SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
In January 2021, the world tragically lost the experimental pop musician Sophie, who died after an accidental fall. Later that same year, music producers Massima Bell and Dust Reid began to craft an album in her honor, inspired by her artistry and to celebrate the community of which she was a part.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IS IT COLD IN THE WATER?")
MOSES SUMNEY: (Singing) In the water...
SIMON: Here's Massima Bell.
MASSIMA BELL: Dust I really wanted to create something that honored these brilliant people who do happen to be trans.
SIMON: The album "Transa" features over a hundred artists and 46 tracks, and it blends music, poetry and spoken word.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "VI. JUST LAST NIGHT (ACCEPTANCE)")
EILEEN MYLES: Everyone was just walking backwards into the room.
SIMON: Eileen Myles is one of "Transa's" contributors, with three poems throughout the album. "Just Last Night" is the only one they performed themselves. Massima Bell and Eileen Myles joined us to talk about the album.
MYLES: When Dust was showing me the early version of the potential record, they were all instrumentals at that point. And the piece itself was just very seductive and very - it had this, like, singularity to it. To me, it invited a certain shape of writing.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "VI. JUST LAST NIGHT (ACCEPTANCE)")
MYLES: My eyes are closing. Yeah, let your eyes close.
So I felt like I sort of got in there and danced with it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "VI. JUST LAST NIGHT (ACCEPTANCE)")
MYLES: It's a closet. It's a rehab. It's a homeless shelter.
I'm used to hearing my own voice, but I have to say it's almost more fun with the other cuts to hear somebody's interpretation of lyrics that I wrote.
SIMON: Well, let's take advantage of that. You had the opportunity to write a poem called "Under The Shadow Of Another Moon" for the actress Hunter Schafer.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "III. UNDER THE SHADOW OF ANOTHER MOON (DARK KNIGHT)")
HUNTER SCHAFER: Before, on an awfully other planet, we spoke.
SIMON: And what's it like to hear your words delivered by a big star?
MYLES: It's interesting to hear them. Sort of like it's running through another body. It's running through another voice. But I love their interpretation.
SIMON: There's so many examples on this album of, you know, collaboration across generations, genres, gender identities.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "EVER NEW")
BEVERLY GLENN-COPELAND: (Singing) Welcome the child whose hand I hold.
SAM SMITH: (Singing) Welcome to you, both young and old. We are ever new.
BEVERLY GLENN-COPELAND AND SAM SMITH: (Singing) We are ever new.
SIMON: There's the song "Ever New" that features Sam Smith, who, I believe, is in their early 30s, and then Beverly Glenn-Copeland, who was 80. What was that like? How did you create these pairings?
BELL: From the onset of making "Transa," we really wanted to honor these musicians who we feel kind of haven't gotten the due that they deserve. And Beverly Glenn-Copeland is a musician whose work has always felt like such a respite for me and such a kind of vision of belonging that I think is sometimes rare for trans people to experience, and I'm really grateful that Sam Smith really connected with that song.
MYLES: Having things by artists from different points in their lives, their careers, to me, is the definition of a good party.
BELL: (Laughter).
MYLES: You know, when I first got to New York in the '70s, parties were all ages. We were the young people, there were the older people, and that was our definition of New York. And that's changed over time. And it's - I think it's culturally wrong, and I think it's so important to work against that, which is one of the really cool things about this record.
SIMON: Eileen, may I ask? I gather you identify as nonbinary and began to use gender-neutral pronouns later in life.
MYLES: Yeah, I do identify as trans. And so I've gone through the lesbian, the dyke, the butch, the queer. They're all good terms. But today, trans seems to hold everything, which I find very exciting, and pronouns are so rich, you know, and they is so rich.
SIMON: The great Sade - British jazz singer - wrote, I gather, her first song in six years for this album, "Young Lion."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOUNG LION")
SADE: (Singing) Young man, it's been so heavy for you.
SIMON: Dedicated to her son.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOUNG LION")
SADE: (Singing) You must have felt so alone. The anguish and pain. I should have known.
SIMON: It's a very moving song.
BELL: It absolutely is. I mean, I'm always in tears when I listen to that song because I think it is something that I haven't heard in the world before. I haven't heard, like, a mother apologizing in that way for not knowing the truth of her child and just being really open and willing to make an apology like that.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOUNG LION")
SADE: (Singing) See how far you've come.
BELL: I've heard already many personal experiences from trans people who've connected with their parents that it's, like, sort of opened these moments to have conversation and dialogue and make apologies.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOUNG LION")
SADE: (Singing) Shine like a sun, young gun. So run down the mountains.
SIMON: This album's coming out as their court case is underway. The Supreme Court heard arguments on transgender care for minors last week and this week declined to hear a case on gender support plans in schools. Does that make it all the more important to have this album out from your point of view?
BELL: For me, as a trans person, this project is a love letter to all the people in my life. I think it definitely couldn't have come at a more needed time. I'm originally from a state that has put into law anti-trans legislation - Iowa - and I have seen firsthand the dangers and perils of that kind of legislation. And, you know, we didn't set out to make this project in the current climate. We started this project at the beginning of 2021. Yeah, it absolutely has felt like we need to have these kind of both, like, public stands of support for trans people, but also just these kind of beautiful messages that can sort of make trans people feel that there is love and support for them out there.
SIMON: And Eileen Myles, from your point of view, can music be an antidote to that?
MYLES: We carry music everywhere. We drive with it, we walk with it, we hear it after it's stopped playing. So I think music changes minds.
SIMON: Massima Bell, "Transa" producer, and the poet Eileen Myles. "Transa" is out now. Thank you both very much for being with us.
MYLES: Thank you.
BELL: Thank you for having us.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOUNG LION")
SADE: (Singing) So close your eyes (arms open wide) and feel the light. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
