If you haven’t yet heard of 76th Street, the dynamic lesbian rock duo making waves across the country, now’s the time to tune in. Comprised of Haley Gold and Spencer Bryant, the band’s story is as harmonious as their music: two friends who met at age 10 in Scottsdale, Arizona, and have been writing, performing, and growing together ever since.
Their vocal blend has that Indigo Girls‑style ease — two distinct timbres locking into one effortless current. “We tend to finish each other’s sentences in harmony,” Gold laughs, recalling their earliest days. “When we sang together, there was like a magic there. From then on, we only wanted to sing together.”
Their first song, written on the very day they met, was aptly titled “Let’s Do a Duet.” “It’s not a good song,” Gold admits, “but it is pretty spot-on with where things ended up.”
Finding their voice — and their community
While their friendship and musical partnership blossomed early, their journeys with identity and community took time. “We each had our very own journeys with our sexualities. We reached clarity at different points,” Gold shares. “It wasn’t really until we moved to Nashville that we found a queer community. And in finding that, we realized these topics are something people can connect to. We are not alone.”
For Bryant, Nashville was transformative. “I was primarily only dating men up until, like, a couple years ago when we moved to Nashville. It was finding this queer community here — specifically at our local lesbian bar, the Lipstick Lounge. It was just a really beautiful time of me discovering a new part of myself.”
Their music, once coded and subtle, grew bolder as their confidence and community did. “A lot of our music, even though it was inherently gay, we weren’t really using pronouns. We didn’t think it was relatable. But when you go back and listen to some of our older love songs, they were about women, but we weren’t explicitly saying that. In finding this vibrant queer community, we were like, there are people like us here, and this has a space in art,” Gold says.
Wild: an anthem of liberation
Their latest album, Wild, is a testament to this journey. “We describe life as ‘wild’ — the craziest things, the most surprising things, the scariest things,” Bryant explains. “That word also kind of represents breaking boundaries and going outside of the lines and breaking the rules and the norms. Every song is about liberation, freedom, empowerment, and just living your fullest, truest life.”
“We use the term wild as a very endearing term. Like, ‘that’s wild, that’s awesome,’” Gold adds. “It just felt like that was the key word of this project.”
Among the tracks, “Girl” stands out and could be the next lesbian anthem with the opening line of “I think that I just got more gay.” Gold says, “That one was just a bold, exciting, creative move for us. It definitely feels like the highlight of the album.” “Girl” is one of those songs that conjures memories of locking eyes for the first time across a dark smoky bar.
Another favorite is “Party of One.” Bryant describes it as “really special and beautiful because it speaks to independence — going to Paris and sitting at a restaurant, party of one by yourself.”
Creating safe spaces, on stage and off
For 76th Street, music is more than performance — it’s about creating safe, affirming spaces. “No matter where we perform, we turn every venue and space into a lesbian bar,” Bryant says. “We draw a really large demographic in our audience. We’ve had fans come up to us and say it was their first time in a lesbian bar, and now they get to meet other queer people and have that experience. It’s really special that our music is drawing those people in and creating a place where we can all have community together.”
“We’re like a traveling lesbian bar,” Gold jokes. “Cities that maybe don’t have a lesbian bar — because as we know, there’s very few.”
Their pride in East Nashville’s queer community is palpable. “We’ve been so spoiled by this community that I feel like that’s kind of why our music is the way that it is. It’s very confident and energetic and proud because that’s the environment that we’re in all the time. We recognize that privilege and that a lot of people don’t have that community. So, we want our music to feel like an extension of East Nashville, an extension of the Lipstick Lounge,” Gold says.
Representation matters deeply to 76th Street. “When I was first coming out, the first queer artist band that I started listening to was the Indigo Girls. Their music is infused with my queer experience,” Gold reflects. “Back in the day, it took a lot more courage to create art about these topics. There were just less artists to love and attach yourself to. But now, there’s a plethora of incredible queer artists that you can find and love and relate to.”
“We just have to be so grateful to artists like the Indigo Girls and Melissa Etheridge and k.d. lang,” Gold continues. “We’re able to do these things with a lot less fear because they paved the way.”
“We’ll pretty much tour leading up to Pride season, and then it’s ‘go time’ with Pride!”
On tour: bringing the wild to Pride
The band’s reach is growing. “We did a Pride tour this past summer. We were flying across the country from Orlando to LA Pride, headlining Seattle Pride, Portland Pride, Vancouver Pride. It was the best Pride of our lives, I think,” Bryant shares. “We just played Tupelo Pride in October.”
Their tour started in February and it is the biggest of their career so far. “We’ll pretty much tour leading up to Pride season, and then it’s ‘go time’ with Pride,” Gold says. “Sometimes it’s just the two of us, but we do have a drummer named Mace, and Mace will be with us on the full tour.” 76th Street will be in our area in April, so be sure to get on their mailing list to stay up to date and to buy tickets.
Advice for young LGBTQ musicians
What advice do they have for young LGBTQ musicians? “Just don’t be afraid of telling your true story. Because ultimately, the music industry is so about the song. If you’re not saying something different or unique or interesting, then you might just fall into this void,” Gold says. “In singing about queer topics, that means we get to be around queer people. And that’s a win.”
“Tell your truth, because we need authenticity,” Bryant adds. “That connection at shows, when our fans come up to us and say that they have connected to our songs, that our song is a soundtrack of their life with their partner — that wouldn’t exist if we weren’t telling the stories as we’ve experienced them too.”
The road ahead
As 76th Street continues to tour, create, and inspire, their message is clear: wild hearts, authentic voices, and the power of queer community can change the world — one harmony at a time.
