Rei: Why is it socially acceptable to expect people to pass or challenge trans peoples’ personal autonomy?

TM: Obviously it shouldn’t be, and even within the trans community, there can be this focus on passing. That’s really unhealthy and really unfair and like-

Rei: Really unproductive to trans liberation and living your life?

TM: Yea.

Rei: There’s some reference to videogames in the bridge of Fantasy as the samples used and lyrics evoke gaming imagery. Do you sometimes gamify passing? Is it kinda like reaching a minimum score?

TM: I think it’s more than that. I think more than anything I’ve been gamifying womanhood as a whole. When I started my transition, I was so obsessed with becoming a woman, that I didn’t take time to think about what being a woman meant to me. I think in the moment it meant hormones, clothes, hair, nails, voice training, surgery, and whatever, and without realizing it, I became consumed with this idea-

Rei: That it would complete you?

TM: Yea if I could check off enough boxes then I would finally be a woman and that would be that. It wasn’t about looking cis- it was like, “Ok, I’ve got to do all of these things.” I think this way of thinking was heavily reflected in my early music. My first mixtape was called Feminitiy.exe. I conceptualized woman as- 

Rei: As a program you download?

TM: As a file yea. The first track of that project is called Girl Simulator, and it has a monologue from Hunter Schafer about how womanhood was about mana, potions, and leveling up to your full power, and I think in the moment, that was how I conceptualized womanhood. It was a video game, and if I get enough achievements I win. But obviously that is an unhealthy way to look at gender, since if I can win at being a woman, I must also be able to lose.

Rei: In hyperpop’s early days, many trans-woman artists used pitch shifting to make their voices more feminine. Do you think hyperpop has been somewhat cis-washed from it’s originally radically trans roots?

TM: Yea I don’t know. I think I have mixed feelings on this. I don’t care what sixteen year old boys on tik tok are doing. I think it’s cool to see hyperpop develop as a genre and reach more people. Also, it’s really fucking annoying to see cis artists get signed to major labels before anyone else in the scene right? Like glaive or someone. Plus their music is twice as boring as anyone else's. On the other hand, of course cis boys are going to get commercial success before anyone else. Saying it’s been cis-washed is a really big stretch. From my perspective, all of the artists on the cutting edge of the scene are trans-femme: Quinn, dynastic, Jane Remover, DJ Re:Code, Galen Tipton, Phixel, Iris Day, on and on and on. Of course cis boys can sell out the genre, but I don’t give a fuck. If I do see another brakence clone, I’m going to throw up, but I think radical transness is still there. 

Rei: You’re doing a release party in LA, what can readers expect from a TAMAGOTCHIMASSACRE show? 

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lipgloss-party-morbid-obsession-release-show-tickets-430707055397 

TM: My live performances have been known to sterilize cis men and turn them into homosexual furries.

Rei: Nice. There we go.

TM: I weave a lot of performance art into my live show and elements of drag. I kind of do whatever will contribute to a cool experience for the people watching. I’m more concerned with making sure the audience has fun than doing a virtuosic performance. It’s pop music; it’s not that serious. I’m really excited for that show. Babebee just got added which is really exciting. I’m also playing a crazy stacked show in LA November 5th. It’s got tracey breaks, digifae, RYLO, and Nebita.

Rei: How was it switching from a guitar driven chippy aesthetic to something more akin to digicore or HexD for the single?

TM: I think genre is not something I think about actively. I think I don’t do it to a fault actually. I have a cover of a Soccer Mommy song that goes from orchestral to hyperpop to bossanova to ambient in the span of 50 seconds. I think I use musical style to enhance the meaning of a song than use a song to enhance my own musical style. I think if a concept of a song fits a different aesthetic, then I’ll change it. That’s what I did with Morbid Obsession, changing it from a guitar ballad to a girly dancey beat.

Rei: What is the reason for the CD-rot/bitcrushed aesthetic you had on your earlier songs? And why do you like to play with digital distortion in general?

TM: That’s a good question. When I made that first mixtape, I had this idea of using digital distortion as a way to represent gender dysphoria. The metatextuality- that sounds so pretentious, the metatextuality of bitcrushing brings attention to the fact that you are listening to a recording, and it can be super jarring to the listener. When you listen to music, you’re not actively thinking, This is a recording, right? When you add some weird digital distortion you become very aware that you're listening to a recording. This is the way dysphoria affects me. Like you're going about your day, not really thinking about it then, bam, something happens. Then you become hyper-aware that you’re in this body. 

Rei: That’s a really good answer. If you ask any traditional analog engineer [about digital distortion], they’re like, “Digital distortion is bad,” and you’re like, “Yes, I know it’s bad.” I love that. How has your songwriting process changed since you started releasing music?

TM: On this new record I’ve been way more intentional with songwriting than on any of my previous stuff. My first mixtape was super raw and unpolished, and half of it I wrote before I even realized I was trans. So, I barely knew who I was. I had only just started making electronic music, had only just realized I was trans- so I was experimenting with music and myself. I was super emotional, so the whole result was super chaotic. There was an explosion of feeling and sound. It was a good mixtape, but it’s been two years. I’ve had time to reflect on my songwriting and identity. Now before I write anything, I sit down and generate a kind of thesis to work from. I think about what kind of ideas and emotions I want to work through with my music. For Fantasy, I felt like I was naive for thinking I could go into Publix without being harassed. And for Morbid Obsession, I realized that my unhealthy fixation on my appearance was going to kill me. From there, I pull bits of lyricism and broader themes from those ideas. Taking imagery from a broken fantasy to paint myself as an unwanted princess. The idea of vanity in the context of horror, and the juxtaposition of the cute and the grotuesque. Once I’ve got the concept and lyrics fleshed out, I try to think about what instrumentation and musical aesthetic would complement those types of themes: an RPG soundtrack for Fantasy and girly dance beat to contrast these horror lyrics. The rest is just pressing buttons on the computer.