The out alt-rocker LP is clearly ecstatic to be back at music festivals, celebrating the "beautiful, extra things in life that we don't consider extra sometimes, but like, it truly is." She performed her latest song, "Goodbye," which shows LP trying to "work on my own shit, be my own therapist in a way." In her time as an out queer woman, LP has learned there's no use trying to control what other people do or say because "that shit doesn't belong to you. You're going to die. The planet is burning up, like, nothing belongs to you." There's something liberating about the thought. If everything's made up, why not invent yourself in whatever image you want, as LP suggests. "You have every right to be you and to be here and to be how you are," she says. "We made it up, like money, so just make yourself up."
For country star Orville Peck, being back at live events after the year and a half we've had was "exciting and thrilling and beautiful and touching. And it's also scary and nerve-racking." The out musician has always found freedom in his songs. "Music and creativity and art and performing was a world where I felt absolutely free to be myself," he says. "The idea of having to hide who I am in that world never made sense to me. If someone tells me I'm not allowed or welcomed somewhere, you better believe I'm going to be welcomed there. It firmly makes me realize that I belong even more so and that it's more important that I make myself visible and stand up proudly, and so it keeps me going. I don't think of it as an obstacle. I think of it as motivation."
"Thank God you introduced me to your sister," Sarah Barrios sings with a wink and a smile as she seduces some guy's hotter sibling in the song of that title. The rising pop-punk star says she "definitely has impostor syndrome singing" the track, but that doesn't make the fantasy any less real for many bisexual women out there. Barrios shares that she "came out in the middle of the pandemic" and thought she'd "feel so confident and I'll be the most me I've ever been -- it'll be like a switch that flips." She was wrong. "I'm still anxious and I'm still depressed, and I still can't talk to women," but her music is the outlet to dive into fantasies decked out in a multicolored pastel vest. The 26-year-old invents the "coolest version of herself," which is more than just a relatable concept for many LGBTQ+ people. Who doesn't want to be that girl? "We can be sexy and sad at the same time," Barrios laughs.
"I didn't really know how much I missed it until I stepped onstage," says Jake Wesley Rogers. "Then I was like, Oh, this is what I'm here to do." The singer-songwriter can't help but be his beautiful self, whether in his personal piano-driven pop songs or wearing stained-glass-styled wings onstage. Missouri-born and -raised, Rogers says he gets his power from Stevie Nicks, Lady Gaga, and Sheryl Crow (his big three), and knows the power he and his predecessors wield. "Art changes people's mindsets," he reflects. Light bursts from the 24-year-old's spirit and shines fiercely through his music. "Whatever room you're in, you're the sun," he says. "People need you to be who you are."
Lockdown gave Cavetown a break to make his latest record, Man's Best Friend, the way he loves to work -- in solitude. The soft-spoken, socially anxious 22-year-old keeps to himself in real life but finds freedom in his quiet bedroom pop that's brought to life by guitar strums and hushed melodies. "It was such an authentic process for me," the English singer-songwriter says. "I actually got to do it how I would usually do it at home and take my time with these songs and didn't feel nearly as much pressure to meet deadlines." That space and freedom birthed "some of my favorite songs I've ever written," he adds. Following his recent journey coming out as trans to the world, Cavetown is still figuring out his place as a public figure but advises all LGBTQ+ folks coming into their own to "just be patient with yourself. Be forgiving. Be your own friend. It's easy to beat yourself up about stuff."
Amorphous found his groove over quarantine. The 23-year-old producer shared remixes over Twitter and TikTok, mashing up hits from Rihanna and Luther Vandross, for example, to create the unexpected. At Lollapalooza he stepped into the spotlight. His debut EP, Things Take Shape, is a melange of icons, assembling bops from Kehlani, CeCe Peniston, Kelly Rowland, and one of his favorites, Brandy. "To be in the room with her, to get so much advice and love from her.... She told me to my face, 'Jimir, you're an incredible soul, you're a legend in the making.' It's been an incredible experience," he says. Having gone from being outed and bullied in school to celebrated among his idols, the rising star advises, "Trust yourself. Life is too short to live for anyone else."
Singer-songwriter mxmtoon knows she's changing the face of indie music. "It's been weird to subvert people's expectations," she says. "I didn't have anybody to look up to when I was growing up. I never saw a bisexual, mixed-race Asian person." The 21-year-old hopes her presence will be part of the shift that needs to happen in the music industry. "I'm a very small step in a larger mission that needs to take place. If you can see yourself in the stories being told in the mainstream realm of pop culture and music, that makes it possible for you to think about, How can I also exist in that space?"
