Fans of surprisingly meaningful yet campy pop will love the genderfluid, muscle-fem pop singer Queen SirJet and her new single “Stay With Me.” Released on July 12, it’s a contemplative electronic song about finding happiness in being alone. This is Queen SirJet’s fourth single under her new moniker, Queen SirJet, instead of just Sir Jet, and her fourth collaboration with producer Velvet Code. Queen SirJet spoke to us about her new single including her inspirations and future music plans.
“Stay with Me” is her most explicitly sad and lonely song so far, clearly expressing her fears of rejection. It literally asks the listener to stay with her. Queen SirJet explained how her background in the suburbs impacts this fear and how she writes her lyrics. “Most of my lyrics come from that place of, ‘Why am I here? Why is this happening to me?’ I was raised in a family where both parents had victim complexes. My whole journey is recognizing when I’m playing with a victim myself. And a lot of times, I find that I do that in my songs,” she says.
Her suburban background not only impacts her exploration of victim complexes through music, it impacted her choice to do music as well as her background as a former adult entertainment star and current independent creator.
“It’s kind of funny, I was raised, like a lot of queer people, to believe in having low self-esteem, not thinking very highly of myself. But at the same time, I was also raised with this sense that it’s okay to look a certain way. My parents didn’t care what I looked like. They just cared what I acted like, and so I just unabashedly became an exhibitionist, and I think that’s what led to the whole adult content thing. Being comfortable with it was just that I was raised on the theory,” she reflects, “So I think there’s a certain essence in my music. There’s always that side of being unapologetic for what you represent and how you present yourself at the same time. As I said, I was raised in an environment where everything was doom and gloom. That’s a constant pop-up in a lot of my songs. Is life really that bad? Maybe it is. Maybe it’s not. I just haven’t figured it out yet.”
In terms of her musical process, Queen SirJet explained that most of her music is inspired by other musicians, in both style and themes, as well as her own life. In terms of specific musical inspirations, she told us “I’d say my greatest inspirations would be like Erasure, Sarah McLachlan, Darren Hayes from Savage Garden. Most people don’t remember who that was, but he was very smart. He understood pain in the same way that I do.”
To her listeners, Queen SirJet hopes that her music inspires a sense of empathy and connection. “I hope they they understand what I’m saying and apply it to their own lives. Queen SirJet is saying things that I wish I could say myself, and now that Queen SirJet is saying it, I feel much better about how I felt over the years,” she says.
In the next year, she plans to release an EP of her Queen SirJet singles so far, and she hopes to be able to perform on stage again soon. So, keep your eyes on Queen SirJet, as we’ll hopefully see her rise to camp pop fame, and you’ll be able to say that you were there at the beginning.
