Speak Out on Queer Music

Ava (they/she), Charlie (any/all) and Jay (she/her) Speak Out on their favorite queer artists, their own musical journeys, how music shaped coming into their LGBTQ+ identities, and how you can never have too many clarinets!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Good afternoon. We are Speak Out by Outright, a podcast with Outright News Magazine, the

(00:07):
oldest queer college publication in the nation. We publish articles on events and topics relevant
to the queer community. We publish quarterly by print twice a week online. And we have
this lovely podcast that you're listening to every week on UCLA radio from 1 to 2 p.m.
and post delayed to Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, and anywhere else you like to listen

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to podcasts the following week. I'm your host, Ava. I use the she pronouns. I'm your co-host
Charlie, and I use any all pronouns. I'm Julia Pollock. You can call me Jay. I use
she, her pronouns. And today we're going to be speaking out on queer music. Yay. So yeah,
if you have a favorite queer song, queer artist, you would like us to discuss. Drop it in the

(00:54):
comments if you're watching live, and we'll give you our review. Cool. So I figured we
could start out talking about maybe our favorite queer artists and how that, what we think
of that. Yeah. Yeah. So I guess I'll start. I listen to a lot of alternative music, and

(01:17):
I mean some of those people are queer. You can speak on this also if you want. But I
don't know as much about that. But I don't know. Lately I've been thinking a lot about
Chapel Roan and how her rise to fame is such an interesting, unique experience because
a lot of main pop stars are not openly queer, at least not women. You know, we have a lot
of like openly gay pop stars from like, especially from like the 80s and stuff like Freddie Mercury

(01:41):
and Elton John and all. But Chapel Roan is like, there's like, there is an SNL skit about
Timothee Chalamet playing Troye Sivan. And Bo and Ying was like, he's not famous, he's
gay famous. And I was like, gay famous is such a specific thing because there's great
people like Hayley Keogh and Fletcher who are like gay famous queer artists. But you
don't have a mainstream artist like Chapel Roan who's talking about queer sex so explicitly

(02:04):
and queer sexuality so explicitly. So I thought that was really cool that she's become such
a big artist lately. Yeah. When I heard her playing at a, like her song at a UCLA athletics
game, I was like, that's how you know she's mainstream because they very, very only play
stuff that's gotten really big. We did a whole episode on the rise and fall of a Midwest
princess Chapel Roan episode back in week one of fall quarter. So that should still

(02:29):
be on Spotify. If you want to have a listen. Oh, cool. I forgot we did that. Yeah. I don't
think you were on that. Yeah. That was our week one episode because it was right when
she just started speaking out about like the pressures of fame. Yeah. Yeah. And stuff.
Yeah. I don't know. My favorite queer artist would probably be 100 Gex. I listened to a

(02:50):
lot of what I call like straight by metal. Like I don't like slipknot. Judas Priest,
like ghosts. Yeah. No, they're great, but I just don't have a lot to say about them
in this context, but I love 100 Gex. I keep like almost seeing them in concert and then
like every time like something happens. And so I don't know, maybe one day it'll be meant

(03:11):
to be, but I love their style of kind of like EDM alternative. Like they're really cool.
They're very open about being queer. And yeah, I don't know. They're just like really funky
music. They're the kind of music where people start to question like is this art? And I
love the I love that kind of music where people are like, is this real?

(03:32):
Well, okay. So I'm sorry. Oh yeah, this is, I know what's up. Well, my favorite queer
artist, I don't think I listened to a lot of like very specifically queer artists, not
that I can think of. Maybe I'm just really blanking. I listen to a lot of like queer
core punk though. So that's cool. Like Tri-Bade and Team Drench and stuff like that. So,

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but like mainstream wise, I think I also wanted to say like, I think a reason why we might
not see a lot of like mainstream like female or like, you know, non-binary like queer artists
is because like when, when women are like pop stars, it's like it's, it's subversive,
it's subverted for men to be pop stars because it's like, I don't know. It's just, it's like

(04:16):
a female thing to be like the female vocalist in your pop star. But when women are successful,
I think it's more when queer women are successful, I think it's usually more in the alternative
scene because that's what subversion, that's what subversion is to them, you know, and
so being queer like is subverted and then like alternative and then, you know, but then
like for, I don't know, I don't want to put people in boxes, but I feel like maybe that's

(04:39):
why we don't see a lot of like queer women being like huge pop stars. Well, I don't
know. I love Billie Eilish. Maybe that's a, maybe that's a basic answer, but that's what
I can think of right now. I listen to a lot of like alternative music. I've been listening
to like so much Fall Out Boy recently, it's been unhealthy. But yeah, Billie Eilish is

(05:01):
what comes to mind immediately. If I'm not listening to them, I'm probably listening
to Billie Eilish, but yeah, she's a icon. Love that for her. And yeah, that's what's
up.
I think Billie Eilish is also an interesting example because a lot of people accuse Billie
Eilish of queer baiting for a long time and then she finally came out as queer and that

(05:23):
was, it was like, oh, well, she wasn't queer baiting because she's queer. And it was like,
why are we accusing someone of queer baiting if they're in the closet? Because that puts
someone in a really uncomfortable position. And that's also been a discussion with like
TV shows and actors, like the guy who played Nick on Heartstopper. And it's just a very
interesting general conversation to have about queerness and the public eye, I feel.
Taylor Swift gets accused a lot of queer baiting. She's done that song, like you need to calm

(05:45):
down and a couple of those songs. I think that the way people react toward Taylor Swift
in terms of like queering her music just speaks to the fact that there isn't enough queer
mainstream pop representation because I don't know that Taylor Swift is queer or wants to
speak on that, but people just kind of try to assign things to her a lot. Like the song
Lavender Hayes, when it's really, I don't know that that's a queer song.

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And people will go so far. Like I thought it was hilarious. Washington posted a whole
video on Taylor Swift fans and them really like the whole like Gaylor Swift fans.
Okay, I will say she was very touchy with Carly Claus for a very long time. Yeah, that
doesn't mean anything, but I mean, they were hugging in a lot of photos from behind. People

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will find like the small things, like there was something like with a flower on her dashboard
and people connecting that to a girl in red song and and being like, she's a poor girl
in red. So she's gay. And I was like, Oh my God.
No, she just knows her audience. Yeah, I feel like mainstream pop artists like that have
to be super careful too, because like a lot of their audience is these children. And so

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they have to kind of appeal to parents and they have to they can't do anything super
controversial, like in some places being openly queer, because a lot of selling I mean Taylor
Swift doesn't have this pressure she makes enough money as it is. But a lot of times
like selling your music relies on like parents being okay with you. Like I know Sabrina Carpenter's
gotten a lot of backlash lately and I'm sure that's hit her sales. Yeah. I think also that

(07:17):
sorry, I think also that I'm a music industry major. So like, you learn a lot about like
the music business and stuff. And let me tell you every move by every artist, you know,
they can act as authentic as they want. But it's all corporate, it's all corporate. Everything
is calculated. Everything is talked about in a meeting. Like everything, nothing is

(07:39):
unplanned. Like, and if it is unplanned, you're in a lot, you're in a lot of trouble, right?
So it's like, things like that that people read into it's like maybe that's like a it
might be and I'm not saying it's right, but it might be like a PR thing on the music industry,
you know, where it's like, oh, we know that we share this demographic with the other person.
So maybe we can like use that to our advantage and then they'll be talking about like, oh,

(08:03):
making this connection. And in a way that's kind of exploiting the queer audience. But
the music industry in that way, marketing, advertising is exploiting everybody. So again,
I'm not saying it's right, but I'm saying I think that's something that consumers need
to think about when they're consuming music is like, okay, am I being targeted by this?

(08:23):
And is this maybe being done on purpose to market to me to make me talk about it? Like,
you know, what do I want to believe in? Like, what's really real to me, you know, I think
that's why I like so many smaller queer artists, like I forgot to mention her when I said the
favorite artists, but Peach PRC went like she dabbled in obscurity for so long that

(08:44):
there's still a lot of content where she just like does what she wants. I definitely see
as she gets bigger, there's a lot more like what I perceive to be maybe PR stuff involved.
I don't know if you know much about her and can speak to that like from the label standpoint.
I don't think I know. Okay. But yeah, it's interesting to watch when artists like unsigned

(09:06):
artists become signed, how like the way they communicate with their fans. Yeah, it's also
been interesting to watch signed artists become unsigned and reclaim their own work. I feel
like Taylor Swift has been reclaimed like, you know, raising Taylor's version, which
I didn't know if that was for a long time. I'm like, this is the same song. Why is she
releasing this? And then I realized the whole thing like one of my favorite bands is water
parks and they recently I don't there's a lot of speculation of Austin Knight is queer.

(09:28):
It's a whole separate discussion. But they recently dropped their label and have been
working independently. And I think that's a really interesting thing to see going forward
also. That's my own nerdy tangent. I don't know if that relates. But it's interesting.
I wonder, are there any like all queer labels? Are they labels meant for this? There should

(09:53):
be. I'm sure they're probably I'm sure there probably are. Yeah. I can't name any off the
top of my head. But I know like Joan Jett has like an indie level. I love Joan Jett. Oh
my God. Yeah, she's like my oh my God, I'm I she'll be coming back next year. So hopefully
I get a chance to work with her. But I work so I release music and work with a studio

(10:14):
called well, they have their own record label, but they're called Spectrum Labs and they
do songwriting with people on the autism spectrum and also people with other neurological disabilities.
And so there is Fletcher's producer was came and wrote with us and I missed it because
I had a different obligation, but she'll be here back next year. And I think that's so
frickin cool that I can work with somebody who produces queer music. That's so cool.

(10:38):
I thought you meant you were going to work with Joan Jett and I was. Oh, I would die.
I would die. Yeah, I saw she was like one of my favorite concerts. I saw her when I
was like 14. They Oh my God, her songs. I did you guys have to do restorative justice
in high school? This is a tangent, but you had a very interesting high school. Okay,
so we did a restorative justice where you sat in a circle and looked at a map of the

(10:58):
world and passed around the talking like the talking rock with the teacher's name carved
in it. It was like this whole thing. And my mom and I being the very mature people we
were, every time I mentioned restorative justice, we would break out into the song dead end
justice because we could not take it seriously. It was Yeah, I don't know. I've been a fan

(11:20):
of the runaways since I was like eight or nine. Yeah, that's really cool. Very much
defining defining queer music. So I think we all play music here, don't we? Yeah. What
are like some artists that in like influence you in your own songwriting and like, do you

(11:41):
experience any sort of like queer exploration in your work or do you just play like other
stuff or I'm of the opinion and this might I don't know if this is a radical way of thinking
about it, but I think any music that is loved or made by queer people is an expression of
queerness because it comes from a queer person, you know, or like queer people claim it. So

(12:05):
I feel like that every song I make is an expression of queerness because it just it comes from
me and I feel like everything I do is a little, you know, a little queer. But yeah, I mean,
artists inspire me. I don't know first band I ever loved was Lincoln Park. I'm right
now. It definitely influences me. I can't make a song without electronics to save my

(12:26):
life because of Lincoln Park. So thanks. But other than that, I feel like I'm inspired
by a lot of like punk music, but it's funny because a lot of stuff I make isn't punk music.
It's like it's like Florence and the Machine kind of influence like ambient electronic
music. So it's like it's kind of weird. Like I'm inspired by a lot of like hardcore like,

(12:49):
you know, stuff and I love like rock music. I love punk music and stuff like that. But
it's also like it might not show what I make. But I feel like it's just it's just our human
experience. It's just what we are sometimes some things come out in our creativity. Sometimes
things don't. And yeah, that's what's up. So I I always look very far in the future

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and what I make and have a whole elaborate plan of everything I'm making in terms of
my art. So I have one song that should be coming out soon. And then I'm working on a
second song starting tomorrow in the studio. And I'm writing a hope. I don't know. I'm
like, I should release the EP first, because that's what everybody does. But I have so
much stuff I could do a whole album. But I want I'm writing a song about a specific

(13:31):
relationship I had and everyone who is involved in it, the working titles, people, places
and things. But I think that's really boring. So I might change it. But it's, you know,
about how as a queer person, there is this become this network of people who date each
other, know each other, how that influences each other. And when there is trauma involved,
how that all works together from this network and resolving all that conflict. And so it's

(13:54):
a record that's very longing, very angsty. I'm influenced a lot by a lot of alternative
music as well. I listened to a lot of water parks. I've been listening to a lot of egg
Myers recently and studying some of the work she does. She's a really cool alternative
musician who I my favorite thing in the world is when people grew up listening to my chemical
romance and then open for my chemical romance. And so they did the like Myers did that. It

(14:18):
was really freaking cool. But some of the things I learned making music is I always want the
biggest production. I want all the sound because some of the musicians I listen to do that
and then stuff some stuff is really simple. So I've just been playing around with really,
I have a guitar, which I can show off later. But I learned you can put chord progressions

(14:38):
can be very simple. And I get frustrated because I'm like, this is one instrument. I want this
to be all this different stuff. But like, it's really cool. And I will also later talk
about how disability influences my music too.
But yeah, I don't make my own music. I play the clarinet. I don't know if it's a great
composition instrument. And even if it was, I'm like, I don't think I have a huge natural

(15:00):
talent at music, singing, pitch or anything like that. I do it for fun. But I don't make
my own songs. I play songs by queer artists sometimes. But I'm not the kind of person
who can pick up music like by ear. So it's a lot of like I'm restricted by music that's
already been written, or music that I can like convince someone to write out for me.

(15:20):
So like, I would love to play like smaller queer artists like Peach PRC. And even Chapel
Roam, they don't have Chapel Roam doesn't translate super well. But yeah, it's I'm restricted
by what songs translate well to clarinet. Like a lot of sleepy pop songs just sound
like sushi music. Like when you go into like Benny Hanna, and it's like that background
music, which there's nothing wrong with that. But I play a lot of I'm classically trained.

(15:46):
So I do a lot of classical music, which is like not queer, I would love there to be
queer classical music that's about like queer longing. And there might be, if you know of
any, drop it, drop it in the chat. But yeah, I play a lot of Green Day. I think Green Day
and like Queen translate really, really well to clarinet. When did you first start making

(16:08):
music? I think so I used to make it on my brother's laptop. So I probably would have
been like 12 or 13, probably. I just use GarageBand. I had no clue what I was doing,
but I just I've I've been I've been like making up little songs ever since I was like
10, I think or nine. But I've just always loved music. So I think I used to, you know,

(16:28):
I just used to use GarageBand and I've just I've totally self taught and like all production.
I'm sure I still have so much to learn, especially going here is made me realize like, wow, like
I really I really don't know half of what anybody knows about like producing. So it's
it's good though, because I you know, I get to learn from them. But yeah, so I'm like

(16:49):
five years in now. I post music on YouTube. I I don't know the technicality of getting
me music on streaming. So I mean, like I just put on YouTube and I'm like, Hey, if you want
to steal it, it's fine. I don't make money off of it anyway.
I can help you get it on streaming. I assume it's the same process as getting a podcast
on streaming. Oh, yeah, through RSS. And it publishes it to different places. I think

(17:10):
that's mostly for podcasts. Like I've heard like this, Joe kid, but you have to like pay.
And that's the thing. Yeah. I don't think you have to pay for SoundCloud. So maybe I'll
look into that. But let's do that. Do you play on campus? No, I haven't played on campus,
ever because it's just me. It's just me makes music. I call myself civility stint. But like

(17:33):
that's your Instagram. Okay, that's my Instagram. It's just a phrase I made up in like eighth
grade. I thought it sounded cool. So thank you. So but yeah, I mean, it's just me and
my computer and I play all the instruments when I make the song. So it's like to do that
live. I don't really know how that would work. I would probably have to get like other people

(17:55):
to learn. Also, I don't know if there's great live demand for music that I make because
a lot of it is instrumental. Like it doesn't it doesn't have words. A lot of it, I write
like poems and stuff, but I'm bad at putting them together. I'm bad at like putting poems
with a melody and then making it work with the music. I'm really bad at that. So I'm
just like, I'm just gonna focus on instrumental and the production and maybe someday I'll

(18:17):
find somebody who's way better than at that, you know, at that thing. Yeah. But yeah, that's
cool. Yeah. I've always thought it's like really cool to be in a band and I've actually
in my freshman year, I think of undergrad, maybe sophomore, I auditioned for a rock band
on campus with Clarinet and they did not take me. I just don't think that there's a lot

(18:38):
of demand. There's occasionally saxophone in like alt bands, but I don't know. Clarinet's
just like, it's interesting. You know, like RK Fire, they have like a violin player. Oh
my God, I love electric violin and like and that sort of thing. Yeah, I mean, like, I
think anything can- Clarinet doesn't have an electric version though. Right. But like,

(18:59):
honestly, I feel like with the right people, they can make it work. Like if I was starting
a band and somebody wanted to play Clarinet, I'd be like, yeah, let's see. I feel like
that would be great. I feel like you could use like three Clarinets. Yeah, right. I
don't know. In my world, you can never have enough Clarinets. Yeah, yeah. I want to write
a song and have you play Clarinet on it. Yes. Yes. See, we were just talking about how

(19:22):
in my sophomore year, I auditioned for a rock band on Clarinet and they did not take me.
See, that's the thing is I love blending genres. I really, some of my favorite musicians are
Ukrainian and they blend genres between the rock genre and folk. And so there's really
cool ways you can incorporate non-rock instruments into music. Hmm, that's cool. I don't know.

(19:46):
What instruments do you play? So I play my, oh, that's fine. Oh well. Go get it. Go get
it. We're doing an instrument show in Tel. I forgot my instrument, but you all have probably
seen a Clarinet. You definitely don't want to hear one in the smell of a space. Also,
I just want to say X-ray specs, a punk band from like the 70s, you know, they were cool

(20:07):
as heck. They had a saxophone player. So it's like, man, you can make it work. That rock
band lost out. Yo, if you guys are listening, you guys, you've missed out. So this is what's
called the Lava Genie. It's a startup campaign that's now selling like actually, but here

(20:28):
I'll show it. So it assembles. Is it a guitar? Yeah. It's pulled out. Is it electric? Do
you need an amp for it? No. And so it's giving we. Yeah. So is this, is it like, oh, what?

(20:54):
So how do you like strum it? It's loading. Yeah. So this is, so basically, I don't know
what setting I'm on. Oh, this is a crunchy guitar. You also have drums and bass you can
play. You can play on top of it. And then there's different settings. What? I think this is,

(21:20):
there's a piano. So you can change out all the different sounds. They have one for Chester
from Lincoln Park, which is really sweet. But like this is so you can have piano, you
can have crunchy guitar, you can have acoustic, you can sometimes get violin too. But I always
hate how violin sounds electronically. But it's really cool. Do you want to play us something?

(21:40):
You don't have to. I'm not going to. I don't have anything fully written enough. I was
trying to come up with something for this radio session, but I was like, what's the target
audience? Is this targeted to songwriters? Yes. Okay. It's supposed to be a more accessible
form of guitar that you can play without a ton of music experience. But as someone who
has trouble with gross motor planning, which basically means like your full body coordination

(22:03):
doesn't, it's harder for you to navigate, this is something that's way easier for me
to play because I don't have to position my fingers to strum strings and stuff. You can
just press a button. It is limited in what it can do, but there's an app that goes along
with it and that really helps you fully get the full use out of the guitar, but you can
play without it. I would love if they made a herdy-gertie version of this. Oh my God.

(22:23):
Herdy-gerties. I don't know if she's queer, but Dora Violet, if you're somehow listening
to this, love all the love in the world. She's the herdy-gertie artist at the Renaissance
Pleasure Fair in Irwindale. If you can get out there, it is 100% worth the ticket just
to go see her. She does drunk music history where she's like drinking and playing the
herdy-gertie. That's like my favorite instrument, I think, ever is the herdy-gertie. Yeah, you

(22:46):
can play herdy-gertie in D&D as the character. I do play herdy-gertie in D&D. If I could
get my hands on a herdy-gertie, those of you, the Loyal Speak Out fans, will remember the
banjo. Yeah. If I could just get a herdy-gertie, that would be fantastic, but if I could get
one like that for people who don't, because it's the musical equivalent of rubbing your
belly and patting your head. Yeah. Herdy-gerties, I feel like you're inherently queer. Yeah.

(23:14):
I do, but... I also am trying to learn Irish penny flute. What is that? It's like the Irish
traditional version of a recorder. Ooh. So it's, you know, a recorder's a recorder. Do
we all play that in elementary school? Yeah, yeah. But it's, if you can learn to play it

(23:36):
right, you can do some really pretty Irish tunes with it. My goal, I can talk a lot about
water parks on this episode, but my goal is to do this water park song that has this cool
synth patch and turn it into a flute and then play guitar on it. And then do some like cool
drum machine, like electronic drums and stuff. This is cool, but you may have to have another
episode where we all like play things. Yeah. That's very cool. I, everyone around me hates

(24:02):
that I want this, but I want a harmonica again. Harmonica? I have a necklace that I play and
I just use it to do like, wham, wham, wham. Every time I'm wearing it and something disappointing
happens, I just do that. Harmonica is my dad. So my dad's a musician and he was showing
me this harmonica player and he was like, this is the most amazing harmonica playing
ever. And I was like, it is kind of impressive. But I'm like, that's really funny. I love

(24:25):
the harmonica. I love the kazoo. I did, you know, my weird high school. So one of our
assignments was to make like a song teaching something, teaching like a class concept.
It was AP environmental science. So we wrote a parody to the runaways cherry bomb called
ecology bomb. And we had a clarinet and kazoo solo in the middle because my friend had a

(24:49):
kazoo and it was loud. It was loud. I also rapped for that class. Oh my God. That will
not be shared anywhere ever. Particular matter rap. I remember I knew my ex has this video
that lives on the internet of them singing, never going to give you up. Not never going

(25:09):
to give you. Yeah. The the Rick roll song. But in Latin and it's horrible. They'll really
hate if they know that I were tall of this, but I don't give a shit about. Go find that.
Go find this video and watch it. Oh my God. Oh no. You can remove things from the internet
though. That's their own fault. Yeah. I mean, I made two rap songs for English class once,

(25:37):
both for English class. I'm sure I was quite the quite the student. They were both original
and both of them were about the first one was about crime and punishment. And the second
one was about ready player one. Both totally original tracks. I recorded everything. And
I've wrapped in it's I got I'm not going to like 1860s Russia had its moment. That's

(25:58):
what it was called. It had its moment, but it I don't know. It's just funny to me. Like
well, I don't know. It's kind of off track. But again, all music I make is automatically
queer music. And so thus 1860s Russia. I mean, Hozier talks about Russia to Hozier. Let's
talk about Hozier. Yeah, I feel like people who are queer icons and aren't queer because

(26:21):
it's not queer. So no, okay, he says no. But he did because
I went to his concert like knowing not much about him because I got floor tickets for
like $36. So I went he was fantastic. He looks like a gay pirate. Yeah. And he Oh, he pulls
out a different pride flag at every performance. He's just like a massive, massive ally and

(26:42):
not in a performative way. He very much puts himself out there for the queer community.
You know that his song Take Me to Church is about the Russian Orthodox Churches homophobia.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, we like him. I don't like all of his songs. I like
him as a person. I feel like my style. Oh, sorry. I feel like Ariana Grande is inherently

(27:03):
a queer icon. His gay men just love Ariana Grande. Why? Why do they love her? I don't
know. That's the thing when I lived on the queer floor, when I was a freshman is that
he was just like learning about queer artists that gave him love. Lady Gaga. Yeah. Who I
like. I like Lady Gaga. I remember Taylor Swift released an album and everyone was like deconstructing
the album in our lounge. I don't know. I'm a little overtailer such I still listen to

(27:28):
her music. I'm not going to like trash on people who listen to it. I'm not an anti
Swiftie, but I'm not like a super fan anymore. I like her more recent. Oh my God. So my favorite
show ever that has my celebrity crush on it is the Apple adaptation of Emily Dickinson's
Life. That's like my favorite show ever. Oh my God, really? Is your celebrity crush
Haley Steinfeld? No, it's Sue. Yeah, she's okay. She's yeah. Especially the scene where

(27:53):
she dresses up as a guy in the third season. Yes. I was obsessed with the poem, the carriage
poem. The death as a carriage. Yes. As like a teenager. Yeah. Oh my God. I love her. I
forget where I was going with the story. But yeah, that show is really great and you should
watch it if you have not seen it. And they play a lot of like popular music, but like

(28:13):
with violins and stuff. Yeah, it's really like Bridgerton does that too, I think. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, I had a connection. I forgot it. Yeah, it's ADHD brain. I get these connections
and then I leave for forget where how I jumped from subject to subject. Yeah, no one's watching
this who doesn't have ADHD. Yeah, we jump around way too much. That's something I also

(28:37):
find really interesting is how Dura Divergence influences music. Like Austin Knight has ADHD
and so his music is like insanely like so much layers, so much instrumentation. And it
just makes the coolest fricking like stuff. But I think that how disability influences
music is really interesting. That's why I own this guitar. That's why I played instruments

(29:02):
that are easier for me to play. And yeah, it's just really cool. I've seen people trash
talking those guitars a lot that have like the things where you just push it being like
that's not real guitar. I'm like the fuck if you like don't we're not supposed to curse
stunts cap. But that's the thing with to is people like look at this through a like
technical music musician expert like perspective and go Oh, this is ruining how we're traditionally

(29:27):
making music because now it's more accessible to anybody and you don't have to be a really
skilled musician. And then what's the point of like technical skill. But that's the thing
with music is if you're looking at it from a disabled rhetoric, you realize that stuff
like this is really, really important, especially having like community to make music with.
Like I have an episode I want and I'm talking about with Eva is getting this album that

(29:49):
I have no people on that is called the neurodivergent voices album. And I know a lot of people from
my studio who are on it. So I want to try and get people on this and do an episode on
that. But it's quite entirely queer neurodivergence. It's really fricking cool. Yeah, that's gonna
be that's 100% gonna be an episode. That's great. I yeah, I like embarrassingly can't
name a single neurodivergent music artist other than you. I don't know. I mean, someone

(30:14):
in 100 X has to be. Yeah, but like not that I know like no one that I know of. Yeah, I
mean, my top the ones I know of are Austin. Oh, Aurora, Aurora is. Oh, I love Aurora.
Yeah, no, I am a very, very big fan of Aurora. She's what got me exploring my own music when
I was like 14. I have known been an OG fan of her for a long time. Every single concert

(30:35):
she's had in LA. And she her fandom isn't like named after herself. We're called warriors
and weirdos. And it's a fan of for people who are different. And she there's like little
people who are big fans know that she had an autism assessment that she passed and she
was a child. She very rarely talks about it. But that was a thing that happened. And so
I just love that like she doesn't wear shoes on stage. She's dancing constantly. Her her

(30:59):
concerts have kind of turned into a rave of some of her songs. She's also a metalhead
who wants to do a metal album. And I think that'd be amazing. She did a day she does
a metal album is the day that I become a super fan. Like I'm a cat. Like if the song comes
on, I'm not skipping it. But she did a song. I'll send this to you later with a metal band.
And I forget. Oh, probably bring me the horizon. Bring me the horizon. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, send.

(31:19):
Yeah, but I she she's also queer. She has a song called Queer Queen Dumb about having
to say space for queer people. She kisses a woman in the music video and people lost
their mind. What are the chances of us getting her on here? Oh, like I would die. I would
yeah, I don't know if we'd survive it. Aurora, please. I can't speak any Norwegian. But if
I could, I would very politely ask you to please come here to UCLA. We love you. Please

(31:44):
incite queer panic. Thank you. She's like a little angel who walks the earth. She makes
it so happy. We're gonna have to add in the YouTube video, we have to just like add little
queer panic sirens like rainbow sirens above our heads. Yeah, I think music was a really
big thing for me when I was also this is I think things people don't know about me in

(32:08):
college is I can be very, very angsty if I want to be. And so I when I was, oh, I have
so many good stories about that. But I was a fun teenager. But I could see that. I don't
know. But basically what I would was coming to terms that I was like queer, I would listen
to landslide by Stevie next and then imagine like it like a song between me and my straight

(32:32):
self and I'm like saying goodbye to them. It was like really dramatic. I love that. I
love queer angst. I don't know if people don't talk about that enough. Yes, on topic of Emily
Dickinson, once I tagged my ex in a post about Emily Dickinson that was like talking about
like her being really angsty. And I was like, this is how you make me feel. She was like,
oh, no, that's so blunt. I love it. Oh my God. We had an episode where we talked about

(32:55):
making PowerPoints for people about why they shouldn't cheat on me that you should listen
to that one. That was great. Yeah, that was a that was a that was a thing. Yeah, I actually
when my parents a little bit of a non sequitur, when my parents went with me to Taylor Swift,
I made them several PowerPoints. Yeah, one on ticket buying and one on concert etiquette
like specifically Taylor Swift concert etiquette. I love the videos of people who are just

(33:18):
screaming at Taylor Swift and the stadium and people like shut up, stop running concert.
I'm a shut up person. Yeah, this is not a rave. This is not slipknot. Go to slipknot
if you want to scream. My friend's little sister, Hi Ella, if you're watching is the
most amazing little like middle schooler ever because she wears all pink and listens to
slipknot. Yes, so cool. Yeah. I would also like to give our episodely shout out to Charlie's

(33:45):
occupational therapist. Oh, yeah. Watching this. Hello. Okay, onward with clear music.
Do you guys watch music videos? Yes. Do you guys have any no, do you guys because I know

(34:07):
when I was a kid, I watched a lot of music videos and they were like, yo, I should have
known I was gay for a long time, you know, is it's like man, I like this video a little
too much and like the content is just the is a little queer like, you know, like, okay,
Coldplay is not a queer band at all. I mean, I'm sure they're like allies because they're
just very like liberal, like leaning. But oh my God, the music video for Charlie Brown,

(34:28):
like there's like one scene where like you could see two women kissing and I'm like,
yo, like, yo, like, this is this is the best me, you know, I watched that way too much
when I was a kid. Okay, I don't watch them now, but I do remember watching the girls
like girls music video a lot. Oh my God, my Haley Kiyoko. Yeah, I'm not like the biggest
fan of her, but I it was like the only queer artist I knew of at the time. Yeah, that

(34:50):
I'll that song had a very big influence on me when I was closeted. Yeah. It's so weird
to me to think about like how insecure I was as a little closeted person listening to all
this music is like now I do this radio show, but like it had a big impact on me. I feel
like Haley Kiyoko got a big impact on all sorts of people. Yeah, I feel like music definitely
helps in your discovery coming out journey. Do you do you guys have like a song that defined

(35:13):
your coming out journey or like that defined your queer journey in your adolescence? Or
an album or like an artist? I mean like Demi Lovato, cool for the summer. Okay, yeah,
again, another song I like way too much as a kid. I was so upset. Okay, so I had a wall

(35:34):
in my locker that was just Demi Lovato pictures that I cut out from a magazine and it was just
like a full wall and then I had like a gallon of hand sanitizer and I don't know why I
thought I was straight and neurotypical. Those were the contents of my locker. So I stole
my giant bottle of hand sanitizer and I was very unhappy because I used to just like Purell
after every class. It's giving OCD. Yeah, yeah, yeah. OCD shout out. I will see. OCD shout

(36:03):
out. Yeah, I that's the thing too is I feel like a lot of queer people are into like I've
met a lot of queer people who are in the alternative scene and I feel like that makes sense because
there's a big intersection between like mental health and queerness and struggling with mental
health as a queer person and like I took me a very long time to come up with the terms
that I struggled with depression but when I did queer like like alternative music was

(36:27):
a really big thing for me as a queer person that really helped me through that. Now I
write in that genre and it's been very nice. I agree with Charlie on that. I feel like I
shared a lot of that like you know, it's hard out here for gay people and we just go through
a lot of stuff and it's really difficult and so like you know I have depression, I have

(36:47):
anxiety, I have OCD, oh a bunch of like mental problems but it's just like yeah alternative
music it's like it's not causing me to be that way like I know that it's just like a
it's like a safe way to like get that get that hardship out of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I feel like I mean I feel like every single old band has a problem. I know it's cancelable

(37:08):
but I feel like I know a lot of queer people who are really like remembered Gerard Way
and Frank Iyerro and like that whole relationship and that was really influential on them.
Yeah I think for a while I was like very hesitant to listen to certain genres like metal and
alternative music because I didn't want to be seen as like like people knew that I had

(37:32):
mental health issues and I didn't want to seem like oh they're worse because I'm listening
to this super angsty music. Yeah. But then I eventually came to terms with the fact that
like no this is like a healthy outlet and also it doesn't mean that you're like unhappy
or angry that you're listening to like this screaming music. Like every time I drive I
listen to metal because it just like it tunes out the other noise. Yeah. It makes it very
like it makes my driving experience very calm. I'm a better driver when Slipknot is with

(37:57):
me in the car. That's so interesting I love that. My oh my god my parents will want me
to tell this story. I was backing out of like this terrible parking spot and they were in
the car and I don't drive with them very often it makes me nervous. And I was like you have
to be super quiet like I'm going to back out you have to be super quiet like no one's talking.
So I turned the car on and Slipknot just starts blaring at full volume and my mom's like that's

(38:21):
fine. And now she does the imitation of it and she does her like little screaming imitation
of Slipknot. Yeah it's funny my mom like I we listen to my playlist when we drive even
though I don't drive because mom's like I want to hear your music I miss you. So that's
so sweet. Like when I can't I don't I commute this year but like I used to live in the dorms
and when I moved my parents like had me send them their playlists like they could hear

(38:45):
all my music and like my parents are very sweet. But it's fun not to hear my mom like
singing to my chemical romance in the car. I'm like you are so not into this music but
it's really sweet. That's that's really sweet. Yeah. No I did like exposure therapy with
my father to Slipknot before we went to the concert because I was like your first time
hearing this cannot be in the Intuit Dome. I like this it's not it's not going to be

(39:09):
as good and you're gonna have to accept that you're not going to be able to understand
the words. So let's do it. Let's listen to the full album in the car. I'm going to my
first stadium concert this summer. Your first stadium concert. Wait who? It's at the Dodger
stadium. It's my chemical romance is to her. Oh my god. Wait are there still tickets? No
they sold out. Yeah but my friend. I'll get resale day of. My friend got me tickets like

(39:30):
right away and I paid her back when she I was like thank you and we're gonna sit together
and freak out. That's amazing. I will try to get a resale ticket to that maybe. We'll
see. We'll see. Wow. You've never been to the stadium. No. That's crazy. Wait yeah let's
run down like our favorite concerts. Queer maybe or not. I went to Aurora's last tour

(39:51):
which was like a few months ago. Best concert I've ever been to. She was in the Shrine
auditorium and by USC and which is funny because we parked at USC and I'm like I shouldn't
be here but then we went on campus onto that and she is someone who being in that big of
a venue her voice just radiates and had these like dance breaks and would dance around the

(40:13):
entire stage and then she she'll be like screaming and then she'll be like hi lovely
people how are you? That's your name. It was very very good. I what I've been to oh I Japanese
house is a great queer artist. She's British and had a cold and she had that gay raspy
voice and I thought it was so hot. Love a raspy British voice. Wow. I've been to too

(40:39):
many concerts because I started going right before the pandemic and the pandemic happened
and then I was burnt out for a year and so it was just hard for me to go to a ton but
I had a lot of fun to the ones I've been to. I went to my first concert when I was five
because my parents are just like fun and like concerts and then I went to Katy Perry twice

(41:00):
on the same tour when I was seven and eight on the Teenage Dream tour and I loved that.
I wore this like crazy outfit that my mom like handmade that was like cupcakes and sparkles
and sparkling tutus and like it was a whole and I had a wig. It was a whole thing but
I've been to so many concerts. I'd say my favorites were Green Day was amazing live.

(41:23):
Green Day the Smashing Pumpkins opened for them. It was totally a bucket list concert.
Joan Jett. I saw Joan Jett with heart and L King. Fantastic. Concerts I thought I would
like and didn't love. I honestly think Slipknot needs to play smaller venues. I don't know
why they're in a stadium. It just it doesn't sound good.
Oh I also went to Whisky a Go-Go when I first started on UCLA.

(41:47):
I really want to go to Whisky a Go-Go. We are going together. That would be so fun.
We need to find something. We'll film some podcasts probably.
But I love the kids. People bring their kids to that venue because it's like and like there
was this little toddler who had little vans on and a little battle jacket and I was like
I love you. No.
And then they were in this band that was throwing fake blood off the stage and there was this
boy like on the side of the mosh pit who had like blood all over him and I was like this

(42:09):
is so cute. And he had like the like the I forget what people call it like the reversible
one or like the stunk haircut where it's I stopped that haircut where it was like shaved
on the sides and long on the top. Oh wow.
I shaved my head during the pandemic because I was like I'm done.
Real I'm going to for my brown belt I'm going to shave my head and I'm going to make sure
that this is like a chill thing to do in my dojo but I'm going to shave the dojo logo

(42:32):
into the back and the last like roughly a week but which is fine because I don't need
that in there forever but yeah that will be my buzz cut era. I'll leave it brown for like
three seconds before I start dying. Yeah I was going to ask.
No I'm going to be dying at like polka dots and things. We'll see. We'll see. But yeah
I think if I got fake blood thrown at me at a concert that would be the end of my concert

(42:54):
going days. Oh I love it.
No I think that's too much. Absolutely not. I'm never in the pit of things so that's
not going to happen. I met this cutest girl by USC at a mosh pit and unfortunately she
wasn't single but I was like it was so fun she danced with me and I was like this is
so cool. Do you like survive mosh pits? Do you not get like trampled slash overwhelmed?
The ones I've been to have been had very good crown control so I've been okay and there's

(43:17):
ones where if it's a good mosh pit they'll pick you back up and like help you so. I mean
all mosh pits should be picking you up and helping you. The one at Slipknot looks pretty
friendly. I just think it's expensive. Yeah Olivia Rodrigo was actually pretty good. I
don't think I expected her to be that good but for what I paid for that concert she needed
to be. Yeah. That's the most I've ever paid for a concert. I paid 150 for a ticket. I

(43:42):
saw Peach PRC twice though which was fantastic. Small, small queer concerts. We love them.
You can go. Okay. My first concert was Panic at the Disco when I was 13 which you know
we're not going to get into Bryn and Urie right now but you know it was what like 2019

(44:05):
I think or 20 no I don't remember when I was 10. You were 10 in 2019. No sorry I was 13.
Okay I was going to say no that's going to be too old. No I was 13 2019 sorry. Okay okay
but anyways so and then I went to my my history with concerts is weird because I would usually
just go to like whatever my brother was going to up until a certain age so like he went to

(44:27):
go see Weird Out at the OC Fair so I saw Weird Out at Yankevec so that was pretty cool and
then I saw Billie Eilish on her Happier Than Ever tour oh my god that's such a good night
and then oh we saw it got postponed because of the pandemic but me and my family we all
went to the Hello Megatour with Green Day, Fall Out Boy and Weezer. Oh my god bro. That's

(44:50):
awesome. Like get this okay so Weezer goes first and incredible Fall Out Boy goes they
were my favorite band at the time I was like doing all the songs you know I was like freaking
out and then like Green Day goes on and it's so late and I'm so tired but they were so
incredible but it was like oh my god I'm so tired like I can't even stand up but yeah
I wish I had more energy saved for Green Day but I was it's such a great concert like such

(45:13):
a wonder that that even happened like love that for the universe and I'm gonna go I
stopped here to bail last year and I'm gonna go see them again this year. I were getting
tickets for that with card. Well LA they added they had one show and then they're like okay
we have a lot of demands we're gonna do another show and then they're like okay we still have
demands we're gonna do a third show and I wouldn't be surprised if there are all three

(45:37):
of those are sold out. They are. Oh yeah. Yeah my friend who's sister listens to Slipknot
they were like getting it while she was in school and they were texting her like we got
the tickets. She was like yeah. I got them day of like on the way to the concert. Oh
really? On resale. So okay you all get download tick pick like you don't have to jockey like
this for tickets you can you can if it's an artist you really like and you want to I

(46:00):
tend to get better deals by waiting all sometimes like I was in line to get into the stadium
in Green Day for Green Day and bought a ticket then. Wow. And I got they were like 80 bucks
but Slipknot I got on the lower bowl for 65 and we had and we had like a we were a section
with like a lounge we're in one of the like premiums. Oh that's nice. So yeah I mean you

(46:21):
can you can you can go at it but if you don't want to do that there's options. Not always
it depends how big the artist is. Pierce the veil might be too big for that to be. Yeah
maybe. I just want to say I've never been to a concert where I haven't been in the nose
bleeds ain't nothing wrong with going to the nose bleeds guys. I know people on social
media like try to make it look like the pits of thing lower circles of thing. Listen if

(46:45):
the nose bleeds are all you can afford ain't no shame. Okay. Like it's just music and unfortunately
like our finances kind of segregate us like that you know and our experience of music
but hopefully someday we can change that somehow but unfortunately money kind of divides us
that way but ain't nothing wrong with the nose bleeds guys. Yeah no you're in the building
and that's great. But also by waiting till day of you might be able to get a ticket lower

(47:10):
down for the price of the nose bleeds which is really fun but also go to GA shows at like
small places like I think Whisky A Go Go is GA and then you can get like way in the front.
Like I was like at the barricade for Peach PRC for like $20 because I just got there
ridiculously early. Yeah I the issue I have is I listen to so many international artists

(47:33):
that some of them are not big enough and they don't come to the US like my favorite artist
I was gonna see her in January she postponed her tour to the summer I think partially because
of the fires but her name's Elsa Yelmar and she's a Latin American artist and it's amazing
I saw her open for a different artist at the Greek just because I wanted to see her and
I didn't know she's like maybe I'll have a US tour and then it was announced the next

(47:54):
day and I was like oh my god. That's great. I waited a while for Peach PRC to come to
the US and then I was worried she wouldn't come again and then she did. And so I'm turning
21 in a few months and I'm so excited because now I can go to 21 plus venues like one of
my favorite artists is Pussy Riot and they and her she has like strippers on stage and

(48:16):
stuff so all her tours are 21 plus so I want to go with someone who's like really cool
with that stuff like you might have done. I'll go I'll go with you to that depending on how
expensive it they're not a band I'm gonna pay a billion dollars to see. They probably
won't be that price. They're like protest work artists so I don't think they're gonna
price their tickets. Yeah as long as if they don't use that fucking ticketmaster flat
dumpscap ticketmaster platinum. We'll see what happens to her though because she's currently

(48:38):
on the like an asylum from Russia like she's like on the Russia's terrorist list right
now so Donald Trump's president we'll see what happens to her because I no one knows
her exact location but I think she's living in the US so. No one knows how does no one
know a celebrity's location. I don't know. She has like bodyguards and shit. I saw it
as everyone. Yeah but there is yeah she's so cool though I love her but yeah. That's

(49:03):
awesome I will. They have the best some of her members of her band have the best story
about fleeing Russia by disguising themselves as like Uber Eats people and like swapping
with them when they deliver the food because they want to work. Yeah I mean like escape
for like Belarus and stuff. We will be going to this concert. Yeah. This is that alone
I haven't even heard the music. That's great. Yeah. That's fantastic. Yeah Peach PRC does

(49:27):
some stripper pole stuff because she used to be a stripper. Yeah. And she's very open
about it. I like the FK twigs this stripper stuff and sword fighting and also music and
it's. Sword fighting. Yeah. There's nothing more queer than swords. Her music videos are
amazing. All right I think that is bringing us to a close for this week. We are outright

(49:51):
the oldest queer college publication in the nation. We publish twice a week online once
every quarter in print and we are here on UCLA radio and live on Instagram at outright
News Mag every Sunday from one to two PM. You can also find our episodes post delayed
to Spotify, YouTube, Amazon music and anywhere else where you listen to podcasts. I've been

(50:16):
Eva. I've been Charlie. I've been Jay. And we have been speak out tune in next week to
hear us speak out about something new.