Multiple Maniacs : When I was just out of college, my friend and I went to a John Waters marathon at IFC Center, and I saw Multiple Maniacs for the first time. I remember being shocked by the strong imagery of Divine getting assaulted by a lobster. That cuckoo-bananas vibe has stuck with me and influenced a lot of my own drag and art and the absurdity I put into my videos. Waters is always a reference. When I’m making music, I think more about film and television than about other music. What makes those visual mediums so beautiful is how they evoke emotion—even just the color of a wall on-screen can blossom into something else for the viewer. You have a kind of time stamp in your mind, reminding you of when you first saw that thing and how it made you feel something. I was a really lonely gay kid, and when I needed to feel community I went to television and film. I wanted to see people I wanted to look like, or people who looked like me and represented a strength I didn’t yet have. Acting and making music are so similar for me, because they’re both about encapsulating emotion in something that wasn’t there before. Whether it’s in a three-minute song or a scene, you have a mission statement that you’re trying to get across. You’re replicating feelings, and those feelings become real through being replicated.