LUXI Plays Cactus Club And Discusses Virtual Gallery
The dreaded April snowstorm did not stop Milwaukee’s premiere electropop singer LUXI from playing Cactus Club Wednesday evening, closing out the night after summery indie rockers Beach Static and Chicago experimental pop outfit CHNNLL. Although her set was only about twenty minutes, she made effective use of her time with the flaring lights and booming dance-pop melodies she is known for.
LUXI is Alexandre Maxine Hill; the stage name comes from Kirsten Dunst’s character in The Virgin Suicides. Her most recent album “Lost Letters (Of Seraphina)” came out this past November and her new single “Alive” dropped March 11th. She collaborated with Blackbox Visual on a lyric video for the song “Fly Away” off Lost Letters.
“(Alive) is an acoustic piano song with singing, so it’s very raw and personal to me. It was me exploring a different part of my transition in life. Lost Letters was very collaborative; it was the most people I’ve worked with at one time. It was the first time I tracked drums or anything like that, so I engineered the whole process and I was lucky enough to get Todd Rittman from U.S. Maple to master and mix it, so he brought his own flare at the end.”
LUXI is also a gaming aficionado and self-taught game developer. She released a video game on Steam that goes along with Lost Letters.
“It’s an exploratory adventure game where you’re going around each level. It’s kind of post-apocalyptic and each level is a different song. When the song ends the level changes and you’re trying to find the “lost letters” and it’s very experimental.”
She released a second album-turned-game titled “Stolen Hearts,” which can be found on the gaming website itch.io.
LUXI prefers smaller intimate venues to more large-scale events.
“I like to get up close and personal with people. It’s always nice when I can see who’s there and how people are vibing with the music rather than an ambiguous void of abyss that’s in front of you.”
In November she embarked on a brief Midwest tour, visiting cities such as Nashville and St. Louis. Additionally she went out to California for a string of shows last April.
“The California tour was a different vibe for me. I actually re-learned my songs all on acoustic guitar because I was opening for Old Earth, who is also my partner-in-crime. It was different for me and brought me outside of my box, so I really enjoyed that aspect.”
LUXI is organizing the “Milwaukee Virtual Gallery,” which will showcase various Milwaukee artists from a new perspective curated with Unreal Engine 4. The deadline to submit is May 1st.
“All genres are welcome. I’ve been playing so many different shows that cross genres and I feel like some of these people should maybe know each other.”
She describes her creative process as coming in waves.
“I’ll get bursts of creativity. I don’t try and force music if I’m not feeling inspired. But I’ll hit a month where I like making music everyday. Usually I’ll come up with material that I can come back to and complete later.”
She dances vigorously to her music performing live – something she does while making music on her own too.
“I definitely like to let loose when I’m creating. I’m a very sentimental and emotional person so I feel like when I rehearse there’s certain songs that just strike a chord with me where I’ll be weeping and I hope I’m not crying on stage by the time it’s practiced. But so far I have not cried on stage. We’ll see.”
LUXI says her next album will be more upbeat and house-influenced. She plays Bremen on April 19th, and then Bremen again exactly a month later on May 19th.
