AB: I read that you are coming back from a break you took to work full-time for LGBTQ equal rights at Portland’s Q Center? Are you back in the swing of things musically?

LL: I’m still on hiatus from playing shows. It’s been a year since I announced I was taking the break and I still feel like I’m in break mode with the touring or whatever. I really just quit doing the parts I was hating. I was surrounded by a bunch of people who I needed to get away from and the only way I could think to do it was to sink the boat. Looking back (and reading the press around this time last year) I probably could have taken a less public, less dramatic approach…but at the time I was fed up with the whole thing. At the end of the day, it worked. I got rid of all the parts that were making me insane and released that last record “I Killed Tomorrow Yesterday” myself. I’ve been making videos and releasing singles on my own schedule without anyone telling me what I need to do musically or how to do it…and without anyone telling me what I should or shouldn’t look like. It’s lovely, actually. I work full-time still with Q Center and am going to keep doing that for now. I’m happy for the 1st time in a really long time so I figure I had better not fuck it all up by changing the course. It’s been hard to turn things down lately, though. I won’t lie and say that there are not parts that I miss. I’ve been working on new songs this whole time, too…so there hasn’t been much of a break with that part at all.

AB: What is going on with the Portland Q Center these days? I see you have an upcoming event on June 17th. “Hip to be Q”

LL: Yeah! That’s the Portland Pride kick-off party I’m throwing for Q Center and is the 2nd edition of my queer concert series there. I’ve been bringing national queer acts into the center for these really intimate shows this year. I like the idea that people can party for a good cause around good queer music. It’s a new kind of activism…the super loud, fun, sparkly kind.

AB: In the last few days there has been numerous report about the two men attacked on the Hawthorn Bridge. What is the buzz around town?

LL: I’m kind-of on the frontline at Q Center in the aftermath of these types of community events and tragedies. People turn to Q Center for support and they look to us for what the collective “we” are supposed to do next. It’s time for people to wake up and help others when they are in need. This is not the kind of thing that should be happening anywhere. These were people we know. I think the very real feeling of “This could happen to me and my boyfriend” spread like wildfire throughout the city and our allies came out in droves for the “Hands Across Hawthorne” event we just threw this past weekend. There were thousands of people there. It was really touching.

AB: Tell me about “Hands Across Hawthorne” Rally Against Violence (2011)? The photographs were powerful.