PopHorror Let's Get Scared
In the pop-centric world of drag, Discord Addams is carving her own emo-fueled lane. Trading Britney Spears for Blink-182 and lip syncs for live vocals, her shows feel more like concert experiences than drag performances. And that’s exactly her goal — to be taken seriously as a musical artist who also happens to do drag…not the other way around.
On Season 18 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Discord placed sixth after quite the impressive run. While edgy queens aren’t new to Drag Race [see our interview with Season 17’s Lydia B Kollins], Discord merged all the passions of her youth — punk anthems, horror and political commentary — to bring something truly unique to the series. From her risky live talent show performance, to her eye-grabbing DIY garments, to her iconically bent back runway walk, Discord went against the grain week after week.
Though the other queens didn’t exactly get her brand of drag, even calling her “delusional” whenever she believed a challenge went well for her, Discord didn’t care in the slightest. She stayed true to herself and, thanks to that authenticity, now has dedicated fans around the globe who are thrilled to scream-sing “All the Small Things” right along with her.
PopHorror recently caught up with Discord to discuss her early punk/Warped Tour roots and how they influenced her drag persona, the rockstar dream that turned into a reality and what’s next post-Drag Race — including an official Emo Fest tour that’s bringing drag and pop punk to audiences across the US.
PopHorror: To start, you’ve been incredibly busy with live shows, even performing a bunch of sold out ones in the UK — what was that experience like?
Discord Addams: Yes! I was in the UK for a week and tomorrow, I leave again for Alabama and Colorado. It’s non-stop traveling. But the UK was so cool. Cold, but so cool. And the shows were packed wall to wall.
PopHorror: That’s amazing! I’d love to explore the beginning of Discord. You brought such a unique thing to the show that we’ve never seen before — a merge of horror, punk rock and emo. All of my favorite things! As soon as you came out, I was like, “That one. Rooting for her.”
Discord Addams: Thank you! I feel like RuPaul has had a lot of girls who are, like, cosplaying punk, but none who actually are.
PopHorror: Tell me how you got into punk and horror — does that date back to childhood or did it come later in life?
Discord Addams: Me and my mom always watched horror movies growing up and then ever since I was 13, 14, 15, I discovered Green Day, Rancid and the Sex Pistols. So it’s just kind of been built into me forever, on top of having an annoying sense of justice. I’ve always been shouting about how fucked up the world is. I even remember in eighth grade — I shouldn’t even have a huge sense of politics in the eighth grade — but we were going on our Washington, DC trip and I was like, “I’m going to wear this anti-flag shirt.” I felt so cool.
PopHorror: Green Day has also been one of my favorites since I was around 12. What’s your top album?
Discord Addams: Oh, it’s American Idiot [our 20th anniversary story], for sure. That’s what definitely was my deep dive into it all.
PopHorror: And you mentioned years of loving horror movies. What are some of your favorites?
Discord Addams: I don’t know if Mother counts as a horror movie. I feel like that one’s on the verge of what people consider a scary movie, but that’s my favorite movie of all time. And then I always loved the first Scream, I loved the first Nightmare on Elm Street movie. Cabin in the Woods is one of my favorite movies of all time. That one’s kind of funny, but I like how it kind of pokes fun at all of the movies. Barbarian is another one of my favorites, that movie was incredible. Are you a Buffy fan?
PopHorror: I randomly read the books as a kid, but somehow I’ve never seen the show!
Discord Addams: That’s actually my favorite horror thing of all time. Buffy‘s my favorite, my everything.
PopHorror: When did you start crafting your drag persona and incorporating all of this stuff that you were into as a kid?
Discord Addams: It all started out because I’ve always wanted to be a rock star, but I’ve never been confident in my singing voice. So I was like, “Oh, as a drag queen, I can just lip sync and none of this even matters.” So I always say that Discord started out looking like the groupie and then I evolved into being the full-fledged actual rock star that I wanted to be from the beginning. I’ve always had a clear vision of who I wanted to be and I can see the evolution of her from day one to now.
PopHorror: What did early day Discord look like?
Discord Addams: A blonde, shake and go, curly wig with a wife beater with some blood thrown on it. Just very white trash Barbie waiting in line to go flash her tits to Mötley Crüe. That’s who she was. Unbuttoned Daisy Dukes or just straight up a bra, panties and Pleasers. Very Lady Gaga.
PopHorror: You mentioned that you weren’t confident in your singing voice — but you can sing well and play guitar, which we saw on the show. Can you speak to that?
Discord Addams: I feel like I’ve recently figured out what my voice can and can’t do. I’ve just been kind of testing it out in different cities. Does this song work? Does this song not work? And that’s what’s helped me build my confidence in all of it. I was in Chicago and I was like, “I’m going to learn to play guitar.” One of my best friends, I heard her singing live at a show and I was just blown away. I asked her, “Hey, can we go to lunch sometime?” She’s like, “Sure!” I sat her down and was like, “I don’t know if you know this, but we’re going to be in a band.” She’s like, “Oh, great! What instruments do you play?” I said, “None, but I’m going to learn.” She goes, “Oh, okay, Discord, whatever.” Then a month later, I learned to play guitar and she joined the band, and everything happened exactly as I said it was going to.
PopHorror: Do you remember the first song you learned to play?
Discord Addams: Probably a handful of White Stripes songs. I’m so obsessed with Jack White. I was like, “I want to learn how to play anything that he can do.” We learned “Seven Nation Army,” “Fell in Love with a Girl” and then “Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin, and that was our first set.
PopHorror: And you now have a few songs on Spotify, including a punk cover of Ariana Grande’s “We Can’t Be Friends” — the song you lost the lip sync battle to against Nini Coco. Tell me about the inspiration for this version.
Discord Addams: I feel like it’s bringing back that whole Pop Goes Punk that was really popular when I was in high school. Like, if I’m going to get eliminated on Drag Race, I’m going to own it and I’m going to make that song mine. That’s mine now.
PopHorror: Are there any other punk covers you hope to do?
Discord Addams: Covering pop punk songs, I realized, is not fun. It doesn’t translate in a fun way on the guitar. The end result was really cool, but I didn’t have a fun time doing it. So now I really just want to make my own music. That’s the next goal is to have my own punk/pop punk hybrid album.
PopHorror: The timing is perfect for that — there’s such a nostalgic wave right now for that kind of music with emo nights, the return of Warped Tour. Did you go to that when you were younger?
Discord Addams: Oh, all of them. Every year. That was my favorite because I grew up right in that era when Warped Tour was really, really popular.
PopHorror: Same! And all of those bands are so popular again. I’m seeing Boys Like Girls tonight!
Discord Addams: Oh, how fun! I saw them open up for Avril Lavigne in probably 2010.
PopHorror: That’s amazing! I’d love to shift gears and chat about your Drag Race experience as a whole. First off, I loved every outfit that you came out in. I understand you design your own looks?
Discord Addams: Me and my partner together. A lot of the times, I’ll come up with the sketch and the concept, and then she’ll execute it perfectly. Or sometimes she’ll touch the fabric and know exactly what it needs to look like. We both know what we want, so we just combine our visions to create everything.
PopHorror: What inspires you when you’re designing?
Discord Addams: A lot of my inspiration comes from a statement I want to say, like my billionaire look. I just wanted to show what they’re doing, having the money turn into blood onto my head, having the hands covered in blood. A lot of my inspiration just comes from political commentary, whether it’s on the nose or subtle. The only horror inspirations that I’ve really drawn from loudly in drag are the Cenobites — I think they’re really, really visually fun. But most of my ideas are drawn more from the punk music scene.
PopHorror: I saw you resurrected one of your most iconic looks for Cameo — the Pope!
Discord Addams: He speaks through me. That was my favorite day on set, too. I had a blast.
PopHorror: Where did the idea for that character come from? Had you done anything like that prior to the show?
Discord Addams: There’s this character that I was always obsessed with from, I want to say the mid-2000s. Martin Short has this character named Jiminy Glick — he puts on this whole fat suit and he’s this sleazy Hollywood interviewer who knows nobody. He’s too important, he doesn’t know who anybody is. And he’s got that same little voice, and it goes from very high to very deep. It’s hilarious, but nobody currently, I don’t think, would know who Jiminy Glick is, especially Drag Race viewers. So I was like, “How can I take that personification and apply it to something else that’s just more well-known?” For some reason, immediately, I was like, “It’s obviously the Pope.”
PopHorror: Another thing I loved about you — especially the week you got dragged for the safety pins on your dress — you were always so calm. You never got involved in any drama, even when shots were fired at you. Is that just kind of how you are as a person?
Discord Addams: Yeah, I just don’t give a fuck. I’m on RuPaul’s Drag Race — not Jane Don’t’s Drag Race, not Juicy’s Drag Race. So they can hate these safety pins all they want. But five seconds ago, RuPaul just told me it was a grand slam, and I’m pretty sure this was her show. I was like, “I don’t care,” and that’s how I’ve always been. I always said, “I’m not a drag queen for other drag queens.” Drag queens aren’t the ones tipping me. Drag queens aren’t the ones paying my bills. They’re just my co-workers. I care what the audience thinks, to a degree. And even to a degree then, I also don’t. It’s an interesting juxtaposition. I’m very confident that no matter what you do, there’s an audience for it. As long as I’m staying completely 100% true to myself, it’s going to gravitate the right people toward me, and that’s going to be the audience that I want. I wouldn’t want to fake something and then have the people who enjoyed that gravitate toward me because then I’m stuck doing that thing, because I’ve already made that my persona. So as long as I’m 100% honest to myself, then I will find the right audience.
PopHorror: Once your Drag Race season aired, did you find that audience? What was the response? Have you attracted an emo crowd at all?
Discord Addams: It’s so interesting because I was worried at first. I was like, “Oh, what do I perform on these tours? What do people want to see from me?” But I’ve realized at all these very, very loudly gay pop clubs, all the punk kids are coming out. Everyone’s dressing in their safety pins, everyone’s got their plaid on, everybody has their hair dyed. It’s half a mixture of people who have just always been that way, and half a mixture of people who are dressing up because they finally feel confident to wear those things. It’s been really cool to see. And I’m able to go into these bars and perform Rage Against the Machine, and people know the music finally. People want to sing along to what I’m performing. Because before, it was like, “Oh, I’m booked for the show. I have to do Lady Gaga, and then I’ll pepper in one of my punk songs and nobody fucking knows what it is.” Now I don’t have to deal with that anymore.
@discordaddams If you’re not going to a Discord Addams show you are severely missing out!! (We can’t be friends cover available on streaming now) #discordaddams #fyp #arianagrande #popgoespunk #rupaulsdragrace
PopHorror: For anyone who might be catching you on tour, what’s a live Discord show like? What can people expect that maybe they didn’t get to see on TV?
Discord Addams: Me and my partner Gidget, we are starting our own tour that’s going to take off in June — it’s Discord Addams Presents Emo Fest. We’re going to have our own series of emo nights that are hopefully going to spread all across the country. It’s going to be all pop punk music, all night long. It’s going to be a mixture of live singing. That’s what I want to bring to this — I want to bring back live music. I want all of my shows to feel like you’re at a punk show, an actual festival, you’re moshing, dancing, singing along. You’re not just sitting and tipping dancing drag queens. I want you to feel the energy that a live show brings to people — that’s our goal. We’re going to have pop punk name that tune for prizes, we’re going to have emo karaoke. We’re going to be singing a full set. It’s going to be so much fun.
PopHorror: I was actually going to suggest that you get into emo nights, but you have it covered! This sounds amazing.
Discord Addams: Emo nights always go over so well. So a whole drag emo tour, that’s everything I would want to have gone to as a child. I feel like now, I get to give it to people.
PopHorror: Is Gidget big into pop punk too?
Discord Addams: Oh, yeah, we go to all of the shows together all the time.
PopHorror: Any good shows coming up?
Discord Addams: We just got tickets for Riot Fest in Chicago in September, and then I just got tickets last night to The Format because they’re touring again, which is really cool.
PopHorror: Looking ahead, aside from Emo Fest, what’s next for you? Any major goals you hope to achieve in the next year or so?
Discord Addams: The short- to long-term goal of it is to do this tour and then write an album in the midst of all that. That way I can have music come out within the next year. That’s the main goal for me. I feel like we need a drag queen who’s making real music, not just, “My heels go click clack on the dance floor.” We’ve heard it. Boring. I want to be a music artist who happens to be in drag, not a drag queen who’s making music. I will obviously be in drag and it’s going to be fierce, but that’s secondary to the message and the music and everything. If Mötley Crüe can do it, why can’t I? If David Bowie can do it, why can’t I? Those are all fucking drag queens.
PopHorror: The lip sync songs do tend to run into each other sometimes. Your talent show number is really one of the only few I remember. It was super impressive that you chose to sing and play live, “Not Another Drag Song.” Did you go into that nervous at all that it wouldn’t land?
Discord Addams: I was absolutely nervous it wasn’t going to land because, like I said, I’m not what the typical drag queens are interested in seeing. I was like, “I’m going to be playing instruments. That almost never went well for any of the past contestants. They’re always voted low.” But then I was like, “If I’m playing three of them, maybe that’ll change their minds.” It was inspired by this Jack White performance that I saw live where he started out playing guitar and his guitar string broke. Instead of stopping, he just went over to the drums and started playing it on the drums. Then he swiveled over and started playing it on the piano. By the time they fixed his guitar string, he ended on guitar. I was like, “That would be such a cool, cool talent show.” That was my whole inspiration for it, on top of writing a funny song kind of poking fun at all the tropes that we always see in these original drag verses.
PopHorror: It was really good and I’m glad you brought that to the show.
Discord Addams: Thank you! I just hope that I’m an inspiration for people to know, “Hey, you don’t have to spend a shit ton of money to get on Drag Race.” Me and my partner probably spent between $1,000 to $2,500 total for the whole package because we would go to Goodwill, thrift a bunch of stuff and deconstruct it, use past materials and deconstruct that. You can still make it to the top. You can still look very expensive on the runway and not spend a lot of money. And on top of that, I just want people to go into everything with confidence because, again, they couldn’t shake me on that show. It didn’t matter. As long as you are happy with what you’re doing, then isn’t that a win? Even getting eliminated, I was like, “It’s fine guys. I made it to the top six! This is great. I got to do everything I wanted to do.” Getting on Drag Race alone is a win. I’m just so happy that the world gets to see what I’m doing. I just want more people to focus on what their successes are — not what their losses are — because the successes matter so much more.
PopHorror: You mentioned a few times on the show that you were “delusional,” or the other queens would call you that when you felt you thrived in a challenge. I didn’t really see it as delusion — I saw it as confidence in yourself.
Discord Addams: If we’re being real, I never thought I was delusional. The girls just kept calling me that, so I played into it. I was like, “Well, if they’re going to call me delusional, then I’m just going to own it.” But I was like, “No, I’m just confident.” And I’m pretty sure I’ve never had to lip sync. So why am I delusional and not Juicy, who’s lip synced four times in a row? Or Kenya, who’s lip synced four times in a row? Why am I the one who’s perceived as doing poorly just because I’m consistently good at all of the challenges? Because that’s how I saw it. I didn’t fail or flop at any of it. I was just consistently good at the show as a whole, whereas some of the girls were horrible at some things and better at some things. Like, I’m so sorry I’m well-rounded. My bad guys. Let me go take myself out back.
PopHorror: Have you kept the walk? I hope you’ve kept the walk.
Discord Addams: You know? I don’t think it’ll ever leave at this point. In fact, I think now it’s become almost a caricature of itself where I’m probably leaned back even father. I’m so grateful it happened. We have my partner to both blame positively and negatively for the walk. I never thought about having a runway walk, so Travis was like, “The walk is so important.” I was like, “Oh, shit, you’re probably right, a walk is important.” So he put me on one of those walking treadmills and a pair of heels, and sat in front of me with a video of ’90s runway models walking and said, “Just do it over and over and over again.” So by the time I got onto the show, I was so self-conscious — not in a negative way, but just so aware of having to walk. I feel like I was doing each of the steps, but individually and exaggerated, and then that’s what we got. Had I not thought about the walk, it probably wouldn’t have become so iconic. So honestly, thank God for all of it.
@discordaddams Discord made her way to Seattle!
PopHorror: And it really worked so well for all of the silhouettes you had in your designs.
Discord Addams: Watching it back, I’m like, “This is fashion.” Who’s going to tell me otherwise? Everybody wants something unique until they get it, and then suddenly we’re all up in arms. Like, sorry I didn’t walk down the runway like half the other girls. They become, like, wacky inflatable tube men and no one’s yelling at them.
PopHorror: You had Ru cracking up every single week, so I’d call that a win.
Discord Addams: Oh, yeah, her and I were best friends by the end of the season. I was like, “My only friend here is RuPaul and the cameramen.”
PopHorror: I feel like she comes off intimidating on screen but probably isn’t that way in real life?
Discord Addams: The girls were really terrified of her. Watching all the Drag Race interviews, they’re always like, “RuPaul’s intimidating,” “RuPaul’s scary.” And I’m like, “My best friend? You’re talking about my best friend over there in the corner? Scary?” I think that was part of my MO, too — I’ve been watching the show for 18 years. Why isn’t she my best friend? I know her, at least through the television screen. And also, that woman is so in tune with people’s energies. She knows. And she’s filming nonstop. So she doesn’t want people to treat her like she’s on a pedestal. She doesn’t want people to be starstruck or weirded out by her. So I was like, “If I just go in there and treat her like I’ve known her my whole entire life, she’s going to feel that.” And she did. I was the only girl whose name she could even remember, so I think it all played off in my favor.
PopHorror: …or is that the delusion talking?
Discord Addams: [laughs]
Thanks for speaking with us, Discord! Keep up with her on Instagram @discordxaddams.
