RuPaul’s Drag Race UK cast interview! Round 7! 

WORDS BY SAM DAMSHENAS
DESIGN BY JACK ROWE
SPECIAL THANKS TO NIALL HAY AND JO SEAR AT THE BBC

If your engines aren’t started, consider this your ignition: RuPaul’s Drag Race UK roars back on the BBC tomorrow with Girls Aloud icon Nadine Coyle “fearing for her life,” legendary Brits like Tracy Beaker, Charlotte Church, and Denise from EastEnders fully transformed in drag, and a “ridonkulously gag-worthy” lineup of queens, runways — and, blimey, this part is just so unexpected — twists! and! turns!

Reminder incoming: the 12 queens hoping to usurp Kyran Thrax as the UK’s Next Drag Superstar are Bones, Bonnie Ann Clyde, Catrin Feelings, Chai T Grande, Elle Vosque, Nyongbella, Paige Three, Pasty, Sally™, Silllexa Diction, Tayris Mongardi and Viola.

While the cast promise that season seven will deliver all the charisma, uniqueness, nerve, talent, and reality-TV shenanigans we’ve come to expect, they emphasise that Drag Race’s impact goes far beyond the werkroom and the runway. In a political climate increasingly hostile towards LGBTQIA+ people — especially trans and non-binary communities — they see the series as a platform to uplift, inspire and “be queer figureheads for our community.” This season isn’t just about entertainment; it’s about celebrating resilience, visibility, and queer joy when it’s needed most.

From inspiring the next generation of queer viewers to subverting Drag Race expectations — and a judge who may or may not have been “punched in the tit” (confirmation pending) — all of this and more is covered in the following interview with the cast of season seven. Disclaimer: 12 drag queens on one call means this conversation has been lovingly condensed for clarity (and shade).

GT: Queens, condragulations on becoming RuGirls with RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season seven! Let’s go back to the beginning: when you first sashayed into the werkroom, what were your initial impressions of one another?

Sally: I was really overstimulated! It felt like The Truman Show. I’m a Rolodex diva, so I knew these people before they knew me. I knew Bones was Queen Soho. I knew Paige was dippy dancing about on the West End. I knew Tayris had won Brighton’s big drag pageant. I’d even seen Catrin’s TikToks before I came in. Then they all came in and I was like, ‘What are they good at? What will I be able to beat them in?’ Of course, Silllexa came in and I was like, ‘Shit, there’s my competition — the seamstress!’ I really enjoyed it… while simultaneously shitting myself.

Pasty: You don’t see anything until you literally walk in and then [production are] like, ‘You need to hit this mark.’ It’s such a blur!

Silllexa: It was such an early start. I was jittering. It was chaos. I should not have had four Red Bulls.

Pasty: My breast plate was just [starts jiggling her tig ol’ biddies]! I did them in.

Tayris: Everyone was good at representing their drag from the moment they walked in. I think the only person I completely misread… I thought Elle Vosque was a cis woman. She came in and I was like, ‘Oh diva!’ She got out of drag and I was like, ‘Who is that?’

Viola: The majority of us thought Elle was cis, and it was a big revelation. But walking into that workroom, the excitement levels were crazy. I was feeling very confident walking in, but as soon as I turned around and saw the girls, terror flooded the basement. I dunno what it is about the hamster cage, but it just makes you so on edge and so terrified.

Paige: Overstimulation at its absolute finest. But I was really reveling in the fact that I was there. Walking around that corner, they don’t really give you a warning. They go, ‘Okay, off you go!’ It was like, ‘Mama… I’m on Drag Race, honey.’

Pasty: You get to see everything that you don’t usually see when you watch the show, which is weird.

Elle: It’s also weirdly like watching the show. I turned the corner and literally was like, ‘Oh my god, I’m in an episode of Drag Race.’ It didn’t feel that different?

Chai: Being met by that wall of cameras and a group of queens, you forget how to do the simplest things. What could go wrong? Turns out… quite a lot could go wrong. You could pass your mark, bubble your line, fall over.

Bonnie: The initial impression was how visually different everyone was. Every single person here is bringing something unique to the show. Everyone’s going to have their favourite because we’re all so different.

Chai: I mean, look at us now, for example.

Sally: Speak for yourself!

GT: Fans have gotten to know you through your promos and Meet the Queens videos, but what’s one thing about your artistry or persona that might surprise them this season?

Tayris: How much heart and vulnerability I display. Especially when you see a drag queen or a drag artist, it’s big, it’s bold, and it almost feels like a highly decorative object. Sometimes, even the fans and people at our gigs forget that we’re people underneath it. So much of what I do at my core is political. It’s a celebration of my queerness, my blackness. I knew walking into the workroom that this was a platform not only to entertain, but because Drag Race is such a part of the mainstream queer zeitgeist, it’s really an opportunity to inspire the people who need to see themselves in us.

I said to myself: I’ll do the fierce drag, I’ll be the c**ty boots and all that too, but I need to make sure that everything I do rings true to all my experiences, all my heart, and all my vulnerability. I want to be an emblem for blackness, and I know that is what I did on that platform.

Sally: Similar sentiments to Tayris. For me, it’s about being an artist at the forefront. Also, a lot of people might see my look and think, ‘Oh, she’s a bit cold, a bit intimidating.’ But when you get to know me, I’m just a lovely person. Just like everyone from the North, know what I mean?

Catrin: That I’m actually a man! I’m just a bit of an open box, truth be told. I feel like, because people see me as sort of a camp cow, they probably think that I can’t do certain things. But those certain things… You’ll have to find out on the show. RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, Thursday nights at 9 p.m. on BBC iPlayer.

GT: Shameless plug.

Chai: She’s buying time.

Bones: For me, I think I come from a drag family that is infamously known for their opinions.

[A moment of silence, as everyone on the call expected Bones to continue.]

Pasty: … and that’s it.

Nyongbella: End sentence!

Bones: We’re quite known for our opinions, even when people haven’t asked for them. Going in, people might think I’m there to cause trouble. But I have a very motherly energy that the girls got to see. I am very opinionated, but it always comes from a place of love.

Viola: I would say my age. Everybody thinks I’m 40. I dunno why. I filmed the show when I was 22. I’m the second youngest on the cast, and every one of these girls thought I was in my thirties at least. And this isn’t just in drag, this is out of drag as well.

Paige: No, no, not out of drag!

Catrin: You look younger out of drag.

Viola: I obviously paint very big. I think my makeup is quite ageless. But I put on the updos, I wear glamorous gowns, and I don’t really do bodysuits.

Paige: And your vocals, Viola! Your vocals!

Elle: Lady Vi!

Viola: There’s a lot of bravado.

Paige: [Impersonating Viola] ‘Oh my goodness!’

Viola: ‘Hello, darlings!’

Paige: You could play an 86-year-old.

Viola: Because of the singing as well, most people expect that I won’t be able to perform through lip-sync. But darling, a performer is a performer, whether they’re singing or lip syncing or not.

Catrin: And she’s good with her mouth.

Viola: Oh, exactly!

Pasty: In the promo my personality comes off as very stupid. I think when you watch the show, you’ll see how stupid my drag can actually go in terms of looks and the things I do. Also, people might be surprised that I can look pretty sometimes.

Viola: No!

Silllexa: Don’t say that!

Pasty: No, not like that. I don’t just do stupid camp stuff all the time.

Viola: I saw it when you walked into the workroom, babe, that you were gorgeous.

Pasty: Thank you, babe.

Nyongbella: I dunno. I feel like I show off every facet of myself pretty much. I can look gorgeous. I can be crazy cuckoo cu – oh, I can’t say that word.

GT: You bloody well can.

Nyongbella: Oh, I can say c**t?! Perfect! Finally!

Pasty: She’s been told off all afternoon.

Nyongbella: Literally. It’s on my necklace still…

GT: Disclaimer: you can all say c**t as much as you want. We’re all British here.

Paige: Ready, girls? One, two, three…

The cast of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season 7: C**T!

Bonnie: And scene!

GT: Back to business…

Nyongbella: So, I like to be that crazy cuckoo – c**t! I like to do all kinds of things. I’m very ‘what you see is what you get.’ I can be nice if I want to be nice, and if I want to be a bitch, I could be a bitch. I have no qualms about cussing someone out or doing whatever. As I said in my ‘Meet the Queens: “If you don’t like that, if you have thoughts, suck your mum.”

Elle: I would actually say that people don’t know a lot about me. Unlike a lot of the other queens, they had more of an online presence before the race, whereas I feel like the audience won’t really know what to expect from me — period. I think that’s the answer.

Paige: Catrin, can I just ask… Are you cleaning your teeth out with your nails?

Catrin: No, I’m picking my nose.

Bonnie: Alright, show us Catrin.

Catrin: Pardon?

Pasty: Catrin, are you finished picking your nose?

Catrin: All clean!

Paige: I’m probably most known for being a stage performer. I think it’s important, like a lot of the other girls have said, to show that there’s a person behind it, a human, and there’s a lot of reason why I do things and why I love what I do. I want to try and highlight the humanity side of being a stage performer. I’m actually a bit nuts. I probably should be locked up and put away. I mean, the bus journey home [from set], girl…

Sally: She’s cuckoo bananas!

Catrin: Honestly, if you’ve seen Paige have a drink…

Elle: Paige doesn’t need a drink.

Paige: I don’t need a drink.

Chai: People think Vi is older, but people tend to think I’m younger, which is a little humble brag, I’ll admit! Whereas Vi is giving those classical references, I very much engage with LaBuBu culture and dress in that sort of style. People always expect the oldest queen to be a battleaxe — that staple on every Drag Race cast! I might surprise people in that way. Like Elle, I’m fairly unknown compared to the rest of the cast. I’m known in a very specific niche, East London circle where I competed in a competition, but I wasn’t that well known until recently. That’s a bit of a superpower.

Bonnie: I’m a bit of the opposite. I’ve been doing drag for so long and have been quite international — performing in Dublin, Gran Canaria, Manchester and all across the UK. So, there’s an expectation for me to do well. People are going to be surprised by the crazy, cuckoo things I come up with and how I present them in the Drag Race capsule.

Silllexa: I’m very visual. If you come to watch me, you’re not going to see me throwing myself around — well, maybe a few splits! – but people expect me to be quite hard, moody and miserable. Which I am, but I’m also really stupid! All the girls know I’m not afraid to take the piss out of myself and look like an idiot. Ultimately, I’m still the 13-year-old boy who just wanted to go out, have fun, be flamboyant, and live my life. I just have tits now. I’m quite nice and really humble… oh, and gorgeous!

GT: With all of this in mind, let’s play a very original and groundbreaking game of, ‘Who’s most likely to…’

Paige: This is fun! We haven’t done this.

Viola: I love this.

GT: Who is most likely to sob on the main stage?

Catrin, Elle, Viola, Sally and Pasty: Tayris!

Tayris: I’m an Aries sun with a Leo rising! I feel!

GT: Most likely to throw shade on the main stage?

Catrin and Bones: Viola.

Viola: Catrin!

Tayris: Nyongbella.

Silllexa: I’d say Catrin or Nyongbella, to be honest.

Elle: I’d say Catrin too.

Sally: Yeah, I’d say Catrin.

Catrin: Who did I shade on the main stage?

[Awkward silence and laughter.]

Pasty: You’re just shady!

Catrin: I am.

Paige: Shady fun, though. Shady fun.

GT: Oh wow, is this going to be a… moment? Catrin, will you be attacking the judges?

Catrin: I won’t!

Tayris: Not verbally, physically.

Sally: Yeah, she punched Michelle Visage in the tit.

Chai: Through her heel!

GT: I’ve got my headline, then?

Catrin: If I get RuPaul ringing me up, it’s on you Sam!

GT: Who’s most likely to make RuPaul unleash his signature cackle?

Catrin: Paige.

Viola: Ella.

Bones: I was going to say Sally.

Elle: I’m going to say Bonnie.

Catrin: Yeah, Bonnie is very witty.

Bonnie: I’m gonna say myself.

GT: And most likely to embrace their inner Ginny Lemon and just… leave?

Everyone: Bella!

Nyongbella: 100 per cent, me.

GT: I would love to continue with this game but I fear retribution from the powers-that-BBC-be. So let’s turn to something more pressing: outside of Drag Race, the world feels increasingly dire, with escalating attacks on the LGBTQIA+ community – especially our trans brothers and sisters. What does it mean to you to step into the werkroom and make your Drag Race debut right now?

Viola: It offers an escape. It’s a place where you can live in a fantasy world, where Drag Race *is* the world. You know you’re going to be loved, accepted and supported in whatever you do, because that’s what our community is known for.

Sally: We all have different lived experiences as artists within this microcosm of queerness. Drag Race is a platform where people can find pillars of community, people who are the positive within the negative. We see so much hatred toward our trans sisters and brothers, toward Black people, and POC, especially with what’s going on in politics right now, not just in the UK. America coughs, and we catch a cold. It’s so important that we as individuals are visible, so people don’t look at the news and think, ‘That is the future.’ We are the future. We are pillars of the community. We are here to fight, make our voices heard, and ensure everyone, no matter what they identify as, has someone to look up to and say, ‘I want to be like them.’

Silllexa: Sally for president.

Tayris: Yeah, I think Sally hit it on the head. Drag is inherently about entertainment, but it’s also political, and in today’s world, being visible as a queer person — especially as a person of colour — comes with responsibility. Walking into the workroom, I asked myself: do I have the skills to succeed in the challenges? I hoped so, but more than that, I wanted to exemplify strength, richness and the understanding I’ve gained as a queer person of colour, while acknowledging my privileges.

The world is becoming increasingly dangerous for our trans+ siblings – not just in the UK, but globally. I know how much our work can connect with people. I meet young queer folks who’ve had to move just to be themselves, and I realised I needed to show fight, fire, and vibrance for them… People we didn’t see growing up. There will be highs and lows, drama and competition, but at its core, Drag Race is a celebration. It shows that queer people can and should thrive in the mainstream. We’re artists, but we’re also human beings who deserve to be loved, safe and celebrated. I feel lucky to have this platform, and I trust every member of this cast to not only entertain, but to be queer figureheads for our community.

Elle: I’m representing Northern Ireland, and I’m very honoured to be doing so. The world at the minute is quite messed up, and it’s really heartbreaking and sad. On a local level, this year, Ballymena, a town close to Belfast, had its first-ever Pride, and there were huge protests. Slurry was actually spread across the road to make it impossible for people to enjoy the parade.

It just highlights how important it is for us to show up, support these events, and live life authentically. People like that are winning at the minute, but we have to make sure we’re visible. Being gay, a drag queen, and queer, and coming from Northern Ireland, I feel a huge responsibility. Representing Northern Ireland on such a great show, which is historic for LGBTQIA+ representation, is an honour, and I don’t take the opportunity lightly.

Pasty: I agree with Elle. I’m from Cornwall originally, and over the last few years, they’ve started doing Cornwall Pride, but because Cornwall’s so big, they do lots of mini Prides. Just last month, a few of them actually got canceled because of underfunding. It’s tiring at the minute to even look at the news, because as queer people, we’re just pawns in a game of chess in politics. We’re used as cannon fodder to push these horrible rhetorics. As Elle said about Northern Ireland, I hope that people from Cornwall get to see that. I’ve had people reach out on Instagram already saying that seeing someone from Cornwall on the show is very empowering. I don’t take that lightly.

Paige: Yeah, none of us take the opportunity of being part of Drag Race for granted. Most of us, given the average age of the cast, pretty much grew up watching Drag Race. I was probably about 14 when I started watching it, and as someone who was questioning whether it was okay to feel the things I was feeling and experiencing as a young boy, Drag Race allowed me to go, ‘Hmm, I’m not alone here. There are other people who do what I do and make mountains out of something that felt so small inside them.’

I feel very lucky to be part of that for the next generation. I can’t really imagine what it’s like for 14-year-olds now – especially if you’re queer or from a minority in any sense, not knowing where you can go in life or what is okay. So if we can do even half the job that people like Detox and Alyssa Edwards did for me when I was 14, then we’re onto a winner.

Bones: Just as it was for us growing up, it’s a reminder to create a fantasy for queer people. Drag Race is an escape for so many, and as much as it’s important to highlight and use our platform, it’s also really important to provide that escape — the same way Alyssa Edwards and Detox did for us in our bedrooms when we were younger. Face the facts: we are all icons in the making!

Bonnie: In my lifetime, this is the worst it’s ever been politically. The shift to the right has been immense, and for whatever reason, there’s been such a devaluation of human existence and life. People just don’t care anymore about whether others live or die, whether they can exist authentically, or whether their life has any value. Drag Race does something really important: it not only showcases our talents, creativity, runway looks and funny moments, but it also humanises us. Because we’ve moved so far back, it’s crucial that we show who we are underneath all of our drag. Even if we only change a few minds here and there, it’s a start, though it will be a slow process.

Catrin: Going off what Bonnie said — although we are performers, we are still human. One thing I want to highlight is the mirror talks we have this season. I won’t give any spoilers, but one of my favourite parts of being on the show is having the opportunity to talk about issues that affect all of us. Not just within the cast, but across the queer community as well. Even though we all come from different backgrounds, the one thing we share is that we are queer, and throughout our lives, we’ve lived similar experiences in certain ways.

One thing I loved was listening to The Vivienne and Baga Chipz talk about their sobriety, for example. These moments are something people don’t focus on enough. Everyone’s always thinking about the challenges, who’s winning or losing, or the looks. But the mirror chats show us not only as performers, but as queer people who share experiences with the audience watching the show, especially in times like this. Watching the first episode and seeing one of the queens’ mirror chats was so inspiring and uplifting. I just want to thank everyone in the cast who had a mirror chat. It’s honestly such an inspiring group to be with, and I can’t wait for everyone to see it. My sisters, I love you all!

Chai: I totally agree with everything that’s been said. The sociopolitical climate right now is terrifying. Every time I step out the door, even in London — the most multicultural city ever — I feel scared. It’s not as simple as the queer community versus everybody else, because some of the hatred I’ve received comes from within our own community. It’s important to highlight that it’s not just the far right against liberals; there are issues within the queer community too. I wish it were simpler than that.

Pasty: It’s scary, isn’t it? It’s sad.

GT: Thank you all for sharing that – it really highlights just how vital Drag Race feels in this moment. With that in mind, what do you hope the legacy of UK season seven will be within the wider franchise?

Catrin: Don’t quote me on this, I don’t know the stats, but I think we’re one of the youngest casts in UK Drag Race history.

Viola: We are. I did the numbers.

Pasty: Viola double-checked!

Paige: Viola’s like, ‘You keep calling me 40, I have to check if we’re the youngest.’

Catrin: She’s the La Voix of the season! People often talk about casting younger queens and how they might not have as much experience as others who’ve been in the scene for years. But we succeed in what we do. We’re self-critical, sure, but we work on ourselves to be the best performers and people we can be. I think that shows on the season, every single one of us is polished in our own style of drag. We’re a great representation of the next wave of drag, I’d say.

Sally: To echo Catrin, I feel like this is the most unique cast Drag Race has had. There are multifaceted talents that haven’t been represented before. Usually, when the “Meet the Queens” comes out, people make comparisons, but I feel like the legacy of season seven will be an onslaught of inspiration. Every time I go on social media, someone’s rooting for a different queen, and that’s amazing. That’s the talent of a strong cast. People will be inspired by Bones, Bonnie, Paige, and so many others.

Bones: There’s a lot of well-branded queens, I think.

Sally: It’s like a Pinterest board of inspiration. Personally, I wanted my representation to show that the dream doesn’t die for alternative and creative queens. My drag isn’t the typical Drag Race style, and I hope my legacy inspires others to say, ‘She’s fierce and I want to be like her.’

Silllexa: I think they will.

Catrin: Maybe next season people will say, ‘Oh, she looks like Catrin Feelings’ or ‘she looks like Chai.’ It’s an endless cycle. I get compared to Lawrence Chaney, and in five seasons, someone might say, ‘Oh, she looks like Catrin.’

Pasty: Well, we’re twins, people say.

Catrin: Yeah, basically. I’m actually Pasty!

Paige: One thing I love is when people say a queen looks like someone who started drag after them.

Pasty: Our season is real fun energy when we’re all together. There’s so much banter, but the legacy of this season is going to be queer joy. Right now, in the current climate, it’s like a bubble of what community can be — queer people meeting up and enjoying themselves. Are you picking your nose again, Catrin?

Catrin: No. Fuck off.

Pasty: See? That’s the joy of the season. With the world the way it is, it’s nice to have a little bubble like this. We all love each other.

Bonnie: There’s no clear frontrunner for the crown. People have been predicting who’ll be on top, ranking our promo looks, but everyone brings something unique in personality and aesthetic. So people will pick their favourites, and everyone will be #TeamSomeone because we’re all amazing.

GT: Finally, I know you can’t give too much away. So, spoiler-free: how much of a gag is this season? Exaggerated adjectives encouraged.

Viola: Ridonkulously gag-worthy. Gagatrongery! Twists and turns left, right, center… everywhere. I can’t even remember half the stuff that happened.

Paige: If the girls on the show were gagged left, right, and center… the audience will be too. I was gagged the whole time. I was like, ‘Wait, what?’

Tayris: I’ve already said this offline, but I’ll say it here… the best collection of runways this show has ever seen.

Everyone: Yes!

Sally: Fierce is drag, fierce is gag, you know what I mean?

Pasty: With what Bonnie was saying earlier, the fact that we’re all so unique but so good at what we do… you never know where the season’s going to go.

Catrin: It’s very unexpected. Even filming we were like, ‘Did that actually just happen?’

Paige: Exactly. Moments of silence in Untucked. That’s a giveaway, where we’re all just looking at each other, like, ‘What just happened?’

Viola: Pretty much every week when the girls came back from the stage into Untucked, you wouldn’t know who’s top or bottom. Everyone’s so strong, it’s really down to the tiniest details.

Bonnie: I truly think we have All Stars-level talent and looks on this season. It’s an All Stars-level Drag Race, brought to a regular season. You don’t need to wait for us to come back. We’re already bringing it.

Chai: That should be the quote. The headline.

Viola: “You don’t need to bring any of us back [for All Stars]”.

Bonnie: We should do it all over again. Bring us back. One more time.

Catrin: All will be revealed soon. Thursdays at 9pm on BBC iPlayer.

Pasty: I can’t wait for people to watch it.

Bonnie: It’s really funny too. We’re all really funny.

Nyongbella: It’s true.

Tayris: And we’re all really shady! Every person said something that made me go, ‘Ooh?’

Catrin: But we love each other nonetheless.

GT: Okay – who’s claiming the final word? How should we wrap this up?

Bonnie: Go on, Catrin. You know you want to.

Catrin: Oh… I’m on the spot now.

Pasty: Should we all just yell it again?

GT: Alright then. One, two, three…

Everyone: C**T!

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season 7 premieres 25 September on BBC iPlayer. 

The post Drag Race UK season 7 cast on why queer joy and visibility are more vital than ever appeared first on GAY TIMES.

Jessica Winter on her debut album, growing up in the punk scene, and a current internet fixation with kittens and mini dachshund puppies

PHOTOGRAPHY REBECCA THOMAS
STYLIST LUCY-ISOBEL BONNER
HAIR SVEN BAYERBACH

It’s midway through my conversation with London-based pop artist Jessica Winter, and I’m laughing. We’re talking over Zoom on a sunny afternoon, informing me that her rider at her recent headline show at The Divine in Dalston consisted of limp salad leaves and a single ginger and lemon teabag. No disrespect to the venue, mind you, this was at her insistence. “I don’t know what I was thinking,” she admits. “I must have been on a health kick.” She promises to amp up the rockstar vibe with ten bottles of whiskey next time, neither of us is sure how well that would pair with wilted lettuce. 

Booked to headline the GAY TIMES stage at XOYO for SXSW London on June 6th, lead performer Jessica Winter is well acquainted with the LGBTQ+ scene in the capital. Often gracing the floors of Dalston Superstore and nearby venues with her inebriated presence, she has quite literally been raised with the gays through her family. Her brother Joshua is currently on a mission to make Soho nightlife queer and sexy again through the bougie Hotel @ 49A club night. Winter lent her musical talents for the launch night, welcoming in the new party with an opening DJ set, promoted by an incredible image of her flexing her guns in a fishnet catsuit. She is torn between Divine and Judy Garland as her favourite notable icon. 

Growing up on Hayling Island off the shores of Portsmouth, Winter spent a lot of her early childhood strapped to a piano as a result of her hip dysplasia. “I had this bar back and my legs were in the splits,” she says of her earliest memory. “My Mum would put me on the piano stool because my legs could poke out on either side, and I’d be safe. And I used to play on that for ages, and I just remember loving it: like I was only two.” She didn’t start singing until she was 11 or 12. “I never really considered myself a singer at all,” Winter explains, only properly writing when she finally had something to say. 

Also hailing from Hayling is her musical collaborator, Alex Sebley, a former member of The Saudis whose musical career bubbles around the fringes of Fat White Family. The two met by chance years later in London, forming the eccentric indie disco band PREGOBLIN but friction arose around the time the debut single Combustion was released in 2018. I’d surprisingly met Winter for a brief moment around this time, my ex was a bassist in the band and living with Sebley throughout our breakup. I remember a table full of collaged scraps of paper, including images of Winter assembled as they were making a DIY scrapbook video for that first track. Speaking to her now feels cathartic, being on the other side of that strange era. 

Winter has notably produced for artists including Jazmin Bean, The Horrors, The Big Moon, Phoebe Green, Fat White Family, Walt Disco, Sundara Karma, Brodka, Lauren Auder, Solv, The Moonlandingz, and has toured with Rebecca Black and Death Grips separately. On July 11th, Winter is excited to drop her first debut album, cheekily titled My First Album, with a UK tour starting with a performance at Rough Trade East. Inside, thirteen pop tracks tell the story of Winter finding herself through a series of personal anecdotes. She tells me that working on her solo material has been fun but stressful. “It’s 100% me and I freak out about that sometimes, but it’s not like I can give it up because it’s a therapy and how I heal my wounds.” There’s no way around being authentically an artist without being truly seen.

In an age where AI music infiltrates streaming services like a mechanical cancer, the music itself feels rich and nostalgic, like razzing it down the motorway on a sunny Friday afternoon with the top down (and, optionally: your top off) after making a life-changing realisation. Playing with sounds in a very textural way, there are slices of Scissor Scissors, grunge, and Kylie Minogue. Each track has a personality and soul. “I wanted to make it much warmer and more analogue,” she explains about the production process, trying to capture the raw feeling of when she would listen to noughties pop as a youngster.

“I was making sure that everything I did was trying to use as many real instruments as possible, taking it out of the laptop and putting it through vintage equipment.”

Emotion builds as the songs progress, peeling back layers until you find the heart of the person beneath. Already released from the album is her music video for the track ‘Wannabe’, where you watch Winter metamorphose into the misunderstood 90s goth icon Edward Scissorhands. It’s the scene where he’s outside awkwardly fingering the hairstyles of various older lady neighbours with his namesake appendages into something entirely new. In Winter’s rendition, the models are styled into clones of her until the end, where she finally breaks free of creating the same style over and over again, becoming a bleach blonde babe in the process. It’s fitting to the lyrics, where an unhealthy habit of self-comparison through social media is revealed. “It’s really important to find out who you are, or you lose yourself,” she affirms. “Comparison is a mirror, not a truth.” This is especially true in the music industry, where mental health struggles amongst artists are infamously rife.

Winter relates to the misfit essence of Edward Scissorhands and how he doesn’t fit in. “He wants to be liked and loved, and kind of just tries, but when he tries, he cuts people’s faces,” she explains. “Sometimes when you’re trying, it just goes wrong. A lot of people can feel like an alien sometimes, it’s just good to remember that you are just equal to any other human being on this earth.” It’s directed by Roger Spy, the multimedia artist and musician. “He can sing, he can dance, he can direct,” Winter appraises. “He is the next Michael Jackson, if not Michael Jackson incarnated,” she quips, although the timeline of this reincarnation is questionable. It transpires that Spy has directed two more of her upcoming videos, in one, she’s screaming atop a cliff in Wales, which will also be revealed on the album launch release. 

Lyrically, ‘Wannabe’ touches on the feeling of self-comparison on social media and using outside distractions to avoid yourself. “It’s that comparing and despairing, seeing other artists doing way better than you or seeming more confident, but I’m sure they’re all going through the same,” she describes. “When you’re comparing yourself to someone, you’re not seeing them, you’re seeing your insecurities reflected,” but she has a tip to trick your brain into doing the opposite when you notice that happening. “Write it down and then write the opposite statement: one of compassion, not punishment. Do it every time and collect them in a jar. When the jar is full… burn them and let all those negative thoughts disintegrate into thin air!”

Winter notes her current internet fixation involves an adorable combo of cute kittens and mini dachshund puppies, a blessed algorithm if there ever was one. “Sometimes I have to throw my phone across the room to get it out of my hand.”

Avoidance can be achieved through anything and everything. In one of the upcoming tracks, I See The Robin, Winter averts her attention from the present moment by looking for signs. I recalled my past superstition of robin sightings as a sign from my deceased Granddad, and she said the same. How many Granddads could one local red-breasted bird be symbolic of in one area? “Is it serendipity, or is it a coincidence?” she asks, perhaps seeing 1111 everywhere is only indicative of habitually looking at your screen at 11:11 each day. “I think sometimes it’s a bit poisonous to be living in this fantasy land, because again, you’re believing this narrative in your head and you’re not being in the present moment, which is better. Usually.”

There’s an equally gothic undertone across her entire discography, in part due to her relationship to metal and rock music as a teen. She was part of the punk scene in Portsmouth and adored the fashion, the music and the ethos. “It shaped me and I think it will always be a part of me, no matter what music or clothes I wear.” Before the interview, I had been tipped off that she was partial to Epic by Faith No More. “I got a top badge for that on Spotify.”

“What I love about pop music is you can be as extreme as you want to be in three minutes, seeing how far you can push certain structures and boundaries,” Winter explains. “What I love about rock bangers is that it’s dramatic, you can hear that in my music. Punk music has theater and drama, I love all of that. It’s where I’ve come from. My whole family is very dramatic.”

The drama is undeniable. ‘Got Something Good’ features sirens and an industrial edge, ‘L.O.V.E’ feels like the hero making a comeback in a ‘90s romcom. The song ‘Big Star’ immediately followed by ‘Worst Person In The World’ feels like an immediate comedown from the positivity in the track before it. It’s theatrical but not in a cheesy way. The album ends on ‘To Know Her’, where the protagonist Winter leaves you on a fairytale ending with a baroque-style harpsichord and an organ. A heavenly moment that sounds like finally finding the light at the end of a long struggle. You’re left sitting there introspectively as the sound echoes around the room inside your headphones.

“I’m just trying to be authentic. That sounds lame, doesn’t it?” I assure her that it will look better written down. “I’m just trying to figure it out, as I’m sure a lot of the readers are. There might be resonance with that and we can all feel heard together.” 

Jessica Winter’s debut album ‘My First Album’ is out now.

The post Jessica Winter: “Comparison is a mirror, not a truth” appeared first on GAY TIMES.

The London-based artist discusses her creative journey as she unveils a sensual, sanguine tease of an EP sure to soundtrack sweltering dancefloor hookups.

Famously, the 2020s have emerged as nightlife’s ‘harder, better, faster, stronger’ era. Whether it’s the influence of TikTok, G, or our dwindling attention spans, BPMs are cranking up as dancers become more frenzied, seeking new horizons of escapism – and nowhere is this more present than in queer nightlife, where genres like donk and hard trance dominate. 

It’s interesting, then, that the past few years would also see the ascent of London-based DJ and producer Elkka. A name frequently featured in major lineups across the UK, EU and US – with plenty of far-flung dates to boot – the artist embodies, well… more of an embodied approach to club music. Behind the decks, she favours beats that come complete with a sway of the hips and simmering percussion. As a producer, her tracks are sinewy and tactile, firmly rooted in the experience of being a living, breathing human. 

An advocate for partying as praxis, she also runs Prism of Pleasure: a curated club night which centres FLINTA acts and audiences, and takes its name from her ecstatic debut album. Fittingly, her latest project, the EP Xpression, is a culmination of her years-long appreciation for the energising role of clubbing in the queer and dyke communities. Landing on 20 June, the four-tracker is low-slung, hazy and destined to be the soundtrack to sweltering bank holidays and sweaty dancefloor hookups.

Inspired by moments of liberation in the club, the EP overflows with hedonism, desire and – a recurring theme for Elkka – pleasure. In case you need any further convincing, the cover art for its double single, ‘Automatic/ Gentle Gaze’, looks like a still from an 80s music video: a coupe glass capturing a trail of champagne, suspended strategically in front of a pair of bikini bottom-clad thighs. Consider us enticed.

In order to share more, the artist sat down with Gay Times in East London’s La Camionera over a glass – or two, or three… – of white wine. (A couple of days later, Elkka posed for exclusive images shot by the photographer Alex Lambert, her creative collaborator and wife.)

Corset CRAIG MORRISON STUDIO, shorts FEYZA BERCA, jewellery VITALY

Hey diva! Wait… how old are you? Your skin is so radiant.

I am 36… she’s old! 

Not old at all. 

Do you know, my age used to be something I was really self-conscious about? I’m not anymore. I did a headline show a couple of years ago, and it was on my birthday. I was like, ‘Do I say it’s my birthday? Do I say how old I am?’ I then kind of ended up talking about it really openly with, like, 700 people. When I was younger, I thought I would ‘make it’ at 22. But, oh god, I was so straight at 22! I was a lost soul at that age and I was figuring out my music and my sexuality at the same time.

Intriguing… so what has your journey been like from that lost 22-year-old to now?

I started out being a songwriter and singer, going down the pop route, but I knew that wasn’t going to serve me very well. I was doing well as a writer and featuring on people’s records… but I didn’t want to be the fucking feature artist. I wanted to be the artist. I wanted to have control of my own career, not have my songs on some boy’s laptop. 

So, I started producing for myself and I set up my record label Femme Culture. That was the turning point for me. I remember calling my mum and saying, ‘I’m going to stop doing these sessions now. I’m going to try and teach myself how to produce and DJ’. She was like, ‘Do you know how to do that?’ I was like, ‘No, but I’m going to figure it out.’

“When I was younger, I thought I would ‘make it’ at 22. But, oh God, I was so straight at 22!”

And you did figure it out!

I did! Since then, everything’s just kind of kept going forward, I feel really in control of what I’m making. But I still feel like I’m 22 and I still feel like I’m learning about myself as a musician and as a woman.

It’s been about a year since your first album, Prism of Pleasure, came out, and we still have it on repeat in the GT office… What was the process of making that project?

The album took a couple of years. There was a pause because I did a DJ–Kicks album in 2023, then I went back to the album. Then, sadly, my dad died and I had to make the decision whether to stop or finish – and I decided to finish the project. The last track on the album was written on the day of the funeral. It was important to me to keep going. He was so supportive of my career. 

That sounds like such an important process of catharsis. How did you settle back into making music after you released the album back into the world?  I know you have a new EP, Xpression, out at the end of the month…

As soon as you finish something, everyone’s asking, ‘What are you doing next?’ I needed to take a minute to live, to take time away from touring or writing, to just be. Otherwise, I can’t really write. What’s really been inspiring to me is partying.

Sorry, side bar: What’s been your favourite clubbing experience recently? And – as good as they are, I’ve been – you’re not allowed to mention your own Prism of Pleasure nights… 

There’s a party called Club Are, which I’ve been to a couple of times as a punter and it’s one of the best clubbing experiences that I’ve had in a very, very long time. You can talk to people there, the music curation is exceptional and it’s just very open, warm and inviting. People are very free and expressive there, there’s no music snobbery. It just reminds me of how difficult it is to curate a good party, and how all the small details add up to the feeling of it. I just really had the best time. I felt liberated and it reminded me of what it’s like to be on the dancefloor again. 

“Xpression is inspired by the dancefloors that I felt most free in”

Okay, back to the EP! What was the creative process like?

Well, after going to parties like that, I knew what I wanted to write – the music I made really poured out on me. I didn’t know what it was going to be, but I knew I wanted to make club music again. I know that ‘club music’ can mean a million different things, but I’m really happy with what I’ve made. Generally, I find it hard to make music that, discernibly, as a DJ, I would choose to play. There’s a block there. It’s the first time I’ve made this type of music, which is really exciting. 

How would you describe the influences behind Xpression? 

It’s inspired by the dancefloors that I felt most free in and the most inspired by. 

You’ve recently moved to East London, right?

I did. I lived in South London for a long time, and I loved it there. But everything’s here for me. The lesbian bars are here: they’re popping up, left, right and centre. There’s a moment happening and I kind of get to be in it. 

You must have spent a lot of time in East London before you moved here, though? Think of Dalston Superstore!

I think my second date with my wife Alex and my first ever DJ gig, was at Dalston Superstore. It was terrible. I blagged my way into getting booked and didn’t realise it was an R&B night, so I tried to put on house music. They took me off the decks after 20 minutes, and Alex watched the whole thing. But it ended well: Alex and I are now married, and I’m making my living from club music. 

Leztopia x Prism of Pleasure will land in Corsica Studios on 6 June. Get tickets here. 

Xpression is out on 20 June via Method 808. Check out the singles so far via the embed below. 

The post Elkka: “I didn’t want to be the feature artist – I wanted to be the artist” appeared first on GAY TIMES.

Shura discusses post lock-down anxiety, becoming a muscle mommy, 5-a-side with Leah Williamson and teasing her first album in six years.

WORDS EMILY CAMERON
PHOTOGRAPHY SOPHIE WILLIAMS
DESIGN JACK ROWE

When I get on my Zoom call with Shura I’m immediately mortified by my setup – a grainy MacBook camera, grim lighting and a messy bedroom in the background embarrassingly juxtaposed to Shura’s HD top-left camera angle and ring light. The perils of interviewing someone who became a streamer during the pandemic, I guess. 

A lot has changed for Shura since her last album, 2019’s forevher – and not just the streaming. Having made a name for herself in 2015 with songs about heartbreak and sad-girl sapphic longing like ‘Touch’ and ‘2Shy’, forevher was about falling in love. Now, after six years, a brief career as a pro Twitch streamer, and an internal struggle with with mental health and isolation, her new album, I Got Too Sad For My Friends, bravely shines a light on those parts of ourselves we turn away from, feelings of shame and selfishness around our mental health. Crucially, IGTSFMF seeks to soothe and soften those strains while you find a way out. Filled with cuttingly emotive expressions of loneliness and isolation, it addresses difficult feelings from a position of love and positivity. This record lets you be the little spoon, it’s the fabulously sapphic image of sitting in an armchair ‘with a cat sitting on your lap’.

Part therapy, part cultural digest, our conversation ranged between topics like isolation, having a brick for a brain, delayed gratification, fancying video game characters and becoming a muscle mommy. 

There’s a lot going on in the album artwork: the armour, the mountains, the gremlins, the Kurt Cobain fit… What were some of the influences feeding into it?

I sort of joke that it’s giving Joan of Arc top, and then Ellie from The Last Of Us bottom. I think that the first sort of obvious one is a game I played called Baldur’s Gate 3, which took over my life. I just sort of fell in love with the idea of myself as this slightly chaotic gnome Bard.

I had also just read The Little Prince and was absolutely devastated by it, like this is not a children’s book. There’s this really striking image of him stood on top of a mountain range, and then the themes of the record are anxiety, loneliness and sadness and feeling myself disappearing. Obviously, Baz Lurman’s Romeo + Juliet is also in the back of my mind there. I think there’s almost not a lesbian on the planet who hasn’t at some point wanted to dress up as Leonardo DiCaprio in that film.

[In the album artwork] I’m ready to fight against these monsters or demons or whatever it is that I encounter, except my armour is nowhere useful, I’m not covering any vital organs. The idea is that the monsters are kind of not really there – they’re part of your internal world.

In the title and throughout the album, you address really difficult and familiar feelings directly. How did it feel to turn and face those feelings?

It’s true that extreme emotions make it easy to write, but part of my experience of being sad and alone actually meant I couldn’t write at all. Of course, that started with the pandemic. I was discombobulated that I couldn’t listen to music.

I remember calling my friend Pip [the singer-songwriter Ladyhawke] and just being like, ‘Pip I can’t write’. I remember saying, ‘I feel like my brain is a brick. It’s just solid. Nothing is – there’s no movement in there’. And I remember them saying, ‘Shu, I felt like this so many times. You will absolutely write music again, do not worry about this’. And that was really comforting, actually, to hear from someone who is a friend and who I respect. So initially quite difficult. Once I knew I had enough songs to be like, ‘Oh, an album is happening,’ it was a lot easier. 

You mention the lockdown era and the difficulties which you faced then as an artist. I remember you pivoting to streaming during that era – why? 

I started streaming video games on Twitch in the pandemic as a way to stay connected with fans that felt less strange to me than playing music to an empty room on Instagram Live. I also tried the Instagram Live route but it just felt alien to me since so much of performing is an exchange of energy between the audience and the person performing.

There’s not a lesbian on the planet who hasn’t at some point wanted to dress up as Leonardo DiCaprio in Romeo + Juliet.

This album explores the unglamorous side of mental health, and I think a lot of people are going to relate. I don’t want this to feel like therapy but is there anything you would like people to take from it?

I do hope that it brings people comfort, but I also actually hope it brings people joy in the process. Musically there’s definitely some less joyful [moments] but, overall, it’s quite joyful and warm. I hope it’s like an armchair for people to curl up in with a cat sitting on their lap, where they can stare wistfully out of the window and cry, or maybe also feel excited about the future.

I can see that mix of emotions in the song “World’s Worst Girlfriend”. It hits you with very difficult lines like “maybe I got too sad for my friends” but it’s followed with the hyperbolic, almost comedic, “I don’t wanna be the world’s worst girlfriend”. 

And you can see the merch, right? I was like, I need to wear a cap with World’s Worst Girlfriend on it. 

How did the musical side of the album come into being?

I think the first record that I really could listen to after I had that period of not being able to write, not being able to listen, was An Overview on Phenomenal Nature by Cassandra Jenkins [who features on I got too sad for my friends]. It felt like an armchair record and I was so comforted by it.

I’d made a decision to make an album that was the type of record I wanted to listen to. I wanted it to kind of spoon me. I wanted to be spooned. I wanted to be little spoon. We made a decision to record this live with musicians in one room, playing all together in takes, which I’d never done before. I remember the first day of recording and setting up in The Pool [recording studio] in London and just being really overwhelmed by emotion and on the verge of tears a lot of the time, partly because I almost never thought I’d be here [recording music] again.

Let’s talk about the soaring ethereal lead single about staying in, ‘Recognise’. Was that always going to be the first single? 

Yes, and then no, and then yes. I wanted it to kind of lead people and welcome people, to make people a little bit excited, a little bit unsure. I love being a bit of a troll at this stage of the record, I’m a big believer, for myself, in deferred gratification. I’m always the last person to open their Christmas presents. I like knowing something good is coming. So this is like my peak, where I’m the most mean to my fans ever. I like the idea of kind of, yeah, drawing [my fans] in and making them excited, but also not letting them know where we will go from here.

A little bird told me you’re becoming a muscle mommy…

So I thought it was going to happen really quickly. But, it turns out, getting muscles takes so long and you have to eat so much chicken. At one point, I was like, ‘Wait, how many whole chickens have I eaten this year?’ I started feeling really bad for chickens, who I love. I love chickens. They’re such cute creatures. I’d also had some health scares as a result of Covid. Being told that your lungs have the capacity of a 70-year-old woman when you’re in your 30s is quite a frightening experience. I’d started going back to the gym and taking that quite seriously to try and get my lungs to be back to somewhere good. Then, in the middle of all this generic health stuff, I watched Love Lies Bleeding, and wow, just wow – what a film. I was like, Wait, so you can be more than fit? You can be like a muscle mummy!? Since then I’ve been training quite seriously, several times a week and lifting. But I think the final evolution of myself as a muscle mummy Pokémon is years in the future.

My favourite Lioness is Leah Williamson, I met her at an Arlo Parks concert. We had a lovely little chat and agreed to play five-a-side.

I also obviously loved Love Lies Bleeding, do you have any other sort of lesbian media that you’ve become obsessed with?

Arcane: everyone in my Discord was talking about it and excited about it because it was gay. My other friend was messaging me about it being like, ‘Is it okay if I fancy a cartoon?’ I loved Agatha All Along. I do love a little gay treat from time to time. Last year was quite a gay year as well. There was also that film with Ayo Edebiri and who else? And it was kind of like high school–

Bottoms?

Yeah, Bottoms was great. And musically, you know, Chappell Roan, having that meteoric rise. There was a time, I think 2015, when I first started releasing new music and there weren’t many of us. Now, it’s like I never have to wait for a gay thing [to come out], which is so nice, there’s always a new gay thing around the corner, which I think is exactly as it should be.

And women’s football too is getting a lot of well-deserved attention – I heard you played for Man City as a teenager?

From U9 onwards. I was scouted at a primary school tournament, and I played until U16. Then I discovered guitar and I was like, ‘Wait, I can be inside in winter and not in a T-shirt and shorts and maybe people will think I’m cool and fancy me?’ That [last bit] didn’t happen. It did later, but not then. When I watched the England women’s team win the Euros I was so happy and I was so proud. And there was this tiny little footballer Shura, who was like, ‘Oh, what if I’d carried on? Maybe I could have been there.’ 

Who’s your favourite Lioness?

That’s really difficult. But I have to say Leah Williamson, because I met her at an Arlo Parks concert. We had a lovely little chat and agreed to play five-a-side. I know that’s never going to happen but, in my brain, it’s going to happen.

Recognise is out now on all streaming platforms. Follow Shura here. 

The post Shura: “Getting muscles takes so long” appeared first on GAY TIMES.

The R&B singer-songwriter discusses the power of submission and not understanding the fans who still think he’s straight. 

WORDS MIKELLE STREET
PHOTOGRAPHY RYDER

Earlier this year, Destin Conrad was in an Uber riding through New York City. He was lost in his own world, in his own problems, staring out the window. And then he saw her: a girl standing at the bus stop with the word “Submissive” stamped across the front of her hoodie in big bold letters. 

“It brought me so much joy,” Conrad tells GAY TIMES. The hoodie was merch from his two-part Submissive project and accompanying from earlier this year. Though the driver was going too fast for him to roll down the window and call out to her, the experience stuck with Conrad. “I almost started crying in the Uber. [That hoodie] is something so loud. I’m sure that girl has gotten questioned about why she has it on. It’s just crazy how it can be a part of somebody’s everyday life. It was one of those moments that kind of hit me.”

But that’s the work that Conrad is making: stuff that people feel deeply. Over the span of five EPs, the Tampa, Florida-born, Los Angeles-raised, Brooklyn-residing R&B singer has solidified himself as a talent to be taken note of. He has a voice that, like some of America’s great singers, got its start in the church, and a face so compelling that he recently served as a video vixen of sorts in one of Lil Nas X’s latest visuals. (You also might recognise that face from the remnants of his Vine stardom that live on as GIFs to this day.)

The singer-songwriter, who takes both halves of that label as serious as the other, is a true crooner. You can hear it on his hit “In the Air” where he tries to carefully tread the line of telling a situationship what you want without being demanding. And if pining and yearning are physical manifestations of crooning, you can see it in his eyes through music videos for tracks like “Nosebleed” and “It’s Only You.”

Here, we talk to Destin about the role music plays in his personal life, why his biggest song doesn’t have a music video and what he thinks about men who can hear his song “WAR!” which claims he would go to war for the dick, and not be convinced he’s gay.

What’s the role that music plays in your life? For some people it’s therapy, for some people it’s a way of explaining their mood, what is it for you?

It’s definitely therapy for me in a sense. When I go through something with someone I’m definitely like I need to write about this. It all comes back to my actual life: my romantic relationships and even my platonic tiffs that I get in. I just want to write about them and how I felt. It’s about how I feel and it’s a form of therapy.

Do you write about things while they are happening or after?

I can’t write about it when I’m going through it. I have to feel it and then get over it and write about it. It would be really sour if I wrote about it while I was feeling it. When you feel things very strongly and it’s current, it’s hard to take yourself out of it. I definitely have to say ok that happened, let’s evaluate: how did that make me feel. That’s where the therapy comes in. 

It’s sort of like a debrief with yourself afterwards.

Exactly. 

So you’ve been singing like all your life, right?

Yeah. I grew up singing in church. My aunt was an evangelist so she was a big reason as to why I was in music and performance at an early age. She would have these church boat rides where she would rent a boat and everybody would come on and everyone would donate and fundraise and I would come on and sing. My mom also told me that I would hum a lot when I was a baby before I could talk. So it’s kind of always been a thing for me. 

It’s interesting because I’m too online – I’m on Twitter too much – but one of the things that’s said on there every few months is we don’t have the great singers we used to have because people aren’t growing up in church any more. 

I keep seeing that too. I mean the root of R&B is gospel. I feel like before we were making love songs about people it was definitely about God and then someone made it secular. I definitely agree in some way that it does play a role in R&B and why [the genre] isn’t as big as it used to be. Not a lot of my peers go to church. Even melodically there’s a lot of things that tie gospel and R&B together with runs and the inflection. I learned a lot of that in church and listening to gospel music. A lot of R&B artists I know are big fans of Kim Burrell and freak out over those church runs.

“Submitting is the ultimate power and strength.”

You said that Colorway changed your life forever. Was it just that it helped you decide to do music full time or was it something else?

That’s definitely what it was, the fact that it gave me purpose. I didn’t really know what I was doing. My friends were like well you can do this and you can do that, maybe you should act. I just feel like I didn’t want to choose one thing so I did a lot of different things. I sold t-shirts for a while, I did everything. But I’m in it now. I identify myself as an artist now. I’ve toured and done the whole thing. And maybe it was a little bit of imposter syndrome that played into it but now I walk in the room and I’m like I’m an R&B singer. 

Sometimes that feels like something you can be even more proud of if you discovered it on your own and it’s not something someone told you to do.

For sure. I’m definitely proud of it because it’s mine. It’s my story, these are my experiences, my melodies, my writing. Granted, I work with songwriters as well and I love collaborating with people but the majority of it is my story and my feelings. I’m very proud of it now. 

When you went in to start working on your Submissive project, did you know you wanted it to be a two-part project?

It’s something that had crossed my mind. But I didn’t really know I was going to make a part two until I started making it. A big reason I did part two was I wanted to tour and I didn’t have enough songs because my projects were EPs, they weren’t full-length albums. So that was a big reason: I wanted to have a full set list.

But I came up with the idea of Submissive being the title because I knew that it would draw people in because it has a sexual connotation and people are just horny. But my angle was submitting in a way of surrendering to the unknown and the strength that carries. To just submit in the way that “whatever is mine is mine.” Sometimes I feel like that is way more powerful than dominance. I feel like sometimes dominance can be fickle and fragile and too particular. I feel like submitting is the ultimate power and strength. That’s where I was coming from with it for the title.

In the leather and BDSM culture it’s often said that the dominant is only as dominant as the submissive allows. And in that way the submissive is the one really in control because they sort of lay out their boundaries and the dominant gets to be dominant within those parameters. 

That is so powerful to me. 

How was headlining your first tour earlier this year? I know obviously you’re onstage longer but vibe-wise how was that?

It was probably one of the most gratifying things I’ve ever done. Also one of the most tiring things I’ve ever done. Very different from opening up for another artist. I feel like there’s a pressure when you’re opening up for somebody else. I’ve just heard horror stories about people opening up and fans being horrible to them, though I never had that experience. I opened for Syd and that was my first time playing my music anywhere and I had just put out Colorway. That was my first tour and her fans were very receptive. Then my second tour was opening for my sister Kehlani which was very easy. They were very receptive to me because they knew me already. 

But opening wasn’t as gratifying as knowing that I was doing my own show and that people bought tickets to come see me. It goes back to the real-life-always-outweighs-the-internet shit. Because the numbers can be so high and you don’t make people feel anything. It doesn’t add up. But when you see it in person… that’s what makes it worth it. When I’m super tired and don’t want to work, seeing people who tell me how my music makes them feel or seeing them wearing my merch makes me feel like, okay, this is real I can’t stop. I got to keep doing it. I can’t disappoint people. 

How intentional are you with your visuals and music videos? I ask that because I’m thinking about the decision to have men be your romantic interests in the videos. Is that something you’re super conscious about?

I wasn’t in the beginning. As I said, before I was an artist I kind of ran away from the idea of being an artist in a way. I was kind of still in a limbo of if I wanted to do that. So that anxiety showed up when I started putting out videos because I just didn’t know what I wanted to do. I didn’t know if I wanted to be perceived. I’ve shot a couple of videos that will never see the light of day. One of my biggest songs actually, “In the Air,”  I shot a video to that song and never put it out. I probably should have because that was my first project. And even for me as a fan of other artists, it’s always cool to see their growth in the form of visuals. But I was just so particular and scared about how I would be perceived. So now I’m trying to convey a message in my videos. 

With the “In the Air” video was it that you didn’t want to be perceived or that you weren’t sure that was the way you wanted to be perceived?

I wasn’t sure that was the way I wanted to be perceived. I wasn’t in love with how it made me look. The story probably could have been told better, I don’t know. But looking back, I should have put the video out. It’s my biggest song and it doesn’t have a video because I was scared of perception. It is what it is. Now I have more of an idea of what I want and how I want my videos to look. I’ve been having love interests which is really cool to me and I feel like it’s important for people to see gay men be video vixens. It’s just important: music videos are important.

You’re working on your debut album now, what have you been listening to as you work on it?

It’s been a little different than the other projects, partially because it’s my first album. So it’s longer. If it was an EP it would probably be done already. But I’m really trying to do full length songs and have a bridge and polish them and mix them the right way. The transitions have to be incredible. So I’ve been listening to all the music that I love. Just the great R&B albums of the last couple of years and seeing how their songs transition into each other. Like Anti by Rihanna. I remember listening to that and being like this is a really good album: it’s the right amount of songs but it doesn’t feel like there’s a skip. Also Channel Orange. The big R&B albums that really impacted me. 

It’s important for people to see gay men be video vixens.

Where do you feel R&B sits in the market right now? Do you think it’s going through a renaissance or it’s the same as it’s always been?

I feel like there’s a lot of great R&B that needs a lot more attention. I’m ready for it to be mainstream how it was in the early 2000s, how I would turn on the radio and there would be a lot of fucking R&B playing. I don’t know if that was just regionally where I lived. I’m from Tampa and maybe it’s just because it was in the south but I feel like in the early 2000s R&B was it. Like they were pop stars but were making R&B music. But there’s a lot of good R&B coming out that I feel like a lot of people don’t know about and I’m excited for it to get the attention it needs. 

Is there something you think people miss about your music and your sound?

Sometimes I think people don’t realise I’m gay and I don’t understand it. Like, I’m talking about a grown-ass man. It’s just like you’re not listening. I say “he”, I’m talking about dick, I’m pretty gay in my music. I don’t know if people are just turning their ears off when I’m talking. I specifically get those comments from straight guys who are my fans which is partially why I started to have my boos in my videos.  But other than that I think my writing style, I’m not super cryptic. It’s really just how I feel. Sometimes I like that more than other times, sometimes I want it to be more eloquent but that’s my style. 

Is it important for you that people know you’re gay?

1000%. It’s super important that people know that I’m queer in the R&B space because there’s so many people that need that music. There’s so many gay boys that need songs about other gay boys and just queer people in general. So without shoving it down people’s throats I definitely try to indicate it. 

Destin Conrad’s latest single “Nosebleed” is out now, check out the video below.

The post Destin Conrad: “There’s so many gay boys that need songs about other gay boys” appeared first on GAY TIMES.

Actor Bilal Hasna on his latest role as a non-binary British-Palestinian drag queen in the brilliant Layla. 

WRITER RYAN CAHILL 
PHOTOGRAPHER KYLE GALVIN 
STYLIST GARY SALTER 
CREATIVE DIRECTION CRAIG HEMMING 
GROOMING NICK ROSE 
PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT OLIVER FRANCIS 
TAILORING FRANKIE FARMER 
PRODUCTION ANGEL B PRODUCTIONS

Actor Bilal Hasna has been incredibly hard to pin down. In the midst of press tours, auditions and a packed shooting schedule, we finally manage to find a time to chat over Zoom. As he flashes on screen, his first instinct is to apologise profusely at being unable to meet in person, telling me that he’d just come from an audition and would later be attending an event for the launch of The Agency, a new show in which he stars alongside Michael Fassbender, Richard Gere and Jodie-Turner Smith. He’s instantly disarming, charming and well-spoken – even taking a moment to compliment my Le Cruset butter dish (not sponsored!) in the back of the shot. 

Hasna’s big break came when he was cast in Extraordinary, the anti-superhero comedy series on Disney+ in which he plays Kash, a young man in his early 20s who possesses the power to turn back time. In the role, Hasna showed us that he was ideally suited to comedy, with brilliant timing and line delivery which perfectly suited the world created by Emma Moran. Despite two brilliant seasons, the future of Extraordinary remains uncertain with no news of a renewal – but it played its part in putting Hasna on the map. 

His latest role, though, will allow viewers to see a different side of him. Starring as the title character in Layla, a new film written and directed by British-Iraqi filmmaker and writer Amrou Al-Kadhi, Hasna transforms into a jobbing drag queen who starts a relationship with a corporate marketeer. The story unravels as Layla hides their true identity from their family and navigates a double life alongside romance and friendship. In the role, Hasna is mesmerising. He perfectly captures the internal struggle of code-switching between the straight and queer worlds, whilst offering a sense of hopefulness and quiet optimism which sets Layla aside from so many other queer characters that we see on-screen. It’s a nuanced and bold performance, packed with perfect portrayals of love, heartbreak, identity crisis, managing family and friendships and navigating London life. 

After receiving acclaim following its premiere at the London BFI Flare Festival, the film is officially released on Friday 22 November. Ahead of the release, we caught up with Hasna to discuss his appreciation for drag, the tragedy trope in queer media and his Palestinian heritage. 

L: Shirt FAVOURBROOK | R: Full look LANVIN

To start with, I wonder if there’s a performance or moment in a film that made you realise that you want to be an actor? 

I remember that when I was really young, my New Year’s resolution was to watch a film every day. My Dad is a massive film buff so we would watch them together. I remember we watched Girl, Interrupted and Angelina Jolie’s performance in that was so good. I couldn’t stop thinking about it for ages. I just remember being really struck by that performance and I couldn’t stop thinking about it for weeks and weeks afterwards. That definitely was something that inspired me to pursue acting. 

And from there, what was your pathway into the industry? 

I’ve always done it, since I was a kid. I used to go to a Saturday school like Stage Coach, and then when I went to secondary school, I did a lot of it there. I was really lucky because the drama department in my school had some amazing teachers. One of them was a woman called Dawn Morris-Wolffe and she was directing a production of Great Expectations, the Charles Dickens novel. She wanted a boy to play Miss Havisham and I ended up getting the part. That was my first proper experience of doing drag! She’s a widow, she lives in this rotten house. She’s very camp! A lot of the teachers that came to watch were like ‘Oh my god, I didn’t realise it was you! I thought it was a woman’. It felt really liberating. It really unlocked things for me. Funnily enough, I got a text from her last week saying ‘I’ve just seen the trailer for Layla, I can’t believe it. I hope you’re telling the world about Miss Havisham!’ Then when it got to GCSEs I decided to take more of an academic approach. I ended up going to Cambridge as I wanted to be a professor of English Literature. Weirdly, there was another play that was at uni and I just got the bug again. I got to go around Europe touring Othello, I got to go to the Edinburgh Fringe two years in a row. I got an agent from uni and slowly things started happening. 

Tell me about the moment of being cast in Extraordinary.  

Extraordinary was the first big break really! I worked for a charity for a year and that was amazing and then I did this prison drama called Screw. I had enough money to support myself so I was able to put more effort into self-tapes and auditions. Then, the Extraordinary tape came through and I got it. That was incredible. Within three weeks of the final audition, I was on set all the time as one of the main characters. With that comes a lot of pressure, but I think I’ve just been lucky enough to work with all the right people at the right times. I really feel so blessed. 

Let’s chat about Layla. I’ve seen it twice. I found it to be a very complex watch in the best way. I definitely saw aspects of my own journey. Tell me a bit about how it came to you.

I was aware of Amrou [Al-Kadhi’s] work because they’re quite a prominent British-Arab queer writer in London, and there aren’t that many. I remember listening to a podcast they did for BBC Sounds, and I was in my second year of university and it really made me think differently about my identity. Then, three years later, the self-tape came through for Layla, their directorial debut. I was like ‘I’ve got to try and do that.’ I remember I was actually on the plane to go to Palestine to visit my family, and I did the self-tape in Palestine in the West Bank. 

What were your thoughts on the script? 

It felt very nuanced. I think so often in queer stories there is this centering around trauma and external conflict that is often quite violent and harsh. I think what happens in Layla is a lot about what people aren’t saying. It’s about what people cannot say, it’s about what people think they shouldn’t say. It’s all about miscommunication, really. I just felt very true to my experiences and it felt very, very authentic. This idea of code switching, depending on what room you’re in, what you feel, the perceived expectations of who you are is also something I could really identify with. 

Also, rather selfishly, I just wanted to try my hand at drag!

“So often, queer films show us that queer life is impossible and that you’re going to have to live a miserable life, be depressed or die, basically. I think Layla really rallies against that. It rallies against fatalism.”

What was Amrou Al-Kadhi like to work with as a director? 

Amrou [Al-Kadhi] was incredibly passionate about telling this story. I think initially the script was much more semi-autobiographical than it is now. I think they would feel confident with me saying that this didn’t necessarily happen to them but it’s based on experiences that have been refracted through certain lenses. I think because it’s rooted in a lived experience, it meant that they had such an incredible passion and worked so hard to realise this world, both on screen and off. Many of the heads of department were queer, the person who was to apply my makeup was a drag queen themselves! That kind of spirit of authenticity, joy and integrity really ran through the whole team and was led by Amrou. 

I feel like it’s cliche to say that playing this role was ‘brave’, but you expose yourself both physically and emotionally in Layla. I imagine that was quite a huge undertaking. Did that come with any kind of pressure?

At that point I’d only really played Kash in Extraordinary and that’s a very comic role. There’s not that much vulnerability required in the way that it is in Layla. I don’t think I felt pressure really, and I think it’s in large part down to Louis [Greatorex] and how much we were able to hold each other in the filming process. I never felt like I was putting myself out there or doing something that I felt uncomfortable with. We also had an intimacy coordinator so that made us feel extremely comfortable. I think because the film was made by our community, you’re always held in it.

I always find that when we’re seeing those intimate scenes in queer media, they’re either depicted to satisfy the heteronormative gaze, or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, they serve the purpose of titillation for the queer viewer. However in Layla, they felt intimate in a way that was necessary for the story, but also really honest to queer intimacy. They felt more genuine than what we’re used to seeing in queer media. 

That was definitely our intention. There’s three main sex scenes in the film and I think that they’re quite pivotal for the film because they express what these characters can’t quite tell themselves verbally. 

Has playing Layla given you a whole new appreciation of drag? 

Yes! Drag is an Olympic sport. Drag queens are Olympians! To be in a corset that cinches you five inches and nine inch stilettos, even for a few hours, is exhausting! To hold everyone’s gaze and to translate their investment in your persona into something that is righteous, clever and quick requires so much! I’ve always loved drag, but I think doing this film really made me understand the lengths that you have to go to to be a professional drag queen. 

What do you hope that people will take away from the film? 

I hope the film shows them that life is possible. I think so often queer films show us that queer life is impossible and that you’re going to have to live a miserable life, be depressed or die, basically. I think Layla really rallies against that. It rallies against fatalism. Layla, by the end of the film, emerges triumphant and as someone who’s able to harness all the different facets of themselves into something beautiful and coherent. I really hope that is the case, especially for queer Arabs and queer Muslims whose identities are so often recognised in mass media to justify atrocities. 

You’re right, a lot of queer media is rooted in tragedy. Why do you think that is? 

I think that in the context of queer filmmakers and queer showrunners, a lot of people are trying to portray the truth of their experience and that truth is often quite tragic. You don’t even need to look to the past, you can look at the present. For example, right now we have rampant transphobia. It’s very easy to tell a queer story that’s traumatic because for so many people, queer life is something traumatic. We’ve all had trauma associated with our identities. I think the problem is that there’s an over-saturation of those stories, which means that you begin to naturalise certain things around queer life. If you’re just reflecting your own experiences without trying to show that another world is possible, then the imagination will never be able to grasp it, and therefore you can never realise it. I’m a big believer that the imagination is actually quite a political tool. You cannot achieve anything unless you can envisage a world in which it is possible. 

L: Full Look HOMME PLISSE ISSEY MIYAKE, shoes LANVIN | R: As before

Speaking of politics, I see from your Instagram that you’re regularly sharing political posts. Do you feel that you have a responsibility to utilise your platform in that way? 

As a Palestinian actor,  it’s particularly painful for me to see what’s going on in the world right now. Today, as we speak, is the 404th day of a genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. I think that I feel a sense of duty that is incumbent on me to speak out about it because I don’t think any of us have seen anything like this in our lifetimes. Do I think it’s my responsibility? The act of storytelling goes hand-in-hand with the act of advocacy and uplifting people whose voices are lost in public discourse, whose voices are demonised, dehumanised, racialised. I see the act of advocacy and lifting up certain stories as something I want to do on screen, as well as off. Especially with this issue, it’s particularly important because there is such fear around talking about it. There is such fear in saying the wrong thing. I take a great sense of hope in the people that have refused for their humanity to be compromised in this moment and have taken to the streets or have used whatever platforms they have to draw attention to this. You described it as a political thing, which is true. The situation is a political situation, but the actual issue itself is really an issue of: do we believe a certain kind of person should be annihilated? I think the answer to that is always no. 

Thank you for answering that question so eloquently.

With regards to this specific issue of Israel-Palestine, in my opinion, for many years now the Israeli state has weaponised queer Palestinian identity in order to justify its occupation of Palestine. So essentially it’s said that because homosexuality is not accepted, in Palestine, that this is actually a reason why the Palestinians need to be occupied because they are backwards people, because they don’t understand true liberation. They don’t stand for LGBTQIA+ rights. I think what this film is trying to do, in a small way, is saying that we have to narrate our own stories, because if you ask any queer Palestinian, the first thing they will tell you is that nothing kills queer Palestinians more than Israeli bombs. 

That brings me onto my next question, which is about identity. Typically when we see queer films or TV shows, they’re usually from a white gay male perspective, and there’s a greater need for wider representation. What are your thoughts on that? 

I think that in queer representation, as in any form of representation, a certain kind of person is prioritised over other people’s perspective. I really hope that that’s beginning to change. Layla sits alongside many films about drag queens of colour that have come out in the last few years, and I think that’s a really good starting point. It’s hard to say what the future is going to look like, but I do feel very hopeful about all different kinds of queer experiences being shown. 

Can you give us a little snapshot of what you have coming up? 

I think this year has been really exciting. I’ve had a real opportunity to work with such a diverse range of people, a lot of whom I’ve been working in this industry for a long time. I’ve just wrapped on this show called The Agency, which is for Showtime and Paramount+. It’s written by Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth. The first episodes have been directed by Joe Wright, the amazing director of Pride and Prejudice, Atonement and The Darkest Hour. The show stars Michael Fassbender, Richard Gere and Geoffrey Wright. So that was a crazy opportunity to act with some of the big veterans of Hollywood, and it was amazing. 

I learned so much. That comes out on 29 of November. And then I actually had the opportunity of being in the Lord of the Rings anime film that’s coming out. There’s also Black Mirror, which is amazing as well. I can’t say too much about that, but that’s coming out next year!  

This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Layla is out in UK cinemas on 22 November.

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The musician opens up about sobriety, her latest relationship, and the excitement of heading on her first global headline tour. 

WORDS ISOBEL VAN DYKE
PHOTOGRAPHY JOHN JAY
COVER DESIGN JACK ROWE

When Doechii was 11-years-old she met with a pastor who prophesied her life. He told her that she would touch millions of people with her gifts, she just didn’t yet know what those gifts were. 15 years and 10 million monthly listeners later, her abilities have become clear – the prophecy fulfilled. “I was anointed that day,” she explains. “I’m very aware that my purpose is to inspire people through music. I think that I’m meant to mirror a truth about people. That’s my purpose.” 

It’s bright and early in Los Angeles but the 26-year-old rapper is wide awake. She speaks gracefully but with intent. A true poet who has known herself, and what she wants, from a very young age. When we speak, she’s seven days away from the biggest tour of her career so far. Sure, she’s supported Doja Cat, SZA and Beyoncé, but this is Doechii’s own, headlining lap of the globe. Understandably, she has a full day of rehearsals ahead of her. 

“I finally get to perform new music. I’ve been performing the same singles for forever so it feels like a relief to get away from that old music and do something new,” she says excitedly. The new music in question comes from her debut mixtape, Alligator Bites Never Heal, which was released in August to critical acclaim, with some even hailing it as the best rap album of the year. 

The 19-track project is gritty, raw, playful, and astonishingly, only took her a month to make (bar a couple of “very old songs that [she] forgot about”). The meaning of the title, she explains, changes for her everyday. “I think that’s what my favourite type of art does – it evolves and changes with time. Today it feels like as long as you’re being vulnerable and you’re showing up transparently and honestly as a human, you open yourself up to be wounded in some type of way.” 

Of course, the album title also references the 1.3 million alligators that reside in the state of Florida – or, as Doechii calls it, The Swamp. Born Jaylah Ji’mya Hickmon and raised in Tampa, as a child she was bullied. As a result, she invented a new character: Doechii. It wasn’t until high school that she began to thrive. She set her sights on Howard W. Blake School of the Arts, where she auditioned, was accepted, and unlocked the doors to ballet, tap, singing, cheerleading and gymnastics. 

It’s clear to see how gymnastics has influenced her as a performer. “The way that gymnasts train is really, really tough. It’s brutal and hard and difficult. But at some point in my gymnastic career I learnt how to embrace and really love pain. To view pain as me getting stronger and better. That caused a deep discipline that has never left me,” she says. Surely, it also made her more competitive? “100 percent. I’m super competitive. I wanna be the best.”

Between training and high school, she began to experiment with freestyle rapping. She released her debut song on SoundCloud in 2016, followed by her 9-track project Coven Music Session, Vol. 1 and her debut EP in 2020. She went viral on TikTok with her single “Yucky Blucky Fruitcake”, and then again with “Persuasive” in 2022 after becoming the first female rapper to sign with Top Dawg Entertainment. 

For the past five years, like an alligator, Doechii has been laying low, disguised among the everglades. Waiting patiently for her moment to attack and sink her teeth in. She has built her gator nest on a foundation of hit singles (including this summer’s “Alter Ego”), honesty in her lyricism, and sobriety, too. She has a clear view of success and knows what she needs to get there. Alcohol, drugs and nicotine were simply getting in the way. 

“I was relying on a source outside of myself and when you rely on a source outside of yourself to create something, you’re not creating from an authentic place, because you’re not yourself. That’s why my project sounds like it does. Because it’s coming from me, it’s not coming from liquor, it’s not coming from a party environment, it’s coming from me sitting down, being barefoot in my studio, balling my eyes out. Finally able to unpack something that I had been running from for a long time.” 

“My project is not coming from a party environment, it’s coming from me sitting down, being barefoot in my studio, balling my eyes out”

That said, the music industry doesn’t exactly make it easy to go sober. “As a musician you go to a lot of festivals, there’s a lot of club appearances, there’s a lot of shows, and where there’s music there’s usually alcohol and drugs, recreational drugs and hard drugs that people use in the crowd, so it’s always around.” Disciplined as ever, Doechii takes a challenge in her stride.  “At first it was a little bit difficult. But when you get a grip on your environment and you remove those things it’s not difficult for me at all. In fact, it’s actually quite simple and it feels good.” 

Not only is she recently sober, Doechii is also recently taken. “I think I’ve always been gay,” she laughs. “I always knew I was gay. I’m currently bisexual. I am with a woman now and I have always known that I loved women. I’ve been very, very aware from an early age.” I can hear the pride in her voice, though growing up in Florida, she hasn’t always been able to embrace her sexuality in the way she can now. 

“I’m a Black woman from the south, so it’s different. There’s a lot of racism and homophobia so it’s hard, it’s very, very hard. Even though I was aware, I didn’t feel as comfortable until I started surrounding myself with more gay friends. I also grew up in the church, which is not to say that every religion denounces being gay, but it wasn’t accepted in the religion that I was in, in my environment. It wasn’t until I went to a performing arts school and there were a lot of gay people at my school. Once I had gay friends it was like ‘OK, I can be myself, I’m good, I can feel safe, this is normal, I’m fine, everything is ok.’ I have those same friends today and will have them for life.” 

Did she feel the need to hide her sexuality? “I definitely didn’t feel like I could have pride. I wouldn’t talk about it, but if somebody asked me I wasn’t going to lie. So it wasn’t a secret, but I definitely couldn’t walk around as proud as I wanted to and that was upsetting.” 

In 2021, Doechii made the move from Florida to California. And though Tampa is deeply rooted in her art and in who she is, she notes the difference between the two states. “I feel hopeful about Tampa, but the rest of Florida still has a lot of catching up to do and it would be ridiculous if I did not acknowledge the blatant homophobia and racism that is spread in the south. There definitely is a difference living here in Los Angeles. It is a lot more liberal and [being gay] has been accepted for a long time, whereas Florida is just now catching up to accepting and treating gay people equally, which is sad. But things are changing.” 

In 2024, as Doechii rises, so does a fresh wave of queer women musicians. Not only are we seeing greater representation, but women leading the conversation and at the forefront of pop. From Billie Eilish to Chappell Roan, Renée Rapp, Victoria Monét, Kehlani and MUNA, we’re witnessing a celebratory moment in music history. Doechii is right there with them. “It feels like, finally. It’s interesting that, if you look back in history, there were popular female MCs back in the day that were gay, they just weren’t allowed to be as open about it as we are now. It has always been a thing, but it feels amazing that now it’s not as hard for us.” 

“Florida is just now catching up to accepting and treating gay people equally”

As for her own queer icons: “Queen Latifah was huge. Madonna, of course. And for my generation, Lady Gaga.” Much like Gaga, Doechii’s fanbase is largely made up of the LGBTQIA+ community, and for good reason. “Because gay people love talent!” She exclaims. “True, raw, talent. And, I’m gonna be honest, we just have great taste! I think that’s why a lot of my fans are gay, because we have great taste and we get it.” 

Having had her first taste of drag earlier this year when she appeared on the cover of Paper Magazine, Doechii is hungry for more. “That was my first time doing drag and man, I fucking love it. That was so, so fun and so cool and incredible to explore and try, so I’ll probably do it again, maybe for a music video. We’ll see.” Whilst she’s new to drag, she isn’t new to adopting characters. Not only are Doechii and drag king Ricardo two of her personas, she also made her acting debut in Savanah Leaf’s Earth Mama last year. 

Are film and TV avenues that she’d like to explore further? “Yes, yes, yes. I think I’d do comedy or horror, or both.” As for her dream role, of course, Doechii could only ever play another predator: “I’d like to be the star of an A24 film where I am the villain.” Why? “Because I don’t wanna be the one getting killed! I’m gonna do the killing.” Spoken like a true alligator.

Alligator Bites Never Heal is out now.

The post Doechii: “I have always known that I loved women. I’ve been very, very aware from an early age” appeared first on GAY TIMES.

The cult musician talks queerbaiting, coming out and being “the original gay boy on Tumblr”.

WORDS MIKELLE STREET
PHOTOGRAPHY AND STYLIST IRIS LUZ
LIGHTING ALEX RADOTA

Babymorocco is sexy. For him, that’s a forgone conclusion. He wields that attribute, actually. He’s got a big mass in general –  “big thighs and a big butt” as he explains to me over Zoom. Later, he gives me a few flexing poses to illustrate a point he’s making. Becoming conscious of – and manipulating – that appeal started when he launched a Tumblr account under the Babymorocco moniker and was first exposed to how people reacted to images of his body. But it continues through to today.

“There’s a certain kind of power that I became obsessed with,” he says of those early online days. “You know, the validation you get from looking sexy.” The sort of reaction he was receiving, and the beefcake-like frame that came later, planted the seed for his career as a pop act, the essence of which is best encapsulated in his music video “Everyone” where he walks through the streets of New York City as people turn and stare.

“Everyone wants to look like me, everyone wants to talk like me,” he says in the hook. 

The Casablanca, Morocco-born star is in constant pursuit of that sort of attention, of fame, not just by way of being an online pin-up but via actual club bangers. His tracks largely don’t take themselves too seriously and hearken back to music from the 2000s and 2010s that worms its way into your ears and refuses to dislodge. The songs are fun, self-absorbed, and sometimes a bit trashy from the self-taught musician who is writing a lore that fans will hopefully obsess over as much as they do his biceps. All of this as the artist chases a brush with global stardom that happened while he was still in art school. 

Just over decade ago, Babymorocco went internationally viral as Clayton Pettet when he announced he would lose his virginity in a project titled “Art School Stole My Virginity.” The story of this 19-year-old CSM student’s project was covered incessantly for a year by multiple outlets, ending in a performance that contended with ideas of sexuality, stigma, fame and infamy amongst other things. 

“That was the time I probably existed as the most famous [I’ve ever been]. It was a drug – I crave it now all the time in a way,” Morocco explains of the pivotal era. “Now, each new character is like I’m writing a new book for attention. But that’s what I took from it: I can come up with these concepts and realise them and people will enjoy it.” His music has become the ink to write those characters.

And enjoy it fans have, with the hedonistic party boy that is Babymorocco unleashed through singles like “Crazy Cheap” and the newly released “Babestation”. But on his upcoming album he introduces us to even more characters. It all serves to build out the world of Babymorrocco with a realness that’s more true to life. “I think it’s the most honest work I’ve put out,” Morocco says of the project, expected out before the end of the year. “I wanted to show I have more emotion than just narcissism.”

Here we talk to Babymorocco about how being sexy can be a prison and what shaped him as an artist over time, before delving into those persistent questions regarding his sexuality and queerbaiting.

You mentioned you’re a British boy through and through – looking at your aesthetics, I’m curious if you consider yourself a bit of a “chav” or affiliated with that culture? I hope that’s not offensive, it’s my understanding some people are reclaiming it.

It’s not offensive to me. The town I grew up in and the school I went to, [chav culture] is what I grew up in. I take it as a point of pride to be a bit of a chav. But with chav culture there’s different versions of it. I was a bit scebby, like a bit dirty. I would go out and do a lot of drinking with a big bottle of K cider when I was like 14 and get messed up. That kind of chav. 

But I know what you mean. It’s interesting to hear you say that because I never hear Americans say it. 

Yeah, I think for me I’ve always understood it from more of just an aesthetic, from a fashion perspective. Like a tracksuit and t-shirts. 

It’s interesting to talk about the fashion aspect of it because I was always on Tumblr back in the day. Back then, for me, what really stuck was seeing the scene kids’ emo stuff but the colourful version. That, mixed with the chavvy thing – the tracksuits and the caps up and big necklaces. It almost went hand-in-hand so there was this element where I grew up in Bournemouth where it kind of melded and made this swaggy, weird British boy with all these colours. We kind of copied what was happening in LA and mixed it with British culture. That was when I was like 14 years old. 

“Art school was the fake version of me, the real version of me is what I am right now”

And that’s shaping the artist you are now?

It’s weird: when you grow up you really do find yourself going back to the stuff you liked when you were a kid no matter what form that takes. I’ve drank since I was a kid — alcohol has stayed a prevalent part of my life. We have under 18 clubs in the UK and back in the day we would drink before we would go out and then go and turn up to some of the craziest club music you’ve ever heard. Like back then it was massive EDM tracks and rave or trance, all of that stuff. Then there was a period where I became a “serious artist” and got rid of all of that. But after art school I brought all that stuff back which I knew innately was my shit. Art school was the fake version of me, the real version of me is what I am right now.

What does that mean? Are you referring to pretentiousness or…?

It’s a mix. There’s definitely an aspect of pretension, especially with class. Coming from a working class background, everyone at art school has got money. So it was delving into that. But also I was just trying to be way more serious than I am as a person. I’m very earnest and I live with my heart on my sleeve – my new record is very that. But in art school I was thinking I had to be Marina Abramović and not speak and not have social media so I could be mysterious and post all my photos in black and white. Now, I look back at that time as the most swagless era of my life. I had a good time but I don’t look at that time as a time when I was very happy or anything.

Even though you weren’t happy do you think it had a lasting impact on what you do now?

Yeah, for sure. At art school I was doing a lot of performance. It was a lot of crazy shit. So for better or for worse I don’t feel like a human being anymore – I always feel like I’m playing a role since then. Even though I feel like the most authentic now, there’s still moments where I’m like, “Well since I’m doing this, I need to play into that part of my personality and leave this out.” So as much as I feel like I’m closer to where I was as a child, there’s still elements where I feel like I’m performing. But that’s music: it goes hand-in-hand.

While there you put on this super-viral performance piece supposedly about losing your virginity. Do you think that had a lasting impact on your relationship with sex and sexuality? Or even how people react to ideas about sex?

Totally. Like 40 scholars in America wrote about me, there was an essay that was titled “What Fucking Clayton Pettet Teaches Us About Cultural Rhetorics”. It made me realise where there is power in certain things and if I utilise them they will be able to reward me in some way.

At the time I was so young and the level of attention that had was so insane. I  didn’t even know how to make sense of it, I still kind of don’t. I had never had sex or any sexual experience when I did that, so it was such a weird thing. 

Maybe in the future I can bring that kind of performance into my music. But not now.

“In the UK we could do with more sexy male pop stars, for sure”

Being sexy is obviously a large part of that brand. Where does that come from?

I think it comes from a desperate place [to get] people to look at my work. I realise that being sexy is a very easy way to get people to pay attention. But it also bites me in the ass. People have a very certain opinion about my music. I can write some of the best pop music but there was this era, especially with my last record, when I realised I was trying to package [my music] as if I was this cheeky boy that wants you to come out and party with him. I love that, it’s part of me [but] I feel like each project should be different bits of you. 

But if you’re not from the UK, some people just didn’t get that first idea. They just didn’t get it. Especially with me [flexing] like this all the time. Then people only listen to your music because they want to fuck you. Or if you’re a gay guy retweeting my music other gay guys are saying “Oh, he’s not going to fuck you if you listen to his track.” And like, who knows? I could!

So right now, with the sexuality thing I’m trying to find a balance where there’s an element of seriousness to it. I think it was really easy to rely on for a while. 

Have your thoughts around that changed over time? Did you come in thinking you would just be sexy and love that attention before realising you didn’t?

That’s exactly how it went. And there will always be elements of my shit that will be sexy but at the beginning I was like, “I don’t give a fuck, I’m going to utilise all of this”. But now it’s more of me thinking I’ve made myself into a bit of a prison. If I want to promote something I have to do it in a sexy way. And I don’t want to be in that space any more. I want to be able to post a green symbol on my Instagram and for people to say “Oh my god.” It’s a prison that I made for myself being a sexy boy. That sounds so conceited but it’s definitely something you can see.

I think sexiness is an important part of music and in the UK we could do with more sexy male pop stars, for sure. I would like to be that, but I want the body and the music to be [equally appreciated.]

What have you been listening to, or thinking about, in terms of other music?

I was listening to a lot of French electro and there’s this thing in the UK, this era where there were a lot of pop groups like JLS and The Saturdays. I really loved that kind of old school pop writing from that era and even the sort of call-and-response songs. I have that on the record. There’s a part that’s like “What you doin’ when the lights go down?” and she’s like “I’m in the club.” That kind of stuff is super powerful to me and I want to bring that back to the UK sphere. 

It’s interesting because when I was younger I was super into dance culture and there was this French artist Yelle that was big with tectonic dance. I was thinking of that when I was listening to some of the tracks.

Oh, I love her. That was one of the biggest tracks that I pulled from for one of my songs. They were a very big inspiration for me. I think what I liked about Yelle is they have this song “Je Veux Tu Voir” and it’s all about the most dirty shit but I was singing it as a kid and didn’t know what it meant. I kind of love that it sounds so childish, like toys being played with, while talking about the nastiest shit. Just saying like the craziest stuff over a really fun track. 

On your most recent Instagram post you wrote that you’re about to come out. What is that about?

Should I come out now?

“I don’t feel like a human being anymore – I always feel like I’m playing a role”

What does that mean to you?

I don’t know. The thing is, I’ve been trying to wait to talk about the sexuality thing, honestly. Because I do think it’s easy enough, if you look hard enough, to find out what my sexuality is. I did actually want to use this interview as the right time to say it. Basically, with my sexuality, it’s just … I’m just going to say this. I had a boyfriend for four years. That’s what I’ll say about my sexuality. With the picture I posted it was more like, “I’m about to come out because I look so fucking hot.” But with this record I am talking about being more sincere and I think a brush that I’m always painted with is that people will always call me a queerbaiter. And I’m not! Like, I was the original gay boy on Tumblr, you know what I mean? 

I think the thing is that because I exist as what I am I’m going to get it. But I’ve done everything: I’ve fucked boys and I’ve fucked girls. But obviously you can’t have club references like me and be completely straight. You know what I’m saying? You can’t, sorry.

I find the queerbaiting conversation really interesting. Primarily because often when people say “queerbaiting” there’s no actual baiting. It’s just a gay guy finds a guy who they assume is not gay hot and so they feel baited. Even if the person wasn’t specifically appealing to gays but was just trying to be hot to anyone, in general.

Yeah. What I find confusing, and this is with everybody not just me: why is someone posting their body or flexing just considered to be queerbaiting because you are posting parts of your body you find sexy. If you find yourself sexy, your ass, your back, your hands and you post it and other people find it sexy, that’s on them. That’s not on you. I don’t think so.

I get there’s a conversation about other things that I’m not going to get into. But also I kind of like when men or women do whatever they want and dress however they want, straight, gay or whatever. But the reason I’m being a little bit more clear is because in some of the promo for the new record, I’m kissing boys and girls. So I feel like I should be clear because I really could be painted with that brush. 

I think that’s fair! I think if you’re actually committing like a gay act for promotional purposes, without meaning it, that definitely can be baiting.

So here’s the thing: if you’re hot, man or woman, I’m going to try it. For me, I don’t give a fuck. I’m here on this earth for what, like, 20 more years? Some figure of time. Maybe tomorrow! But I’m going to fuck who I want to fuck. That’s what I’m going to do. And people on the internet are not going to dictate anything about it. 

They aren’t going to make me feel guilty for feeling sexy. No one should feel guilty for being sexy, that’s a weird concept. I’m not going to feel weird about having a good time – sue me.

Babymorroco’s latest single, ‘Babestation’, is out now.

The post Babymorocco: “No one should feel guilty for being sexy” appeared first on GAY TIMES.

The perreo pop princess and bicon discusses her ‘Fashion Freak’ aesthetic, representing the queer community and flipping reggaeton’s gender script.

WORDS MIKELLE STREET
PHOTOGRAPHY ADAM MARTIN
STYLIST SHAHAN ASSADOURIAN
HMUA ISABELLA LOVESTORY
COVER DESIGN JACK ROWE

Isabella Lovestory is a creation all her own. The Honduran-born artist who spent time in the United States and then Montreal growing up, has fashioned herself into a pop star of her own imagining. After initially idolising the likes of Britney Spears and Gwen Stefani, Lovestory has built her own image as an aesthetic-forward (have you heard “Fashion Freak” or “Kitten Heels”?), sexually empowered and femme-centric voice disrupting the often narrow sound of reggaeton with a dose of experimental pop. 

Lovestory represents a banner under which supposed outsiders and outcasts have often rallied: her shows are a stomping ground for queer latine freaks and so-called weirdos, or frankly anyone in favour of the cuntier things in life. And it makes sense, as those are communities she herself is a part of.

“I’ve always been a part of this community and I’ve always wanted to speak up for people that don’t have a voice,” says Isabella, who has been given names like “bicon” and “Latina Gaga” by fans. “Especially being from Honduras, I think it’s super important to represent the community and let them know that we’re out here and you can do anything you set your mind to. Don’t let yourself be made to feel weird or that you’re not a part of this beautiful world.”

From her first song that she recorded inspired by her cat – she finds them elegant, mysterious, independent and slightly clumsy all at once – to some of her latest inspired by … well very important pussies, Lovestory’s tracks are about not taking themselves too seriously. But she’s also keen to offer new perspective without breaking it down for those who don’t get it: ”I don’t have time to explain myself, this life is too short,” she quips. 

All this manifests itself in tracks that are as varied as the camp hysteria that is ‘Botoxxx’ and the flip of expectations that is the sapphic lust on ‘Gateo’. In that queer anthem, men become dogs and women become cats as Isabella raps lines like “Tu gata ya está harta de besarte / Por eso viene hacia mi to’as las tardes / Las dos nos ponemo’ a ronronear.” (Your cat is already sick of kissing you / That’s why she comes to see me every night / So we can both get to purring.) “In reggaeton, it’s always about putting the girl as the prop but in ‘Gateo’ I was saying ‘no, the props can have fun together and we don’t need you,’” Lovestory says. 

Here, we talk to Isabella about the creation of Lovestory, how Tumblr rewired her brain, and building a fan base so supportive they’ll make her tour wardrobe.

Your career as a pop artist started as an art project. Can you talk to me about the specifics of that?

I was always more into visual art so I studied art when I went to university. I was doing pretty good, doing shows here and there. But the art world is so bleak. I didn’t want to be inside a gallery with white walls and fluorescent light. I wanted to make my art more accessible and music, to me, is the most accessible art form. I’m also multidisciplinary as an artist and, with being a pop star, you have all those things in one: music, fashion, art work, videos, editing. 

I had this multimedia class where I was doing more video editing. I decided to do a music video for the class but I needed music to do it. So I started Isabella Lovestory as a pop star to unite all these mediums. But I realised I actually like music and I’m not bad at it. Plus I needed money.

Has that initial creation changed over time or is it now just a more complex version of what you started as?

I think it’s a more complex version for sure. It’s an evolution. That was an easy way for me to start because I didn’t have any rules. I had no music background so I just did whatever I wanted. Out of that came experimental music and things I wasn’t seeing being done in reggaeton particularly. I feel like having that sense of carelessness and freedom just made me have more fun with it and be fearless. And really it’s just been an evolution from that birth. I’ve learned the hard truths of the industry but I’m still trying to have fun.

How important was having reggaeton as a central component of the music even though you’re blending genres?

It was important to me because I grew up with reggaeton, being from Honduras. So it was my favourite music growing up and is such an integral part of my culture and who I am. Also, being in Canada I was like, everything there was so boring to me. I wanted to show people where I was from and what I am. Plus the reggaeton world is still run by very, very straight, almost white men. At least what we see, like Daddy Yankee and stuff like that, it’s a very male-dominated genre. So I wanted to put my voice in there. I thought it just needed to be experimented with.

How have you found the industry’s reception to that experimentation?

It’s been amazing! I feel like people who feel weird and outcast in their own countries feel connected to me. So I have a lot of young queer people, artsy queer people and queer people in general who come up to me at my shows and tell me that I represent them. They tell me they look up to me because I’m doing something they want to do. I love inspiring those kids, especially in the Latin communities which are still very restricted.

It makes me happy to know I’ve made a lot of kids feel represented and seen. Especially at my shows, seeing them calling me the Latina Gaga, I’m like, ‘Oh my god, yes.’ Of course at the same time there’s people that are like, ‘Who is this girl? What the fuck is she doing? She’s so weird.’ But I don’t care about being misunderstood, I just want to be me. Whoever likes it, likes it and whoever doesn’t can look away. I’ve tried to make myself understood and there’s still a misunderstanding, so why not just go the most eccentric route and do what you want. 

"People need some manners. They need to learn how to have boundaries. I’m not saying I want to be groped by a million people and I want to be stalked"

You mentioned all of these outcasts and I know you were really into Tumblr growing up – it’s kind of interesting because Tumblr was always really great for those groups as well. 

Absolutely! Were you on Tumblr?

I was! And looking at your visuals it does feel very child of Tumblr-esque. Do you make that mental connection?

Totally. I feel like Tumblr completely rewired my brain and how I work. I do a lot of research and a lot of collages and curation for my visuals. Tumblr was a very visual type of learning and you had so much freedom to look up whatever you wanted. I feel like that’s sort of missing now in the youth, they don’t go out and research it’s more of everything is fed to them. But researching, making mood boards and being a very visual person on the internet has definitely stuck with me from Tumblr. 

Also that sense of community! You would connect first with the visuals of people and then you had that, ‘Oh my god we’re all weirdos. Let’s rule the internet.’ Also all my best friends I met from Tumblr. 

But that extends to your collaborators also right? It’s not Tumblr but you met Chicken through the internet as well right?

Yeah, I met him through Instagram. I’m a very Internet girl. I feel like without it I don’t know what I would have done because I didn’t study music and I wasn’t a nepo baby. It really helped me to be this person. People still think I have millions of people making my art and like it’s just me and my little pencil. So the Internet has been a very good place to build fantasy and connect with people.

Is the visual always a part of a project from the inception for you?

Yeah, definitely. I think of the lyrics and the themes of the song visually before anything else. I love movies and cinema and I’m a very cinematic person so every song I want to be a little movie. My albums as well. Or maybe they are different rooms in a house. Maybe it’s because I have ADHD but this is how I think of things. Always visual, cinematic, with a lore and full of colour and fantasy. It just gives me freedom to do everything I want when I put all that abstract chaos into one thing. 

You’ve mentioned how Isabella Lovestory is an exaggeration of your actual personality but also the purest expression and that reminds me a lot of how people refer to their drag personas. 

Totally! It’s all cinematic, going out in the world in this fearless persona that you always wanted to be as a child. You go and you decorate it to the fullest and you feel so good in it. It’s not something you do every day because you don’t want to put on the wig and the makeup every day but it’s like a celebration or a ritual for your purest inner child. It’s something you sort of look up. I totally feel like I’m doing drag whenever I go on stage. I can be completely naked and I still feel like I’m doing drag – it’s about the philosophy.

Right before your first tour, you lost all of your luggage which had your wardrobe in it and your fans ended up sending in a bunch of stuff for you to wear. Did you ever imagine you would ever have that level of support from fans?

Oh my God, you have no idea. I was saying to myself this is so good for my movie or my autobiography but it was not good for me in real life. Like it’s so good for a tragic moment in a movie but horrible to experience. It was my first tour and I had done all the costumes myself, like sewing them myself. I had designed about 10 costumes – some of it was old looks I was remixing. I had it all in my luggage with a few really cute vintage stuff that I’ll never get back. And it all got stolen a day before my first show.

It felt like a fated event like karma was being put on me or lifted. It just felt like I had to find the lesson in it. Then all of these people just started sending me clothes and fans were making me clothes that they wanted to see me wear onstage. It just strengthened the community because they would come up after and introduce themselves. I also learned that like with any material loss you realise you don’t need it at the end. You can perform naked and just use your inner glam to do your thing.

I think that’s true but also you’re an artist with songs like ‘Fashion Freak’ and ‘Kitten Heels,’ so aesthetics definitely mean a lot.

Exactly! That’s it! What was crazy is that I was just like who am I any more? But I also have another song called ‘Exibisionista’ where I’m just covered in glitter and that’s my outfit. 

What do you attribute that close connection with your fans to?

I think they see me as a friend, kind of. They get me and they see me as someone they are rooting for because they see themselves in me. They know that I’m not inaccessible. They see the freak and the weirdo in me and they want to help me. Maybe.

"You can perform naked and just use your inner glam to do your thing"

You’ve mentioned accessibility a few times but I’m curious do you ever feel like things are maybe a little too accessible. 

People need some manners. They need to learn how to have boundaries. I’m not saying I want to be groped by a million people and I want to be stalked. There needs to be more respect from the stans with just how they are so entitled. I totally agree. I try not to go on Twitter because people are so entitled with their popstars. There needs to be that boundary and a respect for artists that I think is missing. They are just like “give me a song right now.” It’s hard.

I think the accessibility I’m talking about is more about being humble and grounded. I want to access people through my music and my performance instead of having to sit down and talk to them. Because I’m actually pretty introverted. 

Has your career changed how introverted you are?

It has. I feel like I’m more introverted now. Since this is my job and I’m so exposed and I’m putting my heart out there, and being truly possessed on stage. It’s draining, so I feel like I don’t want to go to parties any more, I just want to sleep because I’m sleep deprived. 

But it’s a little of both. I feel like I can handle social situations better if I have to. If I’m with my friends I’ll enjoy it and I’m super confident. But [my career] has made me appreciate my bed and my pets. I’ve seen a lot of people not take care of themselves and become a shell of a person and not make the best decisions. Especially artists. 

Isabella Lovestory’s latest single, ‘VIP’, is out now. Check out Isabella’s September – November live dates across North America, Latin America and Europe here. 

The post Isabella Lovestory: “I can be completely naked and still feel like I’m doing drag” appeared first on GAY TIMES.

The 12 queens of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season 6 discuss the “freshest” instalment yet.

WORDS BY SAM DAMSHENAS
DESIGN BY JACK ROWE
SPECIAL THANKS TO BBC’S JASMINE ALOMA AND SOFIE VAN DE GRAMPEL

Babes, let’s all take a moment to reflect and thank Michelle Visage for sacrificing her sanity to live in a claustrophobic hell-hole with Katie Hopkins and Perez Hilton on Celebrity Big Brother. Without the Seduction singer’s valiance in trying to secure a British broadcaster for Drag Race UK, the United Kingdolls failed to bing, bang, bong popular culture, the Angels of the North’s shoplifting tendencies have landed them in jail as opposed to BBC iPlayer and Chappell Roan has gladly accepted a brand deal with H&M. Thank you, Michelle!

In two weeks (12 September), 12 more queens will flex their charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent to serve more iconic, culture-defining and controversial moments via lip-sync smackdowns and challenges. As one queen tells GAY TIMES: “There has never been a cast of Drag Race UK where the cast are determined to show you, not just great drag, but great TV as well.”

As per, season six features the return of RuPaul as host, with Michelle Visage, Alan Carr and Graham Norton as regular panellists. The quartet will be joined by a plethora of LGBTQIA+ icons and allies, from The X Factor champion Alexandra Burke to ‘Shoulda Woulda Coulda’ icon Beverley Knight and Big Brother co-host AJ Odudu.

Here, we chat with the 12 fierce queens hoping to usurp Ginger Johnson as Britain’s Next Drag Superstar: Actavia, Chanel O’Conor, Charra Tea, Dita Garbo, Kiki Snatch, Kyran Thrax, La Voix, Lill, Marmalade, Rileasa Slaves, Saki Yew and Zahirah Zapanta.

Inevitable Laganja Estranja reference incoming: “C’mon season six, let’s get sickening!”

Actavia
21, North Wales

Favourite RPDR alumni: Tayce and Anetra
Favourite RPDR lip-sync: Sasha Colby vs Anetra – ‘I’m in Love with a Monster’
Favourite RPDR season: US season 6 and UK season 2

“Sugno fy selsig,” says Actavia. Explanation incoming: as one of 12 queens competing this season, the 21-year-old has just made history as the franchise’s first fluent Welsh speaker, so rather than ask sincere questions such as ‘what does this mean to you?’ or ‘what impact do you want this to have?’ etc, I seize the opportunity to learn how to say something filthy and sordid. “It means ‘suck my sausage’.” Good! To! Know!

Newsflash, that was also a lie: I did, in fact, ask Actavia the latter question and she tells me that she’s already noticed the impact of “representing a small town” on Welshians who are, like her, fluent in sausage-speaking smut. “When I first started watching Drag Race I didn’t really know what drag was because there was nothing around me, drag-wise. Hopefully, if someone is watching who is around my age when I started they’ll be able to think, ‘Okay, I can do that.’”

While Actavia’s “villainess” promo suggests she’ll be a tough cunty queen, she assures me that campery and stupidity are the traits she exhibits most. No, really: “I’m the densest person ever. [I’m] so stupid.”

With her dance background, expect her to flip, kick, split and [insert name of other gravity-defying drag tricks here] on the stage, but she’s also been known to chuck in a tribute to Charity Shop Sue every now and then. “I take drag seriously, but not to the point where it’s not fun,” she says, “and I think that will come across.”

As for how she describes season six? “Chaotic, exciting and elevated.”

Chanel O’Conor
25, Scotland

Favourite RPDR alumni: Scarlet Envy
Favourite RPDR lip-sync: Katya vs Sasha Belle – ‘Twist of Fate’
Favourite RPDR season: US season 6

Ahead of this interview, Kyran Thrax kindly warned me that, out of all 12 cast members, Chanel O’Conor is the firecracker and troublemaker of season six. BREAKING: I can confirm that is, indeed, quite accurate. “Well, I’m a lady of leisure, a lady who likes her own way,” she says (with a somewhat sinister smile). “If I haven’t had my breakfast, oh I’m foul.” However, Chanel refuses to be labelled as a diva. “I would say ‘beast’. Really setting the bar, aren’t I?”

The 25-year-old Scottish diva beast, who claims Bill Gates messaged her at four a.m. for a spot of hanky-panky (lawsuit incoming…), exclusively reveals that season six includes a challenge where the cast “bare-knuckle box each other covered in turkey grease”. As you can probably tell, Chanel is a queen whose comedy is based in truth. Suffering from PTSD from the aforementioned challenge, which is 100% real and a major spoiler, by the way, she emotionally continues: “… then they threw Yorkshire puddings at us, and RuPaul covered us in potatoes.”

As well as truth, Chanel’s comedy is rooted in “the land of Seth Macfarlane”, so you can expect megalomaniacal sociopathy ala Stewie Griffin and alien cross-dressing hijinkx ala Roger Smith (that’s the extent of my Seth knowledge – I hope the gifs helped). “The kind of old-school ridiculous comedy where it’s more situational stupidity,” she divulges. “I will throw myself down the stairs if I can make somebody laugh.” In fact, “I actually kept doing that [on the show] and production were like, ‘Chanel, stop please, the Queen Team aren’t happy about this.’ I’d be like, ‘One more time!’”

So, there’s a check mark next to “comedy”. Having concocted garments for season two winner Lawrence Chaney, the same can be said for “fashion” too. What about her other strengths?: “I’m so passionate about interrupting people.” As Chanel’s bio comes to an end, it’s important for her to add another hard-hitting truth: “Michael Bay is the greatest director of all time.”

Charra Tea
23, Belfast

Favourite RPDR alumni: Miz Cracker
Favourite RPDR lip-sync: Kitten Kaboodle vs The Girlfriend Experience – ‘Tongue’
Favourite RPDR season: US season 6

“It was so crazy, big and pink,” says Charra Tea. “It was literally the best moment of my life.” You can halt those perverse and impure thoughts right this second because the 23-year-old is not following in the footsteps of her Northern Irish sister Blu Hydrangea in the filth department, she is simply reflecting on when her dreams came true by entering the Drag Race werkroom. (I’m actually unsure if she was intentional with those choice of words, time will tell if she’s a secret saucy minx.)

Charra does, however, want to emulate the success of the franchise’s scarce Northern Irish contestants, which only includes Blu and Jonbers Blonde: “Blu won UK vs the World and Jonbers was a finalist on season four, so those are some big boots to fill! But, I’m excited to represent Belfast and show fans that, if I can get on the show as a quiet and anxious kid in school, anyone can do it.”

Currently residing in Manchester, Charra’s drag was birthed after her first viewing of Hairspray. Her influences include future EGOT winners such as Nadine Coyle, Kim Woodburn and Gemma Collins, while her aesthetic revolves around bright colours and “massive prolapse dresses”. Remaining tight-lipped on the season, she reveals that her “dreams would come true” (x2) if she could be in Drag Race‘s second-ever spoken word lip-sync to Peter Marsh’s pop culture-defining read of Jane’s “sad little life” on Come Dine With Me.

Don’t expect Peter Marsh-levels of shade on season six, though, because Charra teases a new instalment of RuPaul’s Best Friend’s Race. “We’re like a family,” she says. “We’ve got a gorgeous group on WhatsApp and we talk in it everyday. It’s lovely and we all get on so well.” This could be a misdirect, as she uses words such as “brash”, “exciting” and “dramatic” to describe the season, adding: “It’s everything you want Drag Race to be.”

Dita Garbo
47, Kent

Favourite RPDR alumni: Sasha Velour
Favourite RPDR lip-sync: [No answer]
Favourite RPDR season: US season 16

For Dita Garbo, it’s an “honour” to make herstory as Drag Race UK’s oldest-ever queen. “The younger bitches need to be careful ‘cause we’ve got wisdom – and we’ve still got time!” (Kandy Ho is trembling.)

While Dita is coy and doesn’t want to “blow my own trumpet too much” – I assure her that blowing is okay – she hopes her appearance on season six proves to age-ists that “if people are good at something in their 20s, they’ll still be good at it in their 30s, 40s and 50s”. Defiantly, the Kent native goes one step further by stating that she wants to “kick the shit” out of the archaic perception that queens of a certain age are unable to keep up with the TikTok-ing Gen-Z’s: “I want to take away that stigma.”

As a burlesque performer and Dita Von Teese stan (hence her name), we can expect her to bless our screens with a bit of sex and sauce, as well as splits, shablams and “splits again!” as a result of her professional dance training. “I do it all,” she rightfully boasts before teasing that, if she does somehow end up in a lip-sync smackdown, “I’ll put on a show.”

Contradicting Charra’s above Tea, Dita promises “physical fights” on season six (she was joking, I think – sorry), and one of the most “diverse” seasons in the franchise’s ever-expanding history. “There’s a big age range and we’re all very different. We’ve all got different personalities and that means there’s something for everyone watching. Yeah, it’s going to be one of the best seasons.”

Kiki Snatch
25, London

Favourite RPDR alumni: Jaida Essence Hall
Favourite RPDR lip-sync: Vanity Milan vs Scarlett Harlett – ‘Scandalous’
Favourite RPDR season: US season 9

You feeling Ro’Sham Bo’Sham? If one is not embodying Ro’Sham Bo’Sham energy, then one needs to pull it the fuck together. “[Season six] is so Ro’Sham Bo’Sham,” says Kiki Snatch, who uses the soon-to-be viral ‘Padam Padam’-esque catchphrase to describe, well, just about anything. “I don’t get myself sometimes, and people don’t get me either. I’m all over the place. If I can’t put it into words, then it’s Ro’Sham Bo’Sham. It can mean good or bad, it’s all in the intonation.” One more time: Ro’Sham Bo’Sham. (It really does roll off the tongue, eh?)

The Saint-Lucian/London “cross-breed baddie” is determined to become Drag Race UK’s first capital city champion, and she says she’ll do so with her skills as a fierce dancer and powerhouse vocalist, as well as her Beyoncé-Ciara-Donna Summer-inspired aesthetic. (Do we already have our girl group challenge winner?) Kiki says: “Anyone that knows me will be like, ‘It’s that bitch.’ Anyone who doesn’t know me is going to want to know me, because you’re gonna fall in love.”

Although the merch-ready queen attempted to “plead the fifth” on the above information about her Drag Race favourites, she ultimately conceded and revealed that her number-one queens from across the franchise are Jaida Essence Hall and Vanessa Vanjie Mateo, while she has a soft spot for the season where “Shea Couleé walked in for the first time”. As for the lip-syncs that live in her mind “rent-free”, it’s Vanity Milan’s iconic ‘Scandalous’ battle with Scarlett Harlett and Alyssa Edwards and Tatianna’s seminal showdown to ‘Shut Up and Drive’.

Of course, Kiki hopes to avoid the bottom two, but she acknowledges that, like the two aforementioned smackdowns, a lip-sync can be responsible for cementing a queen’s legacy. With that in mind, Kiki is self-aware enough to know that being on television is her opportunity to serve iconic moments and a bit of – here we go again – Ro’Sham Bo’Sham.

Kyran Thrax
26, Lancashire

Favourite RPDR alumni: Sasha Velour, Adore Delano, Bob the Drag Queen
Favourite RPDR lip-sync: Adore Delano vs Trinity K. Bonet – ‘Vibeology’
Favourite RPDR season: US season 6

When one has a self-proclaimed witch on a Zoom call, one selfishly takes advantage of their other-worldly gifts to foresee the future. So, here is Kryan Thrax’s prediction of how season six will be perceived by fans: “People are going to be thoroughly entertained, shocked, horrified… and turned on.” I am listening!

Crediting Lady Gaga as a main source of inspiration, Kyran is the drag daughter of season four’s Charity Kase – making her the granddaughter of U.S. champion Raja – so you can expect this 6”8 queen to be a conceptual fashionista of the horror variety. Oscar-worthy acting, too, because listen to her wildest experience in drag:

“A wife booked me for her wedding. It was her husband’s sixth marriage and he’d had a kid in each one. When the registrar said, ‘Does anyone have any reason why these two should not be wed?’ I burst through the door with a pregnancy bump and shouted at him, pretending to be his mistress. I’ve never seen a man look so horrified in his life. I then went into a spontaneous lip-sync of ‘I Will Survive’.” (We need footage, pronto.)

Despite this, Kyran actually admits that she’s scared of confrontation and doesn’t “like” drama. Inevitably, as a drag artist who is passionate about her craft, she’s not immune to conflict. “I won’t bite my tongue,” she teases, “if I need to say something I will. But I do internally scream anytime a bit of heat comes my way.” Good thing it’s Best Friend’s Race, then? “The cast is just phenomenal,” she says. “We work together incredibly well and this is the freshest season of Drag Race in a while. It’s got so much edge.”

La Voix
43, Stockton on Tees

Favourite RPDR alumni: Bianca Del Rio
Favourite RPDR lip-sync: [No answer]
Favourite RPDR season: US season 6

Between her appearances on Britain’s Got Talent and Queen of the Universe, as well as her viral mid-cruise Cameo where she learns of Queen Elizabeth’s death – “Bing bong, ‘the queen’s dead’, I’ll never forget that” – La Voix is undeniably one of the most prolific queens on season six.

“I feel like I’ve come out of retirement to do one of the most energetic shows of my life!” she says over Zoom – from another cruise, I should add. “It’s a strange turn of events because I said I’d never do the show, but a friend of mine applied for me. Funnily enough, I applied the same week to Bargain Hunt. I’m glad I didn’t get it. I don’t look good in a fleece.”

Despite her plethora of career achievements, which also includes pantomime with Cilla Black, singing at Ian McKellen’s birthday and standing metres away from the Queen as she busted moves to ‘Uptown Funk’ and ‘Gangnam Style’, nothing has put her “through the ringer” quite like Drag Race UK. “There are curveballs every step of the way. RuPaul does things he’s never done before, there’s lip-sync battles we’ve never seen,” she teases. “And don’t be thinking you know the order of challenges like, ‘Snatch Game goes there’ or ‘that game goes there’. No! They’ve given Drag Race a major shake-up. It’s fresh, new, exciting and everyone’s going to be mind-blown.”

Stranded on a non-moving cruise, the conversation takes a turn for the Ro’Sham Bo’Sham (see, it’s catching on!) as La Voix jokes about revealing her “red beaver live on television” for a potential celebrity edition of Naked Attraction. “You can tell I’m stuck at sea,” she laughs, before pleading: “Don’t leave me on this Zoom. You’re the only company I’ve got.”

Lill
36, Manchester

Favourite RPDR alumni: Violet Chachki
Favourite RPDR lip-sync: Dida Ritz vs The Princess – ‘This Will Be’
Favourite RPDR season: US season 5

A member of the Family Gorgeous, Lill says her conceptual sense of style is her biggest strength; a no-brainer considering the legendary drag dynasty also includes powerhouses such as Asttina Mandella, Cheddar Gorgeous, Dragula’s Anna Phylactic and Manchester legends Liquorice Black and Tete Bang.

Lill describes the collective as all different from one another, but claims she’s the “fun one, the one you wanna go on a night out with”. Case in point: she often does gigs abroad, and was once stranded with season five alum Banksie after skiing down a “really dangerous” slope in full drag. “We didn’t know how to stop,” she remembers in-between tears (my tears, because the story had me cackling). Another career highlight, she says, is when she appeared on Lorraine with the Family Gorgeous to promote their Channel 4 series Drag SOS, where the Scottish ally proceeded to call her a – warning, this is just so cruel and wicked – “Queen Pie”: Lill says: “I’m not entirely sure why.”

With her name standing for Living in Lavish Luxury, I was completely convinced when Lill informed me that she’s speaking to me from a Turkey hotel room because she’s getting “new tits and teeth”. So convinced, I had to investigate whether or not this was true. Still not sure, actually, so this either means a) she’s taking advantage of her newfound celebrity status and getting All Stars-ready or b), she’s the deadpan queen of the season and I’m a daft bitch. “I’m having all my teeth replaced with wooden pegs [like Katie Price],” she says. “I hope you like them when I see you next.”

Marmalade
24, Cardiff

Favourite RPDR alumni: Sasha Velour
Favourite RPDR lip-sync: Trinity the Tuck vs Charlie Hides – ‘I Wanna Go’
Favourite RPDR season: US season 6

After supporting her respective drag mother and grandmother Tia Kofi and Victoria Scone on their seasons, and creating garments for them, it’s Marmalade’s time to sweep the competition. “Everyone’s going to expect me to kill a design challenge, which is fair,” she admits. “But keep on eye on those other challenges. I’m an actor first and foremost. I’ve done musical theatre, I’m a singer.” Death drops, too? “Oh no, no, no. I wouldn’t be getting up.”

Inspired by Hollywood stars such as Lana Turner, Rita Hayworth and Faye Dunaway, as well as Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn in Death Becomes Her, Marmalade is known for her vintage aesthetic with a “modern twist”. In addition to Tia and Victoria, she’s created runways for Drag Race UK contestants “every year” – her services were even requested by a mystery queen for season six. “I won’t say who, but I had to tell them, ‘Sorry, I’m busy!’ I then saw her in the werkroom and I think she sorted it out in the end, can’t confirm or deny. I don’t want to spoil!”

Echoing the comments from her sisters about the many “firsts” on season six, Marmalade says she’s never seen a season of Drag Race UK where the entire cast are determined to show “not just great drag, but great TV as well”: “We didn’t hold back, and it made for an exciting and dynamic addition to the UK franchise that takes it into a direction it’s never been before.”

Rileasa Slaves
32, London

Favourite RPDR alumni: Mo Heart
Favourite RPDR lip-sync: Dida Ritz vs The Princess – ‘This Will Be’
Favourite RPDR season: UK season 2

“You know my number, Rihanna, I’m happy to do a feature!” Rileasa Slaves says after sadly confirming the Drag Race superfan and future guest judge (?) has not made contact with her doppelgänger. “Put me in lingerie bitch. Savage X Fenty, hello? Click, click. Send me some free makeup.”

Embracing her status as the season’s “shapeshifter” – Rileasa’s mug has also been compared to Rita Ora and Andra Day – she wants fans to know that she’s not an official impersonator of the ‘Shut Up and Drive’ songstress, she’s simply a “quarterback in a wig”. “Baby, baby, baby. I feel offended for Rihanna. She’s a gorgeous Caribbean goddess!”

As the franchise’s first representation of the House of Emancipation – also including her legendary drag mother Freida Slaves – Rileasa is inevitably feeling the pressure, but she’s ready to demonstrate why her dynasty dominates London’s drag scene. “The world is finally tuning in, baby. All these people are finally tapping into Rileasa’s world, her universe, her cosmos. She’s intergalactic, honey!” she says. “I wanted to fly the family flag and give credit to my mama, who paved the way. Also, just to give some melanin representation is important, to sprinkle some sea water on the BBC.”

A trained contemporary dancer, Rileasa has been known to slay the clubs with a bit of “puss and boom ka-ka-ka” (spelling?). But, she says the keyword here is “retired”: “She got old! She knows how to open her legs and drop into the splits, but don’t be expecting flips and dips and tricks, honey. I love my meniscus.” Rileasa does guarantee, however, to serve “womana” and “body-ody-ody”: “I mean, does she need to pad when she does pilates?”

Saki Yew
33, Manchester

Favourite RPDR alumni: Marina Summers
Favourite RPDR lip-sync: Nina Bonina Brown vs Valentina – ‘Greedy’
Favourite RPDR season: US season 6

Although she’s “booked and blessed” as a Manchester queen, Saki Yew has made history (said that a lot in this article, haven’t I?) as the first Drag Race UK queen to be born in Australia. More incoming: she and Zahirah are also the UK’s first competitors of Filipino descent. (UK vs the World not included!) So, what do you get when you infuse Mancunian, Australian and Filipino culture into one queen? “Frankenstein,” apparently!

Boasting thirteen years in the drag industry, Saki once took a hiatus to pursue a dance career. Now, she’s back, back, back and ready to be catapulted to superstardom to serve “looks, sass and a dulled down Australian accent”. A musical theatre queen that can sing and “crochet” the house down, Saki is eager to compete in the Rusical and girl-group challenge as “it shows off what I was trained to do”.

For Saki, now was the right time for her to compete on the Olympics of Drag because she’s at her “peak”. More importantly, though, Saki just wants to showcase good drag. “I don’t really have an agenda with it,” she shares. “I just want fans to be entertained and see the love and effort and sweat and tears we put into our art.” But as we know, it’s not as simple as that, is it? “Everyone’s going to have their little armies [on social media], but like I always say, ‘Their opinion is none of my business,’” she says, which was met with an extremely gay finger-wag from me. “I don’t really care!”

Zahirah Zapanta
28, Nottingham

Favourite RPDR alumni: M1ss Jade So
Favourite RPDR lip-sync: Manila Luzon vs Delta Work – ‘MacArthur Park’
Favourite RPDR season: US season 3

With Drag Race’s long-awaited Asian renaissance, from bananactivist Nymphia Wind conquering season 16 to Marina Summers giving “colonisers the chop!” on UK vs the World and, of course, the universal acclaim of Philippines, Zahirah Zapanta is ready to “receive the love” she deserves. “I’ve supported Marina on tour and she’s a force to be reckoned with. [Their success] makes me so proud to be an Asian queen,” says the Filipina Goddessa, who also wants to use her platform to continue defying archaic stereotypes that Asian people are “shy and reserved – I’m nothing of the sort!”

Making history as the first Drag Race UK contestant *born* in the Philippines, the Nottingham-based star credits season three, All Stars 1 and 4 alum Manila Luzon with “kick-starting” her foray into drag. “I was like, ‘Oh, a man can dress up as a woman and receive accolades? Yes please,’” she explains. But, there’s one recent contestant in particular that’s captured her heart. “M!ss Jade So from Philippines season two is an icon. The things that come out of her mouth, wow. Her mind! Her cortex!” Yes, we’re somewhat diverting from season six here but this is of extreme relevance because, as she teases, a friendship (and a potential joint tour) is on the horizon (!!!). “She DM’d me this morning and I was like, ‘Let’s do something’. Can you imagine?”

On season six, Zahirah claims to be a queen who doesn’t start drama, but can “participate”: “Like, if you put it in my direction, I’m throwing it straight back at you. If you hit me hard enough, then something is gonna come out of my mouth because it only takes a matter of time, baby.” As we conclude these interviews, I ask Zahirah to throw some adjectives my way for season six: “Chaos. Fashion. Fierce.”

Drag Race UK season 6 premieres 26 September on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer. 

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