Ahead of their shared slot at BIGSOUND, drag pop force Jimi The Kween and queer troubadour Queenie sat down for a chat that ricocheted from wigs to AI to the politics of festival lineups.
Jimi has a mixtape landing later this year, while Queenie’s sophomore album Pleasance drops 21 August. What followed was less an interview than two friends riffing on visibility, drag as armour, and why robots could never.
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Queenie: Have you done it before? I’m going in fully blind. I feel like it’ll be turbo and I’ll be following my managers around all week like a lost puppy.
Queenie’s rolling out with a full six-piece band this year; drums, keys, bass, two guitars and herself, including a new drummer after her brother, the previous kit player, moved back to Tasmania. “Three of us!” she says, when Jimi asks how many of the band are queer.
Jimi: I have a couple of drummers I work with and I remember, when I first worked with one of them, I was like, “So how do you identify?” And he goes, “Unfortunately I’m he/him and I’m straight.” And I was like, I love you so much. It’s the first time anyone’s ever said “unfortunately” in that way haha.
Queenie: But we still outnumber you, bitch.
Jimi: Yeah, we’re the majority in THIS room, baby.
On why both put “queer” front and centre in their bios:
Jimi: Because when I was growing up, all I had was the pop divas, the Gaga’s and Britney’s… Like, sometimes the music is for us, but the lack of actual people in the industry that live and breathe it and have had to navigate the coming out aspect… I think there’s not enough of us that are like, “this is who I am.”
Queenie: It’s really important for us to be out there and proud of it and putting it on display for young queer artists too.
“Cause fuck, the industry is so hetero and so misogynistic and it’s just nice that people can look at me and go “Oh, okay, that person’s done it, I can do it too.”
The pair also traded shots at AI:
Queenie: Watch AI struggle with their sexuality for ten years! Robot can’t do that, can it?
Jimi: Yeah. No. Watch a robot try and install a wig. Okay – I need to talk about wigs.
Queenie: Do you vear vigs? Vhen vill you vear vigs?
Once the giggling stopped, wigs turned out to be a genuinely serious topic for both.
Queenie: I love Dolly Parton. I love big hair. I mean, you know, the higher the hair, the closer to Goddess or whatever they say.
Jimi: And like a wig will have its own personality. I think for me anyway, without the wig I cannot be THAT BITCH, you know what I mean? Like, there are certain wigs that make me absolutely that motherfucking bitch, you know what I mean?
Jimi: Wigs make us more approachable, you know?
From there, the pair unpacked the maximalist aesthetics anchoring their live shows, and the frustration of tokenistic festival booking.
Jimi: Sometimes I feel like because of the drag and the maximalist vision, people don’t necessarily search for the meaning in certain lyrics and visuals. But like the reason those lyrics exist is important. The reason that song exists is because I am in drag.
Jimi: But there’s this thing with some festivals I struggle with where they say “Ok we will allow, let’s say, 5% of the lineup to be queer. No more than that.” And “We NEED to have one [queer act]. But if there’s two, oh, now it’s a queer festival.” It’s like, when will this change?
Queenie: I think so much of [my drive] comes from the struggle of being queer and trying to make it not just in life but in the music industry, as part of a marginalized community. And it’s like, “Fuck you. I know I can put on a good show, and I will.”
Jimi: It’s like, yeah it sucks… but I will happily tick a box.
Both artists agreed their communities thrive on delicious chaos.
Queenie: We’re all fucking freaks. And I would not want to be anywhere else than surrounded by freaks because when the world ends, we are going to be fucking sliving.
Jimi: Just all live in a little forest in some far corner of the world, frolicking around and making gorgeous music.
Naturally, talk turned to their upcoming releases, and the emotional gauntlet Queenie has planned for Pleasance.
Queenie: By the end of it I want you sobbing. I want you dancing, you know? I want you horny. I want you running. I want you excited.
Jimi: Every orifice is leaking, honey.
They signed off with a shared vision of chosen family and a wacky shack in the woods to retreat to when it all gets too much.
Jimi: It’s been so nice to meet you. I’m excited. We’re going to represent the incredible queerness that we have and take it by the horns and ride it all the way to our wacky, wacky shack in the woods.
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