Queer Songwriters
Five of the most exciting LGBTQ+ songwriters and producers discuss the highlights of their careers and how to get more queer voices into mainstream pop.
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again - queer people are writing the best pop songs in the game right now. On the surface, it may feel as though the mainstream charts are dominated by straight singers telling straight stories. Aside from a handful of proudly LGBTQ+ artists like Sam Smith and Lil Nas X getting number one hits, there’s not that much queerness to be found in the Top 10. But look behind the scenes to the people writing and producing those songs, and you’d be surprised at how much diversity there is.
Justin Bieber’s Sorry? Co-written by Justin Tranter. Ariana Grande’s Thank U, Next? That’s from the mind of Tayla Parx. Selena Gomez’ Rare? You’ve got Leland to thank for that. The list really does feel endless, and slowly but surely the world is becoming more aware of the immense queer talent that exists in the industry.
We spoke to five of the most exciting LGBTQ+ songwriters and producers - Tayla Parx, Leland, Kennedi, Chelcee Grimes and Peter Thomas - to find out the highlights of their careers, the songs they wish they’d written, and what they think needs to happen to get more queer voices into mainstream pop.
What was the first song you ever wrote?
It was this song called Opposites Attract. Now that I think about it, it’s so cheesy!
What’s been your favourite moment of your career?
Right now, my favourite thing is being on stage because it’s something new for me and something refreshing that allows me to add to those creative zones and add to my artistry.
What do you think is the best song you’ve ever written?
Actually, I love this song called Na-Na-Na for Pentatonix because it doesn’t have a track, it’s all vocals. I don’t know if it’s the best song, but it’s one of my favourite experiences. If I had to choose my favourite, High Hopes for Panic! at The Disco. At that time, I needed to hear it, and needed to see people just headbanging to it and the effect that it had.
What song(s) do you wish you’d written?
I usually say Baby Shark, because it’s always stuck in my head. But it’s a Selena Gomez song, Wolves, I wish I’d written that song. There are a few though.
Who’s on your wishlist of artists you want to work with?
Adele, right now. Adele is definitely an artist I’d love to write a song with, maybe write something like one of her first up-tempo songs, do something completely shocking.
What do you think it’ll take to get more queer singers into the mainstream?
It’ll take us doing what we do now. And continuously being unafraid to be ourselves. That’s it, I think that’s all we can do. I think it’ll continuously be the new norm, and that will allow young kids and old people who didn’t have that freedom and all that type of stuff to explore and be okay exploring it. I’m the kind of ‘I’ll try it once, twice if I like it’ type of person. I would rather be setting an example of, ‘Come as you are, whatever you are, whoever you are, and own it’. You never know, the next person you’re affecting might want to do the same thing. The more we do us, the more mainstream it’ll become.
What’s your best advice for songwriters who want to make it in the industry?
Understand there is no right or wrong way to write a song. If you can understand your business enough - and I’m the type of creative who stresses knowing your business as I’m someone who manages themselves, and I’ve managed myself through the highest and lowest parts of my career. It’s like, you’ve got to understand the business, nobody could write a song for Ariana, Normani, Mariah Carey and say ‘You’re going to cut this.’ You have to understand how to work with people, how to really listen to people, even when you ask someone ‘How was your day?’ listen and take it in, have the conversation because that’s what the song is. The song starts before you get in the studio. The song starts with every conversation you have with a stranger, or best friend, or family. And you have to continuously see that, even when you’re finding your feet as a new writer, even thinking, ‘Wow, there’s a song in the train that ran past us.’ There’s always music, but the main thing is that a hit song is relatable, so it’s in you. It’s in you.
When did you discover you had a talent for songwriting/producing?
Probably around thirteen or fourteen. I had just started taking guitar lessons and my parents bought me Logic, a music production program, for my birthday. At first it was all trial-by-error, but by the time I was eighteen I knew I wanted to do this seriously.
Can you remember the first song you ever wrote? What was it about?
Oh god. I think the first song I ever FINISHED - there were many, many incomplete songs along the way - was about my first high school relationship. I used a bunch of weather metaphors. I’d like to act like I’m not embarrassed but even as I’m saying this my cheeks are getting red. Moving on!
What’s been your favourite moment of your career?
It’s hard to say. I’ll just name a few of my favorites. Putting up the first platinum record on my bedroom wall for Betty Who’s I Love You Always Forever, hearing a song I wrote on radio for the first time - COIN’s Talk Too Much - and shooting my first music video for Watching TV With The Sound Off.
What do you think is the best song you’ve ever written?
I love The Outfield, a song I wrote with The Night Game. John Mayer posted a really nice note about it and that meant a lot to me. I think the third single I released, If You’re Happy Now, is probably one of the best songs I’ve written. I like the verse and pre just as much as the chorus, which is rare.
Is it ever hard watching other artists sing your songs, particularly if they’re personal?
No, I’m so grateful when an artist chooses to make one of my songs part of their journey. It’s really cool for me to hear someone else’s voice on a song I’ve helped create. If I feel like a song needs to be mine and I should be the one singing it, I’ve always found that my collaborators understand.
What song(s) do you wish you’d written?
That list gets longer every single day, so I won’t even try to tackle it. I’d gladly take Max Martin’s entire catalog, though.
What uniqueness do you think queer people can bring to songwriting that others don’t?
More voices and more stories make art more vital, more intricate. As a listener, as a human, it gives me more to connect with.
Who’s on your wishlist of artists to work with?
That’s too long to begin! I’m focused on what’s in front of me today.
What do you think it will take to get more queer singers into the mainstream?
I think we’re seeing it happen, slowly but surely. Maybe it’s generational, or maybe I’m just surrounded by all these incredible, powerful queer voices, but I feel empowered and optimistic.
What’s your best advice for songwriters who want to make it in the industry?
Learn your craft. Write a lot of songs. Rewrite them. Find collaborators who make you better. Knock on doors but remember to pick up the phone when it’s ringing — oftentimes the small opportunities turn into the life-changing ones.
I’ve been writing songs ever since I could remember. I used to write lyrics in library books so I would get banned from the library and didn't have to read at night.
I Can't Make You Love Me by Bonnie Raitt. It was written by Mike Reid and Allen Shamblin. Also By Your Side by Sade, which was written by Sade, Andrew Hale, Stuart Matthewman, and Paul S. Denman. Oh and Stacy's Mom by Fountains of Wayne, fully. That was written by Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood.
As a queer person, we all have our own paths and journeys from where we come from. Our own individual trials and experiences we had to and have to go through on a daily basis. I believe this gives us a different perspective and a different way of processing and expressing our emotions through song which is necessary to us and our community to feel heard.
Lana Del Rey, Adele, Sade, Bon Iver, James Blake, Kanye West, Pharrell, T-Pain, Timbaland, TimberLAKE and so many more.
I think it’s changing slowly, we just need to make sure we are all supporting one another.
Keep writing songs. I've been writing for almost 17 years. NOT GOOD ONES. But songs. Fragments and pieces of thoughts since I could. It takes a million bad songs to get to the good ones. Don't take no for an answer. Don't listen to anyone who tells you what you want is unattainable. Because I believe everything is. You just have to focus all your time and energy into what you want and you will get there.
I discovered I was able to write songs that people didn’t necessarily hate when I was in high school and had a band called The Brett McLaughlin Band. My real name is Brett McLaughlin. Clearly, I didn’t want the attention on myself. We could only get away with doing so many cover songs before being classified as a cover band so I took it upon myself to start writing songs for the band.
The first song I wrote was called Waiting On Love and it’s still very much relevant to where I am now.
My favorite moment of my career I think has to be going to Saturday Night Live when Troye Sivan performed two songs that we wrote together. I grew up obsessed with SNL and never thought I would ever get to watch an episode in person, much less have songs performed on it. The cast was so welcoming and all came to watch the rehearsals. Allie X and I sat together and cried while Troye performed My My My! and The Good Side.
Break Up (Bye Bye) by the Frock Destroyers. Without question.
There are so many songs I wish I’d written, a lot of them being songs my friends have written which is the fucking coolest. Teenage Dream is just THE song. Door by Caroline Polacheck is perfect and I’ll Never Love Again by Lady Gaga makes me cry.
Queer people are resilient and I think it comes across in songs by LGBTQ+ writers. Because a lot of us had to spend the developmental years of our lives hiding who we are, all of that emotion, angst and energy gets channeled into our writing.
I’d love to work with Christine and the Queens, Rufus Wainwright, Perfume Genius, Caroline Polacheck, Dolly Parton, and many more.
It will take support and opportunities from those who are in positions of power. It will take support from successful LGBTQ+ singer/songwriters and most importantly it will take support from LGBTQ+ fans. We all die for our straight pop queens but we need to look inward and support our own community as well.
Surround yourself with a community of ambitious and good-hearted songwriters. Don’t stress about writing with bier writers, become the bier writer. My life got so much less anxious when I stopped saying, “So and so won’t write with me,” and focused on writing with the people around me. One by one, my friends blew up as songwriters and artists and we all started together at the bottom.
When I took my GCSEs. I actually wasn’t one of those kids who say, “I’ve been singing since I came out of the womb.” I got a karaoke machine when I was nine, but didn’t every kid? I wasn’t madly into it. It was when I was in school choosing my options and I took P.E and my next option was between history, geography and music and to be honest I felt like it was going to be easy, so I went for that one. I picked up piano really quickly and just fell in love with writing songs. My music teacher really pushed me and said I had something and that’s where it all began for me really.
Mannequin was the first real song I wrote and the song that feels like it stuck around for so long in my life and went through so many different versions! But the main lyric was, “I can be as fake as a mannequin, don’t try to dress me up just to try to fit in.” I think I always felt a little different and didn’t want to conform to what I was seeing females in pop do at the time. I wanted to stay in my bay jeans and t-shirts and not wear a dress or get my boobs out to try to ‘make it’. It was definitely always in my music about staying true to who I was from an early age.
I’ve had a few. From shooting my first music video in Joshua Tree. That’s when it all started to feel real! From the first time I saw my songs on Spotify with my own name on. But for me personally, being so into football and my other career so to speak, I got to perform for the Liverpool team in Madrid when we won the Champions League last year for their after party and that was a pinch me moment! All the things I loved coming together in one room: it was madness!
It changes every day depending on my mood to be honest. I loved a record I wrote on my acoustic guitar called 11:11 which ended up being a big song in South Korea for an artist called Taeyeon – she’s huge! Also Romantic by Stanaj. I loved that record when I wrote it because I was feeling every word of it. I also really love this new record I have on the new Dua Lipa album Love Again for kind of the same reason. But I have one song I’m waiting to release for myself called Rollercoaster which hopefully you’ll hear one day. That’s one of my favourites!
No, not at all, because I wouldn’t allow the song to be released if I didn’t feel the emotion or feel like it did the song justice once I heard the artist on the track. I actually feel the other way. If I give my songs to big artists, they have more reach as I’m a new artist myself. It takes a while to grow now as music is consumed in such a different way than before. I love seeing my music travel around the world and reach places I maybe couldn’t reach right now.
I Can’t Make You Love Me or Teenage Dream. Both are so good!
I’m talking about me personally, but I remember when I was younger and I just started writing. The producer I’d be working with or maybe another writer would suest me saying ‘him’ or ‘he’ and presume I was straight, and I was still learning about myself and didn’t feel 100% comfortable saying either ‘she’ or ‘he’, so I would say ‘you’ a lot and keep it open. I think that helped a lot for me personally and also for my music because it could be sung by a guy or a girl and it was quite a nice feeling that my music wasn’t pigeonholed. It was free.
Lady Gaga! I’m obsessed with her. I worked with producer Red One when I was in LA – that’s the closest I’ve got. The day I write with Gaga is the day I’ll think, “I’ve made it!"
I think just by continuing the way it’s going. There’s so many open artists now who aren’t afraid of being themselves, and that can only be a great message for others looking up to anyone in the industry and knowing it’s okay.
Never stop writing. Don’t get too down if Britney Spears doesn’t cut your song. Someone else might!