Adore Delano

Adore Delano is kind of amazing. Aside from being one of the most entertaining contestants Drag Race has ever seen, she also put out a total barnstormer of an album, full of bona-fide big jams and legit love songs. We woke her up early to have a chat about her UK tour, where she’ll be hitting the Clapham Grand on August 6th with a balls to the wall drag rock show. Get your tickets now, god damn it!

 


 

Hey Adore, sorry to drag you out of bed.
Oh don’t worry, I’m always in bed.

Good to know. You’re coming to London with your new show, tell me all about it! You’re doing dates all over the country right?
Yes! I’m excited. I’m doing a lot of songs off the first album, then some more off the new album and then a couple covers as well. It’s fun man.

Like your cover of ‘Give Me Tonight’?
Yeah of course, that’s on the album but we also do a cover of ‘Dying’ by Hole. It’s a big, fun, sweaty mess.

I noticed you were wearing a Hole shirt in the ‘Give Me Tonight’ video, so you’re a big Courtney Love fan?
Of course! I have “live through this” tattooed on my inner forearm!

So you’re performing in Clapham, has anyone told you what goes down on the Common?
Excuse me? I don’t know anything about it!

Clapham Common was like, one of the biggest cruising grounds in the city.
Oh my god, that sounds brilliant.

I’m not sure stuff happens there anymore.
I hope! Or at least in a public bathroom or something.

Just go out there after the show with a flashlight.
[Laughs] I’d obviously get myself caught.

I had a look at your website, you have a really big gallery of fan art on there…
I get sent a lot of it, daily. Which is really cool. I was talking about this with my cousin the other day like, I can do a look and the next day someone’s drawn it. It’s crazy.

Do you ever get really janky ones that don’t go on the website?
Oh, of course, they’re my favourite. I wish I had balls like Nicki Minaj. Nicki posts all this horrible fan art and says stuff like “Please STOP”. I laugh so hard.

Remember the one of Rihanna where they posted a side-by-side comparison and the drawing looked like a camel or something.
YES! That’s what they do with Nicki, it’s hilarious.

You’re probably one of the only Drag Race queens to enjoy legitimate chart success. Is that kind of surreal for you?
Yeah it’s nuts. I didn’t expect to make it in the charts, I just wanted to make a fun album. That’s my attitude with my next album too. I don’t want to expect anything. I just wanna release it and hopefully it’s received well.

You have the honour of being the only Drag Race queen I have personally purchased the album of on iTunes. So you got my money, I hope it went toward a nice pair of pantyhose.
That’s DOPE! Thank you, that’s fuckin’ awesome. Nah, never pantyhose! I like to feel a breeze under those t-shirts.

One of my favourite outfits of yours was the Bud Light vest-swimsuit thing.
I still have that! I got that from Sonique from season two. She gave that to me.

Half the time when I was watching you on the show, I was thinking “fuck I want to wear that”. Mostly the workroom style though, the drag doesn’t suit me so much with my beard.
Ha! just throw a little glitter on it and go dancing!

Your music videos are always very fun and well-executed, do you think being a drag queen helps with you eye for that kind of thing?
Oh totally. There’s always an element of camp that goes along with being a drag queen. I wanted to move a little bit away from that and do something a little more fresh.

What I liked about the album was that it didn’t feel gimmicky. It felt like actual artistic output. Do you think that’s why people have responded to it so well?
I think so. I think the difference between the other girls and I, is that I went into making an album and being a musician first, then into drag after. I always knew what I wanted to do, what I wanted to execute and what I wanted to talk about.

So less about cashing in on the Drag Race popularity.
Well, you gotta do that! There’s a reason it miraculously came out the day after the Drag Race finale aired! You have to time it and be smart about it. But yeah, I knew what I wanted to say and talk about. Those words came out of my brain. Well, and the amazing writer I co-wrote the album with. But yeah, I came outta my damn head!

Have you been to London before?
Yes! I love Camden! I performed there before. I’m obsessed, the shopping is amazing.

So you went to the market?
Yes. I literally bought everything.

You end up buying all kinds of shit there. Last time I bought a load of Indian nose jewellery there and when I got home I had no idea why I’d done it.
It’s so depressing. You’re walking and then you’re like ‘oh wait, let me get KFC and buy every fucking thing in the place.’ I only have one free day there though this time and I’m doing a photo shoot day.

Don’t go out and get yourself fucked up the night before or you’ll be serving real Courtney Love realness.
Oh no, I have to. It’s like a naked photo shoot cover, so I HAVE to be fucked up for it. I mean, I can throw up at this photo shoot as long as we get one shot good. It’s totally fine.

What inspires you?
Right now I’m fascinated by the younger generation, the words they use. I’m fascinated by this Tumblr style that has come upon us. All this crazy raver gear and shit. I’m so fascinated by young people nowadays.

You can lose HOURS scrolling through that stuff on Tumblr. These kids all have thousands of followers and really stylish blogs.
It’s so unfair. I want my Tumblr to look cool but it just ends up having a ton of gay porn or Spongebob Squarepants on it.

Seriously. I can’t open mine in public. If someone asks me to, I’m like “I’d rather not” because it is now literally just pornography.
LITERALLY. Just GIFs everywhere of asses and 90’s cartoons.

One of my favourite Adore Delano moments is when you said you wanted to hug Bianca Del Rio’s tit. Are you still close?
Yes of course! She’s filming her movie right now in Dallas, but she moved to LA from New York so I get to spend more time with her. I love that bitch, she’s one of my best friends. Darienne, Courtney, Bianca and I talk every day. We have group chats. I woke up and before I called you they were already having a conversation. We don’t even text each other privately anymore, I just wake up for 48 text messages of bullshit. It’s like Tumblr again, just a bunch of fucked up GIFs. I’ll say something that has nothing to do with weight and Bianca will be like “oh that explains the bloating”. Everything is just talking shit to each other.

When’s the new album out?
I haven’t figured out when I wanna release it. We’re still working on it. We finished it, and then decided to do eleven more tracks. So we’re gonna release a double album

Awesome, double the album artwork!
Definitely, I have so many ideas.

So what can someone expect from one of your shows?
Just a sweaty fun mess. It’s unpredictable. I like to involve the audience a lot. It’s a good time, it’s not like a club performance. It’s my whole band, it’s entertaining and high energy. It’s a drag rock show, man. Like Hedwig!

Moshing and crowd surfing?
So down for it! I gained a few pounds though recently and it’s so bad. I don’t wanna crush anybody. I was in Dublin and crowd-surfed and nearly broke some girl’s leg.

Do you have anything to tell the gays of London?
Turn your Grindrs on!

Can you accom?
Of course!I have my own hotel room!

•Adore Delano “’Til Death Do Us Party” is at Clapham Grand (21-25 St John’s Hill, Clapham Junction, SW11 1TT) Thursday 6th August, doors 8pm. Tickets £33.

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