Quotes from King Princess

You're in for a live band. That's really what I wanted; I wanted to put on a show for people where they could come for the gay and stay for the musicianship. It's a live show; there's some rock stuff, too. Some rock and roll. Get ready.

As a person in the LGBT community, I feel like I've begun to do my job.

I think the name perfectly encapsulates my soul, and so I get to be myself with the safety of a different name.

I feel super-proud of my team and myself; like, I have an all-star MVP team. They're so sweet, and they love me, and I love them. It's a very respectful, lovely relationship.

Pop music has been the center of change, you know? And positive messages. I would love to get back to that place because I think we've lost it a little bit.

I'll just say I'm lucky. I've got the dopest girl in my corner.

I think it's so funny because straight people just don't think about gender in their songs, or making a statement by talking about love.

I wrote them kind of consecutively, starting with 'Holy,' and then '1950,' 'Talia,' 'Upper West Side,' 'Make My Bed,' and I was kind of like, 'This is it.' It felt right. It felt complete. It felt like a sentence. I really enjoyed making it.

King Princess is like an attitude. I take comfort in it as kind of a shield to exist in, where I can make cohesive art. And it's androgynous, which is intentional. It's important to me that my art exist in a kind of neutral space, genderless to some degree. And give the listener some imagery to hold on to.

My dad was really a protector and mentor.

It's funny 'cos I think a lot about kids who grow up with their parents being really important members of their fields, and they just go the opposite way.

Historically a publicly unaccepted but incredibly rich culture, queer love was only able to exist privately for a long time, expressed in society through coded art forms.

I'm a big Cate Blanchett fan. I'm ready. I'm coming! I mean, come on, I am a gay girl; I want what I want. I want to come to Australia and marry Cate Blanchett. Just let everybody know for me.

I write chronologically in my life, so whatever's going on, I write about it. Usually, that's when I feel the most cohesive body of work is formed. I got to live this crazy life, I got to write about it, and now I've got this record that I'm really proud of, too. It's not done, but when I put it out, it's gonna be good.

I think that there are all these amazing figures in our history - the Bowies, the Tina Turners, the Chers, the people who are, in many ways, genderless or represent 'the other' - and I want pop music, and other queer artists - Kehlani, Perfume Genius - these people are bringing queer narratives into people's minds.

I didn't have a lot of homies in school when I was young because I was gay and weird and mean, so I went to theater class because I was like, 'Yo, I need a hobby.'

Having a sold-out show takes a lot of the pressure off because I know that it's going to be a room full of people who are excited to be there. The worst part - or the part that I'm adjusting to - is the actual act of traveling. The hotels are pretty trash.

Gak encompasses so many things, like, 'Tonight is going to be a gak and a half.' If it's going to be a 'big gak,' it's going to be major.

When I do makeup, it's performative. I don't really wear makeup, but I use it as a tool to talk about gender and sexuality.

We released '1950,' and I felt so grateful for the response from the queer community as well as just musicians and people in the industry responding to it and validating the art I had made. It makes me feel super hopeful.

I spent a lot of time preparing for releasing music and then not a lot of time releasing music.

How I can be an active voice for gay people but also the music industry? This is the art we need right now. This is what we need right now. We're in a renaissance, and we need people to rebel, come forth, and bring messages into art.

I think that was my biggest fear - censoring myself and putting myself into a cookie cutter to be representative. But I think what I realised is we don't need that.

I'm just playing songs for my friends and for people, and they're just like, 'Wow, this is powerful.' I'm excited. It's also important that, in the record, I move the focus a little bit away from me to more about the things that I think about, communities like drag, gender expression, and friendship-concepts that go beyond me.