A Heartwarming Tale of Love and Loss: LEXXE Releases “X”
New York-based dark-pop artist LEXXE is back with her new single, “X.” Pairing swirling disco beats with raw, diaristic lyricism, LEXXE has created a song that is euphoric and emotional all at once. A heartwarming tale of love and loss, “X” is an ode to her father, Xavier (X), who passed away 20 years ago this year. The nontraditional release date – Sunday, January 29th – is her late father's birthday.
“A few years ago I was performing and could absolutely swear I saw my father sitting front row,” LEXXE says. “I love to write about the supernatural and the things we don’t understand, so while I acknowledge that seeing him could’ve been something my mind made up, it doesn’t make it any less poignant,” Lexxe writes. “The song is composed of different lines about me questioning life and death, talking about real life events (the show where I thought I saw him, his friends seeing me in random bars and crying because I look like him, the last time I saw him) and it's really a question of do we ever really die?”
With artistic authenticity oozing out of everything she does, LEXXE is a breath of fresh air with a raw story to tell and refreshing music to share. Her intoxicating dark-pop sound has captured the attention of tastemakers like Billboard, Audiofemme and EARMILK.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Thank you for sitting down and talking to Unpublished Magazine. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. First of all, can you introduce yourself and like who LEXXE is and what type of music you make?
[LEXXE]: LEXXE is my music persona. My name is Alexis. It gets confused all the time. I'm from Long Island. I grew up doing ballet, so I try to make music that I can dance to, even if it's slow music or something that is instrumental. My project started after I graduated from college and I decided to really chase my music dream instead of just focusing on the dance aspect of my life. My project is a dark-pop synth moment.
[UNPUBLISHED]: You experiment with a lot of genres. Do you have a favorite genre that you like leaning more into or playing around with more?
[LEXXE]: I always like making sure that there are guitars present or at least parts in the music that can be felt the sound live to have a heavier edge. I think there will always be a heavier edge no matter what I make. I wouldn't say just rock, but I would say just a heavier edge.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Your single “X” released. Can you talk to us about your artistic evolution since you released “Runnin’ Wild" until now, what does that look like for you?
[LEXXE]: I remember that song and I'm sure everyone has their first EP or their first single and they're like, ‘oh my god, I have to take that down’ and I'll go listen to it and be like, ‘I can't take this down.’ It's so sweet. I think I always gravitate towards synth. I gravitate towards things that you can walk on the city street to fast beats, and I think that first song was just a really good taste of what I wanted to try and I just hadn't really experimented with what sounds I liked and lyrics. But from “Runnin’ Wild’ until now, I've kind of just polished exactly what I like and found people around me that understand exactly what I like. So I walked into the studio with Dom Florio who produced “X,” and he had already started working on the synths for “X” and before I got there and before we knew what we were going to write, people that were around me were super, super integral to my journey, and then me being able to pinpoint “Runnin’ Wild’ as the baby version of “X.” I've kept comparing the two and being like this is what I wanted “Runnin’ Wild” to be, but it's so nice to see the growth in between.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What is the best environment to listen to your music? Where can you picture yourself being the most grounded?
[LEXXE]: I would hope that people would hear it out while they're dancing, and it would just be one of those songs that they're like ‘wow, what was that? I loved that.’ I like listening to my music the most in the car at night. It's kind of brooding and it kind of has that feeling of going somewhere feeling or in your room with a bunch of candles on and absent.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Who are some of your influences in general, doesn't have to be musical.
[LEXXE]: Freddie Mercury. I feel like he was just so good on stage and had such a magic about him. I'm trying to think of people that aren't musicians, but they just have that magic about them, that's like more than just a musician and they wanted to do something good. I know David Bowie was one of them. I'd say Freddie Mercury, Stevie Nicks and I really love Edgar Allan Poe. I loved reading that growing up and I really love Nathaniel Hawthorne too.
[UNPUBLISHED]: I would love to learn about your single “X.” What was the inspiration behind the single and what does it mean to you?
[LEXXE]: So “X” is about my dad. It's the first song I've written about him. He passed 20 years ago, and it's a big part of my life, but I've always kind of gravitated against talking about it for some reason in my heart. I don't know why, maybe I just wasn't ready. But this year, I didn't realize it was 20 years and I think it's so interesting that your body kind of knows that time has passed and my brain started thinking about him a lot. I'm writing random lyrics, and one of the lyrics was ‘Thought I saw you front row at my show,’ because a couple years ago, I don't even know if I believe in ghosts, but I swear he was front row at a show that I was at and I freaked out. I was dancing and I turned to that side of the stage and saw him very clearly, visibly with my eyes and I fell and then when I looked up it was a woman. That experience, whatever it was, I could have just been hallucinating for some odd reason this random Wednesday in the middle of May, but that had me write down this lyric and I walked into the studio that day and heard this kind of brooding beat with Dom. I knew that was the day to write it. So it's just about him and seeing him in different times and in general like a baseline of missing someone and searching for them even if they're still here.
[UNPUBLISHED]: This song was created during a super vulnerable moment in your life and touches on an intimate experience. How did this affect the process of creating your music? Has this helped you express any feelings with your lyrics or like let off steam?
[LEXXE]: When I was little, I had this toxic positivity thing going where it's like I can't be sad. I have to keep working. The week after my dad passed away, I was only 10, but I was like I have to go back to ballet class. I guess we have to keep going. That has always been something that I recognize as a flaw but something that I can work on, so this song helps me cry about it. It helped me remember moments that honestly kind of suck. Sometimes I'll be out at a bar and his friend will see me and this will start crying because I look like him and I'm like this sucks, but I'll just compartmentalize. This song definitely helped me do that. Yesterday, I didn't film the music video but I filmed a little dance video for it and it's just nice to express myself about this in general so many years later and actually get some of the feelings out.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Thank you for sharing that. You said you did a dance to it and that’s so amazing that you have so many different outlets to process those emotions so it comes out as its own art piece.
[LEXXE]: It was indefinitely ballet inspired, but honestly it felt more like my version of when someone goes to the gym to blow off steam and hits a bag. So it was kind of punchy and whatnot, and my girlfriend Alexa was filming with me and she was like, ‘just make sure that you're thinking about the song at this moment because you're dancing really, really vigorously and it could come across as like a jazz piece’ and I was like damn, I know it wasn't ballet. I'll probably do some ballet stuff in the music video eventually.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How does it feel to be releasing such an intimate song out in the world?
[LEXXE]: I think I feel less anxiety than any other release which is really interesting to me because it is like all personal lyrics. My last EP was a lot of metaphor about coming out of the closet, but super theatrical like ‘meet me in the shadows’ and like ‘make me a monster,’ very metaphorically grounded. Although it seems fantastical, it's just like true stories. I would love whoever relates to it to relate to it.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What message or emotions or story do you hope to portray with this work?
[LEXXE]: Not to discredit the moments where you feel something with you. It's a dance track, so you're not immediately going to get there but I do feel like there's an emotion in the melody when I was singing it. I felt lots of feelings like longing and whatnot, so I think the message is just to not discredit your own grief and to push through in a positive way, not a toxically positive way, and just believe in yourself. If the door opens up and you thought it was someone and you missed your mom at that moment like it was probably her.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What inspires your artistic persona and style?
[LEXXE]: Horror movies and old Hollywood starlets and Vegas showgirls.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Who are your favorite old Hollywood starlets?
[LEXXE]: I love Rita Hayworth. I love Marilyn, everybody knows she's great. Grace Kelly, Josephine Baker and then I really love the 80s Mötley Crüe hair people.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like for you that you would love to share with Unpublished?
[LEXXE]: I actually feel pretty good which is interesting because for the last couple years, I've felt the feeling that a lot of other artists feel which is like, why am I doing this? Or like screaming into the void vibes or like releasing music feels like throwing a message in a bottle into the ocean and no one's gonna hear it. I have been feeling pretty negative for the past couple years and I just decided to make music that I really like for me and kind of gave up on this everyone has to hear it mentality. This year I feel really excited and positive no matter what, and I think that's just a nice mindset to adapt to. I have a lot of music planned. I actually have my entire year planned until next year and it happened by accident. I'm just excited to get it out because I've been sitting on it for a little bit. More music, more music videos, maybe an album.
