Red Hot Announces TRAИƧA Compilation
TRAИƧA cover designed by V. Haddad, Rohan Rege, & Olive Panter
Today, Red Hot has announced a forthcoming compilation called TRAИƧA, which is billed as a “spiritual journey” celebrating trans people and trans voices. At over 3 1/2 hours of music, the comp is one of the most ambitious Red Hot projects yet—spanning eight chapters (a mirror of the original eight-stripe pride flag) and 46 songs. The album’s production began in 2021 and features over 100 artists, including Sade, Sam Smith, Hunter Schafer, Julien Baker, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, claire rousay, Clairo, Pharoah Sanders, Adrianne Lenker, André 3000 and many, many more.
The announcement arrives with a lead single, Wendy & Lisa of The Revolution covering Prince’s “I Would Die 4 U” alongside London singer Lauren Auder. “As most of us are, or will one day become, I am a huge Prince fan,” Auder says. “I listened to him exclusively for a whole year aged 13, his songs and his flare have become part of my musical DNA. When it came to covering songs I knew I wanted to challenge myself and take on one of his. The lyrics to ‘I Would Die 4 U’ feel so potent and open-ended, up for interpretation, but an unconditional message of holding and support shines through. Getting Wendy and Lisa who sang on the original to accompany me through this version has been one of the proudest moments in my musical career and am so glad to be sharing this via Red Hot.”
“It’s hard to impress us with a cover of a Prince song, especially a personal favorite of ours like, “I Would Die 4 U”, but Lauren’s voice and vibey sensibilities spoke to us,” Wendy & Lisa share. “We were happy to lend whatever we could to the project and to Lauren to make the song something special. We’d venture to say that Prince might’ve enjoyed some of the innovation of this version of the song.”
Together, Dust Reid and Massima Bell led production on TRAИƧA, having met at a video shoot in New York and immediately bonding over a shared love for Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s music. When SOPHIE passed away in January 2021, the producers locked into focus on TRAИƧA. “We started talking about all the gifts that trans artists have been giving to the world, and wanted to create a Red Hot project that centered and celebrated those gifts,” Reid says. “We hoped to create a narrative that positions trans and non-binary people as leaders in our society insofar as the deep inner work they do to affirm who they are in our current climate. We felt this is something everybody should do. Whether you identify as trans or non-binary or otherwise, if you took the time to explore your gender, get in touch with the feeling side of yourself, maybe we would have a future oriented around values of community, collaboration, care, and healing.”
“The stakes have never been higher,” notes Bell. “We’re seeing a rise in anti-trans hate and vitriol that is particularly being spewed in the United States. I am a trans person from Iowa, one of the states that signed into law a bill that prohibits access to gender-affirming care. It is clearly, materially, a terrifying time.”
TRAИƧA will release on November 22. Listen to “I Would Die 4 U” and check out the album artwork and tracklist below.
