Hi Lexy, thanx for doing this interview with us. How are you doing?
Lexy Dance: Hi! Everything is cool! Currently, we have released a single «Cyber Girl". This is a teaser of our upcoming album. We have played some great concerts in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Izhevsk. Now we are intensively working on our second full length album.
You are the male singer of the band Xe-None, can you give a brief introduction to the band?
Lexy Dance: Sure, no problem!
EvilAnn – female vocal. She’s with us since the very beginning. When we started looking for band members, EvilAnn was already the only and unquestionable candidate for a female singer.
Newman - synths and samples. He’s responsible for the most part of our songwriting. The experience he gained over years together with good gear help him to realize his musical ideas better and better.
Fucker – guitar, is with us since 2006. He’s a very calm and quiet person in life. But when we start recording in a studio, he becomes a very hairsplitting person. Moreover, he makes me happy with his almost sequencer-like precision when he’s playing live.
Push – drums, is with us since 2008. He’s really a crazy person. His favorite hobbies are playing drums and extreme biking. Last year he managed to break his right leg when biking and now has a steel thing inside. Since that time I try to prevent all his attempts to ride a bike again. Not so long ago he became an endorser of Peace drums and Masterwork cymbals.
And me - Lexy Dance – the frontman and manager, as well as the admin of the official site and MySpace. I’m also responsible for recording, mixing and mastering our tracks. Our debut album “Dance Metal [Rave]olution” was released on my own label.
You started the band in 2004, did you had a clear view in mind of what you wanted Xe-None to sound like or did the music take shape over the years?
Lexy Dance: Oh! This is a very interesting question. At the beginning of our career, we thought that we should sound like Cradle Of Filth suddenly decided to play songs in 2 Unlimited-like style. This idea was fully realized on our second EP "Blood Rave". But only AC / DC and Motorhead can to stop there can afford, and so we continued our experiments on mixing various musical styles in different proportions. This is why our debut full-length «Dance Metal [Rave] olution» sounded more eclectic. Now, when we are in the process of working on our second album, I can clearly say that we do not stand still. Our sound is becoming more powerful and monolithic.
Newman: We're still racking our brains wondering "How the hell should we sound?". It is where getting feedback from the fans is very important for us, but they also have quite diverse opinions. I personally think that our style should have been, so to say, crystallized by itself. But at the same time, I'm constantly looking for new tunes, sounds and music solutions, doing remixes for us and for other bands.
In 2008 you added extra members to the band, why did you do this, were they the missing link? What is their role in the band?
Lexy Dance: Well, this information is not entirely accurate. Sure - 2008 was a year of the difficult changes in the line-up. In 2008, our drummer, Watson, decided that he "had enough", so he was replaced by a new drummer - Push. Likewise, at the end of 2008 our bassist Andrew_Rex decided to devote more time to his family and career. This time we did not search for a replacement. The thing is that we live in a small town and to find a really good bass player is a really big problem. Therefore, we have entrusted our bass parts to the sequencer AKAI MPC1000.
You call your music dance-metal, how did you come up with that term, metalheads are not known for being passionate dancers?
Lexy Dance: Haha! Yeah, you’re right. Indeed, for many people a metalhead is a person who’s mainly banging his head at concerts, not dancing. But I think it's a personal thing how one chooses to move to the music. At our concerts we see dancing people in the crowd and those slamming hard. Sometimes we even witness wild stage-diving like at the shows of New York hardcore bands! Our task is to send impulse of absolutely pure energy to the audience. And if this energy is returned to us, that means we do everything the right way! There is nothing worse than a stale crowd that is simply standing. We do our best, so that everyone on our show can get a charge of new pure energy!
Newman: I think that the good old headbanging needs some modernization. When I go to concerts, I prefer not only to bang my head, but also to make different body movements, such as moving around the club, jumping and enjoying what is going on!
What bands did have an impact on you, what are influences?
Lexy Dance: I think that it’s obvious for many of our fans that one the main sources of inspiration for us was The Kovenant . Many people have told us that we are just their imitators, or even clones. Perhaps in some way these people are right, but I think that over time we expanded many of their ideas and have done many things they never did.
The Kovenant is a great group, no doubts. Animatronic and SETI have already become the classics of the genre and I am personally very disappointed that Lex Icon returned to the image of Nagash.
I can also mention Fear Factory, which just blew my mind with their album «Demanufacture». And, of course, such titans of the dance scene as Scooter and 2 Unlimited. These groups influenced a lot on the development of our own style!
Newman: My teachers include Depeche Mode, Samael, and some Russian dance groups such as Hi-Fi, Ruki Vverkh and Gosti iz Budushego. Also I like Ferry Corsten and Armin Van Buuren.
Who are the listeners for Xe-None, you might be too electronic for metalheads and too metal for cyberpeople?
Lexy Dance: I think that our audience - it's just people who are open to everything new, those, who that do not have any barriers and stereotypes in their heads. These are people who come to concerts in order to to get some vivacity and good mood. And they can be metal, and Cyber or fans of alternative music. We appeal to all. Regardless of their musical religion. Ha-ha.
Newman: Different people come to our concerts. Therefore it’s difficult fo us to determine what kind of people costitute our audience. Most likely, once we become a mainstream band like Rammstein, for example J
You already released several albums, all available for download on your myspaceprofile, how would you describe the progress that Xe-None made over the years?
Lexy Dance: I think that over time our music is becoming more balanced and well thought . We deliberately operate with diverse styles, trying to do more experiments with sounds and arrangements. We are constantly working to improve our sound and, as the feedback from listeners shows, there’s some real progress. I'm sure that we are not gonna stop there.
Why put all the ep’s and the album online as a free download?
Lexy Dance: Because today the Internet is the easiest way to bring your music to the listener. The Matrix has us already. Millions of people are connected to it. Millions of people are searching for new music online. We don’t have a big label backing us, we do not have their PR machine working for us. Therefore, for us Internet is the window into the world of music.
Newman: Yeah.
Is it hard to find a balance between the electronic component of your music and the metal component, how do you manage to find the right balance?
Lexy Dance: Sure, it is quite difficult. While working on our records, we do a lot of arguing and experimenting so that they sound quite danceable, but at the same time not far detached our METAL-roots. After the mini-album "Dance Inferno Resurrection" in 2009, many people said that we were too kitsch. Now, a year later, we agree with them to a certain extent. But then it was a deliberate step - to release just a dance mini-album. But on the second full-length, we decided to make a strong emphasis on the metal-component of our music. And now, when listening to our rough mixes everyday, I come to the conclusion that it’s gonna be our most balanced release.
Newman: As for me, I think we have not yet found our balance, but we will find it in the future for sure. Also, I assume that those of our songs that we have already recorded and released, will be the starting point for new experimenters from the genres fusing metal and electronics.
In 2008 you released your full length album “Dance Metal [Rave]olution? How did the recordings of that album go, was it a hard process?
Lexy Dance: It was quite a hard process. In our town, unfortunately, we don’t have good studios, so we had to do everything ourselves. And since we did not have enough experience, it took usa long time. Several times we had to rewrite the finished material and therefore a lot of time was spent practically in vaun. Nevertheless, it is in the process of recording DMR that we realized what we want to sound like and how we can achieve the desired result. Many of our listeners and critics in the press pointed out that the sound of the album was not up to the international standards. So we want to say "thank you" to all who accepted us as such and supported us as we are! Thank you, guys!
How were the comments on that album, did it bring you what you expected it to bring?
Lexy Dance: The greatest achievement of this album was that it became "Album of the Year" on the portal IndustrializedMetal.com. Besides, our trip to Holland for the festival of Aaltrock 2009, which confirmed that we are doing really eclectic music appealing to fans outside Russia. In Russia, the album was well received both by the audience and the media. Of course, there was also some critics. But we are very positive about any critics. It helps us to avoid doing thosemistakes that we made on our debut full length.
After that you released an ep with covers from the mid ‘90’s called Dance Inferno Resurrection, why do an ep filled with covers?
Lexy Dance: This EP is our tribute to the era when dance music was sincere and really danceable. Maybe it was a bit naive and somewhat raw, but it was a real dance music that had emotions, feelings and great vitality. In contrast to the modern pop music, most of which is just a nice-sounding crap. We grew with this dance music, it was played on discos at our school. Sono wonder these old dance bands influenced our musical world. Therefore, once we just picked out 6 tracks, which we consider the most famous from the Eurodance music era - and simply recorded them!
Newman: The 90s were wonderful. It was the time with its heroes, with its cultural heritage. And it means a lot to us. We really wanted to show everyone just how we love those 90s.
How did you decide which songs to use, the 90’s archive of music is so big?
Lexy Dance: Actually, the choice was quite simple. We still have parties like "The golden 90s" in our town. So we visited them, listened, danced, and then chose the most powerful tracks for our cover EP! So simple!
You just released a new ep called Cybergirl, is it a teaser for the forthcoming album?
Lexy Dance: Yes, it is a teaser of our upcoming album. To be more precise, the 2 of 4 songs will be featured on the album – they are Cyber Girl and Summertime. We chose them because were alredy done by the time of release and we have been repeatedly playing them at our concerts.
What can you say about the forthcoming album, how far are you with recordings and what can people expect?
Lexy Dance: Our second album will be more dense in sound and will feature more powerful material, for sure. Currently, the album is almost entirely done in rough form. So now we have started to work on the details. Frankly, I'm afraid to say a specific release date of the album, but it is very likely (at least, I hope so) that this will happen in the early autumn.
Newman: The new album will definitely be faster.
What do you expect of the album yourself, in terms of success. Sales, spreading the name of Xe-None?
Lexy Dance: First of all, we just want to release our new tracks and we want people to hear these new tracks, so that we can get feedback from them to know what they think about it. We have already played many of the songs from the album at our concerts. And I must say that the audience's reaction has inspired us a lot. So we want to release this album and after that immediately start working on the next one!
And, of course, it would be great if our new material will expand our reach and allow us to spend more time touring.
What can people expect when they go to a Xe-None show, how important is the visual aspect for the band?
Lexy Dance: The core thing of our shows is the energy. The energy that we share with the audience. The visual component for us is very important as well, but at the same time we try to keep it from dominating the music. More important for us is to convey our energy and vibration to the public. And I think we don’t need wearing any space suits to do so. For us it is more important to have good sound, good light, and all those people who are waiting for our performance in fron of the stage are important for us as well.
Newman: The main criteria for our show is drive. If there is this feeling of drive – it’s good. No drive – too bad. We do everything to avoid the latter.
What will be next for Xe-None?
Lexy Dance: Then there will be more new music, collaboration with other musicians, video clips and, of course, concerts. Hopefully, not only in Russia but also in Europe, maybe in America. Last year we were in Holland, and I hope that that trip was not our last one. We are optimists and I can safely say that we have something to offer to our listeners in the future!
Any last words for the readers?
Lexy Dance: Open your mind, love life, respect those who are close to you and listen more to good and diverse music! See you at the concerts! Peace!
Newman: Yeah!
www.xe-none.com
www.myspace.com/xenonerus