What would you say your upcoming music grapples with the most? In that album you talked a great deal about gender dysphoria and your experience as a trans woman and coming out. Even the album I’m working on now is a little more ambient. I mean, I think it’s the funnest song I’ve put out. How does this song differ from your last album, LilyAnna, from 2018? Sometimes it’ll be following a little lyric idea, sometimes it’s a little riff, or some chords, whatever it is just kinda gets started and the inspiration kinda just takes over. No, it’s usually following inspiration and however that comes. So you don’t really have an order of operations? When other people don’t quite get what you’re doing and they’re like, "That’s dangerous, you shouldn’t do that." And you’re like, "Yeah, but like, I love it, I wanna live how I wanna live, dude! Lets go!" You’re willing to take the risk because you’re passionate about it. This was kind of one of the B sides, but the song’s about just doing what you love and what you’re passionate about even if it’s like… Like we were talking about, if you love surfing, even though there are sharks in the water, you’re still gonna go surfing ‘cause you love it. We were working on a bunch of stuff for Arly’s record. We were writing it for this friend of mine, Arly, it was me, him, and my other friend Evan. I just liked the drums and like one of the guitars. And then kind of just ditched the entire song.
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Well, part of the music came from this thing I made a while ago, like maybe ten years ago. Yeah, I bet! Where did the inspiration come from for this song? I just woke up, I was in Tahoe, so it feels really good to just wake up in my own bed. I am in Los Angeles, and I’m good, and I’m sleepy. And we're glad she did.Ĭongrats on your new single, “Sharkbait”! She said the urge to smoke and her OCD tendencies went away within a week after coming out to those closest to her.Geiger began to rise as a musician at the young age of 18 or 19, followed by a long break from performing her own music during which she focused on honing her production and songwriting skills. Her songwriting and production style has attracted many collaborators such as Shawn Mendes, P!nk, Leon Bridges, Maroon 5, Niall Horan, Christina Aguilera, DJ Snake and DNCE. She always wrote for herself on the side, and eventually felt it was time again to share her work. "Painting my nails was one of the things I liked to do, and I was so terrified of like ever letting anybody see my nails painted … She was like 'Well who cares? Just paint your nails.' So I started just painting my nails and going out," Geiger said. There had been moments when she did express her femininity on the advice on an ex-girlfriend. "When I was growing up, I didn't know of anybody who was trans … there was always this like shame, anxiety thing around all of that, even if I wasn't actively like expressing it," Geiger said. It was there she confronted her truth - that she is transgender. Geiger went to treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder. And it would just be like from the time I woke up 'til the time I went to bed," she said. But while Geiger gained a reputation as a studio virtuoso, she also developed anxiety and a dependence on cigarettes and marijuana. She established a career as one of the most sought-after songwriters in the industry, writing for artists like One Direction and James Blunt. All the sudden there's this image of you and you're like, hold on, wait," Geiger said.Īt 21, Geiger stepped away from teen stardom. "You know a lot of times I'd be styled and like wearing a t-shirt I wouldn't ever wear. Geiger hit full-blown teen heartthrob status in the mid-2000s with the single "For You I Will." But she started feeling like a pop star product and had long struggled with her gender identity. Growing up in Rochester, New York, Geiger was drawn to music at a young age, learning guitar and piano, writing songs with friends, and recording demos in the basement. "He was just super supportive … I felt like accepted and loved," Geiger said.
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While working with Mendes on this album in 2017, Geiger decided she was ready to come out publicly as transgender.