10 Questions with XEINN.
XEINN is a young, rising R&B/ trap/ hip hop influenced artist with real talent, ambition and a relentless energy to succeed. Ever prolific, he releases his debut album ‘Pride of the Weak’ was out on 25th June 2021 with the single ‘Runaway’ as its focus track. We got some time to have a chat with him about music and being invisible.
1. Thanks for your time XEINN. Could you introduce yourself to our readers?
Well, XEINN is a 22-year-old artist from Spain, who has been in music professionally for 6 years and is now releasing his first studio album “Pride of the Weak”.
My music is characterized by an R & B / Soul sound, where I also use funky, pop, hip-hop, or electronic sounds. I like to try myself in a multitude of genres, that´s why I would never be able to make music of only one genre, I like to change, innovate and dare with new sounds, It is part of the artist’s job to have the ability to be open to new challenges that take him out of his comfort zone, this is the only way to improve as an artist as well.
2. Could you tell us how the artist known as XEINN came into existence and how different is he to Alejandro Agudín Arribas?
XEINN’s name has to do with my own name Alejandro because XEINN comes from alexein which is part of my name in Greek, which means “the protector”, I decided to take xein and add a second N.
Alejandro and XEINN are people who have a certain similarity, however, XEINN is someone much more daring and less shy, he is capable of exposing himself to many situations, he is crazier and ignores things, as well as constantly wanting new experiences and situations. Alejandro, on the other hand, is more reserved and shy in many circumstances, he is calmer and with a cooler head, he doesn´t get carried away so much and thinks about things more.
3. Music has been a big part of your life. Which member of your family played the most important part in introducing you to music?
I think both my father and my mother have played an important role in my music. When I was a little boy, my father who is a music fanatic, played American and English music of various genres: rock & roll, blues, funky, soul, hip-hop, and electronic music. All this music was what inspired and influenced me as a child, being a great support for my musical career. My mother, on the other hand, has always sung, and she is in a choir where she performs all over the country, so I have always had music close at home. From the first moment I told them that I wanted to dedicate myself to music, they supported me without a doubt, and it is a great relief to know that your family supports you, since it is a fundamental part of my life.
4. When did you want to become a musician and what do you remember about those early days?
It was the summer of 2015, and at that time I was listening to a lot of music especially R&B and a bit of pop: artists like Bryson Tiller, The Weeknd, Post Malone, and some songs by Justin Bieber. That summer I decided to sing the songs that I was listening to, and I began to notice that my voice sounded very good, I was trying this with more and more songs and I noticed that my voice continued sounding very good (When I was younger, I sang in a choir). After a month of singing, I started to notice that my love for music was coming back again and that I wanted to start taking it more seriously. After several months of singing on my own, it was time to take a bigger step, start singing classes. After my family discovered that I was singing (it’s a curious anecdote because I was recording the song “Earned It” by The Weeknd, and they heard that someone was singing very well, and they heard that those sounds were coming from my room, and for their surprise, it was me who was singing) I decided to tell them that I wanted to start singing classes to improve my technique and learn much more about singing and music. It was then when I realized that music was my life and that I was going to dedicate myself to it for my whole life, whatever the cost.
5. Who would you say is the artist who had the biggest impact on you with their music?
Without a doubt, The Weeknd is the person who has influenced me the most since I started with music more professionally. I am passionate about the way he creates his music, melodies, lyrics, production, or instrumentals, honestly, it seems to me that he works magic and above all, it seems that with each album he releases, he creates a new trend in music. Also, his personality amazes me, despite being a person who does not show much on social networks, something that I share with him, I like his personality as an artist.
6. From uploading covers to YouTube to 12 million views for your videos, things are going well for you. When did you notice the interest in you was growing and how crazy was that?
I noticed that people began to be interested in my music in 2018. At that time I began to upload covers regularly to YouTube and every time I saw that people were watching my videos, something that motivated me to continue uploading covers. But the moment I really noticed that my musical career was going up was after the cover of “Changes” by XXXTENTACION. It was a cover that from the first moment I uploaded it on YouTube, it began to have many views quickly, people began to subscribe and watch my other videos, this happened in April 2018. All this also helped me understand that if I wanted to be someone in music I had to compose my own songs, and it was just when I met my producer Mr.Worth, a true musical talent in every way, and we began to compose my first EP “Diversity”.
7. Was it nerve-wracking going from performing covers to writing and releasing your own material. What sort of thing inspires your material and things like the title track of the album?
It was a very natural and very nutritious process, especially thanks to the help of Mr. Worth as he had been composing original songs for a long time and he knew exactly how to do things. The part of writing lyrics was indeed something that cost me a bit at first, but I quickly learned and improved my lyrics, until now, which is a completely natural process for me and that I enjoy a lot. The creation of melodies has been something quite simple for me from the beginning, it has never been difficult for me to create melodies in a song, it is something innate in me. The production of the songs, it´s true, has been a long learning process until finally achieving a sound that we were happy with. We have invested many hours until we achieved the sound we were looking for in the songs, but the good thing about all this, apart from the learning, it´s that the same thing will not happen to us anymore since we know exactly what we have to do so that everything sounds as we want.
Regarding inspiration, I have always liked to talk about my experiences throughout my life, and that make me the person I am today, this retrospective view of oneself makes you know yourself much better and that´s something really important for your life. Currently, we are composing new songs that are not necessarily my experiences, we are creating stories from scratch, with different protagonists and contexts, it´s something that I sincerely love and passion because XEINN is in scenarios where he has never been seen before and in situations that he had never been encountered before.
8. Like we said you’ve done covers but who would you most like to collaborate with and which song from Pride of the Weak would you get them to collaborate with you on?
It is quite clear to me, I would indeed collaborate with many artists, but I think there are two that I would like the most. On the one hand, we have Bruno Mars, he is a very complete artist in all areas and he really fascinates me, he has a musical talent that few artists have. I think collaborating with him on the songs “Nothing to Lose” or “Golden Eyes” would be Incredible, they adapt quite well to his style and it would be even more incredible songs with his participation, in fact when I played “Golden Eyes” to a friend of mine, he thought it was a song by Bruno Mars.
On the other hand, I would like to collaborate with The Weeknd, and the song in which I imagine him would be in “Runaway” since it is a dark and very atmospheric aesthetic something that characterizes the sound of The Weeknd, and that´s why I think he would fit the song perfectly, I think this song with their collaboration would be a top song worldwide.
9. Just for fun, if you were invisible for ten minutes starting right now, what would you do?
Possibly I would scare people for a moment, touching people without knowing who they are or moving objects to make them worry, however, if I were invisible and my clothes were not, I would love to be able to do two things: go down the street calmly and for people to see only my clothes move, and on the other hand I would make a video of one of my new songs, I think it would be something that would never have been seen before and that will never be seen again because I am invisible and it is something impossible
10. Thanks for your time. Just to finish, what does the rest of 2021 and 2022 hold in store for you?
First of all, I think I’ll be living for a while in one of these three countries: the US, Canada or the UK since the music I make is in English and there’s really where the music industry is, it would be a dream for me to live in one of these three countries. On the other hand, on a musical level, we are creating new music with very different sounds from the ones we have been using, more electronic sounds although never leaving the R&B / Soul sound. We are mixing them. At a compositional level, we are in an incredible moment where we can create whatever we want, we are writing things that we have never written before where XEINN is in situations that he had never been before, creating really good melodies and a really characteristic and unique sound. I am very happy with what we are doing and what 2021 and 2022 will bring us.
Finally, the return to the stage will take place in approximately October, I can play all the songs from “Pride of the Weak” and the new ones that we are composing at the moment and it´s really something I really want to do, since being on stage and seeing so many people singing your songs, it’s something really magical.
