Nat Puff, known by industry name Left at London, returns with her newest release Transgender Street Legend Vol. 2. COLLiDE caught up with the indie pop artist to talk about her latests projects! Read the interview below:
How was the process of writing and creating Transgender Street Legend Vol. 2 different than with your previous album Transgender Street Legend vol. 1?
I felt TSLv2 was a lot more collaborative. With the first one, I feel like I was just sort of f***ing around on my own and just, like, hoping people would help me, like getting an Open Mike Eagle verse, getting June and Lillian to mix and master.
The second one was much more collaborative. I feel like I haven’t really been a collaborative person before this record and I feel like it shows my growth as an artist—that I was able to not only collaborate with all these people, but on a really, really solid project. I’m really happy with it and I’m really proud of it in a way, at a level that TSLv1 was very close to reaching, but it hadn’t reached.
Which tracks stand out the most to you and why?
The reason why “Safety First” was such an important single to me, was so important to be a single was because I feel like it showed off a range of emotions and a mix of emotions that I’ve never really done so in-depth before. And I’m really, really proud of myself for being able to make that song a reality, just because of its emotional range and emotional dynamics.
So I feel like “Safety First” is the stand out track for me.
Your project “Jenny Durkan, Resign in Disgrace” was released around the time national stories were being released about Seattle’s Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP). Were you able to visit CHOP at all? How has the combined pandemic/uprising/recession informed your music?
I only drove past it, I wasn’t really feeling comfortable with being outdoors yet. I’m still sort of in my quarantine hole, I’ve rarely left the house except for groceries or driving my roommate to work.
So I wasn’t able to visit as much as I wanted to, but I did drive past it and it was very lovely.
Who are some of your musical influences?
Lately I’ve just been letting whatever inspire me.
Like, on the drive back home today I listened to “XS” by Rina Sawayama, “Graceland Too” by Phoebe Bridgers and then “It Makes Me Ill” by *NSYNC in rapid succession. I feel like that sort of describes my overall taste and my overall influence.
Whatever I hear becomes an influence. I’m influenced by everything and anything that appears in my eyesight. I feel like the influence that other people have given me is mostly scattered, and so vast and wide that there’s no way to pin it down to just two, three people.
I used to be able to say, like, Frank Ocean, Kanye West but I feel like I’ve gotten more influence since then; from just like random artists and random people, especially my friends. Having so many musical friends, like in From the Heart which is a music collective that I’m a part of.
If you could give any advice to those who listen to your music, what advice would you give them?
Stop ordering takeout so much and please just learn to cook.
Stream Transgender Street Legend vol. 2 now:
Photo by: West Smith
