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JD Samson talks “Labor” and queer icon status

JD Samson is one of those performers that you put on your “must-see” list when they come to town. Whether it’s doing a DJ gig at your local dance party or performing as part of her musical group MEN, JD is a well-respected and loved part of the queer music community, as she has been since 2000 when she joined Le Tigre. Since then she’s made calendars with out photographer Cass Bird, written songs for Christina Aguilera and made appearances in films like Shortbus and The Punk Singer.

Her performances always have some kind of political bent, some activism that accompanies the pop-dance, oft-choreographed fun. JD’s work comments on feminism, equality and gender expression, and the personal has always been political when it comes to her writing and stage performance. But on MEN’s new album, Labor (out tomorrow), there’s a little more of JD, the person, than we’ve heard in the past.

MEN’s second album has JD doing more storytelling than she’d done on Talk About Body. On Labor‘s first single “All the Way Through,” she sings, “I love you so deeply it goes all the way through,” and even her use of “I” is radical and a change from past work.

We spoke with JD about the making of Labor, the downside of being a queer icon and if we can expect another calendar anytime soon.

AfterEllen.com: I was just reminded while doing some research that you’re from the Cleveland area. Having lived in New York for years, is there anything in your work that is still Midwest? Because you seem very New York to me!

JD Samson: Yeah, in general I think I have a deep Midwest sensibility, I think that’s what some people call it. Which is like somehow this politeness-deep harmony with nature, also, I think. I think I still have that for sure. I don’t feel like I always belong in New York or something. And I try and be super sincere and I think that’s a Midwestern trait as well. For the most part I feel like I’m still totally a Midwesterner but I’ve lived in the New York area since ’96. So I’ve lived here a very long time.

AE: This record is a lot more personal, which I’ve read that you aware of. Is that something you wanted to do or was it just something inherent in the writing?

JS: You know it wasn’t something I wanted to do. In fact we kind of set out to write a record that could be kind of appreciated by a broader accent. When listening to the last record after the release of it, I think I kind of realized how exclusive we were to our community in a way. And I thought it would be interesting to try and bring certain ideas to a larger audience and I think by doing that, somehow, I became more personal and wrote from a more personal place. I think it also had to do with the things I was interested in at the time. I was reading a lot of psychoanalytical texts and critical theory and then I also, we had rented a house upstate to write the record and just, by the way that time was flying, I ended up writing a lot of the record by myself and being in this kind of introspective place by myself in the country. So I think definitely I was in that kind of a moment.

AE: What do you think it is about writing from the “I” perspective that makes music more accessible to people?

JS: I don’t know, it’s so funny. I didn’t think that was ever something-even the reason I found out I’d done that in the past was through an interview. I was doing an interview with a woman in Paris and she suggested I hadn’t used the word “I.” I think I used it a couple times on Talk about Body and I was totally shocked by it and it kind of made me sad or something, it made me feel like I was experiencing my relationships and my career really separate from myself. So that became something that I was kind of interested in tackling since that record came out, both for myself and also within the process of writing this new record. And so yeah I think I tried to and became fixated on the word “I.”

AE: What do you think is the ideal situation or scenario for your music to be playing?

JS: I think it’s something that we really came up against while writing this record was like, different band members had different ideas of what that was. For me I just kind of wanted to not even think about the audience and create work that felt like it was true to me and experiment with new ideas and concepts and also ways of creating texture musically. And then there were times when Michael was like “I want to make a pop record for kids to listen to in their bedrooms, thinking ‘this is the best thing ever! It’s changing my life.'” SO I think we really tried to hit both of those dreams and it definitely became a topic of conversation throughout writing the record of like, “Wait what are we doing here? Are we making a pop record or are we making a piece of artwork?” And so I think you can kind of feel that journey throughout this record a little bit which I think is cool because that’s what it’s like to make work and that’s the process of birthing this baby is all about. “What do we want to do? How are we doing this? We’re doing it wrong! We’re doing it right!” So definitely who’s listening to it changes from song to song.

AE: It’s the nature of the business that there’s so much outside of the music itself that decides who is listening to it, how they find it. Is there anything you’re changing like how you market yourself or anything else outside of the actual songs?

JS: We don’t have plans, per se, but we take opportunities when they come to us. I think one part of the marketing process that was different this time was I didn’t really want to have an image of myself, I didn’t want to have it on the record cover. And within the press for the record. We really wanted to have something conceptual to go along with the record that felt like a comment on the industry. What it’s like to be a musician and just like the conversations we’ve been having with folks about all of those things. That for sure was something I really wanted and the album art almost came before a lot of the songs. I really wanted to work with this image and kind of continue this thread of that image throughout the whole art. I think for sure I’m like a sincere person who speaks very honestly and from my heart a lot and sometimes that’s difficult to put out there but I am also just vulnerable. I think that it’s good to do that as an artist, that’s why I make work. And I think the way people should receive that is up to them and in terms of the way that’s put out into the world and by like a marketing campaign or different magazines picking up remixes or whatever, I feel really open right now and I’m interested in all kinds of humans being a part of our family.

AE: Is there a downside to being a queer icon?

JS: I think there’s a downside to being an icon in general but it’s not the political aspect of it, I think if there is for people. I think it’s the public figure aspect of it. I think fame or whatever little fame I’ve had. In the scheme of things I’m not very famous but within my communities-communities plural-I have some fame and that’s changed my life a lot. And I think that’s why the record cover is this image and people see a still of me and make a lot of judgments about me and it’s being a person who is really sensitive and insecure, it’s so hard to accept that people make judgments and talk about me behind my back. That’s so scary. So I know that that happens and it definitely changed my life. I look down when I’m walking down the street and eye contact is not easy. Yeah, it’s hard, for sure. You have a persona and then you have your real life and it’s hard to kind of like live them at the same time and it’s hard to have peace between them and own that. But at the same time, you know it’s also hard to have this power of the microphone. I think something I’ve been realizing recently is I’m not actually that comfortable with it. I love making art and expressing myself but the fact that I could be considered this political force is really great sometimes and scary others because I’m like “I don’t deserve this power.”

AE: Along those lines, I was wondering after playing MichFest again this year, have you changed your stance? Obviously you are not a transphobic person but it’s a difficult issue within our communities.

JS: Yeah, I mean my personal-I don’t want to get to into it because I know how complicated it is. That’s been actually part of my whole plan. It’s not really a plan but just the way I’ve been dealing with the conversations has been very personal so I’m really open to talking to people personally and I feel like there’s been so much positive change even from those conversations. I’ve been talking to people on both sides of the argument and trying my hardest to maintain my own feelings and history and my future. That’s been really productive. I think I’m just trying to promote that as much as I can. I know some conversations need to happen on the Internet but I think it’s really exciting to talk to people and hear their voices whether it’s on the phone or Skype or in person. It’s been really helpful for me and I know a lot of other people have gained some perspective about everybody’s feelings. That’s been really great and right now my goal is to work with other people to have a bunch of conversations in person or on the Internet in Skype meeting rooms to continue the conversation throughout the year and hopefully help to figure out a solution.

AE: Outside of reaching a broader album with Labor, do you have any other hopes for the record? Based on the Huffington Post blog you wrote last year, it’s hard to be making a lot of money with what you do at this point. What do you hope can happen from this?

JS: Yeah. I think one that’s changed from the making of this last record was this realization of, “This isn’t my job anymore.” It’s a way for me to create work, to make stuff that I hope comes out of inspiration and it’s a labor of love, no pun intended. We make money other ways at this point and this is a big change within the industry within the last 10 years since I was able to make money from my band. So now I make money other ways and have few expectations about the band, which is really great, and we’ll continue to make our music because it doesn’t have this pressure on it. I think we have found the ways bands make money these days are selling tickets to shows, selling merchandise and licensing. And we’ve been lucky to have a couple of licensing things in the past couple years but that is something our band’s really are working towards. I don’t have issues with selling our music unless they are companies that have a terrible history and political view. And also to movies or TV commercials that have content that is inherently misogynist or homophobic. Those are both things that are important to us. Fortunately we work with a great licensing company that is feminist.

AE: Speaking of merchandise, do you think you’ll ever do another calendar with Cass Bird?

JS: You know we talk about it every year. “We’re gonna do it! We’re gonna do it!” It’s interesting; I don’t know if it would feel the same. I think, you know, I was in such a different place in my life so I always wonder what the central idea would make it work for me, personally. But we talk about it all the time.

AE: I see you’ve been selling tampon string hats. Can you tell me about how you decided to make those?

JS: I was getting ready for a tour and at the same time was talking to an arts catalog out of Seattle, which is basically a way for artists to sell goods that they produce. And I had some hats for sale and they were called hang in there hats that are these tampon string hats. The concept is kind of like the idea of women and hanging, like tampon strings, boobs, hanging laundry, hanging out, things like that. And so I decided I wanted to make these hats along that concept. So I made one for myself for the tour and some people had asked me for some so we decided to put them in our bundles and I basically take a huge box of tampon strings, cut them off, tie a knot on one end and put them through the brim of a hat and they go around the whole brim. it’s kind of cool because, actually, for me it’s a really cool veil and because I’m kind of an insecure person it’s kind of fun to have something to look through.

AE: What else will you be wearing on tour?

JS: For the upcoming shows we have, I’m going to be wearing-well, I’m like, should I say? It’s kind of a surprise. But hopefully you’ll be stoked.

Labor is available Tuesday, October 22.

Lesbian Apparel and Accessories Gay All Day sweatshirt -- AE exclusive

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