Drag presenting and boundary-pushing pop artist Tripping Jupiter is proud to share the music video for “Torn America,” which will be found in their upcoming album Lipstick of the Brave

Like the previous single “We are Starlight“, ”Torn America” also features bass playing by frequent Bowie collaborator and legendary session musician Gail Ann Dorsey, who appears on five tracks on the forthcoming Tripping Jupiter album. In addition to Madstone Rowan (they/them), the singer and multi-instrumentalist behind Tripping Jupiter, and Gail Ann Dorsey, the upcoming Tripping Jupiter album Lipstick of the Brave features the work of billboard charting producer and mentor to Tripping Jupiter Barb Morrison (they/them), a platinum record holder who has worked with the likes of Blondie, Rufus Wainwright, Franz Ferdinand, LP. and many more.

“Torn America” is a message song, with a lyric music video that edits together footage from the past 2 years of protests across the country, attempting to channel the rage and frustration of that moment of upheaval into an uplifting celebration of love and solidarity across different political movements, from Black Lives Matter, to LGBTQ rights, to the growing climate crisis.

Describing their inspiration behind “Torn America”, Madstone writes “I wrote the entire album in the middle of the pandemic. Being at home there was a lot of time to think about what was going in our country and how it was affecting us. The murder of George Floyd and the subsequent protests were still on my mind. The economic crash and how many workers across the nation were struggling stuck with me as well. And then more recently with the scapegoating of immigrants or members of the LGBTQ+ community – it all just reminded me how all our struggles are connected – and that it is only through a mass movement of people, collectively, that we can transform our nation and our world. All of this and the fact that climate change is happening before our eyes, made me realize that as an artist, I had to say something.”

But unlike other “protest songs” – which often can come with a ham-fisted sense of self-importance or condescension – “Torn America” was created with a goal to “not be preachy or tell anyone what to think or to believe”; rather using through this song and this video to simply describe what so many of us are experiencing and rally that collective frustration into purposeful action. The last line of Torn America was inspired by a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley – The Masque of Anarchy – where he challenges common people to “Rise Like Lions After Slumber, in unvanquishable number”. “That always stuck with me,” Madstone says “that change we create when we all move together. I hope I was able to communicate that in the words I sang.”

Lipstick of the Brave will be released in full on November 4th, 2022.

Photo Courtesy: Jessica Barlow