One-on-One with Drag Legend Trixie Mattel

For Trixie Mattel, life in plastic is f*cking fantastic. Since competing on the seventh season of RuPaul’s Drag Race and winning All Stars 3, she has broken down barriers and redefined what it means to be a drag queen in today’s age. Quickly climbing the ladder of success, Trixie has launched a cosmetics line, become the subject of a documentary, performs stand-up, and stars in a Netflix (I Like To Watch) and YouTube (UNHhhh) series alongside gal pal and Drag Race favorite Katya.

With no intentions to slow down, Trixie is currently traveling the country with her fifth concert tour, “Trixie Mattel: Grown Up,” and just released her third studio album, Barbara, earlier this month. Barbara comes two years after One Stone and showcases an entirely new sound for Trixie. Much to the excitement of her dedicated fanbase, she took to YouTube to premiere “Trixie Mattel: One Night Only,” a music special unlike any other, where she performs several songs from Barbara to a massive audience of Barbie dolls in her living room.

Trixie spoke with OUT FRONT about the new album and tour, her upcoming book with Katya, finding time to be a cosmetics guru, and her thoughts on the new batch of Drag Race queens.

Hi, Trixie! Congratulations on the release of your new album, Barbara. Can you tell us more about the meaning behind the album’s title? Who is Barbara?

Barbara is the name of America’s favorite 11-and-a-half-inch fashion doll. It was sort of her name before moving to California to become Barbie. She is from a fictional city in Wisconsin, and I’m from a real city in Wisconsin, so it is sort of based on that. When I started working on this album, I began going back to the original sketches of what I thought Trixie was. I originally saw her as, like, this super tan, 60s, plastic, beach bunny with a dark sense of humor. So, Barbara is going back to my original sketches of Trixie with a little more POV and experience to redo it.

Does Barbara stay within the country/folk genres like your other albums?

No, this is alternative. It’s sugary sweet, like 60s pop rock.

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Awesome. Now, you are currently traveling the country with your new tour, “Grown Up.” What can audiences expect, and how does it differ from your previous tours?

Oh my God. Literally everything I have achieved on my tour, this is, like, to the 10th power. If you liked the three costumes in my last tour, you’ll love these more. If you liked the three wigs in the last one, you’ll like the five in this one. This one has just as big of jokes, just as big of hair, but times 10. Plus, now that Barbara is out, I’m traveling with my band. So, all the musical breaks will be fully realized. I have played acoustic versions of my songs in the past, but this time, bitch, I have three beautiful, tall, attractive, young, guitar-playing men beside me. You know, the lesbians will be mad and disappointed, but the gays are going to be with it.

What was it like to put this show together?

I spent so much on the production for this tour. I always hope that people will get a laugh at my tours, so for this one, I was like, let’s make this so f*cking fancy and glamourous. I want people to leave thinking that was some of the funniest jokes, the best songs, the coolest wigs.

I’m so proud of this tour. Before rehearsals, I was testing the material by getting in drag and going to open mic nights here in L.A. and performing sets from the show for audiences who do not know me. Girl, I did a set for eight people in the basement of a pizza restaurant. I wanted this show to be perfect, and I learn something from every tour. Every trick is better because you have a whole tour of experience under your belt.

What are you personally looking forward to the most about this tour?

You know, in every show, I have like one or two jokes where I’m like, ‘That’s my killer. I’m so smart; that is a great joke.’ For this show, there are a few like that. Every time I’ve gone on to test this material, I go home and think, ‘Can we start the tour tomorrow?’ I love the new standup. The jokes are so funny.

Also, in all my years in making music and all my years in making records, I have never gotten to travel with the band because my records never came out at the same time as my tours. I am living for the fact that I get to play with a real band. This is also the first time I have ever traveled with this many costumes. There’s, like, 12 costumes! Plus, the wigs are so f*cking cool. They are big and crazy. It’s like if Lady Bunny was in Austin Powers.

Even though “Grown Up” is a one-woman show, you do a lot of shows and collaboration projects with Katya. Besides her, is there any other Drag Race queen you would like to perform a show with?

Oh, I love Bob the Drag Queen. I live for Bob the Drag Queen. I also love Monet, and I have gotten to tour with Tammie Brown before; that’s always a blast. I would love to work with Jasmine Masters. Those are pretty much my favs, but I definitely love Bob and hope we someday get to work together. If you want to talk good stand-up, she is so f*cking funny.

Going back to Katya for a second, how is she doing?

She’s good! Chillin. Why, did you hear something?

No, I had the opportunity to interview her last year, and we talked about you a bit.

What did that bitch say?

All good things, and how she loves you to death!

Yeah, she’s not one to talk about her feelings, but I heard recently through a friend, she said to someone else that she loved me so much, and she’s thankful for me. She would never say that to my face [laughs].

Well, of course not!

That’s real friendship when you hear from someone else that someone actually loves you!

She mentioned to me that you two were writing a book together.

Yes! It comes out in May. Trixie and Katya’s Guide to Modern Womanhood. It’s basically an etiquette guide/home economics book for young women. When it comes to giving advice, who’s better to trust than two gay men in their 30s who make a living by dressing as women, right?

We give advice on practical things like hair, makeup, dating, and drag queen advice like how much to drink without puking. There’s even a section where Katya wrote haikus about getting your period. So, look out for that. If you want information on managing periods, listen to a 40-year-old man.

It sounds like quite the read! What’s your number-one tip?

My number-one tip is that everybody should always wear blush. That’s like my number one. I’m really big into blush, and blush can solve a lot of problems. Oh, and if you have a living room, every chair should either be on or completely off a carpet. I hate when people have a chair that’s like half on a rug. That’s complete trash!

You two are also currently on the fifth season of UNHhhh. Did you ever think the show would go as far as it has?

No! I keep waiting for people to stop watching it. For me, I never want to overstay my welcome. I’m always, like, one eye on the door. As soon as the viewership stops, I’m like, ‘Let’s quit.’ Let’s bow out early. But, it hasn’t stopped yet, so alright, I guess people keep watching it. If people are still gagging, we’ll keep making them.

My husband is one of your viewers, and he absolutely loves the show.

Aw, that is so sweet! We really love doing it, and we obviously don’t do it for the money. We get a kick out of it. It’s both of our favorite thing to make. We love anything where we get to put on a look, show up, speak our mind, and leave.

Thanks to RuPaul’s Drag Race, you have become one of the world’s most well-known and beloved drag queens. What more would you like to accomplish with your platform?

Well, Barbara is my third studio album, and all my albums have charted and sold well. A lot of the people who do music who are on the same charts as me, they get to do, like, music festivals and stuff like that. I forget to do a lot of that stuff, so I hope to get to do a lot of these festivals and shit like that.

I want to get invited to play at, like, Stagecoach and Folk Festival and Coachella. That would be so cool. Otherwise, I would love to do another book. We had a blast with this one, so if it sells well, I would love to do another one. We really want to do, like, an HR human resources/office workplace manual. Like the Trixie and Katya guide to sensitivity training.

Oh my God, please do that!

Right? It would be so awesome. I also obviously want to make more records, but I also love making cosmetics.

That’s right, you released your own cosmetics line last year. How has that been going?

It’s been great! We had a fantastic first year. We launched about 17 products, and we plan to launch even more. I love makeup, and I love nerdy sh*t, and I love the marketing and formula. It’s a very small company, so when a product comes out, we are so excited. There’s, like, five of us, so we are each 20 percent completely responsible for that launch.

When my blush pallet Summer of Love came out on Black Friday, I was up at 9 a.m. in my bathtub watching the sales come in. It was so exciting. When I’m on tour and making stand-up specials and stuff like that, it’s kind of hard to dribble the two different careers. I’ll have to basically have office days and conference into the office.

You were also working the festival circuit with the documentary Trixie Mattel: Moving Parts. How was that received by audiences?

TM: It had a great launch. We were the fastest sellout at Tribeca. We did Hot Docs, Outfest we played at a lot of different places. People loved it. I will say, movies reach a totally different audience. I thought it was mostly people who already knew me, but this movie was a lot of people’s first exposure to me, which is kind of a gag. So, people have been cool about it. It’s a very intimate look at my work in my life. I’m an introvert, so it’s the other 23 hours a day I’m not in drag. I loved it. I only watched it once with audiences because, I’ll say it is a little too intimate. Cameras were on set the day Katya walked out of our show. You know, that’s definitely not something I like to relive.

It has been almost five years since your season of Drag Race. The first time, Season 7. What is the biggest lesson you have learned since being on the show?

Honestly, I learned to trust my instincts. Whatever you think is the right answer is the right answer. That’s how you win Drag Race, and that’s how you win at life. Like, if you have a voice in you saying yes, that’s the right way to market that product, or that’s the right album name, or yes, that’s the bridge for the song. You can second guess yourself all day, but for your little internal compass, it’s the right thing. Listen to it; it’s the right thing.

What are your thoughts on the Season 12 queens?

Oh, beautiful! Jaida Essence Hall from Milwaukee! My hometown girl!

You know her?

Yes, of course! I remember being 21 and going out to the gay bar for the first time in drag, and Jaida Essence Hall was in the show, so yes; she is also older than me. She looked so beautiful in that promo. Let me tell you, she has looked like that forever. She was never ugly. She had no shaky start where she was an ugly drag queen. She has always been stunning. You know how pageant queens are normally a little more polarizing? She is the most artistic, open-minded pageant queen.

Like, for Halloween, she does spooky shit. She does comedy numbers. It’s not often you see somebody who is so beautiful who is also, like, so chill. She loves all different types of drag queens. She’s that drag queen in Milwaukee who every audience member loves and every drag queen likes to work with. She’s like the mother I never had, the sister everybody wants. I’m excited for her. She’s probably, in my opinion, the best drag queen from Milwaukee. So, it’s cool to see her do this. She has been auditioning for Drag Race for a long time.

To stay up-to-date with Trixie, follow her on social media or visit trixiemattel.com.