Tripping Jupiter has released their new single “Lipstick of the Brave” accompanied by a video directed by Bill Plympton. The tune is an evocative piano ballad that is dedicated to freedom of gender expression.
Describing the process behind writing “Lipstick of The Brave”, the key creative force behind Tripping Jupiter, Madstone Rowan, says that the song came out of a regular meeting with their producer and mentor Barb Morrison (Debbie Harry, LP), who discouraged them from covering the song “Science Fiction Double Feature” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show and challenged them instead to write their *own* “Science Fiction Double Feature”. After initially being taken aback by the challenge, Madstone reflected on what the original “Science Fiction Double Feature” was about and realized that much in the same way composer Richard O’Brien wrote the song about the B-movie horror and sci-fi films from their youth that inspired them, “Lipstick of the Brave” should pay tribute to the early queer icons from their youth like Tim Curry and David Bowie who made Madstone realize for the first time that the possibilities of their own gender expression were much more open than they ever realized.
As Madstone describes it, “I immediately thought of Rocky Horror and when I first saw Tim Curry when he made his first appearance in the film, how that sent electricity through my body. Then I thought about David Bowie, and how he pushed the limits of gender throughout his career. The words just started coming out, as they often do. I was writing, not thinking. Then I remembered how I felt when I first saw Hedwig and the Angry Inch… and I thought about how I felt when I saw Lady Gaga when she first burst onto the scene, all androgynous and amazing – and that went in the song too. Images of me as a teen, alone in my room, playing with makeup, putting on lipstick and dancing around my room to my favorite music – all of this just shot into my brain.” When Madstone sent the finished track back to Barb, their only response was “Motherfucker, you made me cry”.
