Artist Selects: XINA
Minneapolis-based multidisciplinary artist, XINA coined the term “arts and crafts music” to describe her genre-blending style and unique approach to songwriting. Beyond her mesmeric R&B inspired sound, XINA invites us into her world through visuals and performances with every project release. She draws on her background in choreography, production, and theatre to create a magnified listening experience. Her latest EP, Wavform, embodies this as a visual exploration of isolation and catharsis. In this edition of TRASH MAG’s Artist Selects series, I had the opportunity to discuss the meaning behind Wavform with XINA and her creative process throughout the project. We also dive into her mastery of pole dancing and her “Big 5” creative influences as an artist.
Listen to XINA’s picks from her Big 5 below:
How are you doing? Do you have any resolutions or practices you want to bring into the new year?
I’m doing well, thank you for asking. I had kind of a tough last month with the holidays and everything. I’ve been in a kind of weird mental place but I think this week I’ve kind of stepped into thinking, “okay I need to address all of this for my business and everything.” I’m in a better headspace and I’m excited for this year.
I was reflecting on this time last year, which doesn’t seem that long ago but also seems like fifty years ago, and everything I’ve accomplished since then in spite of everything that’s going on and that thought was pretty motivational. So I’m excited to take on another year, just having blinders on is kind of the goal. That’s kind of how I approached last year too, just trying not to be consumed by everything that’s going on. Just stay focused and stay grounded.
I wanted to say congrats on your release of the Wavform Visual EP! Each song appears to have its own surreal atmosphere, what are some of the overall themes you explored when creating the visuals for Wavform?
I wrote both of those songs in March and April of 2020. If I remember correctly, it was right when things were starting to hit the fan. In the states, things were starting to shut down for the first time. I’d written the songs on a very personal level. It was specifically a situation with a partner, but on a bigger scheme, it was a lot about just like being in isolation and all of the feelings that go along with it – all of the racing thoughts I was having and just the uncertainty of it all.
With the atmosphere that you observed, that kind of shift, the first song I have that ball that I’m swinging around. I don’t know why that ended up really happening or where the idea came from, but I really like what it ended up becoming, like this symbol of freedom. When I did throw it at the end of the first song it was kind of like a catharsis.
It’s also a little bit to do with physics and waveform. This idea, I think it’s called a wavicle, I don’t know too much about physics. This particle can exist in two different states at the same time. Depending on how it’s observed it can be perceived as a particle or a waveform. Between the two songs, the ball and chain symbolize the particle aspect, like this physics theory, and then by the time you get to “Wavform”, there’s a lot of the curved visual to represent the waveform. It’s more of a free-flowing, interdimensional atmosphere.
What was it like to direct and shoot the visual EP? Did it feel like the project had fully come to life after it was visualized?
I’ve had a lot of fun directing and visualizing these ideas because I often have really drawn out concepts for projects. I don’t like to just put out a song, you’re not gonna just get a single from me. If it’s a single it will have a visual that I probably choreograph a dance for or directed or something, but I’m having a lot of fun with that.
This specific project definitely evolved from my initial idea for it. It wasn’t gonna be a visual EP, “Board Games” was the song that I wanted to do a DIY visual for. I started talking to my friends who produced the tracks for that EP because I didn’t produce those tracks. I have produced everything that I’ve made that will be coming out in the future now, but this project was collaborative. When I was talking to them somebody had suggested that I stretch it into a visual EP and from there we started. It was also a collaborative process creating the concept for the visual.
We shot it all in two days, and it was 90 something degrees out, it was peak summer. We didn’t really have very clear ideas of what we were doing. We did it very organically, and I’m all for that, I love the creative process. Oftentimes I feel like I can prepare for weeks and weeks and it doesn’t matter. By the time you’re there, it doesn’t matter how much you prepared, it can all go to shit or you can have something magical happen. That’s how this one was, the process was great. It was super stressful, but that’s how I like it.
On a similar note, you recently produced, shot, and edited the video for your single “Aurora” at home. The result was especially haunting and ethereal, what inspired these visuals for you?
That one I really just made because I had finished a huge project that’s probably coming out next year. I was in a weird headspace creatively, feeling like I didn’t really know what to do next, but I really wanted some type of gratification by putting something out.
It was around September and I had that spooky melody in my head for days. I was moving into a house at the time, so I was doing a lot of moving tasks and I had that dumb melody in my head, and I was like “I’m just gonna make a song for fun.” Then I just really wanted to put something out, and someone suggested, “It’s kinda spooky, do like a Halloween thing.”
I was like okay, I’ll do a Halloween thing. Like I just said, you’re never gonna just get a song from me. My friend Adam, who has shot all of my visuals so far, let me borrow his camera to film that. So fucking fun. I really like that one just for the fact it was so hands-on. I struggle with delegating tasks, I really like to do everything myself. A blessing and a curse.
If you could create a name for your own sound or genre, what would it be?
Arts and crafts music.
I love that, very DIY. I was looking at your website and I saw you’ve been writing songs since the age of ten. What drew you to music at such a young age?
I always loved the idea of being a musician. I’ve kind of come to understand it as my divine calling now, so I think it’s always been that. When I was younger, it was just a fantasy I never really considered actually doing it. When I was writing songs at ten, I mean it was more like I was trying, I was ten you know?
My first profound experience, “this is what I’m supposed to be doing” type moment, I was probably fifteen or sixteen. At the time I was really into Christianity, I was going to church a lot and that’s where it came from. It was a Christian pop song and I described it as God had written it for me. I view my work as a spiritual practice. I’m not a Christian anymore and I don’t practice Christianity, but I do feel like I’m just a vessel for the muses, whoever is controlling the artists on earth.
What was the first song you learned to play?
Aside from when I was eight and tuned all my guitar strings to play a perfect chord so I could fake it, I sang “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus. Aside from that, it was “The Weekend” by SZA.
You are a multidisciplinary artist of many talents including contemporary/modern dance, choreography, theatre, and design to name a few. When working with these artforms do they spark ideas for your music? How often do they all connect?
It’s always different how ideas come together but I’ve definitely noticed a lot of parallels in the creative process. Whether it’s dance, songwriting, or directing visuals, there’s a lot of crossovers and I think the goal is to elicit some type of emotional response from your audience which can happen in a lot of ways. The way that I usually create these days, I start with the music or a really strong song and that’s kind of the vehicle that everything else is powered by.
As I’m saying that I’m realizing that’s always been the case. Since I’ve been a dancer the longest, I’ve been dancing since I was five and choreographing in high school, I would always say the music is what inspires my choreography more than anything else. You can create dance from any starting point, I mean some people create in silence, but for me, it’s always been strongly related to music. From there, music just inspires so many different things for me across all levels of creation.
Another skill you’ve mastered is pole dancing, how long have you been training and honing in your technique?
It’s been a little over a year and I’ve learned pole pretty quickly. It’s super rewarding and super fucking hard. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I did start learning because I wrote a song, that’s on my 2021 project, that I wanted to do a pole visual for. I knew of FKA twigs and I had written the song I’m referring to before MAGDALENE or “cellophane” came out. When I saw that, I was already training for my idea and I was sad at first, I was heartbroken. I was like, “I’m never going to be able to live up to this,” I don’t have the budget first of all. Now, I relate to twigs on so many different levels and I know that we will probably work together or be friends at some point.
What is one pole dance move you’ve learned that you’re proud of?
There’s one where you’re upside down and you grab your leg behind your back, it’s like a scorpion which is what it’s called in regular dance I think. That was kind of my ultimate goal when I started and I didn’t expect to achieve it as quickly as I did, so I was proud of that.
Speaking of FKA twigs, who would you consider to be some of your biggest creative influences?
Well, I don’t listen to a lot of music. I listen to like five artists religiously and I trust them. There’s just so much good music out there and it's overwhelming to think about as an artist. Solange, Frank Ocean, James Blake, Moses Sumney, and FKA Twigs are my top five.
Your Bedroom Pop EP was remixed by a collective of electronic musicians in Minneapolis from Slam Academy, what was it like to experience Bedroom Pop: The Remixes for the first time?
Super fun. I am friends with all those homies that did the remixes, and I kind of know their personal flavors, so hearing their takes on my songs was just so much fun. It’s always so humbling to even have people enjoy what I make in any capacity, and the fact that all of these super dope artists and producers that I found myself surrounded by are inspired by what I make and then can make dope art from what I’ve already made – it’s so cool I love it.
What’s in store for you in 2021?
I have a whole lot of art that I’ve been working on. Bedroom Pop was my first self-produced project. Since then, I’ve been able to surprise myself with how much I’ve grown as a producer and a musician. Those are things I never thought I would do. I was always mystified by the people I was working with like, “oh wow this is so great I have someone to do this for me,” but that’s not the case anymore and because of that I have developed a more experimental and more authentic sound. I’m really proud of what I have. I don’t know when it’s going to come out, there are a lot of moving pieces. The sounds are done, but in the industry, I’m learning there’s a lot more than just the songs being done that have to take place before things actually get released.
Lastly, can you describe some of the reasons behind the picks for the playlist?
These are my favorites from my Big 5, so I'll describe one from each.
Pyramids: I'm usually really drawn to art in long-form. This song, and all of Channel Orange, has been my shit since I was in middle school. Pyramids, thematically and sonically, has been a huge inspiration for a lot of my upcoming work.
Fallen Alien: A hype song for me like no other. Twigs uses really distorted EDM type sounds in a really cinematic way throughout all of MAGDALENE which is very inspiring to me.
Digital Lion: I've always been particularly drawn to this song from Overgrown which has been surprising to me! It's different from a lot of things that typically move me. Something about the rhythms and the energy of this one.
Scales: It's the lyricism for me! I listened to this record for years before understanding what Solange was saying and getting into it. But damn, it's fire.
Polly: I bought my white and gold hollow body guitar the week before Moses dropped this song. I have names for all of my gear and precious belongings and I had named my guitar Polly. It was a beautiful coincidence when this track came out!
