Even trying to raise the issue has been a challenge. “In New York, there’s just so much more conversation and language around this kind of thing,” he observes. GHE20G0TH1K, for instance, was just as interested in making you dance as it was in facilitating conversations about the necessity of safe spaces for queer people of color who liked dance music. “Whereas here, in Berlin, if you just mention the ratio of Black artists that exist in techno or [bring up] the erasure that’s been happening, people are a lot more… not necessarily combative, but they just don’t want to speak about it because it makes them uncomfortable.” Because most Berlin residents are white, Glasgow explains, “they’re used to just existing and operating from a space of extreme comfortability.”
“For us to make strides in changing [the erasure in techno], we just have to have that sometimes uncomfortable conversation,” he continues. “I’m fine having that conversation. I’ve been an introverted person for a long time, but especially after moving here and finding my voice, you can’t really shut me up.”
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, however, the artist has been forced to shut up — or at least slow down. Though it has put a halt on his primary revenue streams, Glasgow views the quarantine as “a blessing in disguise,” artistically speaking — especially after the non-stop touring of 2019, which prevented him from being able to create new work.
In fact, it was during this period of stillness that XL approached him about recording the four-track EP he’s now unleashing on the world. Before that, Glasgow had been mapping out his debut album in a process he cheekily describes as “heady and more intellectual.” During that period of creative exploration, he was spending time “studying pop music to figure out what the formula and structure of a pop song is.”
After turning in Dedicated 2 Disrespect, LSDXOXO immediately returned to that full-length project — but don’t think for a second that this latest EP will offer any hints about his next direction. While the celebratory filth of D2D stemmed from a “nursery rhyme approach to writing,” Glasgow assures me that the songs on his forthcoming debut album are “actually quite personal.” Lyrically, he compares the tracks to the poetry he writes in private. (One, about “love [that] has scarred you beyond repair,” can be found on a now-sold out t-shirt from his merch store.) “Everything comes from my heart a bit more,” he reveals. “Everything’s going to be a bit closer to the poetry side of things than to ‘Sick Bitch.’”
With the addition of his own vocals in his new music, Glasgow has been considering what his post-quarantine act can look like beyond “just being behind the decks as a DJ.” He’s been rehearsing with a live band (a bassist and a drummer), developing more stage-ready versions of his songs, and even working on choreography.
Throughout our conversation, Glasgow regularly returns to his former shyness, noting that he was much too reserved when he was younger to ever even imagine himself pursuing these latest ventures. “The thought of it scared the hell out of me,” he admits. But that was then. This is now.
And now? Well, as he warns, “I’m fully going to give you a pop star moment.”
Dedicated 2 Disrespect is out now via XL Recordings.
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