, or lack there of (especially as an American), can be heavy and complicated.  I guess for me what’s important is trying to use the privilege of my freedom to help others to get free, to continue to wade into the deeper waters of what’s emotionally authentic, creatively possible, of service to my fellows.

The Okra project has been doing work that feels directly meaningful to a community that has been affected by the ongoing, ever-present social inequalities of trans-phobia and racism.  I grew up in NYC and Matt has roots there, so it felt good to give to an organization that helps serve a city that’s so important to both of us.  We hope that our contribution is helpful.

This is actually a very difficult question! Musically, Nine Inch Nails have been my dream collab since I was a pre-teen.  Fashion-wise, I am really inspired by the late Alexander McQueen, whose notion of savage beauty feels very close to the kind of universe I want my work to inhabit.