“I make music for impatient people,” Xenya Genovese tells me with conviction. She’s an impatient person herself. When Spotify Wrapped came out last year, hers said that she skips more songs than most people. “I get bored. I just want to capture emotion.” And her biggest music-listening enemy is the album. “On an album, you just cant have raw emotion all the time.”
This is a difficult stance to take as a musician who just released an album. Xenya Genovese’s artist name is Freak Slug and her album, I Blow Out Big Candles, excels because Genovese translates her “ADHD vibes” into songs that grab your attention for fifteen seconds and then scroll up into another hook. “That is why I try to make my music as catchy as possible, cause I know what it’s like.”
Genovese describes writing a catchy song as if it is as easy as picking up a pencil. Maybe it is for her. She’s so confident in herself and easy-going. When explaining the lyrics of the song, “Sexy Lemon,” which we have been playing on WNXP, she cast it off as punchy flirtation. “It’s just stupid. I would never call anyone a ‘sexy lemon.'” Then she stopped to laugh, “Well I guess I did. It’s an ode to someone hot. I wasn’t even making a move. Honestly, I don’t even need to make a move, I just love the eye candy.”
For Genovese it’s all about having fun. So many musicians over-scrutinize themselves and agonize over making something meaningful that reflects their core identity. Freak Slug doesn’t overthink it. “I don’t have any fear when it comes to making music,” she said. “I am super free-spirited. I just have fun. And I think if you’re having fun, and you’re not anxious about how you are perceived, it’s not gonna be hard. You know what I mean? It’s pretty straightforward really.”
On Manchester
Genovese is born and raised in Manchester, England, a city that is smaller than Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but has an outsized musical legacy. Oasis, Joy Division, The Smiths, Chemical Brothers, and the Bee Gees are just a few bands in the city’s long musical legacy. “I guess it’s the reason I make music, because of the rich history of Manchester.”
For those of us who are not aware of the city’s lore and vibe, she explained. “It’s sort of just friendly, man, compared to the south. Like, me and my mate were just out and then we ended up spending the whole fucking night with this random dude. It was fucking hilarious. We were just playing tunes on the jukebox and locking in the pub, smoking ciggys, it was fucking brilliant.”
“That is generally the north of England. Sometimes the colder the weather, the friendlier the people. It’s cold and it’s grim and the only thing you can do to socialize is go to the pub.”
On leaning into being a free spirit
Track 8 on I Blow Out Big Candles is a song called “Witch.” The guitar playing is ethereal, Genovese’s voice is wispy as she sings, “There was a witch, she told me things.” It turns out, these lyrics came out of a real meeting with a psychic. Long before the meeting, Genovese had a friend who died by suicide. She had ignored his death for a long time and put it out of her mind, but when she saw the psychic, she told Genovese that he’d come through during the reading.
“I can tell you exactly what she said. She said, ‘Sweetie, there is a boy here who has taken his own life. Does this mean anything to you?’ I started crying. She was like, ‘Cause he is coming up. Was it drugs?’ And she described him and the situation and then she told me that he was going to become my spirit guide. And ever since then I have felt that he is around me.”
Genovese continued, “I am very spiritual and I work with spirits. I should say that. He came to me as a robin before that, as well. This robin just flew up to me. I’ve never had a bird just fly up like that before. Ever since then I have had a connection with birds. I was just feeding them three hours ago.”
On flirting
A lead song on the album has been the song, “Sexy Lemon,” which is a flirty ode to a friend of hers.
“I went into that song knowing that I wanted to fuck with using half-time vibes in the chorus. We started on the organ and then just got into a flow state. My ex-boyfriend played the sax. It all felt really good.
“Calling someone a sexy lemon was just meant to be stupid. That’s just how I talk about someone. I am not really that serious. Especially when I’m flirting with someone. The girl who the song is inspired by doesn’t know the song is about her. I’m cool just admiring her. I am not someone who really makes moves. I am not really like that. I am happy with the eye candy. That is enough for me.
You know, I have always loved the song called “I Don’t Need Love, I’ve Got My Band” by The Radio Dept. ‘Cause I relate to that. The times when I’m with my live band on tour I don’t really care about anything going on at home, I don’t miss home, I am just with the band and it’s brilliant.”
Freak Slug is playing at The Blue Room here in Nashville on March 18. Local artist Huron John, who guested on a New Music Experience show last year, will open.