Xenia Rubinos
Where are you from/where are you now?
I was born and raised in Hartford, CT my mom is Puerto Rican my dad was Cuban. I'm in Brooklyn right now.
Raised in a Cuban & Puerto Rican household, I'm confident you were surrounded by music. How did your cultural upbringing influence your taste in music?
My parents played music in the house all the time. Mami liked listening to the radio, pop music -Whitney, Mariah- and also salsa classics El Gran Combo, Willie Colon, & Lucecita Benitez. There was also a lot of Latin Jazz in the house. We would go to see free jazz shows in the park downtown. My dad LOVED dancing to salsa, rumba, and Earth Wind & Fire! He was also heavy into classical music - he played me operas like Leo Delibes "Lakme" and also the music of Ravel, Bach, etc. I wasn't that receptive to it as a kid because I just wanted to sing like Mariah and Lauryn Hill. Now, I have a greater appreciation for classical music and I'm so glad I grew up with all those different sounds in my ears. I think as I grew older I expanded my palette a lot. I think my tastes change with the seasons, but salsa, Ravel, Mariah, jazz are all like comfort food for me. There are always certain sounds I come back to (where) I touch home base.
You attended Berklee College of Music, studying jazz composition. At the present day, your vocal stylings present a multifaceted crossroads of deep soul-jazz fusion, opera, 70's funk, and early 80's punk-pop. Did you always know you'd be a performing artist? Was there a clicking 'a-ha!' moment in your artist journey that led you to your 'voice'?
When I was a kid I always said I wanted to be a singer. I don't think I really knew what that meant or that it could mean so many different things. I guess one of my biggest ‘a-ha’ moments was when I got more into composition, treating my voice just like another instrument in the texture and letting go of trying to sound a certain way. I stopped singing for a while and just wrote instrumental music. That separation is what actually allowed me to do my own thing. Learning composition was scary but extremely freeing because I was so out of my element and just felt like I could do anything. I could create the music worlds I wanted to exist in, and that ultimately brought me back to singing.
Given the music industry has an obsession with genre labels, you've managed to defy categorization with each release. Working alongside your partner Marco Buccelli - whose complex, punchy drum work hammers & cracks out a framework that allows your voice & keys to dance, stomp, and flow throughout each song, you released your 1st LP, MAGIC TRIX, and showed us a kaleidoscope of sounds. At one moment, a song like "Hair Receding" crunches and grinds along to Buccelli's broken-beat patterns while you lullaby through octaves. Then, a short breath later, it's pure punk energy with the call-and-response party anthem, 'Pan y Cafe'. Is there a conscious choice to navigate past genre classifications when you both are in the laboratory?
Working with Marco for over a decade has been a real gift. It's so rare to have a collaborator who has witnessed so much of my work throughout the years and has a really deep understanding of where I'm coming from. When making ‘Magic Trix’ in 2012, I was bringing my songs to the studio, composing them mostly solo, and then fleshing out the production with Marco. There was never a conversation about the genre in the process of making that record. I just brought my songs, we figured out how to play them, recorded them and that's it.
With your 2nd release, BLACK TERRY CAT, the public saw an emergence of a more obviously, socially-conscious Xenia. Examples include: "Mexican Chef", a funk-rock melody that pulls back the veil on class indifference; "I Won't Say", with its quotes from the essay, 'Who Will Revere The Black Woman?' by Abbey Lincoln...In fact, the whole album is anchored with strong moments of passion, angst, and Black/Brown pride. The album launched you across the threshold of indie music territory, landing in mainstream media outlets like PBS, NPR, and even Netflix. How did it feel to be seen beyond the scope of alternative music media & criticism? Was this a goal set purposely, or did it take you by surprise?
It felt good to know people were listening and that the music resonated with people. A lot of my dreams came true because of ‘Black Terry Cat’. I got to do so many things I'd spent years fantasizing about like headlining my own tours here and in Europe, playing festivals, (NPR’s) tiny desk (concert), meeting and playing with artists I really admired, being recognized by folks in the music community who I really admired. There was also a great deal of disappointment: of expectations, I had that didn't happen, about the nitty-gritty of it, the finances, the team I wanted to build on the business end, my growth not being enough or on par with what I had wanted. I definitely set out to make ‘Black Terry Cat’ be a more polished record, with a lot of depth and full to the brim with good stuff for the music heads, and also a feeling of inviting you in - even if you didn't want to hear the lyrics in such a serious way or get into dorky music stuff. I think we achieved that with the record. It has many layers to it and you can take as much or as little as you want, and hopefully each time you listen you find something you didn't notice before.
Since the success of BLACK TERRY CAT, you've been staying under the radar, but still sprinkling musical gems here and there...and they're straightforward boleros. For many Latin music aficionados, boleros are considered romance in its highest audio form - even with the 'corta-vena' anguish & despair. After the party bops and the social justice messages, is Xenia in the mood for love? What inspired you to approach & tackle these Spanish-language standards? What are some of your favorite bolero songs?
Boleros are comfort for me. They remind me of where I come from, of family, and of home. I think the main motivation for getting into boleros was searching for comfort and healing. As I started learning how to sing some of these tragic and romantic jams, I got really into the characters that sang them and all the different ways in which they performed. I started using them as a vehicle to do character work, take on different voices and personas, & explore that for myself as a singer. (Understanding) It doesn't have to be "ME" all the time, it can be so many different characters when I perform and when I get into that other character, my voice changes, and the choices I make in performance and in music are making a change too. It's really exciting. "Los Aretes de la Luna" by Vicentico Valdes is probably my favorite bolero right now, it's just so sweet, and the way he sings sounds kind of impossible to me. His tone sounds kind of cartoonish. It feels like dancing in pink cotton candy clouds at twilight. It's a goodnight kiss.
I've personally witnessed you embrace the world of performance art. From a wild La Lupe-inspired lip-sync performance of 'Do, you know where you're going to' by Diana Ross to original compositions for the dynamically avant-garde happening of Allan Kaprow's Chicken (reinvented by Alex Da Corte). You and Marco Buccelli fit perfectly in this arts mold, as, for your fanbase, it harkens back to the spontaneous vibe found in MAGIC TRIX. What attracted you to performance art, and what other artists (within this vein) inspire you?
Honestly, I fell into all of this. I think the live performances I did of XENIA2020 came from a very deep place of pain and transformation. I never set out to make any of those performances, they just started happening. It was just what I needed to do at that time. I never really considered that I was getting into performance art until other people started naming it for me. But I think most people were like, "WTF IS THIS?" (laughs). I'm ok with that. I know almost nothing about performance art. I do love Marina Abramovic and got to see ‘The Artist is Present’ at MoMA, which was pretty life-altering for me. Through researching her work I found out about Tehching Hsieh, who Abramovic credits as the "Master" of Performance Art. I learned about the ways in which his work expands our consciousness. There was one piece he did where he lived in a cage for one year, and I read that he found a way to make so many different spaces in that cage. For example on his bed, in his mind, he divided the bed into different zones so when he would sit or lie at one end or the other he was occupying a different space. It was like he was making rooms and spaces within a very confined place just by the power of his perception; he was changing his physical space. I'm such a huge fan of this kind of work, pushing against what we perceive to be real and showing us there are so many different ways of being and experiencing our time here.
Speaking of other artists, what have you been listening to these days?
There's a track called "Brokeup" that's on an older record by Arca called ‘Stretch 2’ that I have on repeat. "Sugar Mami" by Albany and La Zowi is also on repeat and I can't stop singing it. I like dancing to that song. This new Serengeti record with Greg Saunier is CRAZY good, oh my god - one of the best things I've heard recently for sure. Also on the box, Gil Scott Heron "Home is where the hatred is", and then an anthology of Celia Cruz changed my whole entire mood the other day.
You have new music on the horizon and just released a new single. Was the quarantine helpful in the making of this new offering? If so, what emotions were you able to conjure in the creative process?
Si Dios quiere, I'll be sharing tons of new music in the months to come. The quarantine time was a godsend. The pandemic has been (and still is) horrifying and a feeling of deep sorrow in so many ways; and on the flip side, the world is put on pause was exactly what I needed. I felt zero pressure to create in a rush. It felt like a snow day that lasted for a few months, and during that time there was no expecting anything of me. I was extremely privileged to have a home studio to work in and found that time to be extremely healing. I'm so grateful I had the resources to live well and make music during the global disaster. Sometimes - especially recently - I've felt like the meme of the dog having coffee in a burning house, and it feels totally absurd to be releasing music right now. The creating part feels good. It's more the business or outward part of the process that sometimes feels completely crazy and unimportant in a time like this. However, it did feel really good to share "Who Shot Ya?" and connect with people through that expression. Very grateful to have had the opportunity to make that video and share that song.
What advice would you give to a young person from the diaspora who wants to do what you do?
You are the only you. There may be many people who sing and play and write but no one can say it exactly how you do. Focus on what it is you do and work to do it the best you possibly can. Believe your own hype. There is space out here for all of us; we all have room to shine. We're in a circle of creators all next to one another. No one is above or below you. We are all just offering our ideas into the middle of this circle. Focus on working with the people who see you with eyes of love, who champion and encourage you, with who you can have real exchanges. Those are the people to build with. Don't waste time trying to be liked by anyone or bending over backward to be recognized by so and so: it's not worth it. It will not make you famous or successful. Spend your energy and time cultivating your craft, learning more about what you want to do, and just trying stuff. Remember that on your loneliest day - when there is no money, no accolades, nobody listening - the only thing you have is yourself and your work. Try to move in ways that will keep your sense of self and integrity intact, so that when everything else fades away, you've got yourself and you can relish in the beauty of the work you are making.