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The Eighth Note: X/VAYZ

‘The Eighth Note’ is 8 quick Questions with Wellington Musicians.

A chance for us to catch up with people & see what they’re up to, or introduce you to a new musician/band and their music.

Today’s guest is Dom, who makes music under the moniker X/VAYZ.

Who are you? Tell us a bit about your music:
X/VAYZ is a concept I’ve been using since 2014 to describe when I create music that I’d never heard anything similar to. To give it a genre, It’s dreamy singer-songwriter. To give it my own description, it’s dedication to seeking out the most beautiful secret sounds I can possibly be inspired by, and pushing them through the filter of my life into guitar-based ambient soundscapes, tiny glittering details, and lyrics about connection, loneliness, nature, and a surprising amount of lyrics are about times I met dogs; If you really listen to the lyrics they’re mostly about dogs.

What have you been working on lately? Any new tracks or albums on the way?
Over the last 6 months I’ve written almost too many songs to deal with, and I’m gigging a lot of them currently, as a way of refining which ones go onto the album, which is coming this Winter, in June. I want to come out with something that is definitively and purely X/VAYZ, and makes a statement that beauty is most powerful in times of pain, and vulnerability to both makes your heart more full of good wobbles. X/VAYZ’s album is going to be the place where you’re encouraged to reflect and access those feelings.

Where is the best place people can follow you & find your music?
Spotify. Youtube. Apple Music. Bandcamp. All the streamings. Even Deezer, apparently? Whatever that is. My debut EP, Tangelight, is an ambient instrumental guitar album, and was released earlier this year, independently. at the end of this month, I’m teaming up with Numbskull Records to put out a limited run of 50 tapes later this month, and they’ll have an unheard, never to re-released bonus track. Fo da fans. So look out for opportunities to get that. But if you want to hear the REALLY buzzy stuff that doesn’t go onto the albums or the live shows, Soundcloud is where I upload the most creative and unique stuff I come up with.

What were the 3 most influential albums to you growing up?
Bob Dylan – [anything before 1970]
Penguin Cafe Orchestra – When in Rome
GodSpeed You! Black Emperor – Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
I could talk for hours about each entry in this list but you gotta catch me in real life for that yarn.

Which other Wellington musician (s) would you most like to work with?
Motte. Any day. I’ve only seen them perform once and it completely broke my brain with beauty. We both incorporate looping as a musical tactic, so I just think that would be great in a live context. Also, YOUNG GHO$T! We live in very different worlds of music. I’m all about quiet vulnerability, and he’s a gritty grime rapper. But I love trying to put impossible things together.

In your songwriting or composing (or the band ’s songwriting) how do the compositions and songs take shape?
Tangelight, my last EP was created in a very Jazz way. It was completely recorded in one improvised take, and edited down. The tunes were based off of ideas we’d already turned into other songs, but then those recordings were so powerful to me that they became the recorded versions. I still play those songs live and they have lyrics now. But my usual process is different. I’m never not jamming. It’s hard to keep me and the guitar separate. I’m constantly improvising and trying to make the nicest possible music for my flatmates, and a lot of it comes from there. The songs you hear in X/VAYZ most commonly come from a large intake of substances – I’ll take a long walk deep into a forest or walk to Island Bay and play guitar at red rocks for a few hours. That’s what I mean by substances, you know. Trees, the ocean, the birds – inspiration from of the material things I see around me. I seek out the most beautiful places I can find, until I’m lost there, and spend a few hours just being overwhelmed by the world, and usually I find a couple of riffs there that I like so much they evolve into songs (after many hours and days of just working away at it).

What ’s your favourite Wellington venue to play in?
There’s the forest at the top of Holloway. I always go there to play by myself, or take friends there to jam, and I’m planning on hosting a massive nature gig out there, or maybe another forest. I have to get permission from the fine folks at Wellington City Council before I put on a forest gig, but in terms of venues that are buildings:
Valhalla. I’m plotting to do a headline gig there soon. The sound there is so good it’s unparalleled, it’s easy to get to, Ben and the others who work there are consistently the goodest cats out there.

Where/when is your next gig?
MOON1. 13th April. In one weeks time. PLAINES, MISS CRESSIDA, and X/VAYZ. $10. Doors at 8:30. This one already feels like it’s gonna be a special one, so come through.


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