Gavin Russom, LCD Soundsystem Synth Player, Comes Out As Transgender

Gavin Russom, the percussionist and synth player for the legendary dance-punk band LCD Soundsystem, has come out out as transgender at the age of 43.

Russom, in interviews with both Pitchfork and INTO, described her transition and her life-long battle with the concept. Her transition comes at a time of rebirth for her band, who, after retiring in 2011, will be touring and releasing a new album in September 2017.

“This is my fifth decade being alive, and in each of those decades, there’s been a time where I’ve tried to say, ‘Hey, I think I’m transgender,'” Russom told INTO.

Later this month, Russom will make her first public appearance as a trans woman at the Femme’s Room, a monthly party celebrating femme and queer culture in Chicago. Russom will DJ the event the night before LCD Soundsystem’s headlining set at the Pitchfork Music Festival, also in Chicago. The organizers of the Femme’s Room asked Russom to DJ before knowing she was trans, something Russom views as a happy coincidence.

“Having not said anything about my gender identity or transition, it felt like this amazing synchronicity. One of those moments where the universe is tapping you on the shoulder, [saying], ‘It’s OK, it’s real,'” she told Pitchfork.

Russom, who long sported a free-flowing beard and long hair, has since shaved but has decided to   “[use] my old name.”

While Russom’s transition is recent, she claims that she has received harassment in the past for not conforming to male gender norms.

Russom said to Pitchfork, “In [my] early twenties, I was on my way to coming out into transitioning. I would dress gender nonconforming and quite often explicitly feminine … Sometimes, if [a harasser] happened to be walking behind me at enough distance where they would read me as feminine, they would catcall me. Getting closer to me, they would see me as masculine and then become very angry. I was assaulted on a number of occasions.”

Now that she is fully out, Russom has found support in many places, including her bandmates.

“The general feeling in the group is that will make the band better,” she told INTO.

LCD Soundsystem has released the first single for their upcoming September album, their first since 2010’s This Is Happening. Listen to their single “call the police” below.