I get to play with pop music and mix up the style. It's fun to play with party music and nice to get into the club. My big love is songwriting. I write the lyrics and the vocals, and I work with the producers.

It's different everywhere you go. I'm lucky I'm drawn into people who love and support me. I'm sheltered from that life. I see how all over the world there's so much oppression and pain. I'm living in a bubble.

I've been performing live a long time, even before doing dance music clubs downtown. I used to watch clips of Beyoncé to learn how to perform in front of people. I got my jitters out in front of my friends.

I realize that if I were in that situation - living a hard life with people telling them they're not worthy of love - maybe I would be that strong and that brave.

I think love is important, and loving yourself and being happy and feeling you're worthy of happiness as an individual. One of the most important things is to have the courage to love yourself and share that with the world.

I feel very strongly about letting people know I'm proud of who I am. I want people to know when they hear my songs it's coming from a specific place. The new record is specifically for us trans women: that we can sing about our pain, being ostracized by our lovers, who are ashamed of us in a way. There's no pop music like that for our community. I wanted to contribute in that way.

The Fun Girl video which was directed by Bijoux Altamarino really came out of her vision. I feel she understood the mystery, danger and power of the song and It really came through in the end.