Top 44 Justin Tranter Quotes

In the band Semi-Precious Weapons, I got to sing, wear, and say exactly what I wanted for ten years.

The only thing that’s serious to me about music is making sure marginalized people are included in the story.

I didn’t want a day job anymore, so I somehow made the jewelry line work. Now that I look back on it, it was, like, the dumbest idea ever. Everyone and their mother has a jewelry line, so in retrospect, maybe not the smartest fallback plan. But it ended up working out great!

I thought I was a superstar at 12.

I’m really proud of ‘Kissing Strangers.’

I wouldn’t want to write a song in a pair of sneakers. I think it would be a horrible song.

I want to make sure in every song we write that women are given power.

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.

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.

The beauty of letting marginalized people tell their own stories is it isn’t only the right thing to do socially, but it’s also the right thing to do financially. People love the truth, and people like to spend money on the truth.

The Knife can’t stop cloaking brilliant pop songs in voodoo jam blankets.

Young women should be telling stories of other young women. And if the superstar who is an amazing storyteller isn’t a writer, that’s totally fine, but we should get a young female writer in the room to work on that song with us.

All songwriters are known as ‘topliners’ because the vocal goes on top of the track.

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.

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!

A couple of days working with Joe Jonas, I thought, ‘This guy is a slayer of a singer; he’s really funny, goofy, and sexy. We need to write that.’ And that led to ‘Cake By The Ocean.’

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.’

When I saw Courtney Love in 1994, I knew what I wanted to do. The minute I saw a female-fronted rock n’ roll band, that changed my life.

The fans that fall in love with you at the show are always the most passionate.

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.

I know that it’s my queer perspective that’s helping people make songs that the world is listening to.

A little makeover never hurt nobody.

If you think of ‘Chandelier,’ Sia’s singing her heart out about all those moments before she got sober, and that’s one way to convey emotion and make people hear every word.

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.

I like to make glamorously informed songs for glamorously intelligent people.

This is the dream: to make money off of what you love.

I was borderline deluded to think something as outrageous as Semi Precious Weapons could have been mainstream.

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.

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.

I think that because we have these big female pop stars, people forget that women and marginalized people are so underrepresented in this business.

My artist career failed pretty miserably multiple times.

I just didn’t really relate to Kurt Cobain. There was nothing very glamorous about him.

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.

People are always quick to judge SPW because of the fact that I wear heels. For me, I just have no choice. This is just how I feel beautiful and how I feel awesome. I would just be so uncomfortable onstage if I was wearing something else.

I am a genderless sea creature who has been writing and studying music since I was 12.

I won‘t do press anymore unless I can talk about the homophobia and let queer people know our ideas are mainstream.

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.

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.

Most of my friends are my friends because they inspire me.

For the most part, it’s straight white men running these labels and publishing companies.

A man in high heels is the most dangerous thing in the world.

Pop just means popular – it can be any genre, and if it becomes popular, then it’s pop music.

I really loved Kygo and Selena Gomez’s ‘It Ain’t Me.’

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.