Glam punk nouveau, like Lou Reed’s wet dream. Punk-infused and grunge-tinged. Singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Erica Green has unveiled her first single as Madam Mayor, the musical project that has listeners shout-singing along while inspiring anyone who’s ever felt like they don’t fit in to live out loud as their truest selves.
At once intimately vulnerable while also unapologetic and celebratory, Madam Mayor’s “fuck around” follows Erica Green’s journey as a transgender woman. A self-taught musician born and bred in New York City, she started writing songs after her dad suddenly passed away when she was just 17. She dove in headfirst and joined a band, and the songs kept coming. Erica found that as she evolved and developed more confidence in herself, her music evolved, too.
The direct inspiration for “fuck around,” Erica says, came from a song by The Slickers called “Johnny Too Bad.”
“There’s a lyric that I adapted from it, ‘Where you gonna run to?’” Erica says. Part of “‘fuck around’ is about being an outcast and having that fear of being pursued for being different — for being a weirdo. At the same time it’s also a rebellious celebration of the joyous act of simply but profoundly fucking around with the status quo.”
This first version of “fuck around” is delivered as an acoustic arrangement featuring Erica Green on piano backed by a string quartet. The version to be released on f, her debut album (produced by two-time Grammy winner Marc Swersky), will unleash Madam Mayor’s punk-grunge electric take on the track.
“After everything Covid has put us through, all I really want to do is f**k around. The life we knew is gone. It’s time to grow anew. Let’s throw it at the wall. Let’s f**k around.”
Erica’s drive to share her music comes from the belief that like music, human stories heal. As a professional EMT who worked through the chaos and heartbreak on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, she firmly believes that music is the best medicine.
She also believes in being yourself at all costs. “I think conformity is a fucking disease,” she says. “I hope my music encourages people to feel a little less eager to conform, and feel a little more free to be their authentic, unfiltered selves.”
