Drag star, TV personality and musician Sharon Needles is plunging into Philadelphia as part of her national tour in support of her latest album, “Taxidermy,” which was released this past fall.
Needles (the alter ego of Aaron Coady) is probably best known for winning season four of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” where her outrageous and often macabre styles and sense of humor made her a fan favorite. She’s certainly not the first drag queen to parlay her visibility from the show into a career in music but, sonically, Needles and her new album stand out by injecting (no pun intended) a wider range of influences into the club-oriented, electronic dance music (EDM) formula.
“I knew I wanted it bare-bones and its structure to be in EDM and electronica, in a compromise with the industry and where I’m performing and who I’m performing for,” she said. “But I didn’t grow up on that; I grew up on a lot of industrial, punk rock, glam rock, surf rock and dark EDM. I definitely used sprinkles of nostalgia and other styles of music, but the bones are always in an EDM format. For a drag artist, it’s pretty moody. I was listening to a lot of Brian Eno, Throbbing Gristle and my old high-school Marilyn Manson albums. Everything comes back around. I wanted this record to have a little more despair because I was feeling the star of temporary reality-TV fame coming to an end and I was going through a public breakup and I lost a shitload of money. So the album is definitely moodier.”
Needles said she prefers to perform with a live band backing her but sometimes logistical and financial constraints prevent her from doing so.
“Some clubs don’t care,” she said. “They want the thing from the TV on the stage to sing a couple songs and then have it bring 300 patrons. Then they are fine and money to me, money to them. Other venues put a little more investment into the artistic intention of the performance. I write my songs in a tempo very similar to the Sex Pistols. That allows songs to be performed electronically or with my band. Unfortunately, due to what it costs to get bands and myself paid and housed, it has made it so that I don’t get to use my live band as much as I would like to.”
With one foot in the drag world and another in the world of music, Needles said the line between the two is becoming less and less defined.
“Drag at this point in the game is merely a visual,” she said. “I spend so much time in her that the forces have kind of combined. I never write songs in the headspace of Sharon. They’re always written in my own personal headspace. That is why ‘Taxidermy’ is so raw and honest and not vain. The words ‘her’ or ‘she’ are never used. And I never speak as other people as ‘him’ or ‘he.’ I try to keep it gender-neutral. ‘Taxidermy’ was primarily written by me as opposed to ‘PG-13,’ which was written by this dead, funny Elvira-like character.”
Needles said that her unconventional style of drag has been both an advantage and a disadvantage, both on the show and off.
“I know exactly why I was a success story on my season on ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race,’” she said. “I attributed a lot of it to Lady Gaga’s success in 2010. I filmed ‘Drag Race’ in 2011 and we were on this cultural verge of super acceptance, high theatrics, outlandish visuals and pure honesty. I got on ‘Drag Race’ at the right time because that was synonymous with the way that I conduct my art and what I do. Would I win today? No. That ship has sailed and we focus on being politically correct and keyboard terrorists and that is unfortunate. It helped me because the planets aligned for me to be successful that year. It hinders me now because I’ve become a niche market. In some markets, I’m perceived as the queen of Halloween, but that is fine because when it comes to fans, it’s quality over quantity. I’d rather be understood by a few than universally accepted because that would mean I was Taylor Swift or One Direction and that is just not possible for me.”
Needles, an Iowa native who currently calls Pittsburgh home, said she could probably run in the same circles as her “Drag Race” peers in more happening cities, but she prefers living in a more down-to-earth city.
“I’m not a New York girl,” she said. “I’m not an L.A. chick. After ‘Drag Race,’ we go from hobby queens to entrepreneurs and we have the financial opportunities to move wherever we want. It’s common for ‘Drag Race’ alumni to flock to these hotbeds of talent but I couldn’t do it. I’m just Pittsburgh. I’m dirty, I’m dusty, I’m dilapidated and I also like focusing on a city that doesn’t get much attention. I was really inspired by John Waters’ dedication to Baltimore. I just decided to stay in Pittsburgh. No one else would have me anyway. In L.A., I’m a two. In Pittsburgh, I’m a 10.”
Needles added that being on the fringes of drag fame suits her just fine.
“The great thing about being Sharon is that I never set any form of precedent on myself,” she said. “I was typecast as an Elvira with a dick but that never held me down. I’ve dabbled in so many different things, from modeling to music and theater. All Sharon Needles really is is a Rolodex of pop culture. I‘ve worked with icons like Amanda Lepore and [Wayne] Jayne County to singing at Lou Reed’s tribute show. I’ve performed in techno clubs in the UK, but I’ve also done South By Southwest. My true fans know how versatile I try to create my art. For everyone else who is just a ‘Drag Race’ fan, when they come to my show they get an extra Halloween.”
Sharon Needles performs 8 p.m. Feb. 6 at Kung Fu Necktie, 1250 N. Front St. For more information or tickets, call 215-291-4919 or visit www.sharonneedles.com.