2. XXYYXX
• Marcel Everett, better known as XXYYXX, is an electronic musician and producer
from Orlando, Florida signed to Relief In Abstract.
• He is most notable for gaining a prominence within the indie music culture, despite his
young age (17) and experimental lo-fi music, which he made in his bedroom with FL
Studio and software from Ableton.
• Everett himself described his music as "Doing drugs on a freeway...underwater," in an
interview with Relief in Abstract Records.
• A music video for his song, About You, which has over 10 million views was directed by
Jeffrey Vash.
3. Label- Relief in Abstract Records
Relief In Abstract is an independent record label based in Florida. The label was started as
in 2010 by Jered Dowden and Lex Johnson during high school as a platform to promote
their friends' music. Relief In Abstract gained rapid success when their artist, XXYYXX
gathered a strong following online. Their brand and website was designed by the label's
own Guillermo Casanova.
Other artists they have are: Fortune Howl, Spikes On Bikes, Marble and Out go the Lights
(none of which have been as successful as XXYYXX)
4. XXYYXX Interview (Discovery-John Taylor)
LOCATION AT TIME OF INTERVIEW: I'm in my grandma's neighborhood, just walking around. There's two condoms on the ground, just chilling in the street. I'm taking a picture and
putting it on Twitter as soon as I get off the phone. These condoms are definitely used and old. There's some sort of mold collecting. Brownish-orange. It's really gross.
PICKING A NAME: There's no actual meaning, to be completely honest with you. For some reason, everyone thinks I picked the name because I love XXXY. And I didn't know he existed
until a few months ago.
WORST DESCRIPTION OF YOUR MUSIC: "Contemporary blogwave." I can't tell if that's an insult. "Chillwave" over and over and over again. "witchstep," "drugtune," and "Miami blow."
What is "Miami blow"? I'm not from Miami, and I don't do coke. [laughs]
BEST DESCRIPTION OF YOUR MUSIC: I guess it would be "experimental bass." Because I'll experiment with different filters, effects, synths, and make a song out of it.
STARTING FROM THE BEGINNING: I make all my own synths from scratch. I also try to experiment with different sounds; darker sounds. With "TIED2U", for instance, I was
experimenting with what could make a track moodier. Also, I don't remember the last song I made when I wasn't stoned.
ROLLING THE PERFECT BLUNT: The trick is getting the weed even.
FIRST SHOW: There were 2,000 people attending—it was at this festival. I was freaking out. I was outside, squinting in front of my laptop. And sweating. So I took these amphetamines,
and things got really euphoric. And then FL Studio crashed. I had to play one of my songs from iTunes! I was dancing around a little bit. It was ridiculous.
DANCE ROUTINES: I can't "cook." I try! Grant, this guy on my label, he can definitely cook. He cooks so well! He's like, a master chef. I call him "The Master Chef." I can't do two-step,
either. All I can do is whatever my body lets me do, and I'm pretty sure those moves don't have names. I do dance alone when I'm in my room, which I'm sure makes things even worse.
[laughs]
PLAYING IN NEW YORK: It's supposed to be a big show, because I'm playing with celebrities, and I love celebrities! I'm playing with artists I have in my iTunes. I'm probably gonna half-
ass it.
VISITING BROOKLYN: When I went to New York for the first time, I went [to Brooklyn]. It was pretty much what I expected, but better. It was The Weeknd's fashion week. It was fun.
BROMANCE WITH MISTER LIES: Yeah, we're really dumb together. We joke around all the time on Facebook. He's a pretty close friend, I just might work with him at some point. He's
like, "What's it going to be like?" I'm like, "I don't know." Probably something moody.
BEING MISTAKEN FOR JAMES BLAKE: If you look on Dubstep Forum, there's all these people saying I'm trying too hard to be James Blake. And I don't think they realize that James Blake
is a pianist! He's also a singer-songwriter. His whole album is singing. I mean, there aren't even any lyrics in my songs!
HATERS: You have no idea how many comments I delete. [pauses] My uncle just told me the best thing. And if you could, please quote this. "That's what haters are; they're your biggest
fans. They love you, they just don't know how to express it."
OVERCOMING JEALOUSY: I hated Grimes. Before I even listened to her music, I hated her. I tried listening to some of her songs a little more, and I just thought she was super generic in
every single way. When she shot to fame, I saw it as a marketing campaign, like Lana Del Rey. But then, I finally realized, I'm just jealous. Once I up and removed myself from all that
jealousy and listened, I started to dig it. There's a lot of beef and jealousy in music. And that's a real cancer to the music industry in general.
THE FUTURE: Have you heard of JMSN? I don't know, he's been called similar to The Weeknd. But somehow he got Usher's recognition. And I'm going to be working with this guy! An
Usher-approved vocalist. Working my way up.
5. Play Ground features- Franc Sayol Interview
How would you introduce yourself to someone that's never heard about XXYYXX?
I would tell the person the music is weird and mellow but it has dance elements I guess. I've never really described my own music that
well before.
You're really young. What else are you doing a part from music? Are you still in school?
Skating, schooling, eating, sleeping, other things-ing. Yeah I go to this adult high school in a community college near where I recently
moved, it's pretty cool the kids are nice.
What's your musical background?
I've been in some hard-core bands, I've had too many side projects, and I play guitar, drums, piano. My mom played clarinet in high
school, never touched the thing myself.
When and why did you first start making your own tracks? Can you tell us a bit more about your previous projects, before XXYYXX?
I was always into punk and that kind of grew into a hardcore and then post-hardcore, metalcore, deathcore phase. I was in a few bands
but I literally just went off at random and began making electronic music. I think I was still in those bands but at some point at around 14 I
got more serious with it. I had about 5 or 6 side projects and now I have 2 or 3, either way XXYYXX became serious when I was about 15.
Although your sound is a kind of melting pot of many different things, it feels like British contemporary electronic music has had an
important influence on your tracks. Do you agree? What are your current influences or favourite artists?
Yes, I certainly think that UK electronic music has an impact on my sound. It's all really great to me, the funk and soul elements along with
the dub and bass just clashing. It works there, it REALLY works. James Blake's “CYMK EP” was definitely ground-breaking for me. Roska is
pretty good and well known in the UK funky realm.
Living in Orlando, do you have a lot of people around you interested in the same kind of music? In other words, are there many young
Americans interested in post-dubstep? (It’s obvious that “dubstep” is really big in the mainstream nowadays but I'm referring to more
underground sounds).
Absolutely not, you say dubstep in Orlando and the closest ditsy slut next to you will be like ‘oh so it sounds like Skrillex, you know like
Transformers.’ While there are people and musicians (even friends’ of mine like GRANT and Fortune Howl and JSHIH) who do like it, it's
really not that popular over here.
In the same vein, is there any kind of electronic scene in Orlando to which you can relate? It seems like Relief in Abstract is doing a
good job of promoting local artists.
Yeah we're all good friends at RIA. There sadly isn't a scene, me and fellow label mates are just trying to expand and create a scene here
of our own. Why not brink LA and the UK here you know?
6. Living in Orlando, do you have a lot of people around you interested in the same kind of music? In
other words, are there many young Americans interested in post-dubstep? (It’s obvious that
“dubstep” is really big in the mainstream nowadays but I'm referring to more underground sounds).
Absolutely not, you say dubstep in Orlando and the closest ditsy slut next to you will be like ‘oh so it
sounds like Skrillex, you know like Transformers.’ While there are people and musicians (even friends’
of mine like GRANT and Fortune Howl and JSHIH) who do like it, it's really not that popular over here.
In the same vein, is there any kind of electronic scene in Orlando to which you can relate? It seems
like Relief in Abstract is doing a good job of promoting local artists.
Yeah we're all good friends at RIA. There sadly isn't a scene, me and fellow label mates are just trying
to expand and create a scene here of our own. Why not brink LA and the UK here you know?
7. Conclusion
This information that we have found gives us a wider insight on XXYYXX’s life and the
reasons behind his music. We have discovered that he is a regular 17 year old guy, as he
‘skates, sleeps, eats’. He is very low key and modest about his music.
