Interview & Photos by Keira Zhou
When did you start playing music?
Pixx: I started singing at a really young age, because my dad plays guitar, so he always plays acoustic guitar around the house. So I was always singing along to him playing. When I was 14, I decided to try playing myself. So I just taught myself on the acoustic guitar my dad had. And that was where all started.
Who are the musicians that inspire you?
Pixx: A lot of the music I love to listen to is quite old now, that I wouldn’t even be able to go and see them live. People like XTC, Prefab Sprout. Kind of like 80s stuff. But I’ve been listening to a quite bit of new stuff recently.
Could you tell us a little more about your latest album that came out in June? What’s the background, what inspired it, etc.
Pixx: I decided to try to follow a theme with this record, writing about stuff I was really passionate about rather than stuff that was just personal to me. So I was trying to take myself out of the usual way. I kind of decided that I wanted to write from different perspectives. So writing from one love story from peanuts growing from the ground, second love story between planet and mankind and this guy that’s obsessed with money and trying to destroy the earth for wealth. So sort of the planet earth and him are having a conversation. Eventually the man realizes that he has destroyed the planet and he wanted forgiveness. And he can’t, it was to late. It kind just sounds like a love song but if you actually dive into it a bit further, you can probably hear it. And I wrote a song from the perspective of an animal object. That was fun. It’s just kinda interesting to do that kind of thing.
Where do you usually get those ideas from?
Pixx: A lot of my ideas coming from the fact that I grew up on really story telling folk music, so I was always inspired by artist like Donovan. He would bring to life these kinds of crazy stories through his lyrics.
So this is your first US tour. How is it different from the tours you’ve done in UK?
Pixx: It is quite different. I don’t know how to explain it. First of all I’ll say that the crowds who came and watch, they are very excited and just nice. I found them quite responsive and quite a connection with the American people we played to so far here. And.. the drive is longer.. (laugh). But It’s nice. It’s interesting to spend so dense amount of time with American people for the first time ever. We are all like accidently split into the American accent all the time.
Where has been your favorite place that you’ve traveled to?
Pixx: So the place I found quite inspiring that I’ve been to recently is Leisnig in Germany. I went there to visit some friends that I met on tour. He was supporting us at a gig we did in Hamburg Germany. It was just really beautiful there. You are in this old little city. Everything is quite close and you can just walk from one side of the city to the other pretty much, and then everyone cycles there, so you can cycle out and suddenly you are in those woodlands, and cycle through the woodlands and you’ll be by these beautiful lakes and then them you can swim in them. The water is clear and beautiful. I wanna go there right now.