Punk Rock and Trans Activism: Nuclear Applepants

Denver based punk rock band Nuclear Applepants are trans rights activists committed to raising awareness. Recently, they released a music video for their brand new song “Voice of Treason.”

OUT FRONT had the opportunity to chat Mel (Mayhem) Hirst, a singer-songwriter and guitarist for the band. A proud member of the LGBTQ community, she wishes to be a role model to younger generations of similarity. She lived most of her life convinced that she was a closeted transgender, unaware that she is actually intersex.Hello! Thank you for taking some time to chat with me again. Is there anything you would currently like to promote?
We are working with Jeremy Stern at Mile High Behavioral Health, and we contracted to donate all of the airplay royalties, downloads, streaming, everything for our song, “Voice of Treason,” to try to help transgender and gender non-conforming people. We also shot a music video for it as well, and there is a lot of controversial and adult situations in this video. I tried to make it not too graphic, but I want to put out for the world to see a lot of challenges and sometimes near fatal issues that a lot of people who are gender non-conforming face in every day life.

I want to create and raise awareness on that because it seems to be something that comes with a lot of tragic issues. People don’t want to talk about it, or they turn their heads. Because the word “gender” is involved, people think it is wrong to talk about it, or whatever the case may be. We want to try to raise as much money as we possibly can through downloads, streaming, and things like that. Because of that, I was invited to perform center stage at Pride this year and perform the song which I was really excited about. Unfortunately, because of COVID, Pride was ultimately canceled, but John White, one of the organizers of virtual Pride, he worked with me and we recorded a virtual live performance video that was played. It was pretty cool.

Related Article: Peppermint’s New Album Peeks into Her Love Diary

Are there any other ways that the coronavirus has messed up your plans, or are you going about things as usual and getting stuff done?
No, it has definitely changed a lot. We were hoping to have many shows played at LGBTQ friendly facilities downtown. Mainly, I have really been trying to get the word out on Instagram, use social media, things like that.  I am also someone who really likes to take any challenges that are putting roadblocks in the way and figure out how to make them work for us. So, it has definitely gotten me a lot more savvy in social media and ways we can get everyone who is somewhat of a captive audience. Being quarantined, a lot of people are in front of their phones and stuff like that. So, trying to figure out ways to use that situation to bring people entertainment, raise our promotional opportunities, and try to figure out new ways and get feedback to better ourselves. We are trying to do some kind of good for a lot of people who really need it right now.

What are you most looking forward to when things open back up?
I am most looking forward to some opportunities to play live again. I am not really too picky choosey where it’s at. Places where we can group people. I wanted to set up a rave, like a legal rave with permits, and some other events like that. As soon these are all open back up, we already got the planning done for a lot of stuff, so all we have to do is implement this and hopefully take off at that point. I am working hard for it and using this time to purchase a lot of additional equipment. So far, we have got a lot of new electronics. I have enough to throw pretty decent sized laser shows and things like that, along with all of our stage antics. Even if they are small venues, I want to make them like Red Rocks caliber type shows. I am excited to see a lot of that become a reality.I think between all of that and our previous interview, I definitely have a lot of info. Is there anything else you would like to add or make sure we include?
I have so much, I can talk to you for a couple hours [laughs]. A lot of statistics I have, people that we are trying to stand up for and bring into view of the public again, such as Matthew Shepard. We are not entirely 100 percent about gender issues. LGBTQ or anyone who is basically outcast just for being themselves. No matter who they are or what they look like. I want to bring to light more about Leelah Alcorn and Angelina Bouros whose cat was murdered and like cut in half last year. That was pretty raging, I have actually talked to her and got her permission to use her in an article that I am currently writing. I will be releasing it to as many people who want to see it. It is just basically the extremely sad, tragic statistics of a lot of people who are homeless, suicide rate, all things like that.

We are just here to get all of this going, and there has also been a sense of talk about a person named Eppy Epstein. He owns a little place, it was called My Father’s Place in New York, and apparently, it’s the first stage a lot of notorious people had ever performed on. Such as Tom Petty, Madonna, Aerosmith, and there is chatter about inviting us to come play there or the brand-new facility he is building in Las Vegas. So, I am pretty excited about that. A lot of stuff will be broadcasted out on our social media.

To stay up to date with Nuclear Applepants, follow them on Facebook and Instagram, or visit their official website. 

Photos Courtesy of Nuclear Applepants