After canceling tour dates, pulling out of festivals, and postponing my album release show 3 times due to Covid-19, I am finally going to perform this thing on Saturday.
We will be doing more of these secret, private, Covid-safe shows over the coming months. The only way to hear about them is by subscribing to my newsletter. If you aren’t already signed up, make it happen on the right column of this site.
And to everyone who refuses to do very basic things to keep other people safe and end this pandemic already: You can’t sit with us.
We started partnering on advocacy stuff back in 2017 right as Woodstock was coming out, then activated dates on their 2018 summer tour, and I officially joined the team in 2019 to help build what would become PTM Foundation the following year.
This band really cares about people, and I’ve had the great pleasure of helping them raise and donate nearly $400,000 to the community since the start of the pandemic. This work, coupled with making music and trying to make the world safer for people, has been my solution to this time of prolonged grief and suffering in the world. It’s felt good to be able to do something that matters in the midst of it all.
Thank you to John, Zach, Eric, Zoe, Kyle, Jason and Rich for believing we could — and for making space for queer weirdos like me at your table. I love y’all.🖤
Now that we are wrapping up the New Money release campaign, I thought I’d share how some of the sausage was made. Getting to partner with Gucci again this entire album cycle has been a dream come true.
Every look, every drip, started as a storyboard. Canceled tour dates aside, we pulled every piece of this campaign off!
The idea behind this musical era was to be as intentionally gauche and over the top as possible. Thank you to Alessandro Michele and the team from Gucci Portland for bringing this gilded, monogrammed, New Money vision to life with us.
We’re off until May 4th but here I am sitting in a chair that makes me look like I am a giant.
(Reader: I look like I am a giant because I am a giant)
Also I have had all of this stage lighting in my bedroom for months while we rehearsed and today the lighting team finally came and picked it all up in advance of secret things we’re announcing soon!
I got very sweaty and dirty but it feels like a mansion in here now. V pumped.
Thanks to the Recording Academy / GRAMMYs for including me in this story about Portland’s political music scene alongside so many PDX-based artists I love and respect.
“Portland Goes Harder: How PDX’s Disparate, Diverse Music Scene Has Coalesced Around Progressive Politics” is out now.