Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?
Xai: Ay ay ay! Where do I start? Born and raised in Melbourne, Australia with a Syrian-Turk heritage. Grew up in a multi-cultural suburb in Melbourne called Brunswick but then moved to a mostly-white area out in the ‘burbs where I spent most of my teenage years. I was always the “odd one out” growing up, so this coupled with my not-so-white-background, and needless to say, high school and I didn’t get along so well! Kids at school used to sing the X-Files tune when I’d walk in the room, depressing at the time but it was indeed and always has been MY FAVOURITE SHOW OF ALL TIME so hats off to you FUCKERS! I was bullied often for being a “freak”, as they called it, or because of my background but I always defended myself and those around me who were also singled out. I felt very isolated and alone and became a very angry and violent teenager, with morals! haha I was very confused, lost and depressed so I think it’s natural that I found solace in what I believed I could relate to at the time, and that was the sound of pain through music. By 15 I was completely obsessed with Nirvana and Kurt Cobain, I felt I could relate to him and his sounds at a very deep emotional level. Not so healthy looking back in retrospect but def still remains my favourite band of all time. So that’s where the inspiration for music began… Fast forward a couple of years and OH MY LORD!!! TLC – No Scrubs?! That music video changed MY LIFE!! In that video, they were like the “freaks” that everybody used to call me!! The boots, the clothes, the dancing! I instantly felt appreciated! EVERYTHING changed after that! I had to be more like them and I had to learn to dance like them! So I branched out and my passion for music broadened into discovering my passion and apparently natural ability to dance my ass off! So Nirvana and TLC, Grunge and RnB is where it all began and if I was to be asked what keeps me inspired to stay in the game, then I would say Queen B. She is my Michael Jackson. Before, it was always for her female empowerment, work ethic, drive and extreme performance and dance styles. That girl gets crunk on stage like nobody else! But now that she’s feeling politically motivated, I strongly resonate with that. Her Blank Panther representation at the Super Bowl?! All hail Queen B.
Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?
Xai: Xai, pronounced Zay… it’s short for Xaidex which has forever been by nerdy nickname that I came up with a long time ago. My friends refused to call me Xaidex so I shortened it to Xai but they still refuse to call me anything other than my real name! haha Only a few people on this planet know where Xaidex comes from! Let’s just say it’s an X-Files reference haha we can negotiate a prize for anybody who can guess what it means. I have a fussy obsession with Sci-fi.
Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?
Xai: Agh. I’m all for advancing technology and living in the digital age BUT call me old school when it comes to ownership and appreciation of art. Having said this though lol, I use Soundcloud as an online hub to link industry pro’s to my music. I also have this available on my website for the same purpose. I’d like to think that the day I make my first million, I won’t be online sharing or streaming anywhere. You want it, you have to want it so bad that you’ll pay for it! Whatever “PAY” means! Even illegally downloading or getting it for free some other way comes from a place of appreciation and desire for your sounds as effort is involved, so I’m cool with that! – as opposed to the temporary want and appreciation that comes with streaming. Let’s not blame the consumers though, although it’s their choice at the end of the day, these services are enabling this new culture and behaviour. It all comes down to making a quicker and bigger buck at the end of the day. Who knows, maybe I’ll have a different opinion later on in my career!
Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?
Xai: You can leverage opportunities offered on websites such as Reverbnation and Music Xray. Some are free and others you have to pay, I’ve noticed that some of the paid ones on Music Xray are free on Reverbnation so make sure you do your research before submitting. You can use online opportunities depending on how small or big you want to go with your hunt but regardless of what road you take, ALWAYS continue to network, “meet” (whether it be in the digital realm or face to face) a person who knows a person and always be confident, kind and humble towards all of them, including yourself, or else the real deals won’t give a shit about you (where “real deals” is your subjective interpretation of who you’re targeting). Persistence prevails. Don’t EVER let rejection bring you down or make you doubt your talents or efforts. Rejection just means wrong time, wrong place or wrong person or business transaction. Keep at it, keep working, keep collaborating, maintain a strong online presence, keep submitting, promote your brand, keep recording or producing or whatever it is you do. Get in touch with local venues or clubs that you want to perform at, go to open mic nights. Don’t be afraid to send a followup email or make a followup call if someone hasn’t gotten back to you. Stay in the game and don’t try to sound like someone else just coz you’ve been rejected! There’s only one of you on this planet and trust me, there are many people out there that want to hear and see YOU, we’ve already seen everything else and everyone trying to sound like everyone else! Aghhh It’s EXHAUSTING! Also, don’t be a jerk and don’t deal with jerks in return for some airplay or opportunity to play at a cool gig. You will only be disappointed. Something bigger and better always come along. Stay true to yourself and don’t get caught up with ego! The biggest artists I’ve worked with and respect the most, have been the kindest and most humble of them all.
Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?
Xai: I hate songwriting! I struggle with it unless I’m feeling melancholic or angry! This is where all my inspiration comes from. When I’m angry, I’ll have an entire track done – full production, from scratch – all by myself in less than a couple of hours and I’ll LOVE it, even the next day! haha First, I’ll come up with the beat and I’ll just flow to it, usually in melody forms first, no freestyling, just melodies until I find the right one that represents how I’m feeling, then the words will come, I don’t write down lyrics, I’m in a mood so I’ll naturally remember them as they represent how I’m feeling at the time. Writing lyrics down in this state of mind makes them feel less authentic and the process meaningless. The vocals always end up being one of two extremes, rough and angry or soft and sad. It’ll then generally take me just a couple of takes to get it right. On any other day, though, I strugggggle! I do not feel inspired and needless to say I don’t go out of my way looking for reasons to feel depressed or angry so this is why I got into composing and scoring. I feel the same outlet and level of accomplishment after composing a score than I do producing a track when I’m down or angry. In fact, I’m always feeling inspired to write a score so you’ll be seeing a lot more of that coming in the future. I’ve never really loved writing lyrics anyway but I’ve always loved creating and singing melodies, for me, this is where it’s at. This is the creative aspect that I’m in love with. Composing vocal and instrumental harmonies and melodies. A beautiful vocal melody over some strings, grand piano and drums is just bliss for me… as is an 808 with a crazy bitch on the mic.
Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?
Xai: I love being involved in all creative media so naturally, I’m obsessed with film, graphic design, web design, photography, video editing, technology yada yada yada so yes I’ve always had a website – xaizilla.com I recently revamped it to capture my entire artistic side and not just my music. I try to utilise all social media platforms to maintain and gain further exposure, so you can find me online as ‘xaizilla’ on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud and Reverbnation.
Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?
Xai: Go and work with Eddie at Black Jaguar White Tiger in Mexico and Australian Orangutan Project in Borneo, Indonesia.
Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?
Xai: I’ve tried lots of different online tools to promote my music and continue to utilise different platforms and methods each day. I find the best results come from leveraging online PR agencies. They already have the contacts and expertise to help promote a brand so why not utilise this to take you to the next level? They’re just more costly than your average online campaign tool but totally worth it! I used A&M Entertainment, I think they’re AMW Group now and they also cater to startup and have packages available to suit every budget so I’d recommend giving something like this a shot. Just make sure you’ve got your brand and campaign all packaged up and ready to go before contacting anyone. Don’t jump straight into it without having any material ready. You’re a brand, remember?
When I first started looking for an agency, I googled all of those representing my favourite artists and emailed every single one of them (don’t put all of your eggs in one basket!), out of all the ones that I contacted, the one that reached out to me and that was most interested, represented one of my favourite artists! “I MADE IT”, I thought! Unfortunately it came down to cost – The risk of forking out over 10k for a short period of time was too high and this is when I realised that I didn’t even know what I wanted, so it didn’t happen, but I learnt from it. Now I know, they’re listening and they’ll hear you if you believe you’re ready, so get your branding right!
Build a focal point – what are you promoting? Your song? Your new album? Your tour? What results are you expecting? What’s your goal? WHAT DO YOU WANT? Do your research before making a decision, maybe online PR won’t get you to your goal just yet so know what you want before you go for it. Get your one-pager right, they can help you write this, but get the foundation and content ready so they can hit the ground running! Get your campaign footage or photos right. If you don’t have graphic design skills, use a project funder like Kickstarter or find cheap services online from sites like Freelancer- surely though, someone will know someone who knows how to edit a few photos for you for free, so just ask around. I built my ‘Buy The Remix’ campaign to promote the MegaFlex n AKiddo Remix of my debut single, Write It On A Wall, and it’s official teaser music video that I edited myself. I blasted all of social media with my campaign photos that I also took and edited myself. The purpose of my campaign was to increase exposure through reviews, increase my social fan base and increase song sales and succeeded in all. I’ll utilise an online PR agency again when I have another campaign ready to go.
Music Xray is also a good platform to pay industry pro’s to listen to and critique your music. I just recently realised though, that I don’t give a shit about what anyone thinks so I’ve probably wasted a lot of money here! But if you’re at the stage where you want a pro’s opinion, then this is a good place to start. You can also submit your work for consideration to labels (do they even exist anymore?!) or for marketing, publishing or distribution deals etc. via free or paid opportunities on Music Xray and Reverbnation, where they guarantee you the industry pro will listen to your submission. Reverbnation also offers an online campaign promotion tool for a fee, to advertise your brand online. Once again, get your branding right before jumping into this. Facebook Ad’s is also another powerful tool if you know what you’re doing so do your research before using it and Promolta is also another good one for promoting your Youtube videos for quick results.
At the end of the day, your music is attached to your brand so you can utilise any sales or promotional technique targeted to a specific audience, it doesn’t necessarily have to be music sales techniques. It’s all about branding so sell your brand, not your music.
Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?
Xai: Well I have The Instrumentals collection which are my musical compositions that I keep adding to at the moment. They’re not for sale just yet but are available for licensing. I’m really inspired by this project so I’ll continue to work on it and just see where it takes me for now. I’m also near finished working on a new EP so you’ll get to hear some new authentic raw sounds from me. Be on the look out over the next month or so for it’s realise. I’ll then start gigging locally so that should be fun! Once that’s done, I’d like to get more involved in film scoring and composing for orchestra, I want to hear an orchestra perform my work. I also want to create new sounds with my vocals and compositions to release as albums, so lots of exciting projects in the pipeline!
Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?
Xai: Helping others build their own businesses. Philanthropy. Animal Welfare.
Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?
Xai: Time management. Your music is your business so roster it and other projects you’re working on, into your calendar just like you would any other job. If you have a 9-5, then that’s locked in. So lock in your Music Marketing 6-7 and Recording 7-9 just as examples. This doesn’t sound like much but will make a huge difference in the way you think, act and attract the right opportunities towards you.
Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?
Xai: A more honest Xai. I don’t think I’ve allowed the world to see the real me just yet, I don’t know if it’s permanent damage done from my younger years or fear of rejection that has caused me to keep a lot of my music to myself. In the past, I’ve tried to present myself as a person that I want to be as opposed to the person that I am and I’ve only now realised that that’s the person the world wants to see.
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