Speaker 1: Welcome to Inside the Studio presented by I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: I'm your host Joe Levy. If you are in need
Speaker 1: of a shot of energy or some inspiration, you have
Speaker 1: come to the right place, because Cat Cunning, the guest
Speaker 1: on this episode of the home edition of the show,
Speaker 1: has plenty of both to offer. Cat's recent single is
Speaker 1: called Supernova and it's subtitled Tiger's Blood, which you may
Speaker 1: feel you've been enjoying some of if you put it
Speaker 1: on and dance around your living room, which I both
Speaker 1: highly recommend and will not admit to having done. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I did it. The home edition of the show is
Speaker 1: all about letting you inside the creative process of musicians.
Speaker 1: During lockdown, and Kat talked with our Quarantine correspondent Jordan
Speaker 1: Runtog about why, as a dancer turned musician, they love
Speaker 1: finding rhythm within melody. Cat also offered Jordan's some advice
Speaker 1: on how to get over his fear of dancing, which
Speaker 1: comes down to deciding that looking stupid is cool and
Speaker 1: just wiggling around. I think we can all agree these
Speaker 1: are words to live by. So if you enjoy this episode,
Speaker 1: be sure to check out the I Heart Radio podcast
Speaker 1: that Jordan's hosts when he's not not dancing. It's called Rivals,
Speaker 1: Music's Greatest Feuds, and it's available wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: Hello everybody, My name is Jordan Runtug, but enough about me.
Speaker 1: My guest today is an actor, singer, songwriter, performer, dancer.
Speaker 1: It's hard to think of things they're not good at.
Speaker 1: You've seen them on the Deuce with James Franco and
Speaker 1: also the Netflix series Trinkets. But they're emotionally raw dance
Speaker 1: anthems like broken Heart and Stay on the Line earned
Speaker 1: them one to Watch status from the BBC. The Relentless
Speaker 1: new singles Super Know about Tiger's Blood is out now
Speaker 1: and their first EP is on the Way. I'm so
Speaker 1: happy to welcome Cat Kunn and Cat thank you so
Speaker 1: much for taking the time today. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited to be here. How does life in
Speaker 1: Lockdown find you today? I mean to be honest, it's
Speaker 1: a roller coaster, but it's also kind of great. I
Speaker 1: kind of love Lockdown. I was always gonna say, you
Speaker 1: do a million different things. Has Quarantine given you a
Speaker 1: chance to like catch your breath? Or you still find
Speaker 1: yourself pretty busy? It's definitely given me a bit of
Speaker 1: a chance to catch my breath. Like I'm I'm still busy.
Speaker 1: I still have projects and still writing and stuff, but
Speaker 1: it's like cut in half at least, and it's been
Speaker 1: really nice to catch up with my emotional life. I
Speaker 1: sort of think of lockdown as like adult day care.
Speaker 1: Your only job is to get through the day, and
Speaker 1: I like be real. A lot of my like songwriting
Speaker 1: comes from childhood memories and stuff when you just have
Speaker 1: the time to take in the day. So I think
Speaker 1: this is pretty valuable except for, you know, all the
Speaker 1: tragedy that comes with it. I was gonna say, are
Speaker 1: you more of a homebody? Like do you get your
Speaker 1: inspiration more from from looking inward than looking outward? I do.
Speaker 1: I think that most people find that pretty surprising because
Speaker 1: I am very outgoing and I'm very very um People
Speaker 1: ignite me, like I like to say that when I'm
Speaker 1: around people, they charge my battery, and I get like,
Speaker 1: I can't help but be responsive to people, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. And that's why I love performing, because
Speaker 1: there's a real connection there and it puts so much
Speaker 1: life in me and and I kind of can't stop.
Speaker 1: It's hard to get me to leave a party. With
Speaker 1: that being said, I have to make myself, uh, spend
Speaker 1: time with myself because I am really there's a really
Speaker 1: big side of me that's introverted, and that's where most
Speaker 1: of my art comes from. And now you're a dancer,
Speaker 1: which I emphatically am not. In fact, I've been dumped
Speaker 1: on the dance floor because I am so bad of
Speaker 1: a dancer. But I'm told that dancing is very rhythm based.
Speaker 1: Does does your dancing training factor in your song right
Speaker 1: and all? Do do you like focus on a strong
Speaker 1: beat first and go from there or not really overlap?
Speaker 1: Actually I think that I'm a total anomaly. I think
Speaker 1: you're right to ask that question. But I've always felt
Speaker 1: more comfortable dancing to stuff that doesn't like sort of
Speaker 1: give me a beat. I love to hear a rhythm
Speaker 1: within a melody and like to surprise my self a
Speaker 1: little bit. So stuff that's really beat heavy or like
Speaker 1: dance music, for example, is actually harder for me to
Speaker 1: get into because it's just like you want to jump
Speaker 1: up and down to it, and that's kind of all
Speaker 1: you see in here. I really like stuff that's like
Speaker 1: sort of groovy or imaginative like James Blake is honestly
Speaker 1: my favorite thing to dance too. There's just all these
Speaker 1: like production treats that make me just want to dance
Speaker 1: forever and be and my feels. Um. But that being said,
Speaker 1: my relationship to time with music does really influence my writing.
Speaker 1: What are you working on now that now that you're
Speaker 1: sort of in its self imposed sort of like a
Speaker 1: much smaller workshop, shall I say, just sort of your home?
Speaker 1: Is it a little residency? Yeah, yeah, exactly? Has that
Speaker 1: has that impacted the way that you approach right? Although strangely, um,
Speaker 1: I think, you know, writing and music is actually fairly
Speaker 1: new for me because it had spent most of my
Speaker 1: life dancing. And I think my first round of writing
Speaker 1: was super introverted, introverted and super personal, um because the
Speaker 1: nature of going into a studio with a person you've
Speaker 1: never been before and also having like a lifetime of
Speaker 1: things to say come out in one session. I just
Speaker 1: felt very personal and vulnerable to me. And so that
Speaker 1: whole first round was just like, yeah, really intimate. And
Speaker 1: now that I'm at home writing and I've spent a
Speaker 1: little more time, I actually feel like I'm catching up
Speaker 1: to my life's experience having gotten to perform on stage
Speaker 1: and see what like, um, what performing a pop song
Speaker 1: for two thousand people can feel like. So I'm weirdly
Speaker 1: like allowing myself to write bigger, poppier songs now that
Speaker 1: I'm at my house alone. It's it's really backwards because
Speaker 1: it takes the pressure off though it is not that
Speaker 1: person there that you have to like, actually you can.
Speaker 1: It's much easier to imagine these things I I imagine
Speaker 1: at least than actually have to like sing what you said,
Speaker 1: like your your emotions and your past feelings and traumas
Speaker 1: to this other person there with all the recording equipment
Speaker 1: and headphones on, and very imagine sterile as opposed to
Speaker 1: being in your nice home, and it's something that you
Speaker 1: can just build up from the ground up there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and also kind of feeling like the stakes are lower,
Speaker 1: like some of our best some of our favorite pop
Speaker 1: songs are literally just about feeling happy or sad, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. And I've just been able to
Speaker 1: like expect nothing one going into a zoom session and
Speaker 1: then like write a song that I really love and
Speaker 1: want to dance too. Or maybe it just has to
Speaker 1: do with having the time and rest in order to
Speaker 1: have a lot of energy go into a song instead
Speaker 1: of having to like fit it into a tour schedule,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Yeah, I don't know what
Speaker 1: it is, but I've I feel like I'm like catching
Speaker 1: up to myself and some of the things that I've
Speaker 1: always said I wanted to do are just like happening
Speaker 1: in my sessions right now. Like the whole first iteration,
Speaker 1: like I said, is like ballads that we speed up
Speaker 1: like they were all written with one instrument. Um Me
Speaker 1: and Justin Parker could write ballads all freaking day. But
Speaker 1: now I feel like a couple of the songs I've
Speaker 1: written recently feel like the Justin timber like that I've
Speaker 1: always wanted to be And I'm excited. Yeah, I get
Speaker 1: some of that, like Neptunes vibe on it. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: there's like there's I feel like there are really two
Speaker 1: parts of me as an artist, and one of them
Speaker 1: is like I'm a warrior and I'm out there and
Speaker 1: I'm willing to be vulnerable and brave and say the
Speaker 1: thing that's hard to say. But then the other side
Speaker 1: of me is like I really just want to dance
Speaker 1: and be ratchet and like move my butt and we
Speaker 1: need to I need to make a budio work that
Speaker 1: somehow it's cohesive and does both of these things. Well,
Speaker 1: you said, Warrior. That leads me into I want to
Speaker 1: talk to you about Supernova. The song and the video.
Speaker 1: The video is absolutely stunning, and you are this this
Speaker 1: warrior figure. You're a night in shining armor in a way. Uh,
Speaker 1: talk to me a little bit about what that song
Speaker 1: means to and how the video sort of expresses that.
Speaker 1: I mean, the video was like really a dream come
Speaker 1: true to collaborate on. I I when I got the
Speaker 1: treatments for Supernova from all of the directors that's admitted,
Speaker 1: I was just crying because I was like, this is
Speaker 1: the side of me that's never been validated, that I
Speaker 1: somehow I was capable of articulating through the song writing
Speaker 1: and through my own like mini treatment for the video,
Speaker 1: and to have free people who are so good at
Speaker 1: what they do right, really really great treatments. I could
Speaker 1: have picked any of them, showing me as the prince
Speaker 1: in my own story after living a whole life of
Speaker 1: being told like you could never be masculine if you tried,
Speaker 1: you're the epitome of femininity or a pin up girl,
Speaker 1: like all of these things that have, like I felt,
Speaker 1: been imposed on me. It was really cool to like
Speaker 1: actively yes, like have my very same female body but
Speaker 1: put it in this context that felt really strong and
Speaker 1: just like felt like me and felt like I was seen.
Speaker 1: And the song itself is not just an expression of masculinity.
Speaker 1: It's an expression of my role in love. I feel
Speaker 1: like when I am starting to fall in love with someone,
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm so freaking powerful and I and
Speaker 1: the song is also like to laugh at myself too.
Speaker 1: It's like the lyric Tiger's Blood is a shoutout to
Speaker 1: Charlie Sheen and how he's in his interviews and he's like,
Speaker 1: he's like, I got Tiger's Blooded to me, I could
Speaker 1: do anything. I got Tiger's lad. I'm like, no, that
Speaker 1: those are drugs, bro, And so for me, um, the
Speaker 1: song is sort of about how love is a drug
Speaker 1: that makes me feel willing to do anything for somebody,
Speaker 1: and it makes me feel like a prince and a warrior,
Speaker 1: even if all I have to offer is that sentiment alone.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I wrote it for a girl who was
Speaker 1: sort of breaking my heart and I knew that she
Speaker 1: wasn't going to be able to be a good partner
Speaker 1: to me, but I was just falling and I wrote
Speaker 1: it on a day issue was not texting me back,
Speaker 1: And the whole vocal is from the demo that day
Speaker 1: on a pretty shitty mike. I mean, they are like
Speaker 1: background harmonies and stuff that I did later, but the
Speaker 1: whole lead is from the day I wrote the song.
Speaker 1: And a lot of my songs end up being that
Speaker 1: way because I feel like when the words are fresh,
Speaker 1: I get out of my own way when it comes
Speaker 1: to thinking technically about how to sing, and I just
Speaker 1: say the words, and the words are the most important
Speaker 1: part to me, um, and they are like little treats
Speaker 1: in this song to like the lyrics, to you be
Speaker 1: the dagger that I don't pull out. That is a
Speaker 1: way of saying, obviously like I'm willing to let you
Speaker 1: kill me, which is a very Romeo esthetic, and or
Speaker 1: break my heart. But it also one of the really
Speaker 1: special nights with this girl. I got a tattoo impulsively
Speaker 1: and it's of a dagger. I was gonna say that's
Speaker 1: in the video too, right, Yah. Yeah, And I'm very
Speaker 1: happy to say that I told her I was putting
Speaker 1: this song out and she said she liked it, and
Speaker 1: so that's I mean, I so I imagine you you
Speaker 1: are a romantic. Do you agree with the with the
Speaker 1: old saying it's better to have loved and lost than
Speaker 1: never never loved at all. Yeah, that's totally what the
Speaker 1: song is about. And I think that, like, culturally right now,
Speaker 1: I think we're in a moment of reckoning, when we're
Speaker 1: realizing that we need to stand up for what we
Speaker 1: care about and some things need to change, Like this
Speaker 1: whole pandemic has given us a social chance to catch
Speaker 1: up with ourselves and what our values are. But prior
Speaker 1: to that, I think everybody was a little overworked. And uh,
Speaker 1: I feel like the statement of our culture and our
Speaker 1: generation right now, if the Romans were a romantic and
Speaker 1: willing to do anything for love, we're kind of like
Speaker 1: zannied out and it's like not cool, it's a care
Speaker 1: I'm just like so extra. Maybe this is all my
Speaker 1: defense statement for doing anything for love, But I just
Speaker 1: I think it's worth it to care. I think it's
Speaker 1: worth it to look dumb, worth it to look foolish,
Speaker 1: Like there's so much on the other side of trying
Speaker 1: for what you believe in and that's also what pop
Speaker 1: music is to me. When I was a kid, I
Speaker 1: used to frown on pop music. I was like, it's
Speaker 1: so crazy. They're so intense, like oh my god. And
Speaker 1: now I realized there's so much courage and not acting
Speaker 1: like you're too smart for something and saying exactly what
Speaker 1: you need to say and not an extra word more
Speaker 1: than that. You know, what did you listen to as
Speaker 1: a kid? Oh man, It's all over the place. And
Speaker 1: I also like had a lot of illegally downloaded music
Speaker 1: and mix tapes, so I know that half of the
Speaker 1: songs that really influenced me, I'm I don't even remember
Speaker 1: which artists they were, but I was kind of like,
Speaker 1: as a young kid, I was really into country, which
Speaker 1: I think is coming back full circle in terms of
Speaker 1: my appreciation for lyric. I'm not super into the country
Speaker 1: aesthetic in the pop world, but I really appreciate that
Speaker 1: they're always really thorough stories and really simple lyrics. And
Speaker 1: then I got really into indie cool stuff, like I
Speaker 1: was into stuff like Neutral, Malk Hotel and fright Eyes
Speaker 1: because frid Eyes is another great example of somebody who's
Speaker 1: just like always vulnerably telling a story. And having like
Speaker 1: really intentional lyrics. And then when I went to college,
Speaker 1: I discovered soul and R and B and like, and
Speaker 1: prior to that, through dance classes, I was really inspired
Speaker 1: by the Justified album. I danced to that album for
Speaker 1: like every jazz class, and it definitely changed my life.
Speaker 1: Like fully, Crimeer River is like one of my favorite
Speaker 1: songs ever. And then yeah, the introduction of like Soliman,
Speaker 1: R and B kind of totally changed my life. I
Speaker 1: thought I wanted to do that fully. And then I
Speaker 1: discovered pop covering pop in a dance company and realized
Speaker 1: that when I sing a pop song, it sounds totally different.
Speaker 1: And that was my realization that I had an into
Speaker 1: these songs, that they're just really freaking good songs that
Speaker 1: can live with a million different esthetics. Getting back to
Speaker 1: what you're saying earlier about sort of like being the
Speaker 1: prince in your own story. I loved your song broken Heart,
Speaker 1: which I mean it challenges this this idea where you know,
Speaker 1: I feel like women and culture are portrayed and obviously
Speaker 1: usually sort of praise for being this fragile naive, and
Speaker 1: then you have the song broken Up where it's like
Speaker 1: I'm not a China Doll, but we all have scars
Speaker 1: in a hard I thought that was a really powerful message.
Speaker 1: Just wanted to ask you more about that song, as
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed it. Thank you so much. That song
Speaker 1: also just like flew out of me, but it did
Speaker 1: come from a totally different side of things, so like
Speaker 1: most of my writing experiences have been more on the
Speaker 1: Justin Parker's side of things, where I'm in the studio,
Speaker 1: He's making a lick on the piano and I'm just
Speaker 1: like fully writing a lyric and feeling my feelings. I
Speaker 1: wrote Broken Heart with John Martin and Michelle Zitron in Sweden,
Speaker 1: and there it was totally different. Like I walked into
Speaker 1: their studio and everything was like leopard print and like neon,
Speaker 1: and it was just like so poppy and they were
Speaker 1: just like playing the chords and jumping up and down
Speaker 1: and it was just so fun. And the lyric came
Speaker 1: out of me just really quickly, and it was definitely
Speaker 1: more rhythm based and less like super personal story based.
Speaker 1: But I was like, I love singing this and the
Speaker 1: song itself and the verses is about like seeing someone
Speaker 1: in a bar and encouraging them to get about their
Speaker 1: chair and dance, which has been a theme in my
Speaker 1: real life experiences with people I date, because I just
Speaker 1: really loved to dance, and I think everyone can dance.
Speaker 1: That's the other thing I love about writing a sort
Speaker 1: of dance song is like, get out there and do
Speaker 1: whatever is weird. But I do want to know what
Speaker 1: were you talking about getting dumped on the dance floor?
Speaker 1: I am I was gonna ask you for this. I
Speaker 1: am absolutely petrified of dancing. I don't know what it is.
Speaker 1: If it's just acteel inhibited, I'm worried it's this class
Speaker 1: of thing you're word you're gonna I don't know what
Speaker 1: to do. I want to see the list of things
Speaker 1: that's expected. What my options? Yeah? Right, Like I just
Speaker 1: I just feel like I'm gonna look stupid. I don't
Speaker 1: know what to do. I need, you know, I gotta
Speaker 1: go home and work on this for six weeks before
Speaker 1: and then by that point the moments passed, you know. Yes,
Speaker 1: I think the main thing is deciding that looking stupid
Speaker 1: is cool. What is the stupidest thing you could do?
Speaker 1: Just it's all just your limbs and a torso and
Speaker 1: a head, Like you can't go wrong unless you're I
Speaker 1: don't know, hurting yourself. Like just wiggle around, shake a leg,
Speaker 1: do your thing. There's no right way do you do
Speaker 1: you like David Byrne, Yeah, I do. From Talking Head.
Speaker 1: I was lucky enough to speak to him once and
Speaker 1: I asked him like, you know, I can't dance, but
Speaker 1: you are like kind of one of my dance heroes
Speaker 1: because you just totally do your own thing and you
Speaker 1: look so weird. Asking him that too, like what do
Speaker 1: you how do you get to that place? Mentally? I
Speaker 1: just can't let go? And he kinda said the same thing. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I was revisiting Tommy Ork video the other day and
Speaker 1: I was like, you're such a freak. I love it. Also,
Speaker 1: just I think the main thing when dancing don't put
Speaker 1: your if you're afraid to dance, don't put yourself in
Speaker 1: a situation on a dance floor at a club. First,
Speaker 1: put a track on in your house and like as
Speaker 1: a free dance lesson really quick. Here's one motivator. Just
Speaker 1: think of your joints as having a texture. Are your
Speaker 1: joints liquid or are your joints crackers? And just play
Speaker 1: with them. Just get yourself to move without thinking about
Speaker 1: whether you look cool or not. It's fun. You know,
Speaker 1: I've never heard that. Yeah, I just blew your mind. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, seriously, that's like you know, I mean, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: the the whole, the whole dumping thing that was like
Speaker 1: fifteen years old. I'd say, like the winter ball in
Speaker 1: high school. So you know, yeah exactly, Oh yeah, very much.
Speaker 1: We all have scars and a broken heart. I was
Speaker 1: I was going to say, that's why that song resonated
Speaker 1: with me so much. Obviously, I love it. Well. Another
Speaker 1: one of my favorite songs of yours, For the Love,
Speaker 1: such a power for song. I mean, again, somebody, it's
Speaker 1: a through line in so many of your song and
Speaker 1: he's nothing more important than love. And such a brave
Speaker 1: song too. I mean it really did come from such
Speaker 1: a personal place. What's that song mean to? You can
Speaker 1: tell me a little bit about where that came from. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for the Love is another one that I just wrote
Speaker 1: with Justin Parker while he was just getting things ready
Speaker 1: and I just wrote the whole song in like ten minutes. Quietly,
Speaker 1: I love it when people leave me alone in the
Speaker 1: studio because like sometimes you get into a session and
Speaker 1: people like, how are you do you like this? Cool, cool, cool,
Speaker 1: and I literally just like bye, and I write the
Speaker 1: lyric and then I come back with it, and this
Speaker 1: one just fell out of me. I guess it was
Speaker 1: a story that I needed to tell. I tend to
Speaker 1: take like ten years to process something and then it
Speaker 1: just comes out in a poem. Um, but this song
Speaker 1: is about my coming out story growing up as someone
Speaker 1: who was really conservative and religious, but then my mom
Speaker 1: came out as gay before me. It's like a very
Speaker 1: circular or sort of money story that is easiest to
Speaker 1: express through a poem. Actually, basically, I then I came
Speaker 1: out years later after judging her for her life choices,
Speaker 1: and understood her a lot better and appreciate her so
Speaker 1: much more for living her own life and doing what
Speaker 1: she needed to do instead of quote unquote putting her
Speaker 1: kids first, you know, holding back for an image or
Speaker 1: for convenience. And then the second half of the story
Speaker 1: that's pretty heartbreaking is that my mom's partner, who she
Speaker 1: was with for eleven years, passed away due to cancer.
Speaker 1: And that happened the day before gay marriage became legal
Speaker 1: in New York. And that was one of my first
Speaker 1: summers in New York and one of my first Pride
Speaker 1: Parade experiences. So it's just really a story of how
Speaker 1: like tragedy and love and growth are always connected. And yeah,
Speaker 1: the bridge I've known love that's wider than the space
Speaker 1: in the middle where it's painted red. That was meant
Speaker 1: to show that the world is so conservative. I know
Speaker 1: love that's stronger than that, and I believe that fear
Speaker 1: is weaker than love, just like the magazine read shouting
Speaker 1: out the magazine that influenced me when I was little,
Speaker 1: which I don't. I think that part's kind of hard
Speaker 1: to explain, but basically, I saw a magazine clipping when
Speaker 1: I was little that was a religious magazine clipping that
Speaker 1: I held onto for a really long time, and I
Speaker 1: was really religious at the time, but it was actually
Speaker 1: sort of secular. It was literally just about how like
Speaker 1: God's love is stronger than your fear. And it was
Speaker 1: cool to tie that back in the end of the song.
Speaker 1: Although I had grown from those beliefs, and although I
Speaker 1: had seen so much pain and tragedy and change, that
Speaker 1: sentiment was true. I appreciate having that in a song
Speaker 1: because it's about how everything goes together. It was cool
Speaker 1: to realize and cool to say that, um coming from
Speaker 1: a place where I was so religious and then growing
Speaker 1: through all this life, and that that religious sentiment still
Speaker 1: really spoke to me. And that was a way for
Speaker 1: me to say that I understand the people come from
Speaker 1: all different types of backgrounds, and I hope that we
Speaker 1: all can appreciate each other and educate each other and
Speaker 1: get closer and closer to mutual acceptance. It's a beautiful message.
Speaker 1: I saw that you were at Pride this year. It
Speaker 1: must have been a different kind of Pride this year,
Speaker 1: in the middle of a pandemic. How how was that though, Well,
Speaker 1: it wasn't the corporate Pride. I have to look up
Speaker 1: the exact title. I can't remember right now, but it
Speaker 1: was amazing. It was I will never go to corporate
Speaker 1: pred again. It was just people going out and protesting
Speaker 1: and there were no frills, there was no Yahoo float,
Speaker 1: and yeah, it was really beautifully organized and respectful given
Speaker 1: that it's pandemic. And then at the end of the
Speaker 1: parade there was a huge police breakout and people were
Speaker 1: being maced and cop cars were getting knocked down, and
Speaker 1: it was so crazy that they couldn't spend one day
Speaker 1: letting us have this token of a of a parade,
Speaker 1: like it was so amazing that you ripped the veneer
Speaker 1: off of it, that like corporate approval veneer. They had
Speaker 1: to show their two colors. It was really scary, and
Speaker 1: given everything with Black Lives Matter and everything, people were
Speaker 1: kind of organized and well versed, and you know, white
Speaker 1: people were to the front. But it was very scary.
Speaker 1: I it was like, this is real. People are going
Speaker 1: to get hurt. And different quadrants of the parade were,
Speaker 1: you know, organizing themselves differently, and there was an actual
Speaker 1: vogue battle afterwards. The cops finally left and there was
Speaker 1: a beautiful vogue battle and there was like one DJ
Speaker 1: at the back of a truck and everyone was dancing.
Speaker 1: It was just like so inspiring and exciting to see
Speaker 1: that we don't need any of the extra stuff. We
Speaker 1: just need to gather and we need music, and we
Speaker 1: need we need dance, and we need each other. I
Speaker 1: just saw they dedicated the park on the East River
Speaker 1: to Marcia P. Johnson, I think a couple of days
Speaker 1: ago actually, which is incredible that I hope more people
Speaker 1: know know about her. He was on her birthday, right.
Speaker 1: I hope it would be so cool. I think so yeah.
Speaker 1: I hope. So yeah, it's an amazing documentary. I think
Speaker 1: it's called The Death in Life of Marsha P. Johnson.
Speaker 1: That was on Netflix for anyone who wants to learn more.
Speaker 1: Absolutely incredible for moving, inspirational story. Ye, speaking of New
Speaker 1: York City, you're in the Deuce taking place in seventies
Speaker 1: New York Times Square back when that was you know,
Speaker 1: the opening scene of Shaft or something, scary place full
Speaker 1: of prostitutes. Do you relate to that era? You a
Speaker 1: big classic rock seventies. My friends actually tell me that
Speaker 1: I am generation fluid. They're like sort of mocking me.
Speaker 1: But now I think that I relate to like any
Speaker 1: time other than now, I love to live in the
Speaker 1: nineteen twenties and nineteen forties, the nineteen sixties and nineteen
Speaker 1: seventies and nineteen eighties, like really all you can take
Speaker 1: me all the way back to the four hundreds. Really,
Speaker 1: But yes, the seventies, I saw you in the Nights.
Speaker 1: But I will say that the seventies and like imagery
Speaker 1: from the seventies film as well, is definitely what made
Speaker 1: me move to New York. You know, when I was
Speaker 1: a little kid, like three years old, watching White Knights
Speaker 1: with Bora CoV and Gregory Hines. Uh, or like the
Speaker 1: Turning Point all these old dance movies where people are
Speaker 1: like broke and killing themselves with their art. My family
Speaker 1: tells me that I was like this is beautiful when
Speaker 1: I was me and they were like, oh no, uh
Speaker 1: so I definitely followed my arrow. They also tell me
Speaker 1: that I pointed out all of the people that were
Speaker 1: clearly hookers strippers, and I feel like I've found a
Speaker 1: way to that aesthetic. I've actualized my celebration of those
Speaker 1: things in my life as well. I was like watching
Speaker 1: Milan Rouge and I was like, oh, they're so beautiful, mom,
Speaker 1: their princesses, And she was like, oh my god. Well
Speaker 1: you're a big film buff, right, Like I think I
Speaker 1: read that you were kind of giving yourself. You're a
Speaker 1: self guided uh cinema studies class and in lockdown right,
Speaker 1: Like you've been watching a lot of films I was.
Speaker 1: I was catching up for a while. I haven't watched
Speaker 1: any TV recently because I've just I guess, doing life stuff,
Speaker 1: doing press for Supernova and stuff. But I really really
Speaker 1: love a great film. I don't know a lot about anything.
Speaker 1: I'm not a facts person. I'm like so bad when
Speaker 1: it comes to like telling you all the facts about anything, really,
Speaker 1: but I am a feelings person and when I love
Speaker 1: a movie, I love it from the inside out. Like
Speaker 1: Wizard of Oz was my favorite movie when I was
Speaker 1: a little kid, and I had every barbie of every
Speaker 1: character and the ripped last revised in nineteen thirty nine,
Speaker 1: memorize the whole thing, talked to myself every day in
Speaker 1: the Wizard of Oz language. So yeah, when I love something,
Speaker 1: I love it a lot. I don't know why I'm
Speaker 1: thinking of this right now, but have you ever seen
Speaker 1: The Umbrellas of Scherburg. I have not. It's this incredible
Speaker 1: Jacques Demi movie from nineteen sixty four with Kathy de Neuve,
Speaker 1: and I forget the the other person's name in it,
Speaker 1: but it is. It's it's all sung. It's which you
Speaker 1: think kind of after a while, I would be like, okay, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: but it is so beautifully shot. The melodies are absolutely amazing.
Speaker 1: It's all the sort of jazzy early sixties pop stuff.
Speaker 1: I really think you'd like it. I don't know why,
Speaker 1: but I just have this vibe. I think you you
Speaker 1: really would enjoy it, so if you get a chance,
Speaker 1: check it out. I have to check it out. Has
Speaker 1: there been any sort of silver lining for the pandemic
Speaker 1: for you at all? I mean, if you like, develop
Speaker 1: any new skills or hobbies or anything like that. I
Speaker 1: think I've just written better songs than I've written in
Speaker 1: a while, and I have changed my life drastically. I
Speaker 1: went through an intense breakup with somebody I was with
Speaker 1: for five years. But you know, everything is for the best,
Speaker 1: and it's kind of great that it's a pressure cooker
Speaker 1: and you you make choices instead of waiting for them
Speaker 1: to happen ten years down the line when you're deeper
Speaker 1: into things you don't want to be in, you know,
Speaker 1: And um, I have decided to come hang out in
Speaker 1: l A. And I had unemployment checks that I could
Speaker 1: donate Black Lives Matter organizations. So there's been a lot
Speaker 1: of a lot of silver linings, I think. And I
Speaker 1: really needed this. I really wanted to go on tour.
Speaker 1: I was about to open for ally X, and I
Speaker 1: had this really beautiful final rehearsal with the people in
Speaker 1: my project, and I'll never forget I walked into the
Speaker 1: rehearsal and They're like Hey, are you guys like nervous,
Speaker 1: like this seems like this isn't gonna happen, or like
Speaker 1: is it smart for us to go on tour? And
Speaker 1: I was like, no, bro, We're doing this. Like if
Speaker 1: there's two people in the audience, we're gonna play the
Speaker 1: best show ever. And then we had a really great
Speaker 1: rehearsal and we played this song so well and with
Speaker 1: so much heart. And then I got a call right
Speaker 1: after from my manager and they were like, yeah, this
Speaker 1: is canceled. Um, but it was great. I went out
Speaker 1: with a little bang and um. And I think I
Speaker 1: needed the break more than I needed the tour. I
Speaker 1: needed a second to like get my ducks in order
Speaker 1: for all the big stuff that's going to happen. And
Speaker 1: I've been really lucky to have releases during this time,
Speaker 1: which makes me feel like, you know, the world is
Speaker 1: still trucking along, and I'm confident or hopeful at least
Speaker 1: that I think will come out of this with better
Speaker 1: ideas than we would have had in our overworked day
Speaker 1: to day world. Absolutely a lot more conscientious choices, much
Speaker 1: more considered choices. I agree. Yeah, I think all the
Speaker 1: change that's happened has been not all the change obviously,
Speaker 1: like you know, people are dying. It's a pandemic, but
Speaker 1: a lot of the social change is important. Regrowth and
Speaker 1: every time things are every time there's destruction, like seeds
Speaker 1: get spread in a hurricane. You know. My last question
Speaker 1: I always ask at the end of these shows, if
Speaker 1: you could snap your fingers and have everything go back
Speaker 1: to the way it was pre pandemic. Everything's over. You
Speaker 1: can do whatever you want. What's the first thing that
Speaker 1: you would do? Trips, you want to take people, you
Speaker 1: want to hug. What would you do? Oh, my freaking god,
Speaker 1: that's easy. I would go to the Wood. It's on
Speaker 1: a Wednesday, which is a lesbian party, and I would
Speaker 1: dance so hard. I would take my shirt off. I
Speaker 1: would have like a vrawn and stuff, but I would
Speaker 1: be twerking. I would sweat and tell four am. I
Speaker 1: would dance on all my friends. I would make out
Speaker 1: with so many strangers, and uh, I'd eat pizza afterwards.
Speaker 1: That is the most immediate, and I would argue, probably
Speaker 1: the best answer we've had. Thank you so so much,
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. It's god a pleasure. We hope
Speaker 1: you enjoyed this episode of Inside the Studio Home Edition,
Speaker 1: a production of high Heart Radio. For more episodes of
Speaker 1: Inside the Studio and other shows from my heart Radio,
Speaker 1: check out the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcast