For Goldie Luxe, pop music is inseparable from transformation. The self-described “diamond-studded trans pop sensation” has created a world where music, burlesque, fashion and queer culture collide, turning self-expression into something theatrical, glamorous and defiantly larger than life.
New single ‘Touch the Sky’ captures that philosophy at its most euphoric. Originally written to soundtrack one of Goldie's early burlesque performances, the song draws inspiration from the ugly duckling story, transforming its familiar journey from outsider to swan into an anthem about refusing to shrink yourself to meet other people's expectations.
So with the new single out now, we sat down with her to find out more about her origins and what has been inspiring her most over the years.
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What was the first instrument you fell in love with?
Can I say the voice? Is that cheating? At school we were encouraged to try out an instrument and my first attempt was the violin. But, honestly, I lasted like maybe two weeks? Then a teacher suggested I join the choir and it’s been my greatest love affair ever since, really.
I joined every singing group and choir I could growing up. I did all the musicals, joined the church choir. I did really any activity where I could sing.
I just loved being able to make music straight from your body, straight from the soul, really. Just the magic of being with a whole group of people all doing that together? I’m sort of getting chills just thinking about it. It’s just incredible.
I also play a bit of keys, but the voice is my love.
What kind of music did you love when you were younger?
When I was really young I listened mostly to just pop music and what was popular, but I’m blessed to have had parents who exposed me to other music. My mom especially, loved disco and I remember her playing Diana Ross, Barry White and Donna Summer. That had super formative impact on me. I was the only elementary schooler who knew the lyrics to “Can’t get Enough of Your Love Babe.”
My friends and I joke that my father on the other hand has the absolute gayest taste in music, especially for a straight southern republican. I just remember being in the back of his car listening to Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan, and he really loved Geri Halliwell’s first solo project. I mean I must’ve heard Schizophnonic a million times growing up. Which really didn’t make a huge splash stateside, but it was certain no. 1 in my house!
Does anything slap quite as hard as “What you see ain’t what you are getting!” I mean come on! “Superficial expectations!” It’s too good.
What was the first album you remember owning?
It all goes back to Ginger! Ha! I remember very distinctly buying Spice World on CD. Yes CD. I have now aged myself! Oh well!
I was OBSESSED. I mean spice mania hit me like a truck. I remember watching the movie over and over. And I would make my mom drive over an hour to go to the one gas station near (well near is a relative term I guess) me that sold the lollipops. Remember those? I had to get the Ginger ones. Obviously.
And after that I remember very distinctly my first digital album purchase was “Song for the Lonely” by Cher. Yes, clearly my father’s music influence has made an impression. It’s a great elctropop album, absolutely worth a re-listen.
What is the one song you wished you could have written yourself?
Oh what a funny question. None really. Who wants to be someone else? I’m still working on the Goldie Luxe smash of the century!
Do you have any habits or rituals you go through when trying to write new music?
You know no I don’t really. I don’t have one prescribed way of writing. I produce as well, so sometimes it starts with a synth idea or a drum loop. Other times, the title for a song will pop in my head and the lyrics wont come for like two years. But I know in the back of my mind, now thats a good title. Thats a good concept for a song.
But the best songs are the ones you don’t even really have a hand in. They just sort of come out of you in a flash. A lot of artists talk about this. Its like its comes from the collective cultural well or cosmic ether or something. It’s all very Jungian isn’t it? Please excuse this woo woo tangent. But it’s the job of songwriters to just get the hell out of the way.
I like to think of it as almost I’m a stained glass window. The song shines through my particular lens and is colored by it, but if the song had shown through another writer their colors would shape how the idea came to be expressed.
Who are your favourite artists you have found yourself listening to at the moment?
I’m loving Adéla right now I think her album is super cohesive, fun, and brilliant. Troye Sivan’s new track and visuals are just sublime. Love love love the Madonna sample. Such a good and unexpected use of it and what a cunty pop flex.
But mostly I’m listening to a lot of stuff I loved growing up. I’m listening to a ton of Britney Spears, and all the boybands. I’m going back and listening to everything produced by Timbaland. All the Missy Elliot collabs. I’m listening to Mary J. Blige, Fergie, Janet Jackson, TLC, Madonna, Gwen Stefani, Lil’ Kim, Mariah Carey, Ricky Martin, Christina Aguilera, and Ciara.
I’m steeping my brain in mega pop hits, r&b crossover smashes, and the queens of hip hop. I’m trying to absorb as much as I can. What made the late 90s and early 00s so grand? So catchy? So mega maximalist? So sexy?
If you could open a show for anyone in the world, who would it be?
Probably Gaga. I mean she didn’t even have an opener for the Mayhem Ball, but yeah I’d love to. I’m such little monster. She absolutely shaped who I am as an artist, as a creative, as person even. And her fans are so supportive and either queer or queer-friendly.
What do you find is the most rewarding part about being a musician?
It lights my soul. Does that sound trite or extreme? I need to do it. I love singing and writing and creating. It’s what I think about when I’m lying in bed at night and the first thing to cross my mind when I wake in the morning.
Also I make music with one very very important goal in mind. I want to create community. I hope to create a pop world where people feel seen and important and sexy and free! I know how much of a lifeline it can be to be part of a fandom. There were periods of my life where the one thing keeping me going was being a gaga fan or being a lamb. My greatest desire is to create a space where people feel free and accepted. Especially young trans girls who are under such scrutiny and constant political attack and debate.
And what is the most frustrating part?
The most frustrating part is when you give your all to something and it just goes out into the void. When I made my first album, “The Debutante,” I worked and reworked it to death. I spent hours producing and recording. I rewrote so much of it. And at the end of the day, no one listened. But I’ve learned to cherish that. It’s so frustrating to not have a project land or make an impact, but it’s also incredibly important. You know what I did after that “failure”? I got right back at it. I made two, nearly three whole albums of songs that never saw the light of day. I worked with different producers. I was relentless about getting honest feedback from musicians and non musicians alike. I got back into taking voice lessons. I studied the greats. And I got better.
Yes all of that was frustrating. All of that took years and years. But now I am here. And I might not yet be where I’d like to be, but I am a better writer, a better performer, a better singer, a better producer, a better songwriter and honestly a better person because of it.
And what is the best piece of advice you have received as a musician?
I took a composition class in college, while studying abroad in Italy, and at the time the advice flew right over my head, but the professor said, “this is too complicated. Make it as simple as possible.” Everyone in the class was writing for their given instrument and because I was a vocalist he asked me to write for the voice. And I had come in there with an avant-garde melody that essentially never repeated and was incredibly complicated. I thought, “wow I’ve really done it! I’ve made something groundbreaking!” He hated it! Ha!
He said go home and write a lullaby. So I did and I thought it was the stupidest assignment I’d ever been given. And then I ignored, writing him off as kook, and went right on to make more complicated insufferable music for years. It only occurred to me much later he was right. Part of what makes a pop song great, just like a lullaby, is its deceptive simplicity. It’s soothing in its repetition.
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Goldie Luxe's new single 'Touch The Sky' is out now. Check it out in the player below.