Interview with Drag Artist, Saint Valentine on their Debut EP, 'Transjester'
- Isabella Basile
- 3 days ago
- 9 min read
Saint Valentine, a queer folk musician and drag artist from New Jersey uses music to connect with the queer community. In 2021, Valentine started to pursue Drag and launched their musical career in 2023 with their first song "The Beach House (An Omen)." Now, with their debut EP, Transjester, "a love letter to transness, queerness, girlhood, love, betrayal, self esteem and all of the sorrows and wonders that come with growing up in a body you don't relate to" you are taken on a ride through a fairytale forest, filled with amazing stories and sights to behold.
IB: Hi, Saint Valentine, we are so excited to chat with you today! SV: Hi! I’m so excited to talk to y’all, thank you for having me!
IB: How did musical theater and drag shape you and your musical career? Did drag come before or after you started writing music? SV: Well, I started in musical theatre, and that’s kind of a home base for everything I do. She’s my first love in terms of performing. It was her before it was anyone else, and at the end of the day, I think she’s still my greatest love and my deepest passion. But essentially, after COVID, I had stepped away from not only musical theatre but performing in general. I didn’t start again until a late-teen/early-adult life crisis that caused me to want to find my passion again. That was when I started doing drag, just lip syncing in gay bars as an eighteen-year-old. Eventually, my mom, who came to every single show, pointed out that I could probably be singing at these shows instead of lip syncing, and so eventually I started live singing whenever I could. Then I started playing my own music, and it all unraveled from there. But technically, I started writing music before I did drag, because I’ve been writing in general, music, poetry, and books since as early as I can remember. I especially got very into songwriting in my early teens, but I just didn’t believe in myself enough to do anything with it!
IB: What was the first show you ever performed at? SV: If we’re talking performing in general, it was my elementary school production of The Lion King Jr. in which I played a gazelle. If we’re talking drag, it was in April 2023 at a house show basement venue called Milky Mansion, and I did New Magic Wand by Tyler The Creator in drag king drag. If we’re talking music, it was as a preshow for a showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show with the shadow cast I was previously a member of. I have had a lot of firsts lol. Next to try is stand-up comedy once I get the courage.
IB: What was the hardest thing you faced as a queer artist over your musical career? SV: There’s been a lot, but nothing so crazy to write about in all honesty. Finding bandmates who get it is difficult because, especially in NJ, all the musicians in the scene are stinky basement dwellers who will tell you that they’re queer because one time they had a gay wet dream. Then they go and make fun of your lyrics because they just don’t get it. It’s also been hard because in my experience in the drag scene, there’s so much love and sisterhood and compassion and kindness. It always felt like a big sleepover with my girls when we would be backstage getting ready for a gig. Everyone always had a spare lash. Now I’m the only person showing up to gigs in a wig, and a lot of time it’s with people I wouldn’t even wanna call an acquaintance, let alone a sister/brother. that’s differently been a hard transition and anytime I get to play in queer spaces or on a bill with drag performers, I feel a little more at home.
IB: Your music is very folky. Have you always been drawn to folk, or have you explored other genres as well?
SV: Folk is just kind of my home base for now. When I started writing music, I wanted to be a folk artist because, sometimes, I think my soul would sound like a folk song. But in all honesty, my soul is also a heavy metal rock song and also a Stevie Nicks song, and a cutesy pop song, etc, etc. There’s many other genres and types of music that speak to me. And it’s been a little boring making only folk music. I’ll never stay in one spot, I don’t think. I have a lot planned for the future.
IB: What inspired the name Saint Valentine?
SV: It started as just my drag persona. I wanted to be a yandere horror drag character, like a demonic entity you summoned. And I’ve always loved red, white, and pink, and the aesthetic of Valentine’s Day. So I thought about a drag persona that was a demonic entity that’s cousin with Bloody Mary. You summon this being to love you, and it becomes whatever your deepest desires look like. It can be any gender and look any way as long as it’s what you want, it became very poetic. Valentine was bound to be in the name. I tried a few variations before I realized Saint Valentine was both not taken and also fucking brilliant. Someday, I plan to dive back into the lore of that persona that I made and create a self-titled "Saint Valentine" album. I’ve started writing it already!
IB: I noticed in the song “Transjester” there were quite a few religious words, such as “God” and “Lucifer” used, as well as your name having "Saint" in it. Is this common in your work? Did you grow up religious? How do the topics of queerness and religion mesh in your music?
SV: This is actually really interesting because no, I did not grow up religious at all. Both of my parents, especially my mother, were ex-religious atheists. My mother was an ex-evangelical, and she considered her time in that denomination to be very cult-like. So I grew up without religion entirely. I knew of the idea of God because my maternal grandmother was a huge influence in my childhood, but she was quite literally the only religious influence that I had. And I took more away from watching the Muppets with her than listening to any of the bible stories she spewed to me. God was kind of like Santa Claus, and I stopped believing in Santa when I was six, so I pretty much grew up not believing in God. Just rocking as a seven-year-old, thinking you live, you die, and then, who knows what. In some ways, I’m thankful because I don’t have religious trauma, but in other ways, I wish I had the childhood comfort of not fearing death because of heaven. I write about religion a lot, honestly, because of how insanely poetic and beautiful the story of Jesus Christ is, in concept. To me, all it is and has ever been is a story. Whether it’s fictional or real, it is a story, a piece of artwork. An old, ancient, epic (long poem) that was meant to teach lessons about kindness and love. I just want to add to the story. I want to make people see the messages of Christ from the perspective of someone who grew up without them. The idea of love thy neighbor, give to others, be kind to each other, and believe in something beyond yourself that believes in you. The religious imagery, the story of Lucifer, Dante’s Inferno, Paradiso, and Purgatorio. It is all so beautiful, and you can learn so much from it when you remove the thousands of years of colonization, hatred, etc. Maybe because I love art and I love history, and if you love those two things, Christ is everywhere for anyone with eyes to see him. I wouldn’t consider myself a Christian now. I wouldn’t consider myself a Pagan strictly either, even though I practice that lifestyle more than any. I just think all religion has something to take away from it, because all they are are stories and poetry, and metaphors.
IB: Where do you draw inspiration from while writing? Is there a specific topic you tend to write about?
SV: I think I write about love a lot. I think I draw from love a lot. If you really think about it, every song I have out as of the day I’m answering these questions (June 16th, 2025) is about some kind of devotion, love, and affection. I have a lot to say about love. I have a lot to say about sadness and loneliness. I think I pull inspiration from my deepest emotions and the ones that are hardest to describe, because maybe if I describe them, and someone listens to them, it’ll help me realize that surely I can’t be alone in this, right?
IB: Do you typically record by yourself or with other musicians, such as in Transjester?
SV: I’ve always recorded with other musicians. My two main collaborators are my amazing producer/co-composer, Shane Furst, and my amazing friend Luca Yanuzzi, who helps compose both guitar parts and backing vocals for my songs. I’ve worked with a good handful of other studio musicians, though. I am pretty open when it comes to instrumentals as long as it fits my vision, which Luca and Shane have always been able to help me with. I usually like to keep my vocal melodies the same because I write for my own voice. The only thing I never let anyone else touch are my lyrics. I am not THAT a good musician, but DAMN if I am not a great writer. It is every part of who I am. My music is just the plate that the meat of my lyrics sits on.
IB: What song of yours are you the most proud of, and why?
SV: Of the ones that are out, I am very proud of my first song “The Beach House (An Omen)” because it was my first song and damn it is good for a first song. I can see my own mistakes on it, so I’m usually very hard on myself, and I learned a lot about how I wanted to do this whole music thing after that song was released. But when I look at it from an outside view, wow, is it a good song for an 18/19 year old who is entirely self-funded and has never done this before.
IB: If you could go back and change something you did within your music career, what would that be, if anything?
SV: Start. Earlier. Start. Earlier. Start. When I started seriously writing music at 13. Post covers on YouTube, post my stupid ukulele and keyboard songs about breakups I’ve never gone through on YouTube. I wish I had started earlier. I wish I had the courage. But everything happens for a reason, and “Letter to a Friend” wouldn’t be the song it is today if I had started earlier, because I would’ve put it out at 14 and it wouldn’t have had time to cook in my brain and gain the awesome outro it has now. But god, I wish I had believed in myself earlier.
IB: If you could work with any artist, living or dead, who would you choose to work with?
SV: David Bowie. No hesitation on that one. Or maybe Bach. Just for shits.
IB: Do you believe living in New Jersey has helped foster your artistry and creativity?
SV: Dude, I love it here. I love everything about Jersey, and I love having grown up here. I think being from Jersey is a huge part of who I am and who I am proud to be. And my music is everything about who I am and who I am proud to be. So in that way, I guess it has.
IB: What is one song you wish Saint Valentine wrote?
SV: “And I Love You So” by Don McLean. Specifically, the lyric: “The book of life is brief. But once a page is read, all but love is dead. That is my belief.” It makes me tear up thinking about it. Also the magic shop from the original muppets, especially the end part where kermit and the crew sing “life’s like a movie write your own ending keep believing keep pretending we’ve done just what we’ve set out to do. Thanks to the lovers, the dreamers, and you.” Jim Henson, the man you were. Again, cry every time, truly. Can’t even say that verse without getting misty, and my partner makes fun of me for it.
IB: What can we expect to see in the future from Saint Valentine?
SV: I’ve touched on it a little, but someday I will put out a self-titled album. Before that, though, I plan on creating another story-driven EP like Transjester, but this time about a witch. I’m doing research in Salem, MA, as I write this! And before that, even, I have one more song from the EP to release, and that song is called Fallen. Then, after that, I’d like to do a Transjester Deluxe with additional songs and stripped-down, acoustic versions. I have a lot of plans and no money to commit to them, so hang on for the ride, folks.
IB: Thank you for your time, it was so great learning about you and your music!
SV: Thank you so much! It was so fun thinking about these questions. These were great. Thank you for having me again!
Stream "Transjester" below!
Credits:
Vocals: Saint Valentine
Co-composer and Producer: Shane Furst
Co-composer, Backing Vocals, Instrumentals: Luca Yannuzzi
