King Princess Chad Davis

The next generation of queer voices and visionaries are history in the making, changing the world in a way that's uniquely their own. For our Pride Issue, we're celebrating rising artists who are taking a stand while taking the stage. Check out our other cover stories, featuring Chika and Ian Alexander, here.

I’m emotional all the time. When I was younger, I was drawn to art that was almost upsetting; I’ve always used music as a tool to understand my own thoughts and feelings. I grew up in Williamsburg, New York with music all around me. My father owned Mission Sound, a Brooklyn-based recording studio, and I spent most of my time as a child around creative people. My upbringing was this mixture of going to school and then playing in the studio with artists and instruments and layers of sounds and lyrics. Even at a really young age, I started to understand myself through music; I listened to a lot of Queen, Lady Gaga, 70s rock, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Jack White. Although it was never forced upon me, music was always something that I internalized and understood about myself and my future: I am a musician. Now, at the age of 20, I think more than anything the way I process emotions drives the art I put out into the world.

My work is also definitely informed by my queerness. Not to generalize, but I feel like queer people are so good at making things; so many of us are so artistic and intuitive. While I was figuring out who I was and how I wanted to self-identify, I started watching anything and everything that was really gay: TV shows, films, shows online, all of it. There was one point when I stopped watching straight shows altogether because I didn't want to want to look at fucking straight people anymore. Today I gravitate towards art with real substance more than anything, but I’ll still check out anything queer, because it was so foundational to my sense of self.

I guess I really came out in middle school. I had my first queer kiss in the eigth grade. It was over the summer, and this girl I was friends with asked me directly if I wanted to kiss her at a party. Immediately after we kissed I was like, "Fuck. That was good. I’m gay.” Six years later, queer love continues to teach me more and more about who I am.