When Weird Works: A Conversation With Queenie T
Interview ★ Kenzie Gay ★ @kenzwrites★ 7 Minutes
It’s been awhile since I’ve written anything let alone interviewed anyone. Well, it’s been a month but that’s a long time for me. Editing-In-Chiefing these days doesn’t allow for much time to really write and tell stories like I used to but I still carve some out for those I really want to highlight.
That brings us to Queenie T. Based in Kalamazoo, Michigan, I actually got the honor of interviewing Queenie last year after a super rad garage show in Grand Rapids I got to attend. At the time, Queenie was with The Frogs and Toads but in scenes like this, music moves faster than we can blink. Nowadays, the young singer/songwriter is going solo — with oh so much on the horizon.
You're self-described as "weirdo folk rock". In that case, who are your favorite weirdo folk rock artists? How do you hope to carry the torch within this style of music?
I don’t know if they’d describe themselves as weirdos but I find most Folk artists are weird. I dig on this Folk artist Connie Converse from the 40’s. A woman singing about her struggles and interests and made music just for the sake of it. Too cool. She disappeared though.
I also love the 1960’s Folk Rock movement in America. Buffalo Springfield, Bob Dylan, and the Byrds. The Alternative Country scene like Chris Acker, and Esther Rose have also been major inspirations for me. Both really nice folks too.
Sunny War is an artist who makes insanely new Blues-Folkish music. Her guitar playing is something I strive for. I think Blues and Folk have far more in common than they don’t. I absolutely love the Blues people from the first half of the 20th Century: Son House, Elmore James, Elizabeth Cotton, Lead Belly. Lotta's Blues songs are still applicable today. Sad, but that's the Blues.
Apart from music, you're very expressive in other forms of art such as painting. What does painting bring you that music doesn't? Who or what influences your style and attitude towards it?
Painting is therapy in a way that music isn’t. A lot of times when I write songs it’s a manic burst of inspiration that I need to grasp onto before the songs out of my head. Painting for me is almost like I have to slowly reveal this picture in my head through patience. It’s also meditative and I often can turn off my brain and just let my hands do the thinking.
Cartoons are a big inspiration for me, and comic books. But I really saw some art Clay Frankel of Twin Peaks was making for his band and that was the first time I was like “I can do something like that!” I love the colors and cartoonish qualities of the pop art movement, my sister Stephanie Truitt is a big inspiration for me as well. She is a phenomenal visual artist and always has been. She actually has been playing piano for me nowadays! She’s a real badass.
What does "weird" mean to you?
Being “weird” to me means being yourself whether or not you will be accepted in the eyes of other people. Being shamelessly yourself. Proud of the unique odds things that make you the human you are. I like to let my Freak Flag fly and that means screaming from the rooftop what interests you, what excites you, what you love, who you love, and what makes you feel human. I’ve had to learn that changing yourself for other people doesn’t make you feel loved. It’s not you. It’s who you think people will like. Being yourself and having people embrace your warts and all feels a whole lot more genuine. So therefore I am WEIRD. It’s worked out for me so far.
What role does chaos play in your creativity?
Chaos… Even the word makes me tremble. The way I go about a lot of my creative endeavors can be chaotic. I am known to have a burst or a rush of creative energy or ideas that can be so consuming that I need to set down everything I’m doing in order to capture that energy and craft it into something tangible. I book shows in a chaotic manor (all at once and sitting on the toilet or on my break at work), inspiration comes on chaotically and unplanned. This all feels chaotic but learning to harness that energy and prolonging it or making something meaningful out of it has been something I’ve been trying to lock in on. I think I get excited really easily and it’s easy to surrender myself to that excitement. I think nowadays I try to take these ideas that can be overwhelming and turn them into the tangible long term.
What’s a “too real” moment you’ve turned into a song?
Most of my songs are very vulnerable to me. I like to write music or create art from hardship because it almost feels like I went through that experience for the sake of art. Or there was a reason for it. My song “2006 Suzuki” is about how I had this beater car and it kept causing me grief for years. There’s a line in it about how I was late for one of my first college exams because she broke down on me on the way to school. I have a handful of songs just straight up written about heartbreak and overcoming that very real feeling: Tiny Little Phone, Don’t Step on Bugs, Reverse Queen of Wands. I wrote my song “Pronouns” because I was experiencing the hardship that comes with living my truth.
How important is the local scene to your identity as an artist?
The local scene where I am from helped raise me. I joined when I was 19 and just played parties I threw and talent shows. Now I’m 26 and I think I’ve played every venue in my home town at least once. Before I had confidence in myself, they told me to be proud. Kalamazoo is extremely supportive. Especially the fans. If they like your music or you as an artist they will let you know that you have something special. The bands, venues, and the DIY community have all built me up, and given me opportunities when I had none, and believed in me. Playing for one person, making music for one fan is enough but I find myself with more folks behind me lending me an ear and cheering me on than I ever imagined.
Over the past few months, you've transitioned from being in a band to operating as a solo act. How has that been? Have there been any vivid challenges?
Being a solo artist can be a little lonely. I used to shy away from making decisions and was not confident in my ability as an artist. The past 6 months I have really had to take control and believe in myself. Which can be hard. But at the same time people in my community and folks I have met through my solo endeavors have made up for the loneliness.
I think I work better when I am in control. I have clear visions and a drive that can be hard to match. I think I got more serious about my music when the transition happened. At the end of June I would've played around 13 shows this year? Which is the most I’ve ever played in a year as an artist. I played two out of town gigs, been writing and recording every week, I got some people to record my music, and I met and played music with a personal musical hero of mine, MV Wells from Chicago.
I am lucky to have an amazing community built around myself and my music. Friends who get me gigs, my friend Justin Rollins helps sell merch, my boyfriend Marco McDade and his sister Kate McDade have helped me immensely with merch designs. My music started with my friend Josh Morris helping me record my first music on Audacity, and I still have folks asking to record music for me. I guess I am not lonely really. I got lots of people around me who want to see me succeed.
If someone listens to your music for the first time, what do you hope they feel first—comfort, curiosity, or something else?
I think I have a knack for having a hopeful outlook on life. I really hope that gets across through my music. A lot of the time I turned to song writing as a way to cope with parts of life or myself that I didn’t fully understand but I loved or accepted regardless.
What is your favorite song that you've written? Can be released or not.
I’d have to say it's either my song Begin Again off of the Return of Queenie T I think I nailed ‘hope’ into the core of that one, or Shallow Grave which is my song about Fallout New Vegas. Got some studio time lined up this Summer to record it.
If your music had a warning label, what would it say?
DANGER: Extremely Silly and Earnest…
At this time, do you have anything to promote (shows, releases, merch, etc.)?
Thanks for asking! I just made a lotta CD’s for Be Good Now and the Return of Queenie T and the Strainge People. For gigs, I'll head over to Lucky Wolfe Theater on the 26th (June), and I'll end the month off busking on the 28th. All information on my instagram then I’m taking July off for rest and I’m recording two singles with my friend David, and a set of songs with my friend Brody from Zero Sun.
