Brightest Young Things

Have you heard of Ximena Sariñana?  I hadn’t either until I got a request to do a phone interview with her a couple weeks ago.  For starters, she prefers myspace to facebook (gasp!). She’s also a Grammy nominated musician and actress on her first ever U.S. tour.   After googling, youtubing and looking her up on wikipedia I came to three conclusions:

She’s adorable.
Her music is fantastic.
We should totally be friends.

The day of the interview after being on hold for about 10 minutes, Neel the intern in my office was positive that it wasn’t going to happen, but I held out hope.  When she finally got on the line, after giving Neel an “I told you so” look, I got down to business (any excuse for a Flight of the Conchords reference)

BYT: You’re having your first-ever DC show, April 21 at the 9:30 Club. Have you ever visited D.C.? Are you excited to play in the Nations Capitol?
Ximena: I’ve visited DC before. Yeah, I think we did one private show last year, and I've also been as a tourist. I think it’s a really cool city.

BYT: Have you ever been to Bens Chili Bowl, because that’s one of my favorite places to eat in DC.
Ximena: No, I’ve never been, but I would so write that down because I love going to new places.

BYT: Yes, you should definitely check it out, it’s pretty close to the 9:30 Club is practically open all night. What’s your stage show like? Do you dance? What’s your signature move?
Ximena: It’s pretty much very laid back show. Where I’m in front of the mic playing all sorts of tiny instruments. I just like to act as natural as possible. So it’s a very intimate kind of setting, I talk a lot about the songs and the band is really cool and they’re very good musicians so it’s pretty laid back.

BYT:You’re only 23 and started acting at a young age is it weird to have such success so early?
Ximena: I don’t know. I’ve always been pretty much ahead of my time so for me. Definitely, I didn’t expect so much success, but that’s the thing. I try not to think about it at all. I just kind of like do my own thing, writing music and concentrating on what’s important for me and not focusing on what people are saying about me or how successful the album is you know?

BYT:Right
Ximena: Just trying to keep it real.

BYT: Do you get stage fright at all since you’ve kind of grown up in the spotlight?
Ximena: That’s actually pretty strange because I don’t get stage fright But I’ve had some shows where I get really nervous once I’m already on stage. So it’s kind of like a belated stage fright. That’s really weird. Maybe if I got stage fright before that wouldn’t happen to me. But I don’t usually get stage fright.

BYT: You went to music school in Mexico City at the Academia de Musica Fermatta…I imagine going to music school being kind of like FAME with people bursting into song in the cafeteria. Was it like that at all or am I way off?
Ximena: Well, kind of. It’s just like a dream place for musicians to be. It was for me at least. Because I came from a really small high school where there weren’t a lot of um, students. So when I went into music school it was really amazing to meet all these people who had music as their priority, enough so that they’re actually studying it. And the only thing you ever heard were people talking about I don’t know songwriting homework or music synthesis homework or um Its kind of the same as going to some other school but instead of having math you have harmony classes. So for me it was just mind blowing, really really cool. Yeah, and there are a lot of people who have their instruments out practicing in the cafeteria, so yeah it’s pretty musical.

BYT: Wow, so I wasn’t too far off. I read that when you were 2 years old, you got a chance to go to an Ella Fitzgerald concert. Do you remember anything about it? I don’t really remember much from when I was 2.
(Laughing) Ximena: I actually don’t really remember it. My parents remember it very well. They said that I was just like gawking at her. Looking at her like wow I can’t believe this is happening.
But I don’t remember anything

BYT: I can imagine that would have been really amazing. The American release of your cd Mediocre is July 15.
Ximena: Yeah, you’re right

BYT: How is this release different than the previous Latin American release of the c.d. or is it basically the same?
Ximena: It’s the same, it’s the same songs, the same order, the same artwork. It’s pretty much the same.

BYT: OK
Ximena: We just kind of thought the album was so good as a whole piece that we just wanted to release it the same everywhere.

BYT: You’ve gotten comparisons to Tori Amos, Regina Spektor…are you flattered or do you see yourself in a different musical category?
Ximena: I don’t think I’m as good as these people. (Laughs) I’m definitely flattered for sure. I mean they’re both women that I admire very much and I’m happy that I can remind people of them.

BYT:You keep a myspace Blog that’s updated pretty frequently. How do you find the time to do that in your busy schedule? Blogs can be very time consuming. Do you feel a greater connection with your fans by having a blog and letting them into your daily life?
Ximena: I just think it’s part of the job, in a way. I was always blogging when I wasn’t famous and I know that nowadays I can find less time, so instead of writing a daily blog I’ll write a weekly blog.

BYT: Right
Ximena: But I can always find the time to keep people in touch with whatever I’m doing. I think that that kind of also keeps it real to them. And I like that, I like the way that people read the blogs and I like that that kind of gives them this other more personal side of my job.

BYT: Do you think you’d ever do an album of all English language songs?
Ximena:(Thoughtfully) Well maybe, maybe in the future. It’s definitely not something that I….I’m not very nationalistic in that kind of way. I just think that if you speak two languages its like you have more tools that you can express yourself with. That’s how I see it. So it I speak English why shouldn’t I use it lyrically.

BYT: That's true. You played SXSW for the first time. What was your view of the festival…it can be overwhelming with music everywhere.
Ximena: Yeah yeah, I thought it was a very different festival. I liked the concept of closing off the center of the city. I really like that kind of festival where the city is very much involved. And I really enjoyed it. I thought it was really cool that you could have all these more intimate shows instead of I don’t know, huge open areas…how most festivals are.

BYT: I saw that in one of your blog entries you equated playing new songs for the first song to your band like being a kid who enters a new school....do you get nervous when people hear you for the first time?
Ximena: No definitely I get really really nervous. Of course I do because it’s definitely worse than playing a huge concerts in front of hundreds of people because you can feel the peoples response to the song just immediately there, so its I still find it nerve-wracking

BYT: Are you on facebook? Yay or nay on the new layout?
Ximena: I’ve always been more of a myspace person because it’s the first thing that I opened, and facebook… um even though people have told me that it’s way better, I have someone that administrates my facebook, but we just opened it just to be around that kind of thing, but I’m definitely more of a myspace person. I personally keep my myspace updated.

BYT: I asked the admin of one of your facebook fan groups Ximena Sariñana Rocks! If they had any questions for you, and they came up with two the first question they wanted me to ask was :

BYT: What kind of music have you been listening to lately?
Ximena: Ohh…what kind of music have I been listening to lately. (Pause) Wow that’s a tough one cause I actually lost my ipod on a flight

BYT: Oh no! Losing an iPod is the worst.
Ximena: Yeah, so now I haven’t been listening to much nowadays… Oh! I just bought Micachu and the Shapes, which is this English kind of like pop electronic band that I discovered at SXSW and I really really liked them live so I just bought their cd and it’s really cool.

BYT: The second question was, what was the last book that you didn’t finish reading, and why?
Ximena: Oh, that I didn’t finish reading?

BYT: Yeah
Ximena: Oh god (Pause)… I think would have to be uh this one called Paradiso by Jose Lezama Lima. He’s a Cuban writer and I really wanted to read it because my favorite Literature teacher was this guys apprentice. So I really wanted to read something from this guy because everybody recommended it to me, but I just started reading it and it’s so hard Like it’s another level of Spanish, I don’t know, but it’s just really hard to kind of like keep it in focus so I just stopped reading it and went on to something else. Which was maybe a little bit easier and I’m going to read this one when I;m more in the mood of reading something complex.

BYT:Where are you right now? Are you on tour?
Ximena: No I’m actually home, which is why you hear all this clatter (Laughs) My house is usually full of people so…

BYT: (Laughing) I hope you have a great start to you US tour, I’m going to come see you in D.C.
Ximena: Oh thank you!

Want more:
http://www.myspace.com/ximenasarinana
+
be at 930 club tonight

BYT: I thought your cd was great, Thank you very much for the interview!
Ximena: Thanks!