Your new favourite: Interview with Xavier Enright

Words and images by Liam Stretch.

I have always struggled with the question of favourites. How often does one get such queries fired their way: what’s your favourite colour; food? I just don’t know how to answer, my tastes are broad. I find this to be particularly the case with music – that’s what allowed this artist to become one of my favourites.

Producer Xavier Enright (previously XAV) is a 19-year-old born in Christchurch who has been up in Wellington over the last year studying. He came into the music scene in 2019 with his EP Loops, which has a jazzy, hip-hoppy rap sound. This guy has some deep and emotional tracks, which seem pretty fucking relatable. My favourite track on his EP titled Twice Twisted slaps and has upbeat instrumentals in the major key sidled up with these contrasting, confronting lyrics; this creates a deep listening experience – he kind of reminds me of Rejjie Snow.

Nevertheless, he has just dropped some new music. The project is split up into three parts – a monologue interlude being one – and takes an authentic look at some real-world issues. Xavier’s music is part of this shift we have seen with music over the last few cycles around the sun – they seem to be more introspective and written with complex meanings: being social, political or mental. In short, the art has returned to music, and we see this across the board.

The songs on the EP No Words, titled Part I, Drunken Interlude, and Part II were partially created over isolation – and some of that experience drives through. It’s softer than his previous EP with a more of a blues feeling to it and strikes similarity to some of the more emotive rap coming out of the US and UK at the moment. Xavier plays several different instruments; which are all included in his tracks, with the saxophone, in particular, developing the silky melodies – it’s a dichotomy of sorts. 

I shan’t reveal too much more – it’s up to you to listen now. 

Interview with Xavier

How would you describe your music style - how has it developed?

Broadly, I'd say alternative hip-hop. It's a trippy NZ twist on some of the more hip-hoppy rap coming out of America right now. Rap has that distinct ability to make you feel like an absolute badass king when you're listening to it. I want to bring other emotions and feelings into the equation. I love 70s rock because it takes you on such a journey through build-ups, sad bits, happy bits, weird trancelike psychedelic break downs. I feel that's something missing from today's music. My style, I think has developed into something more commercially palatable. I've kept all my ideas and direction, but I'm learning to make it sound cleaner and clearer.

So, obviously, you play a shit ton of instruments - has music always been a part of your life? What has it helped you with?

My whole life, my parents have been hosting big music nights on St Paddy's day, and my dad has been jamming with me as I've learnt various instruments. I started out on the recorder and moved onto the clarinet, which had me in boring as orchestras every week. Being classically trained, though, was a huge advantage because I learnt the basic theory behind all instruments so I could teach myself the guitar, bass, and piano. In year nine, I moved onto the saxophone and I had the sickest teacher. He was a jazz master and just taught me to always express myself, think outside the box, and made me an amazing improviser which is how I make all my music now. I just loop my chords and jam out on a variety of instruments until I come up with something I like. In year 11, I realised jazz was lame, and I dropped all the bands, downloaded FL Studio and started teaching myself how to make trap beats (the teachers all thought I was a massive dropkick.) Then combining all that, is how I started making my current projects.

Your tracks are pretty emotive, where do you find the inspiration for your music? - maybe some individual context of the different tracks.

I try to only make happy songs when I'm happy and sad songs when I'm sad. One of my friends, who is an amazing artist (did the Buddha on my EP), told me about a form of art called expressionism. Where it's all about how the artist is feeling in the exact moment when they're doing their painting, I try to make my songs like that, music can directly change how you're feeling, and I try to create songs that change listeners' emotions to what I feel as I make the song.

My first track was about meditation and the elevated and psychedelic state of mind I was feeling. My EP 'Loops' had a lot of sad songs because I was feeling some heartache around the time I was making that album.

What's a challenge you face when sitting down to produce some music?

The equipment makes an annoyingly large difference. When making Loops, I had to save it every two seconds because the projects were getting so big that my computer would crash frequently. I had many aggravating setbacks because of that. My mic also was very low quality and made mixing my vocals a massive task. I have now invested in a better computer and mic, which were both used on my latest release "No Words." Which honestly was a dream; I couldn't believe how huge the project was as all three parts are in one, 10-minute long project. My old PC probably wouldn't have even been able to open that. There were like 60 different audio clips and synths, and most had several effect plugins on them in the mixer.

So, you've been producing a lot of this during the mandatory lockdown period. How has this impacted what you've developed?

Honestly, it has been pretty good. It has definitely given me heaps of time to put lots of care into this latest release, and there are very few ways to procrastinate -- certainly plenty of inspiration for songs about loneliness.

You've had an EP out already - Loops - what did you learn from that experience and how has it changed your approach this time around?

Both past projects have motivated me to push harder at smoothing out every little imperfection because once it's out there, things that you weren't overly worried about are never going to be fixed, and it is annoying as hell. Also, the songs on Loops all have their own subtly different directions and listening back I have been able to pick the ones with ideas I want to develop further (Scattered Things was definitely my personal favourite.)

What do you hope listeners will take away?

The local New Zealand music scene is pretty much all indie-rock, DnB, and techno. There are some rap artists but, to me, they're more or less just rapping on the exact same beats as American rappers and the only difference is their accents. I want to make New Zealand music for ACs, after the gig. Something to cruise and listen to. Something New Zealand can truly call its own that has a rap kinda vibe. I want to produce some rap albums in the future where every part of the sound (not just the vocals) has got that relaxed Kiwi energy.

What are some goals and aspirations for the future? What can we expect to hear from you?

I really want to produce some rap albums with my own twist. And become a better instrumentalist. In the long term, expect some huge jazzy, reggae trippy shit. I want to do something entirely different that still sounds commercially enjoyable. Something closer at hand is a project I'm producing with my mate Zar and the one the only "XuzzDoc." The project is called "Zar, Xuss, and Xav." It's so buzzy, me and my mate Zar move up to Wellie to study and perform music and meet a guy called "Xuzz." How is that not a sign from the universe