Justin Tranter, the vocalist for 2000s rock band Semi Precious Weapons, has opened up about their experience in the music industry and is calling out the homophobia they’ve faced over the years. Tranter — who identifies as non-binary and bisexual — began their career as a solo act in the early years of the millennium, later going on to found Semi Precious Weapons roughly two decades ago. For the past 10 years, Tranter has focused on songwriting, having written hit tunes for artists such as Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani, Linkin Park, Kelly Clarkson, Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber, Kesha, Imagine Dragons, Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, Demi Lovato, and Fall Out Boy.
Now, in an interview with PEOPLE about their work writing songs for the Paramount+ musical series, Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies, Tranter, 42, shared a little of what they’ve lived through while building a music career. “When it comes to pop music, it’s been 10 years of writing at least a song a day. In a pop song, you’re sitting in one feeling for three minutes. In a musical, it’s a scene. It just takes about 10 more steps,” Tranter told PEOPLE, exclusively. “So this process was so nice to feel like I’m learning again, and I’m pushing myself again. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.”
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Sharing how they’ve felt getting back into co-writing pop music after working on the new musical series, Trantor said, “The art form [of musicals] is so f—ing hard. But the last couple months I’ve been full-time back in pop music, and it’s nice. I’m like, ‘Yeah, tell me about your ex!’ and ‘Yeah, f—that ex-boyfriend!’ So that’s been beautiful, to make me appreciate pop music again.”
Trantor then went on to share about the discrimination they’ve faced, and revealed that the Halsey track ‘Bad at Love,’ which Trantor co-wrote, has a very personal meaning. “‘Bad at Love’ is really important to me, just because of the bisexual nature of the first verse being about guys she’s dated, the second verse being about girls she’s dated. It was, like, No. 2 on radio; I don’t think that’s ever happened before at that point. It was, at the time, the most openly queer thing to ever be on radio. So that makes me really proud.”
Continuing, Trantor said, “At least twice a week, I’m disrespected in a way that no one would ever imagine doing to a straight person who’s had my career. The word diva gets used a lot. And I’m like, you have to know that that’s homophobic. I mean, no one’s calling Max Martin a diva – not that I’m saying I’m anywhere near Max Martin’s level, by the way; he has about 20 years of success on me.”
The singer-songwriter added, “People are subconsciously disrespecting you because they just don’t even realize they don’t value you the same way as they do the other people, straight people. That’s the hardest to navigate, because you have to choose your battles.” Finally, they noted, “There’s legislation being passed now that is trying to criminalize queer people. Those are the real issues. We’ve got to keep fighting to make sure they keep losing.”
