Fresh Finds is Teen Vogue's new franchise dedicated to highlighting the badass female-identifying artists, musicians, and filmmakers you need to know. <\/p>\n
Everything Elysia Crampton does makes you do a double take. One of the rare musicians who is just as adept at blending samples as she is at disseminating scholarly rhetoric, Elysia's experimental compositions which use of everything from ominous drones to slowed-down Shakira samples are always nuanced, layered, and prone to inducing conversation. That said, this all makes sense, seeing as how she's all about discourse as \"one of the leaders of a revolution happening in electronic music\" right now. <\/p>\n
Born in Riverside, California, Elysia still maintains a strong connection to her indigenous Aymara roots. As such, identity politics is a big talking point for her, as is modern colonialism and the subjugation of Native Americans. However, that's not the only issue that's near and dear to her. As a transwoman of color, Elysia is also a vocal proponent for education as a means of minimizing violence against gender-nonconforming or trans bodies. So, on the heels of her new Vinyl Factory project, Teen Vogue sat down with her to talk about everything from the politicization of electronic music to how privilege still exists within so-called progressive spaces. <\/p>\n
TV: So you're based in Sacramento now right? That sounds quiet. <\/p>\n
Elysia Crampton: Yeah, but [I'm actually nearer to Reno, Nevada]. I just love it up there. It's only been my home for short of two years now. But that's why I'm trying to call it my home, because right now I am fortunate to have a relationship with my family that I didn't before... It's just such a privilege, especially with my father, I didn't think I would have a relationship in my adult life again with him, and so certain things changed and that opened up and it's been incredibly healing. <\/p>\n
TV: That's awesome. So I'm just kind of curious. It's been a big time for political activation and embracing identity politics within music, especially electronic music. What are your thoughts on that? <\/p>\n
EC: A lot has changed even in just the past three years...I think it's from a lot of work, I think it's out of a larger political movement in the US that has been building. [It's something] that isn't just out of artists, it's from a lot of activists and underground work...I think it's definitely from the effort of those hardworking people that changes the parameters of our everyday, and what's possible on a everyday level...People who wouldn't have hired us before, are hiring us now, and our audience tends to grow and change, too. <\/p>\n
TV: In terms of \"inclusion\" though, there's been some criticism about how it's just a buzzword. Like, we're still not addressing things like sexual harassment in our communities and there's still a lot of transphobia and homophobia even within so-called \"progressive\" spaces. What do you think about that? <\/p>\n
EC: I think for people who have had the privilege of not having to think about some of these issues, and the kind of language used, I think that is opening up. It's baby steps for some people and then sometimes they just don't know how to do it. I experience real violence all the time in the field of work that I do. Direct violence, like going through border checkpoints, being physically, sexually assaulted by these systems that don't even [account] for how to properly confront a gender-nonconforming or a trans body. But I think a lot of the violence occurs from people's lack of education, and again I don't want to make it an issue of education. Education only goes so far, it doesn't really incentivize people to treat other people a certain way. But it does allow for those interactions to happen without the reproduction of that violence. <\/p>\n
I think a lot of the times, people don't know any better, especially, speaking as a trans person, you watch any kind of movie, the trans figure is still the joke...even now. Someone assigned male at birth, who's in a feminine role, or wearing so-called women's clothing, that's still humorous, that's still a joke. Being gay, or even just gayness, is still viewed like a joke. I think trying to speak to someone with dignity ... It's hard in a whole field, a whole system that default doesn't offer that. <\/p>\n
TV: Right. It's still slowly changing but we're definitely not there. <\/p>\n
EC: Yeah. It is hard because people like me who are very uneducated and really bad with language are forced to become educators, and also forced to be patient. But that helps me grow, too. I'm willing to be that person. Obviously I can't always be that patient or understanding or feel like I have to be, but I do notice it makes a lot of change when both parties are willing to step up. <\/p>\n
TV: I guess I'm also kind of curious, because a lot of, there's also been obviously a lot of pushback with the politicization of electronic music and you also have a lot of people being like \"Why are we talking about this? It's just a beat or a bassline?\" <\/p>\n
EC: Oh my god, yes, and that's changed so much, even just within the last five years. I think it's because it used to be so cool to act apolitical. Because [you had] these bands with all this white privilege, with all the privilege to be able to act apolitical and act like [nothing matters]. Again that changes and that's great to see, because when that changes, a whole new field of coordinates opens up and whole new set of possibilities can emerge out of that. I can't even predict what that is. To think that people on any sort of mainstream platform could address something like abolition of the prison system and the police is incredible to me. It makes me optimistic. <\/p>\n
That's why I think specifically Native American experience comes in handy, because again in the US even with these talks about police brutality, about the police state, about politics in general it gets very, it comes out as a very binary logic. There's a black and white, and those are the real, the two main characters in opposition of each other... and all these other groups of people are just pushed onto that side or that side, and then those who are able to whitewash themselves, they go to the other side somehow. <\/p>\n
Speaking from a Native American perspective, it really helps us in this moment, because so much of the conversation still don't include that recognition that we are on stolen land, that this is a colonial state. It wasn't a colonial area that we merged out of and away from. Those are the coordinates that formed all the possibility of what we experience now, and I hope to see that emerging more in so-called political conversations. I think just recognizing that allows new things to emerge. <\/p>\n
I think that's a difficult thing to confront, I think some people, if they feel anything, maybe they feel guilty, \"What am I supposed to do? This is something that happened a long time ago, yet I'm benefiting from this violence that is still ongoing\". <\/p>\n
TV: Right. But there's still a lot of stuff that those said people can do, like be active and being an ally . <\/p>\n
EC: Being an ally. Listening. <\/p>\n
TV: Okay, so, a couple of final questions. If you were 15 again, what would you tell yourself? Or is there any advice you'd impart on a young person who's questioning their gender or sexuality? <\/p>\n
EC: I don't know, that's so hard because I was always trans, and I always navigated my life that way. The world saw me as gender-nonconforming, even when I didn't see myself that way or I thought I was passing. There's so much internalized policing that I had to confront that just had to be sussed out and confronted in a time span. It couldn't just happen in this rapid transformative moment, there had to be a lot of healing, and it was something that was done in a society where we're taught to view everything on such an individualistic level. Especially justice, in the field of rights, justice is something we're taught to see as enunciated on a personal level. This is how I see my truth, my reality, when it's really something more in relation than that. We do it with our families, with our friends, with our what our communities allow us to communicate, and with the support of them or with the lack of support from them. It's always in relation to that, though. <\/p>\n
I would say be forgiving with yourself, and know that sometimes things just are a process of taking time, and know that it's something that is coordinated, that coming into oneself is something that isn't coordinated in isolation; it's coordinated with the people around you. As difficult as that is in a society that can be very unwelcoming and very brutal, it's about finding those people that you can connect with, and that allow you to explore those things about yourself. <\/p>\n
Related: How to Be a Better Ally <\/p>\n
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The rest is here: <\/p>\n
Meet Elysia Crampton, the Producer at the Forefront of Political Electronic Music - TeenVogue.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fresh Finds is Teen Vogue's new franchise dedicated to highlighting the badass female-identifying artists, musicians, and filmmakers you need to know. Everything Elysia Crampton does makes you do a double take. One of the rare musicians who is just as adept at blending samples as she is at disseminating scholarly rhetoric, Elysia's experimental compositions which use of everything from ominous drones to slowed-down Shakira samples are always nuanced, layered, and prone to inducing conversation. Continue reading