Abyss X is known for her theatrical live performances as well as her releases on Rabit’s Halcyon Veil and Aisha Devi’s Danse Noire. She also gained further reputation by organising the intimate Nature Loves Courage Festival in a very remote location on her home island of Crete.
Her debut album INNUENDO is a beautifully poetic album of twisted pop and trip-hop, allowing her 4-octave range voice to elegantly embosom each and every track on the album in nuanced ways. Exuding raw minimalism and punk attitudes the album conveys themes dominance, honesty, self-realization, dispute and infatuation in a dystopian time.
First of all what pushed you into living a nomadic lifestyle?
After spending the first 7 years of my life in New York, my family and I moved to a small city in Crete, a city with very limited cultural and intellectual stimuli especially when it came to more avant-garde or underground aesthetics so ever since a was very young I felt the urge to flee, to escape to a bigger city, a metropolis. I moved to Athens when I was 17 to study, it was the first big city alternative but it never did it for me as it still has a very intense small-town vibe and even there I saw very little potential to grow artistically. In the meantime, I also spent some time in Spain and once I finished my studies, I decided to pack a suitcase and migrate to Berlin. From there I started travelling more and I spent large chunks of time in different cities like London where I did my masters and after that Los Angeles and New York. I’m now back in Berlin which I’ve been using as my main base for the past couple of years. Touring is just easier when you live in the main hub of the world. I consider all these places as my home and I’m grateful for the fascinating global family I’ve built over all these years of living as a nomad.
What’s happening with your long-awaited album Innuendo have you been taking advantage of the last months to adjust the concept somehow?
Innuendo took longer to make than any of my previous works but it was finished a while ago and I’ve just been waiting for the right time to release it. I can’t tell if it was actually the right move to self-release music amidst the current global sociopolitical situation but it has definitely helped me pull through these chaotic times. It also gave the music a new purpose and it warms my heart to receive messages from people that felt that the music helped them get through it.
What were your pop references while constructing Innuendo?
I’m not really referencing pop in this album, the trip-hop genre was more prevalent in my decision making when it came to the sonic sculpting of the album. While I wrote the album, I was thinking about music that existed out there and what I personally felt was missing and how I could fill in the gap. Of course, INNUENDO is much more digestible to the ear than any of my earlier works and I think my decision to bring my vocals to the forefront really breathed into a more concrete and wholesome piece of work. I also really thought of all the things I liked as a teenager that I still like now and brought all of it back by taking it a step further.
Observing the status quo where do you think the system will evolve?
It’s still really hard to tell and I feel that we’re still at the beginning of a journey to the unknown. It’s hard to imagine being able to reclaim our previous ways of living but I’m also excited for the shift in the global sociopolitical sector. We just have to wait and see where this all leads us. On the other hand, corona has triggered a new wave of conservative approach towards the ways we coexist as a society and It feels like we are going through a new dark era of “censorship” in our ways of being, our ways of expression and any outlets of entertainment and joy seem to be getting narrower and narrower.
How are you navigating the current situation as a working musician?
I think it is an especially difficult time for musicians right now, it seems like we are doomed as one of the few professions that are globally and unreasonably being forbidden to recover from the corona hiatus. If you take Berlin, for instance, a city with a liberal agenda with regards to nightlife and still there’s a strange censorship law for dancing past 10 pm outdoors, a concept I find completely absurd and damaging to the music-loving community’s effort to recover from the corona imposed depression. Strangely people are abiding to the current restrictions in a time where the music working community needs everyone’s push for resistance and change the most.
