For new series to acknowledge Pride celebrations taking place across the UK in September, we’ve asked LGBTQ+ musicians and figures to write a love letter to either the community or a queer person who has inspired them, along with an Apple Music playlist to pay tribute.
Here, Walt Disco singer James Potter speaks of their love for their trans icon Lauren Auder, and how they have deeply connected with her music.
WALT DISCO’S LETTER:
I’d like to write this love letter to one of my peers. I contemplated writing about one of the queer heroes from my early formative years but I felt the need to write about my love for one of the transcendental songstresses of today, Lauren Auder.
She is an artist that in my mind has just scraped the surface of her artistic prowess, yet has already gifted the world with fifteen of the finest songs to be released in the past four years. Her music is beautifully insular, hauntingly ethereal, perfectly grand, and fills me with escapism much in the same way Scott Walker’s music does – an artist I know that she and I are forever in adoration of.
I had the pleasure of meeting her once in Paris albeit very briefly. I think all we said was hello, but I was struck by how gentle her presence was. I didn’t know who she was or even that she was a musician but it’s an encounter I remember well. I felt she had a beautiful soul and it stuck with me.
From knowing her through the portal of social media, her authenticity still shines through, for me this has personally pushed me to be as authentic as I can be to myself and my queerness. She is a trans icon, she is a queer icon of our generation.
As I wrote this short letter I listened to all of her music, this being the first time I’ve listened to her entire discography front to back and my love for her artistry has deepened even further – as an artist it inspires and provokes me to create, as a writer it pushes me to dredge further into my psyche to try to briefly put my thoughts to words, and as a listener it makes me feel delicate.
You can listen to Walt Disco’s new single Weightless on Apple Music below:
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