When Red Hot producer Dust Reid and artist and activist Massima Bell began putting together the ambitious concept album Transa (styled TRAИƧA) in 2021, they couldn’t have imagined that its release—several years later, in November 2024—would coincide with the reelection of Donald Trump, and, not unrelatedly, one of the biggest spikes in anti-trans policy and rhetoric in recent memory. Now, to listen to the project, which features more than 100 artists (among them, Adrianne Lenker, André 3000, Anohni, Hunter Schafer, Perfume Genius, and Sade Adu) feels like a small yet potent act of rebellion, holding up the creative genius that trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming musicians have been offering to the world for generations.
This week, Vogue spoke to Bell (whom eagle-eyed fashion obsessives might recognize from Nan Goldin’s recent Gucci campaign) about releasing Transa on the precipice of a second Trump presidency, honoring the legacy of Sophie, witnessing Sade’s powerful love and support for her trans son, and creating art that aims to make trans people feel “wanted and adored.”
Vogue: How does it feel to officially have the album out in the world?
Massima Bell: It’s so beautiful. This project has been, at least for me personally, such a love letter to and for and by the trans people in my life and beyond, and it’s been such a beautiful thing for all these people to kind of take a little bit of refuge in. That’s been really, really special and precious.
Does the release of the album feel different than you’d expected?
We started this project in 2021, before the rise in anti-trans hate rhetoric and anti-trans legislation in the US. We didn’t start the project from a place of responding to that; we really wanted the project to center love and celebration of the of the trans community and all the gifts that we as trans people bring to the world. The fact that it has come out now, at this kind of cliff’s edge in terms of what we can expect in the next year…even just from what I’ve seen already, in terms of how people are responding to this project, it feels like something people need to have in the world, particularly right now. We couldn’t have anticipated it happening in this moment, but it feels like it couldn’t have come at a more needed time. I’m really grateful that we could make it happen through this organization Red Hot, which has always done things in a way that’s more radical than how I’ve seen these kind of benefit projects or institutional charities do things in the past.
How did the initial idea for this album get sparked?
I met Dust on this short film shoot that was about a return to nature in the fall of 2020, and we connected a lot on our shared love of music and artists like Beverly Glenn-Copeland. Dust had made a project with Red Hot before that was about [composer] Arthur Russell, and then in the wake of Sophie’s passing in January 2021, Dust reached out to me and was like, “Hey, I’ve been wanting to do a project at Red Hot that centers trans people.” They had just felt this catalyst after Sophie’s passing, where they were like, maybe we should do [something] to honor her. Then they invited me to conceive of this whole thing with them, and that was the germination of TRAИƧA. From the get-go, we wanted it to be this kind of narrative, conceptual record that charts a journey, and we wanted it to be something that centers trans people but isn’t exclusively trans voices. We wanted to structure it with this huge spirit of collaboration and have a plethora of all kinds of voices, and particularly encourage collaboration between cis and trans people and also artists generationally. We kind of started from these very specific ways that we knew we wanted the record to happen, and then we made this long inspiration playlist. We started with a list of artists who we were like, we know that these people have something really special in the way that their art, their music, communicates a kind of spiritual force. We started with that kind of energy, and then it ballooned out from there.
There are so many incredible collaborators on this album, but I have to ask: What was it like working with Sade on one of her first releases in years?
It was such an incredible experience to receive that music. I think it was really special in the way that it happened, too, because it came about as a result of a lot of people holding out their hands in trust and passing along a message, which was originally from this letter that I wrote specifically to Sade expressing how meaningful I felt it would be for her—as the singular musician that she is, and as the parent of a trans child—to sing in whatever way she wanted to to express her support publicly for her child. We delivered the letter through Stuart Matthewman, who is Sade’s longtime collaborator and a member of her band who’s contributed to Red Hot projects over the years, and he was down to just deliver this letter to her. She was really touched by the letter, and literally, in writing it, I was like, if you want to just, like, say a few words, it’s totally whatever you’d like to do. She wanted to contribute this song, “Young Lion,” that stemmed from a letter that she wrote to her son Isaac on his 21st birthday. When I first heard the song, I was immediately in tears, and it was such an emotional experience, because it is such a powerful message of love and acceptance to her son. It also begins with an apology, which I think is something so powerful and something that a lot of parents have trouble with; particularly, the parents of trans kids, who should know that it’s okay to say, “Hey, I’m sorry, I should have known and acknowledged this” and do that work to heal. It felt like such a huge gift from her, and she’d been really giving throughout the whole process.
Is there anyone or any group you particularly hope this album makes it to?
I definitely want it to get to trans people who oftentimes don’t get the love that we need to. I think it’s powerful to know that this is in the world, and that there are all these incredible musicians who are like, yes, we love you and we want to support you, and you are beautiful and magical. I want parents of trans kids, people who don’t have paths charted out for them on how to love their trans child, to see things like Sade just fully expressing this unconditional love for her child. I want that to be something that can open a little bit of compassion or empathy from people, because I know people can have knee-jerk reactions and immediate disgust or dismissal of trans people, and I hope the emotional power of this album can push through that. This record is roughly half and half trans and nonbinary voices and cisgender voices, and I hope this project can cement them in some kind of canon. I think trans artists and all artists who are marginalized in different ways can be kind of tossed aside or not given our due, and I want this to be something that is a space that centers them and makes them feel wanted and adored.
This conversation has been edited and condensed.
