♪(jaunty music) ♪
- The number one piece of feedback
I get when people listen to
my music or see a music video is
I wasn't expecting that.
And at first it was kind of offensive.
Like, what do you mean you weren't expecting?
What were you expecting?
But now I do get kind of a kick out of it,
because like I said, I've leaned into it,
and now I'm just like, yeah,
I know you weren't.
And that's the point.
And there's so many girls like me out here,
like I'm the most basic girl you will ever meet.
Just open your eyes, open your ears,
and just get out of your box.
Stop living in there.
You heard it here before.
And if you haven't it's about time you get familiar.
This that Siena Liggins.
♪ We been in this bed for ♪
♪ A million nights♪
I think that, you know, at the end of the day,
it's a music business, and it only works,
if the consumer or the customer is buying into it.
Like it's a lot harder to sell people
stuff that they don't identify with or see themselves in,
and see it done in a genuine and honest way.
♪ Five, four, three, two, one♪
For too long, culture has been
built and stolen off of the work of Black people
and queer people, honestly, for far too long
for it not to be an area or a space that we
get to have an equal part
or an equal opportunity to play within.
And I think that is something that,
coming from a Black person is maybe hard to hear,
but I am happy that there are a lot more white people,
straight white men, people in these
like gatekeeping positions, who are realizing it
and are willing to say it out loud,
because it shouldn't be a taboo.
♪(jaunty music) ♪
The title of my album is "Out Tonight,"
was inspired by a girl that I was dating. Naturally.
A lot of my songs are, but I started with this song.
It was about a girl who,
she just wasn't ready to be out with me.
She was, you know, very much into me,
but like kind of low key about it when we'd go out.
She'd like, didn't want to hold my hand.
Or if someone walked by, she'd get nervous.
And I respected her boundaries.
I respected, you know, what she was ready to do,
and what she was ready for, but I'm a songwriter,
so I went back and I wrote about it,
and I wrote the song about initially,
it was just like a play on words of just like being out,
but the more and more I thought about it,
I was just thinking about how much of life you miss out on
when you're not able to be your authentic self.
Whether that's your own self and fear holding you back,
or if they're like outside constructs or pressures that
prevent you from being yourself
wholeheartedly and authentically.
Either way you end up missing out on, I think,
your best self and the best that the world has to give you.
♪Because if you tell me neither. ♪
♪ Right there, ♪
♪ I ain't going nowhere♪
- I never really felt like I couldn't be myself.
I have one of those more like unique coming out stories of
where everyone around me realized it before I did,
and so when I finally did come out,
it was definitely like earth shattering for me,
because I had this idea of who I was,
and I also had this idea,
I think of what queer people were as a group.
I was like, how can I fit into that?
I guess I had friends who were queer,
and I saw how hard life was for some of them in school,
and with our friend groups and things like that,
and I never experienced that.
And so it never really clicked for me that it was,
you know, really just about my attraction to another person.
And once I did realize it, it was pretty easy for me to
just keep being myself,
it kind of just became like another thing on
the list of who I am.
♪So, no valet, you don't need to♪
♪ Break my case, cause I can♪
♪Drive in the backseat♪
- I wanted to start making songs just
about girls that I liked,
and as a way for me to not have to
tell them plainly that I liked them,
and that was my mission initially,
and that's still my mission.
That's still what I'm doing.
But as it went on, the reality that
I'm grappling with is so easy to grapple with.
When I know that there are people who have similar
experiences to me, who say to me all the time,
"I don't see anybody like me."
Is a lot easier when I get messages.
Like one that I got,
like at 1:30 this morning
from a fan who just told me, they're like,
"Hey, I don't know if you're going to respond to this,
but I just want you to know that it makes my entire day to
see other sapphic artists making music like this.
Like, I feel very seen.
Thank you for seeing me.
Thank you for doing what you're doing.
I love your music."
That makes the reality a lot.
♪Nobody else♪