Top 92 Quotes & Sayings by Justin Tranter
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American musician Justin Tranter.
Last updated on April 14, 2025.
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.
Beyonce, Stevie Nicks, Ani DiFranco, Cardi B - Women tell awesome stories.
I'm not famous. I work with famous people.
I'm so connected to the community that I was lucky enough to be born into.
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.
The Knife can't stop cloaking brilliant pop songs in voodoo jam blankets.
The larger streaming grows, the less money there will be to get the music out there, which, to me, is the sad part.
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.
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 won't do press anymore unless I can talk about the homophobia and let queer people know our ideas are mainstream.
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 really want queer kids to know that our experience is universal.
Gaga the person is much like Gaga the celebrity. She is very sweet, loyal, and funny with her fans, and she is very sweet, loyal, and funny with her friends. On stage, she is over-the-top, ridiculous, dirty, and genuine on stage, and she is very over-the-top, ridiculous, dirty, and genuine with her friends.
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.
I think that because we have these big female pop stars, people forget that women and marginalized people are so underrepresented in this business.
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 loved Kygo and Selena Gomez's 'It Ain't Me.'
For me, as a performer or a songwriter, Stevie Nicks is always a huge inspiration as well as Iggy Pop.
I am a genderless sea creature who has been writing and studying music since I was 12.
This is the dream: to make money off of what you love.
All songwriters are known as 'topliners' because the vocal goes on top of the track.
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.
A little makeover never hurt nobody.
I like to make glamorously informed songs for glamorously intelligent people.
Good art should be polarizing.
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.
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 myself. I love my friends.
For the most part, it's straight white men running these labels and publishing companies.
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.
I know that it's my queer perspective that's helping people make songs that the world is listening to.
Obviously, Gaga's one of the greatest music visionaries of our time, and Beyonce is one of the greatest visions of our time. She is a music visionary, too.
I just want to make music that people hear, and I'm not ashamed of that.
Even though L.A. can be kind of tacky, when a city's big draws are The Roxy and the Viper Room, you know its pretty amazing.
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'm using the success I've had to help other people shine.
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.
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.
My fashion is inspired by Tina Turner and Sharon Stone.
In the band Semi-Precious Weapons, I got to sing, wear, and say exactly what I wanted for ten years.
We really like L.A. because it really likes rock and roll.
'World Is Our Playground' is a big room banger that makes you wanna check into a hostel and call Mike Taylor.
You can tell if something feels special. But there are so many moving parts involved in making the song a hit. The radio has to deliver, the management has to deliver in terms of booking the right promotions... just being a good song isn't enough.
When we were starting out as a band in New York, we played a concert at a small club early on and asked Lady Gaga to open for us. We were big fans, and she had the same kind of approach to music as we did: not taking everything so seriously and just having fun.
When you are born gay, you are born into a rich culture of politics, music, and art, but you are also a minority in your own home.
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.
Pop just means popular - it can be any genre, and if it becomes popular, then it's pop music.
I love songs, Patty Larkin, Sharon Stone, Mae West, and Marilyn Monroe.
Great music is just very clear. Sonically and lyrically, you understand the point of view, you understand the melodies, you understand the vibe, and you understand the lyric pretty damn quickly. To me, that doesn't make it 'less than' - it makes it 'more than.'
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.
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 want to make sure in every song we write that women are given power.
I'm a walking political statement.
A man in high heels is the most dangerous thing in the world.
I don't like labels.
My mom has a big ol' crush on Arne Duncan, so I hear about and see pics of him all the time. I think he could look great in heels!
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 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.
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