“Free the Titty!”: Pop Princess Slayyyter Tells Us What Pride Means to Her

If you don’t know Slayyyter, well, you probably do. From her humble Tumblr-forum beginnings to her independent SoundCloud releases, her voice has reached millions of headphones thanks to her clear-eyed artistic vision and tireless drive to create. Her 2021 debut, Troubled Paradise, and 2023 follow-up, Starfucker, are products of this artistic vision, power pop confections of plastic, sex, fame, depression, and euphoria. Naturally, these preoccupations—and her link ups with Ayesha Erotica, That Kid, and Charli XCX—have made the 28-year-old something of an underground queer icon. So it’s no wonder Slayyyter was tapped to headline All of Us, the Pride weekend music festival in Chicago produced by Auris Presents. “I grew up listening to pop music that had a lot of life in queer spaces,” she told us on a Zoom call the morning after her set. “It feels kind of natural that that’s the space where my music lives as well.” As she prepares to open for Kesha on her upcoming Tits Out Tour, Slayyyter joined us to talk about taking pop seriously, striking a balance between tofu and cigarettes, and her scene-stealing verse on “ATTENTION!,” Kesha’s latest single. But what’s the craziest thing Slayyyter’s done for attention? “Probably all the Twitter beefs I used to get in back when I first started,” she said.   

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CHARLOTTE ZAGER: Slayyyter! Thank you for taking time to chat with me. How are you doing?

SLAYYYTER: I’m good! How are you?

ZAGER: I’m great. It’s the New York City Pride parade today, so that’s very exciting. But it’s a nightmare to get around.

SLAYYYTER: I feel like that’s the big one, though, at least here in America. That’s the good one.

ZAGER: Oh, it’s the big one, yeah. You just played All Of Us in Chicago for Pride weekend yesterday. Chicago is so lucky. How did that go?

SLAYYYTER: It was amazing, honestly. Super great crowd, great energy. I loved the lineup. I’m a big fan of COBRAH and Arca. It was really great. I feel like as Pride month kind of wraps up, it’s always nice to go out with a bang. It was a good one.

ZAGER: Totally. Did you see a lot of your fans, your Cathy girls in the audience?

SLAYYYTER: Oh yeah, definitely. I recognized some familiar faces, especially in the front row, some people that I love and was excited to see.

ZAGER: How does it feel to be so celebrated and loved by the queer community?

SLAYYYTER: I feel very honored. It’s not something that I feel I ever really tried to go for in a calculated way. I feel like it’s kind of wrong when artists position themselves trying to kind of get that audience. I grew up listening to pop music that had a lot of life in queer spaces. Lady Gaga, Marina and the Diamonds, all that stuff. It feels kind of natural that that’s the space where my music lives as well. I just love pop music and I feel like no one celebrates it better or takes it more seriously than queer spaces when the rest of the world kind of pokes fun at pop or doesn’t really admire pop stars in a certain way.

ZAGER: What do you think it means to exhibit pride?

SLAYYYTER: I think it just means living it authentically and being oneself. Right now everything feels kind of scary. It’s a scary time to be a gay person, to be a marginalized person. So it’s important, especially now, just to celebrate each other and actually feel proud to be oneself. To be authentic to yourself.

ZAGER: I think the fact that your music has landed in the laps of queer people, or just in the laps of people who are proud in general, can honestly be attributed to your own authenticity as an artist. It’s really cool to see. Speaking of things that are cool to see, I also loved the picture of you taking an immunity shot next to the packs of American Spirits and Marlboro Reds. 

SLAYYYTER: [Laughs] Oh, yeah. It’s like the Gwyneth Paltrow quote I always talk about. The balance between tofu and cigarettes. But our pre-show ritual is to take a ginger shot. It used to be a real shot but I’m more sober when I’m touring now, just because of my voice and stamina. I don’t really like to be hungover. It messes my voice up. So we do ginger shots. It’s a fun little thing. We get really superstitious about it if we don’t do it before a show, like something is going to go wrong. Like the sound’s going to cut or something.

ZAGER: And does it have to be Ginger-turmeric? Is there one brand that you stick to?

SLAYYYTER: It could be ginger, it could be turmeric, it could be apple cider, it could be anything. Any kind of health shot, and not really one band. None of them sponsor me so I don’t want to shout them out. [Laughs] No one sends me free juice shots. 

ZAGER: Do you have any other pre-show rituals?

SLAYYYTER: I really like to listen to my music and take five just by myself. I usually go off into another room away from people. I like to get a good stretch in, get in some yoga poses. I feel very calm. I don’t really get stage fright, I just like to chill. I don’t really like a lot of people in my space or a lot of partying going on. I feel like that might shock people. But I’m kind of the opposite, especially before a show. I like a calm environment and not to feel like I have to have a social battery right before I go on stage. 

ZAGER: Right. Trying to maintain a conversation while preparing to go on stage would be a lot.

SLAYYYTER: Yeah, it’s kind of like playing sports. I feel like you have to get your head in it before you go out and leave it all out on the field. I feel like it’s important to get in the right mindset. Otherwise, it throws me. I feel like when I’m socializing right before, or when people are partying around me and everyone’s talking, I kind of start the show a little awkwardly or I’m not fully in it in my chest.

ZAGER: That makes sense. When you get on stage, do you feel like you, or do you feel like a different version of yourself?

SLAYYYTER: I feel like me. I feel it kind of unlocks a bit of my angry side, I guess. It’s therapeutic to perform because I’m always screaming and running around and thrashing around and it feels really good to do. It feels like when people go to those rooms where you smash plates with a hammer or whatever. Do you know what I’m talking about?

ZAGER: Oh, a rage room. Of course.

SLAYYYTER: Yeah, a rage room! It feels like a rage room vibe. It feels like I’m myself but like I just kind of get to unleash pent-up frustration or energy. I kind of feel like I’m the most heightened-energy version of myself. There’s a bit of a character but not really as much anymore. I feel like I’ve kind of blurred both and I’m just me all around now, which is nice.

ZAGER: Obviously you’ve just dropped “ATTENTION!”, which I’ve been addicted to, by the way. It’s my new strut-very-aggressively around the East Village song. Tell me a little bit about that collaboration. 

SLAYYYTER: Thank you! Yeah, I was so excited. I’ve been a Kesha fan for my entire life since she debuted. Her music and soundtracks look like the most formative memories of my teen years, middle school through high school. Even getting the ask to open on the tour was such a dream come true, let alone be on a song. It’s really an honor. She sent the track over, I think we emailed. I recorded my verse and they liked it. It all kind of came together really fast but I think it turned out so cool. It feels very future-forward but also kind of reminds me of her old party music that I grew up loving. Rose Gray’s verse is heavenly. She’s such a stunning vocalist. I think it all just came together really nicely. And I really commend Kesha for featuring two sort of underground female artists. It’s a really cool thing for her to do. I feel very honored. It’s a very girl-power track and she’s highlighting two artists that are obviously very inspired by her. It just all feels very lovely and female energy and empowering.

ZAGER: What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done for attention?

SLAYYYTER: Oh my gosh. I know there have to be some things that are really bonkers. I dyed my hair purple in high school. That was definitely for attention but I did not receive the attention. It was like Tumblr days. I’m trying to think. I don’t know. Probably all the Twitter beefs I used to get in back when I first started. I was like, really on a sick one. I feel like I would get internet attention and it would be bad, from fighting with people on Twitter. That’s no good. But maybe that’s the craziest thing. I was beefing.

ZAGER: Beef is crazy for sure.

SLAYYYTER: [Laughs] Beef’s crazy. I feel like I just don’t care about anything anymore. I don’t see anything online where I’m like, “Hey, hey…”

ZAGER: [Laughs] Right. So you’re about to go on tour with Kesha, the Tits Out Tour more specifically. So, can we expect tits out?

SLAYYYTER: I don’t know. I fear if children are in the audience, I will probably be keeping my tits in my shirt. [Laughs] But who knows? Maybe if I get swept up in a moment and it feels right—a little flash never hurt anyone.

ZAGER: Never killed anyone, no.

SLAYYYTER: Free the titty!

ZAGER: I read in one of your other interviews that New York City was your favorite city to tour in. What’s your favorite New York City neighborhood?

SLAYYYTER: Oh, I’m trying to think. Well, I’m moving. I don’t want to say where I’m moving, though…

ZAGER: [Laughs] Yeah, don’t say that

SLAYYYTER: But I’m moving to Brooklyn in a couple months so that’s going to be a really crazy change up of life just because I’ve lived in Los Angeles for five years. But I feel like I’m not really a New Yorker. I can’t comment on neighborhoods. People get so mad. But personally, when I’m visiting, I do love the places that I feel like people hate on. The West Village is magical to me. Don’t care that people hate it so much. I saw that article that was like, “Must be nice to be a West Village girl,” and I was like, “Yeah, it must be nice. It looks really beautiful.” I love Brooklyn, though. Bushwick, obviously, is where my music will live and die, so I feel like that’s a really fun neighborhood. I feel like I have a lot of friends that live there and going out there is always really fun. I don’t know, I love it all.

ZAGER: This pride month—are you feeling more star-fucker or star-fucked?

SLAYYYTER: I don’t know. I guess neither. I feel like I’ve just been like, I don’t know, maybe star-fucked. I feel like I’m not famous enough to say that I’m being star-fucked, but maybe I’ll manifest that energy and say that one.

ZAGER: What are you excited for with this upcoming tour with Kesha and everything else coming up?

SLAYYYTER: I’m super excited to release new music. I feel like I’ve kind of done an overhaul of what my music is and what it sounds like. I think after this upcoming Tits Out Tour, I’ll be entering a new phase of my career and my music and artistry. I’m really excited to show people what I have in store. I feel like it’s really different from what I’ve done in the past, but also there’s some throughlines with moments on Starfucker that to me felt really natural that I wanted to dig deeper on. A little more punk electronic, a little less pink pop princess, which might disappoint some people. But I’m really excited to release more music and visuals. 

ZAGER: Your dedication to visuals is really special. I feel like more artists are starting to get it and lean into it, but you’ve been doing it.

SLAYYYTER: I think this next era of visuals, too, will be really interesting and shock people that they’ll be coming from me of all people. I feel like everything I do, when I go onto the next thing, I’m always over the last thing. Not in a way where it’s like I don’t appreciate my past work. But it’s more like I look at Starfucker, I look at the cover and I’m like, “I can do cooler than that. I can do better than that.” The visual era is going to really spell out me as a person and me as an artist.