For me, it was never a question of whether or not I was transgender. It was a question of what I'd be able to handle transitioning and having to do it in the public eye. One of the issues that was hard for me to overcome was the fear of that.
'Tim Timtya' was different from what I usually do. I had to develop a texture to go with the song. In fact, many told me I sounded like Shreya Goshal, which came as a pleasant surprise. Transitioning from tracks like 'Sunny Sunny' to this one was quite different.
For me personally, I was just worried that transitioning from a podcast, which is a very intimate sort of experience - people tell me they listen to my podcast while they're at the gym or on road trips, so you're in someone's ear - to being on television - that's a lot of space to fill.
When you step out and do a song in a musical, the easier thing to do is make it funny. But when those transitions become necessary, when they aren't camp, that, to me, is magic. I've done musical comedies and enjoyed them, but subject matter that's deeper and more realistic is always what's appealed to me most.
My mother introduced to me as a child the world of language: the way in which translation can be a system by which you can understand others.
I love the song 'El Rey.' And for years, I never knew what the song was totally about. It was something new for me. I'd never sung a song in Spanish before. Then I got the translation and saw what a really cool song it was.
If I make a speech, I need a translator. But music does not need a translation. People understand me through the sound. That I think is very important. This is just one planet, like one family.
Dancing pleases me. I hope I transmit that to others.
What does music mean to me? I don't think I would really be much without it, without it coming through me. It's my means of communication, my means of growth, my means of transportation from one point in my life to another.
Personally, my favorite 'meat' song is 'We Got It Right.' As soon as it comes on, it transports me to a different place. And I'm really proud of our performance in the studio on that one.
We struggle throughout our lives to learn to accept the shell that transports us through this world, and many of us take great effort to change it. I believe everyone has at least once looked in the mirror and thought, 'That is not me. I am someone else. The world cannot see me as I really am.'
I'm never gonna be somebody who's gonna fall down from the sky on a trapeze. That's not me. I really want to make sure that my focus stays on connecting with the audience.
I grew up in a bus, traveled with various circuses and freak shows. I was a trapeze artist, and that was my dream. We just traveled the whole world, me and my mom and my little brothers and sisters. It was an adventure.
The trapeze was my first love. To me, it's normal. It's all I've ever known. But when I see other people's upbringings, I think, 'Hmm... mine was rather unconventional. Quite different!'
What I learned from my kids is that the greatest joy in life is not from material trappings, power, or visibility. The greatest joy comes from your kids. Nothing is even close to my kids in terms of bringing me joy.
I constantly have anxiety about being the lead of the show. I don't talk about it because it scares me. But I've always wanted to be part of something where I could work on a character in such a big manner, and you get offered that with all the trappings of being the lead of the show.
I constantly have anxiety about being the lead of the show. I don't talk about it because it scares me, but I've always wanted to be a part of something where I could work on a character in such a big manner, and you get offered that with all the trappings of being the lead of the show.
Songwriting is hard - it's so easy to fall into the same traps. It's not like I wake up and songs flow out of me.
When I watch Rumble Johnson, he's a bully. He bullies guys. He makes them go backward, and he traps them. I'm not going to allow that. If he tries to bully me, I'll stand right in front of him, and if he hits me, I'll hit him right back. And then we'll see how the bully handles it when nobody is going to run away from him.
My mom will make me walk the dogs or take out the trash when I go home.
