New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Lawrence Rothman has released "Not A Son," a synth-driven embrace of genderqueerness which finds them purging the hurt and pain of their parents' lack of support for their identity. The title's double meaning serves as both a way for Rothman to move forward without that toxicity in their lives, and a dismissal of gendered language like "son" to describe themselves. In the song's choruses, Rothman speaks directly and unflinchingly to their mother and father, even making an effort to empathize with them as products of the misguided belief system that permeated their upbringing: "Should have been a loving father, but you were caught in the hell we lived. Should have been a loving mother, but you were silent for his pride."
"Growing up in the late 90's and my family coming to terms with my gender fluidity, there were many misunderstandings within our household on what pronoun to use for me," says Rothman. "I didn't want to be called 'he' or 'him' or 'son.' My mother earlier on would call me her little 'sun' as a way to work around my feelings but not draw what she said at the time was unnecessary attention from our community. It was painful for her and myself as she wanted me to feel happy and not outcasted for identifying as neither he or she during a time when they/them pronouns wasn't something we knew about in our small-town world. My mother, being an avid reader, discovered it as they/them pronouns appeared a couple hundred years ago. She adopted it as a way to address me later in my teen years. 'Not a Son' was a poem originally and I wrote it around this time though it took many years later to formulate into the song."
Listen to "Not A Son" here: https://orcd.co/notason
A candid conversation with Lawrence about Pride and "Not A Son" via GLAAD: https://youtu.be/tkgzd7MB5sw
Pre-order the new album Good Morning,
America here: https://orcd.co/goodmorningamerica
Long beloved as a "musicians' musician,'' Rothman's recent work includes collaborations with artists like
Angel Olsen, Mitski, Kim
Gordon and
Courtney Love as well as brands and cultural institutions like Gucci, the New York Times, TATE
Modern and the Barbican Centre. That spirit continues on throughout Good Morning,
America which features special guests Lucinda Williams,
Amanda Shires, Caroline Rose, Katie Pruitt, Mary Lattimore and Girlpool. With these like minded collaborators, Rothman shatters their own boundaries as an artist; exploring subject matter "I have never written about in a song, poem or even diary," including the process of healing from childhood abuse, while striving to create a sound that draws from a wide range of heroes like Anohni and Tom Petty.
The release of "Not A Son" follows Rothman's "Sunny Place For Shady People" (feat. Son Little), which documents living in the heart of Trump country as a non-binary person during the 2020 election and was named a Song You Need To Know by Rolling Stone. Prior to that, Rothman released "Thrash The West" with
Amanda Shires, which led Queerty to compare Rothman to Leonard Cohen,
Johnny Cash and
Courtney Love all at once, adding "rarely does a folk ballad cut this deep, or this queer."
