Q&A with JACKFRUIT

With songs like "i had gay sex with god (it could've gone better)," and "GENDER ENVY," Jackfruit is the bedroom-pop queer artist you've been waiting for. Check out our Q&A with them below!

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What do you love about your platform?

It’s so small! I’m obviously so grateful that I’ve gotten so many followers/streams, but my platform is still small enough that I can interact with almost everyone who comments or follows or messages me. And it’s just so sweet to see people I don’t even know support me--it makes me feel so freakin loved. And because I just do all of (most of?) the work I do by myself, it gives me total control over what I can share and who I share it with. I don’t know if I ever want to, like, sign a contract. I’m having a great time just doing what I want.

Who is your favorite LGBTQ+ figure right now?

Ooh, this is a hard one. Musical artist-wise, I’ve been listening to a *lot* of Rosie Tucker lately--a new album of theirs just came out, and it’s so so so good. But I also just finished a research project on Lou Sullivan for a class I took last semester, and it was really wonderful learning about him and his work, and I think it will have a lasting and profound effect on me. I actually wrote a song about him for the project, which I may or may not release next month. I seriously don’t know yet. I haven’t decided.

Who is your all time inspiration when it comes to your artistry?

Oh god. Um. I grew up listening to a lot of 70s + 80s rock/pop music. So not that. I didn’t take much of that with me to my teenage years. I feel like I’m so scattered in my music taste that I don’t even have a single person I can pin my inspiration on. Maybe my therapist? I definitely learned a lot about myself through therapy. Maybe my mom? She’s also shaped me quite a bit. But also, like, Freddie Mercury, duh. Love him.

What do you want people to understand about you?

My music is weird!! And I love that. I don’t really love writing songs that don’t have weird lyrics. If you want to listen to a song without using a metaphor centered around gay sex or evisceration or carbon monoxide poisoning then I don’t think my music is for you. I want people to know that I make music not because I want to build my career around it (though that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, obviously) but because I want to put more music into the world. I love creating things for the sole purpose of creating them. I’m so impulsive with my creativity, and I think that leads to a lot of fun music choices.

What do you hope for the future of the LGBTQ+ music scene?

That it keeps growing! I want to keep building networks of LGBTQ musicians and creating art with other queer artists. I also hope more queer artists start creating more explicitly queer songs--now is not the time for implicit queerness, it’s the time to be radical. I mean, obviously do what you feel comfortable with. But I’ve learned so much about myself and the world after being unashamedly and loudly queer, and it means so much to me that people resonate with lyrics I worried would be too personal or strange. Make queer music!! Even if it isn’t the best thing ever. I don’t care. It’s still queer music. And I think that’s more than good enough.