XXYYXX

Olli Murphy

Artist History

• XXYYXX, also known as Marcel Everett, creates and produces Chillwave/Chillstep music. He comes from Orlando, Florida and is signed to ‘Relief in Abstract Records’. He has gained popularity in the underground dance music scene through his tracks made from his bedroom using Ableton software.

• Everett himself described his music as "Doing drugs on a freeway...underwater," in an interview with Relief in Abstract Records.

• XXYYXX’s music video for ‘About You’ has over 10 million views on youtube and was directed by Jeffrey Vash.

• Whilst Marcel is more used to playing small underground venues with an intimate feel, in February 2013 he headlined the San Francisco Noise Pop festival.

Relief in Abstract Records

• Relief In Abstract is an independent record label based in Orlando, Florida. The label was formed by friends Jered Dowden and Lex Johnson during high school so they could promote their friends’ music. Relief in Abstract found lots of success when they signed XXYYXX who gained a strong online following. Their brand and website was designed by the label's own Guillermo Casanova. Relief In Abstract and Alpha Pup recently announced a partnership that will include worldwide marketing and distributing.

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.

BEING STONED AT PANERA BREAD: I got like six or seven coffees. I didn't really notice until I was blazed that my senses were heightened. There was a richness to the coffee. I could taste the hazelnut in it, if it's dark... it's not gross.

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.

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.

Lyric AnalysisI love you so

I love you so

I love you so

Runaway, breeze blocks

I love you so

I love you so

I love you so

Run, run, (ag)-ain

Runaway, oh breeze

Runaway, oh breeze

Runaway, oh breeze

I love you so

Runaway, oh breeze

Runaway, oh breeze

Runaway, oh breeze

I love you so

These are the lyrics for our song ‘Breeze’ by XXYYXX. The lyrics are very repetitive and don’t have much of a story telling aspect to them. This is common for music of this genre.

The lyrics ‘runaway’ match up with the narrative in our video however as the video will show the ‘tripping’ girl running away from masked strangers in the forest. The lyrics ‘Breeze’ will also relate to the wind outside in the forest setting. ‘I love you so’ reveals the voyeurism of the viewer and how they love watching the girl. i.e. the audience are the masked people in the video.

Live Performance Analysis

Most of XXYYXX’s live sets are normally played in front of a small crowd. Some of his sets are played from within the centre of the crowd so as to integrate the audience in his performance.In his performance visual effects, such as strobe lights, are used to create a ‘rave’ or ‘trippy’ feel which is common for music of the Chillwave genre.