Hey fam, it's me, Amara. Welcome to the TransLash podcast, a show where we tell

trans stories to save trans lives. Well, music has always been a lifeline for our community,

a way for us to tell our stories, move our bodies, and imagine ourselves

into being. But all too often, the history of trans musicians and our contributions to culture

have been erased or overlooked. That's why documenting, preserving, and celebrating our sounds

matters now more than ever. For this episode, I wanted to speak with Ariel Lowe and

Royne McDonald, the co-founders of the Trans Music Archive. It's a groundbreaking project

dedicated to collecting and preserving music created by trans artists across genres and generations.

Together we'll explore why archiving our cultural history is essential, and what it means

to create a catalog where our voices can't be silenced.

How can we just show our best, you know, in the art that we're making and have that reach

everybody, you know, not just trans folks?

And just a heads up, we had some connectivity issues during our remote interview with Ariel

and Ruin, so you'll hear some brief glitches at the beginning of the conversation, but

it's worth hearing the entire thing. And with that, let's start out as always with some trans

joy. Vinyl is more than just a way to listen to music.

It's an archival process that ensures an artist's work can be listened to for generations to come.

And for their latest vinyl release, The TransMusic Archive has partnered with hip-hop artist,

censored dialogue, to make sure that her work becomes part of history.

Her second album, Pyrex House Cat, is brimming with

beat-fueled songs of joy, struggle, and resistance. Here's censor dialogue to tell us more

about the creative process behind a stellar new release. My debut album, Afro-Pessimus, was

...