Laura Jane Grace found punk rock in junior high school and never looked back. Music became her life and her outlet for processing depression, drug use, trouble with the law, and gender dysphoria. In 1997, Grace formed Against Me!, dropped out of high school, and DIY’d the band’s popularity over the next decade, reaching mainstream success when its 2017 release New Wave was chosen by Spin magazine as the Album of the Year.
Grace came out publicly as a transgender woman in 2012 in a Rolling Stone interview, and in 2016, she published Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout. The lead singer, songwriter, and activist spoke to us via email about her career ahead of her show at The Jefferson Theater on September 13.
C-VILLE: How do you approach creating music that is both politically active and making change?
LJG: Well, the personal is political right? I just write about whatever I’m living and try to dissect and observe the politics that are naturally present.
What current societal issues are you interested in exploring and highlighting in your music right now?
Absurdity and profanity and surrealism as an act of protest and means for survival in a world gone mad.
How does it feel to be performing in a new band with your wife, Paris Campbell Grace, as a vocalist?
It’s been a lot of fun and also challenging. It’s amazing being able to share the most important parts of your life with the person you love most, but also bands are always gonna be bands, and the semi-comical and cliché stresses of group collaboration that go along with being in a band with other people will always be there. Bands are bands are bands.
How has your identity, and heightened visibility, as one of the first openly trans punk rock musicians impacted your artistry and experience in the music industry?
Well, being open has allowed me to be who I am. Being honest with yourself and being honest with your audience is integral to being an artist. I don’t think I’d even be alive if I hadn’t come out.
What’s the most exciting part of touring?
Every day is an adventure with a goal set to achieve, play the show—even if it’s a bad show, you get the show done, you did something, and you get another shot at it all again tomorrow. I like the team spirit, too—being a part of something, working together with other people face-to-face.
What’s the least exciting part of touring?
Answering emails.
What would fans be surprised to learn about you at this stage in your career?
I’m really into personal fitness. I love running and working out and feeling good in my body. I have a black card membership to Planet Fitness and go all the time. Hot Yoga classes, the whole nine. I take it seriously, though I do still tend to eat a bunch of garbage. Ha!