Justin Tranter

The Knife can't stop cloaking brilliant pop songs in voodoo jam blankets.

I want to make sure in every song we write that women are given power.

I just want to make music that people hear, and I'm not ashamed of that.

Being a songwriter, you are accepting that this isn't about you. If you do want it to be about you, you're going to be really miserable.

Beyonce, Stevie Nicks, Ani DiFranco, Cardi B - Women tell awesome stories.

Once I got into pop songwriting, I was kind of just ready to help other people tell their stories... I'm here to facilitate and structure and grow and make things a little more fabulous and a little more urgent.

I'm fortunate that I have a female publisher, and her boss is a man of color. My world is a little more diverse, but the majority of the business is not diverse at all.

For the most part, it's straight white men running these labels and publishing companies.

A man in high heels is the most dangerous thing in the world.

Most of my friends are my friends because they inspire me.

My choice of shoe upsets people a lot more than my filthy mouth.

I love songs, Patty Larkin, Sharon Stone, Mae West, and Marilyn Monroe.

I am a genderless sea creature who has been writing and studying music since I was 12.

I don't like labels.

Good art should be polarizing.

I'm not famous. I work with famous people.

For me personally, I'm anti-gun and always have been and always will be. But I'm definitely not someone who is looking to abolish the Second Amendment. I think we're definitely interpreting it wrong.

The one time I shot a gun, the feelings I felt, I was guilty for feeling them. There is an exhilaration and a glamour, and I felt awful for feeling that.

I shot a gun one time in New Zealand. An entertainment news program there thought, since the band was called Semi Precious Weapons, they would bring us to a gun range.

I like to play this game where I ask people to count gay pop writers and producers they know. Everyone's always like, 'Oh, there are plenty!' But we always end up counting them on one hand.

Pop just means popular - it can be any genre, and if it becomes popular, then it's pop music.

If you listen to Semi-Precious Weapons' last single, 'Aviation High,' you can definitely hear that even in my old band, even in the songs I was writing then, the pop influence really started to take over.

I first fell in love with music when I was five years old because of 'Annie.' And then 'The Little Mermaid' really made me want to start singing. And then the fierce, amazing women of the '90s - Alanis Morrissette, Courtney Love, Tori Amos, Ani Difranco, Paula Cole, Patty Griffin - made me want to start writing.

I worked at a jewelry store to pay the bills when I first moved to N.Y.C., and I always loved the phrase 'Semi Precious.' So I wanted to just call the band Semi Precious, but my dad told it was kinda sissy, so I added Weapons.

If a song I'm lucky enough to be a part of comes on the radio, it's definitely really cool and exciting, but I can't focus on anything but the song. Same if one of my songs comes on in a restaurant. I can't just carry on a conversation.

If I'm hanging out with my friends or I'm working out, I'll listen to female singer-songwriters from the '90s because that's where my heart lies.

I really loved Kygo and Selena Gomez's 'It Ain't Me.'

When I'm in a session with an artist, my job is to help execute their vision - so it's whatever story they're telling, and the news doesn't specifically affect that.

I know that it's my queer perspective that's helping people make songs that the world is listening to.

The thing is, if you tell your story specifically enough, it becomes so universal. Just because you're a gay man singing an honest love song, people should know that it's about men and that they can still relate to it.

I really want queer kids to know that our experience is universal.

A little makeover never hurt nobody.

Music spoke to me when I was young in such an intimate, empowering, magical way, and I think that music is already doing that for young queer kids.

I'm using the success I've had to help other people shine.

I won't do press anymore unless I can talk about the homophobia and let queer people know our ideas are mainstream.

I've had the experience of going through homophobia in my work, and I can share my experiences so future generations don't have to deal with what I've dealt with.

I feel like there is a lot of homophobia and misogyny in the music business, and I feel like I've gotten to a place where I've broken down a lot of those doors.

I was born into the most amazing family an underdog could be born into, and I was born into the LGBTQ community. And what a beautiful community we are. The art, the music, the fashion, the brains, the fight, the survival skills, the diversity, male, female, non-binary, Gender Non Conforming, cis, trans, femme, and all races.

This is the dream: to make money off of what you love.

The larger streaming grows, the less money there will be to get the music out there, which, to me, is the sad part.

My goal is that my makeup and style will inspire Midwestern housewives. I want there to be a breakdown of 'Justin's smoky eye' in Cosmo.

I'm so connected to the community that I was lucky enough to be born into.