Definitely, I definitely do. There are other performers in the community who do other art forms, who I would consider more a “queer artist” than just a “drag queen.” For example, Violet Chachki: she knows her burlesque and her perception of gender is so blurred that I can't really just say "drag queen," so I feel more comfortable saying queer artist. Or someone like Sasha Velour, who curates these big shows and spaces for queer people — I would never want to reduce titling her as just a drag queen. Even someone like Bianca Del Rio, who's traveling the world doing comedy, she's doing more than just being a drag queen. These are people who are taking their talents and showing them through drag in the media.

For me, all this says that drag queens can do a variety of things. Historically, I think about Miss Flawless Sabrina, or Jose Sarria, or Divine, or the whole lineage of queens who record their own music. So I’m interested in knowing why, for you, this is less a conversation that says “drag queens” can do a lot of things, and more “drag is a very specific art form."

My decision to release the phrase “drag queen” has less to do with opinions in the mainstream media and more to do with my personal decision as a queer person. When I started making music, I had a lot of gender identity issues through my writing, and I thought it would be more comfortable for me to say I'm a queer artist who puts on hair and makeup, and if people want to look at it as drag, they can. I don't consider myself to be a drag queen for the sake of not confusing my own identity.

I do think there is this stigma now with mainstream drag: We have RuPaul's Drag Race, which has really brought these queens onto a huge platform. It's something that I've spoken about before, but I feel like there’s such a stigma when you have queens who are not doing something funny. That’s something that is shown even on Drag Race — usually the funniest girls progress the easiest! The funniest girls become very popular: Bianca Del Rio, Trixie Mattel, Katya. Comedy seems to be an easy — not easy 'cause not everyone is funny, and not everyone can do good comedy — but it's more approachable for the mainstream media.

Earlier you were talking about your gender identity and your beginning to work through that with your music. Are you still doing that work, or did you arrive at a specific point?

When I was 18, I actually lived as a trans woman for almost a year. I thought I was trans, and then I learned through the education of the queer community about being non-binary, genderqueer, and all these different [identities]. I realized that I do feel like a woman, but I feel comfortable in my body. I don't feel the need to change anything. I don't feel the need to appear more feminine to society's standards.

And then I kind of learned that I felt comfortable being either male- or female-presenting. And when I was writing music, I started having trouble because I was writing so much from what I thought was my male-presenting part that I felt like, oh my God, am I ridding my body and my soul of this feminine energy?

It put me into this weird state of mind where eventually, I was like, okay I have to get it together. I think the one thing that will help me do this is if I stop referring to Jay and Aja as two different people, and just accept and realize that the whole time this [hasn’t been] a character — it's really just me in makeup. It's me, it's just an extension of my gender identity, and it's my expression.