Bill's PurpleCrayon Blog

XENIA INTERVIEW, PART TWO

"There are three types of people: People who hate change and people who love change. I'm the third type. I crave change."

Xenia, the red-haired doll-come-to-life who sings, designs clothes and posts blogs in what seems like a zillion journals, continues her conversation with PurpleCrayon Direct Creative Director Bill Murphy.

This is Part Two of a three part interview with Sky Salt's lead singer and creative force, conducted on January 5th, 2005.


PCD: What are your top two or three guy band singers, then?

X: I'd say Ozzy Osbourne. And Sebastian Bach of Skid Row. And I actually like Peter Steele of Type O Negative. Obviously, I can't really imitate them in any way. But, hey, they rock.

PCD: What song do you most enjoy from Fairy Tales, that you don't really really get sick of playing live or listening to?

X: It's kind of weird because I hate them all and love them all at the same time.

PCD: You hate them because you're sick of playing them now?

X: Yeah. You know, you get tired of them. But I'd say "Beautiful." All in all that's probably my favorite. Actually, the new song. It's called "Astronomy For Under the Sun." I love that song.

PCD: Where did the idea for that song come from?

X: Well, I can send you the lyrics. Actually, I just finished the demo recording for it. It's about a lot of, basically, space references. Planets and whatnot. It's about me becoming unstable and kind of influenced by the planets and stuff.

PCD: Like, unstable as in giving in to the whole supernatural thing? Astrology?

X: More like astronomy. Well, the first line is, "Those Mars and Jupiter they got a hold of me. I never thought I'd be a part of something that involved astronomy."

PCD: That's cool. So is the album Fairy Tales so familiar to you now that you really don't listen to it ever? Or do you ever pop it into the CD player and say, "You know, that's really cool"?

X: Yeah, I do pop it in every now and then. But I wouldn't say that's one of my top records that I play a lot. But every time I do play it I'm actually surprised because they are really good songs. And I think, after all this time if I am still able to enjoy them that's a damn good sign. So, yeah.

PCD: Ozzy Osbourne? What is it about his vocal style that you like a lot? I've never thought of him as a great singer. He's a stylist. He has his own style. But when I think of great singers I think of, like, Steve Perry of Journey or someone with a really pure tenor voice.

X: Well, he has this kind of a grave-like quality to his voice. It's kind of hollow-ish. It's just really spooky. You know, when he's not drunk he's actually a really good singer. On his own records, anyway. Because I heard a song that he did with the band Coal Chamber, once, and he just sounds off key on every note. It's unbelievable. He probably showed up drunk because he didn't care. He can really stay on key quite well when he wants to.

PCD: You know, it's really interesting to hear you say that. I never thought of him that way. When I listen to Ozzy in Black Sabbath or with Randy Rhodes in his early solo career, I listen to the whole band. I think, "That's killer." But I never think, "Wow. That Ozzy is a really great vocalist."

X: He really sucked in Black Sabbath. Gotta say so. But he improved lots and lots in his solo career. Definitely. "Momma I'm Coming Home" is one of the best songs ever.

PCD: Oh, sure. Talk about a haunting quality. That's a sad song. You're familiar with R.E.M., right?

X: Oh yeah.

PCD: That vocalist, Michael Stipe, has a voice that always sounds sad to me. It doesn't matter what he's singing, I feel like I should be crying.

X: Yeah, that guy's amazing.

PCD: Let me ask you a little about all the things you're doing. For example, in one of your LiveJournal posts you write about "The Truth About e-Bay." It sounds like you have an excellent grasp of marketing, being creative. Because when you talk about re-inventing yourself, those are phrases I don't hear often. I only read such things in books by cutting edge marketers. Where did you get that knowledge?

X: Well, I'll tell you where. I love marketing. It's a secret passion of mine.

PCD: Is it really?

X: Absolutely. Oh yeah. Marketing and advertising.

PCD: What is it about those fields that you really enjoy?

X: You know how everybody says artists can't promote themselves and they just want to sit in a corner of the room and play guitar all of their lives? That's certainly not me.

PCD: I can tell that. Oh, I didn't mean to interrupt...

X: I'm sorry, but I love that aspect of the entertainment industry. I absolutely love it.

PCD: What is it you like about it? Do you see it as just another way to be creative?

X: No. Well, yeah. But also that is the real connection that you make with people. If you don't make that connection then your music will never reach the people.

PCD: That's true.

X: I don't understand why more artists aren't more concerned about promoting their stuff. This is how you reach the fans.

PCD: Well, you're familiar with the recording industry now. And promotion. Aritsts usually sort of get lost in the machine. A big label buys them up and either promotes them or not. Or loses them in the shuffle. And a lot of the musicians don't seem to have your knowledge of marketing anyway. So they get really cynical and burned out and they hate the whole industry.

X: I absolutely agree with what you said. To me, it is just another way to get creative. Like when we did the launch party for the CD in April. One of the campaigns -- I mean, we plastered the town with posters and whatnot -- but one of the campaigns was that myself and group of, like, girls my age we all came out on Union Square here in Manhattan and we were all wearing white poofy dresses and, you know, the cutest clothes we could find. And we were giving out lollipops and flyers inviting people to the show. I had so much fun just doing that. Just hanging there with my friends and giving out free lollipops to unsuspecting crowds.

PCD: You have a good grasp of event marketing and PR, then, as well. Because that's what that is. A lot of people don't have that. First of all, it takes a lot of guts to do something like that.

X: I mean, I'm an entertainer. I love drawing attention to myself. Obviously. I'm an attention seeker. Oh yeah. I don't mind.

PCD: Where did your sharp focus for marketing come from? You wrote, "The only way out I see is re-invention." That's a brilliant statement. I read that from marketing gurus in books that they sell in major book stores. How did you come to that awareness?

X: Well, for one thing, quite frankly, I was never able to stick with one thing for more than a year. Like, you know, musical direction, whatever I'm playing with the band, what I'm wearing. I crave...like I said, there are three types of people: People who hate change and people who love change. I'm the third type. I crave change.

PCD: Really?

X: Absolutely. I just can't live without it. It's a natural thing for me to change and to reinvent. It's the most exciting time when it's time for change and you just kind of shed the old skin, you know? And you re-emerge. Shiny and sparkling and new.

PCD: Yeah, like a gecko shedding it's skin.

X: Yeah, exactly. There you go. Yeah. Reinvention. It's just fun.

PCD: There's a marketing author named Seth Godin who would appreciate what you just said, and what you write in your LiveJournal blog. He writes in his books to urge people to be remarkable. You have to do something above the norm these days to call attention to yourself.

X: Above the norm? Wow. Nothing like putting pressure on artists. I think it's just about being yourself, you know. Doing something different. It doesn't have to be better than what everybody else is doing. After all, who are we to say what's better and what's worse?

PCD: Anybody can say that. If everybody did what everybody else did it would be a pretty bland world. And the reason why your CD stands out is because it's better than most of the stuff I've listened to.

X: You think so? Thanks. I'm really flattered. I just think it's different, I guess. That's why people like it.

PCD: It's quirky. It stands out. It's got great melodies, cool songs. It really does stand out. It's remarkable in it's own right.

X: Thank you.

PCD: Let me put you in context for a minute. You design your own clothes with your LimeCrime business. You write songs. You post blogs on all these sites about everything from make-up tips to marketing ideas on eBay. You play music. First of all, where do you find time for all of this?

X: Well, being creative is my first, number one priority in life.

PCD: But how long are your days?

X: Well, LimeCrime is my day job. Quote, unquote. This is how I make money. So I kind of have to do it. Most people have regular day jobs so they don't have much time left. The 9-5, you know? I don't have a 9-5, so...

PCD: So is all of this the same kind of thing to you -- it all comes under the heading of "creative"? Is it all the same kind of thing to you, only in different expressions?

X: I would say so, yeah. I'm just trying to be me, I guess.

PCD: Well, people being themselves is often not that great. I mean, you've gotta have a lot going for you to begin with. So then when you're yourself it's remarkable. You know what I'm saying? You can't just be a shmo on the street. You've gotta be remarkable to begin with. Then when you're being yourself people will say, "Wow. That's really great."

X: You think so? I think you can take the most blahest person's life and write an amazing book about it. I'm not kidding.

PCD: IF...you're an amazing writer to begin with.

X: Yeah. If you're good at it. But I'm saying it's possible that even if that person's life wasn't that exciting, per se...

PCD: But that particular person probably couldn't do it.

X: No. Probably not.

PCD: You seem to have creativity above the norm. So you're not exactly what I'd call a normal person in that respect. In a good way.

X: That's really flattering to me. Even though I seriously don't think of myself as such. Not at all.

PCD: Well, I don't know very many people who do the things you do. Maybe I'm hanging out with the wrong crowd. You have a lot of talent, obviously, and you express it in a lot of different ways. Do you paint as well?

X: Yeah. Yup. I do fashion illustration. I can definitely draw and paint.

PCD: Have you ever tried creating a sort of gallery of your art and exhibiting it?

X: Well, I have a couple of scans. But I don't paint much any more. I like writing a lot, actually.

PCD: Fiction?

X: Yeah, I usually stick with novels and short stories.

PCD: So what's in the future for you? Since you crave change, can you foresee what the future will be? Or do you sort of ride along and let it happen? Or, to put it another way, do you make change happen? Or do you let change happen?

X: I definitely make it happen. I just get bored with the old self and I reinvent. Just yesterday I was talking to Mark [A.D., the guitarist] about sex change.

PCD: You don't want to go that far, do you?

X: I don't know. I've always wished I was a man, all my life. Maybe because I always listened to bands that had guys playing rock and roll. Lately, I was torn by this question: Why is it that it's so difficult for a women to stand out in rock and roll, in terms of clothing, imagination or anything? It's kind of complicated. But what I came up with is the double standard. I'm going to try to overcome that.


To be continued...

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XENIA INTERVIEW, PART ONE

"If you want to do music or sing or paint or do fashion design, just go and do it."

On Thursday, January 5th, I had the privilege of interviewing Xenia, the prolific and highly creative singer/songwriter of Sky Salt, the three-piece New York indie band that is making friends with discerning music fans all over the world. (According to the band's web site, the other members of the band are Mark A. D., Nathan You and Dennis Patrick -- although only three members of Sky Salt are usually shown in pictures.)

Sky Salt has recorded one full-length CD to date. And it's a doozy, full of haunting melodies, clever hooks and even more clever lyrics. In short, I Believe in Fairy Tales is a remarkable achievement, especially considering it's the band's freshman release.

Here are the particulars:


I Believe In Fairy Tales
Sky Salt
Release Date: April 28, 2004
Label: Lime Crime Records

Track Listings
1. I Believe In Fairy Tales / Introduction
2. Paper Angels
3. Beautiful
4. Take Your Time
5. You've Got It (Wrong)
6. How I Feel
7. Long Way / Interlude
8. Low
9. Ago
10. Wrong
11. 2 of a Kind / Epilogue (I Believe In Fairy Tales Reprise)

Available from Amazon.com.


In addition to her work with Sky Salt (both performing and writing songs for the next album), Xenia designs her own line of clothing, Lime Crime, writes extensively in her LiveJournal blog (screen name: LimeCrime) and, one would assume, still finds time to relax, hang out with friends and do all the things any other normal 23-year-old might find to do.

Xenia has a delightful sense of humor, and she laughed often during our interview. I had a great time chatting with her, and, because of her irrepressible can-do attitude, felt encouraged to reach for higher creative challenges in my own life.

This is Part One of my interview. Part Two will be posted within a couple of days.


PCD: How was your New Year’s Eve gig?

X: Oh, it was really cool, actually.

PCD: It was an acoustic one, wasn’t it?

X: Yeah. First time we did it, actually. Really unusual for us.

PCD: Did it go over pretty well with the audience?

X: Yeah. I think everyone liked it. Obviously, it was a lot quieter than our usual shows.

PCD: I read reviews of your shows and they say you put on a spectacular show.

X: Yeah. Oh yeah. We jump around quite a bit. And the costumes and all that.

PCD: That’s what rock and roll is all about. You have to put on a spectacle.

X: Yeah, that’s certainly one of our beliefs.

PCD: I was going to ask you some questions about Fairy Tales and some of the other things you work on.

X: Okay.

PCD: The credits on I Believe in Fairy Tales indicate you’ve written the majority of the songs, the music and lyrics.

X: Yup.

PCD: Where did you get all of your musical talent from?

X: You mean my parents?

PCD: Yeah. How old are you?

X: I’m 23.

PCD: You have an awful lot of talent for 23.

X: Thanks. My father was somewhat of a rock star back in Russia. I didn’t know him because my mom married somebody else when I was little. And he died so I didn’t really got to know him at all. My mom was just like me. She always liked boys in the bands, apparently.

PCD: What does she think of your music now?

X: Well, I didn’t find out that my father was a rock musician until I was 16. She always tells me that it’s quite surprising. I look like him, and my facial expressions are like him and I tap my foot in the same way. So she sees a lot of similarities, behavioral, between me and my father. The music? She likes it quite a bit. She was surprised I kind of found my way to rock and roll without the knowledge.

PCD: Are you self taught? Or have you taken lessons?

X: No, I finished music school in Russia. Seven years.

PCD: Seven years?

X: Yeah. Piano was my specialty.

PCD: On your web site there are pictures of you playing guitar and keyboards. Are you equally adept at both?

X: At guitar I’m self taught. And piano, like I said, I’m classically trained. You know, I don’t like saying that. It always sounds really cheesy. Every band’s bio reads, “Oh and the singer is a classically trained blah, blah, blah.” We always joke around that on our bios we should put something like, “Mark A.D. was classically potty trained.” You know what? I didn’t really like or enjoy playing classical music on piano. I hate it.

PCD: But didn’t that give you an different sort of insight into be able to write rock and roll?

X: I guess I did, but I don’t like admitting it.

PCD: Really? A lot of the big names in rock music -- like Dream Theater or Yes or Genesis -- boast classical training as what makes them unique and so talented. But you’re saying admitting classical training isn’t a plus in your kind of rock?

X: Well, I don’t really believe in schooling when it comes to creativity because I think that if you want to do music or sing or paint or do fashion design, just go and do it. You really don’t need anybody teaching you. Well, you can learn the basics from your idols. That’s what I did. Nobody taught me how to play rock and roll. They just made me listen to Tchaikovsky. But nobody was telling me about Black Sabbath.

PCD: Oh, they had some of the coolest guitar riffs I’ve ever heard.

X: Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

PCD: How about on your CD. Are you playing the instruments? Or was it Mark A.D. or some of the other musicians?

X: Oh yeah. I played electric and acoustic guitars and all the piano. And I contributed quite a bit, actually, in terms of arranging and just creating the vibe.

PCD: One of the things I like a lot about the CD is its great sense of melody. The structure isn’t like a lot of other bands I listen to. I don’t know where that’s coming from -- maybe your classical training. It’s really cool.

X: Thank you. That’s why they call me the melody queen. I love bands that create good melodies.

PCD: That’s rare these days. A lot of the bands these days just have a wall of sound, just thrashng chords. No melody to speak of.

X: Melody is definitely very important to me. The melody makes the song. If you can’t sing along with it what kind of a song is it?

PCD: It’s the kind you hear on the radio a lot.

X: There are still a lot of good bands out there. I don’t know if you’re familiar with Nickelback? Excellent songwriting.

PCD: How long did it take you to record Fairy Tales?

X: About six months. You know, standard time, I think.

PCD: Do you have songs in the can already and you’re thinking about a next album?

X: Oh, yeah. We are certainly thinking about the next one. Writing songs, adding them to the current set.

PCD: So you play some new tunes in your current set? How do they go over with your audience?

X: Pretty good, actually. I think they’re better.

PCD: Better?

X: Yeah. I like them better. Well, for one thing I’m trying to take a slightly different approach with the new record. I want to be a little more dancy and stuff. Not like techno or dance music. But something you can jump to. Not as heavy or depressing as Fairy Tales was.

PCD: I'd like to ask you about that. If there’s a theme to Fairy Tales it seems to be things not being what they seem, having no home to go home to, loss and disillusionment, even dying. Yet the story on your web set about where your band came about -- the wind-up doll story and lighthearted fairy tale-like tone -- how do those two things go together? The darker themes of the album, versus the fairy tale theme of the web site.

X: That's a really good question. The title I Believe in Fairy Tales is actually kind of ironic. I was being sarcastic. It's more like I'd like to believe in fairy tales but, unfortunately, the reality tells me that they don't really exist. I don't know. It's kind of bizarre. I'm a very rational person. I'm an atheist, actually. So I don't believe in supernatural whatsoever. But I still have this fear of the dark. Why would I be afraid?

PCD: Well, there could be people in the dark.

X: Not really people. I'm just afraid of all kinds of stuff that doesn't make sense. I don't believe in it [the supernatural]. But yet I get scared of it. I'd love to believe in fairies and part of me does believe. Part of me is certain they exist. But the other rational part of me says "uh-uh." You know, the constant on-going conflict between the two. So that's why the wind-up doll look. I kind of dress like a doll on stage.

PCD: With all the stripey clothes and the make-up?

X: Yeah, and the poofy dresses and stuff. So we just said, "Hey, let's write something different." I didn't want it to sound like some kind of old band bio that everybody else has, you know, they're classically trained and stuff. So let's write that I didn't even exist until I picked up a guitar. Which is pretty much how it happened. I played piano since I was like, what, three years old. And I never, ever picked up a guitar until I was 18.

PCD: So, see, that music training came in handy for something.

X: Oh yeah. Absolutely. If nothing else it definitely developed my ear.

PCD: Your enjoyment of fairies and all things pseudo supernatural is that why you're such a Harry Potter fan?

X: I guess so. Yeah. I actually write a little bit, too. Whenever I come up with something it's usually supernatural.

PCD: That's interesting. How about your favorite movies, then?

X: Actually, my favorite movie -- one of them -- is Being John Malkovich.

PCD: Oh yeah. That's a great movie.

X: I love it. It's so crazy, right?

PCD: Oh yeah. What did you think of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind?

X: Oh I loved that one. I just saw it recently, actually. The movie that I didn't like was Adaptation. Everyone was telling me, "Oh it's like Being John Malkovich meets whatever" and I just so did not see that. It was a huge box office hit. But I didn't get it.

PCD: We've talked about a lot of singers and songwriters. What singers do you emulate or really enjoy?

X: If you're asking female singers...?

PCD: Primarily.

X: None. I swear. I grew up listening to rock bands with guys in them. It just kind of happened that way. All my influences are all guy bands.

PCD: What's your top two or three guy band singers, then.

X: I'd say Ozzy Osbourne. And Sebastian Bach of Skid Row. And I actually like Peter Steele of Type O Negative. Obviously, I can't really imitate them in any way. But, hey, they rock.

PCD: What song do you most enjoy from Fairy Tales, that you don't really really get sick of playing live or listening to?

X: It's kind of weird because I hate them all and love them all at the same time.

PCD: You hate them because you're sick of playing them now?

X: Yeah. You know, you get tired of them. But I'd say "Beautiful." All in all that's probably my favorite. Actually, the new song. It's called "Astronomy For Under the Sun." I love that song.


To be continued...

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XENIA SPRINKLES HER FAIRY DUST

I had a thoroughly delightful interview last night with Xenia, the leader singer and creative force behind the remarkable new band Sky Salt.

Xenia is a ball of fire, a real go-getter of a person who not only likes to make things happen, but seems to accomplish whatever she sets her mind to. I predict big things for Xenia, with or without Sky Salt. (Hopefully with because the band is captivating.)

I'll have my interview with Xenia posted here within a week.

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