Nice meeting you XTIE! Can you tell us about your latest release "Skin"?
Hello! Nice to meet you too! My new song “Skin” is a love letter to my own body, my skin, and my soul. I’ve been dealing with body image issues due to my eczema at a young age, and I wish to share this story with listeners that we all deserve to feel beautiful regardless of how we look.
You make music with stories personal to you. What are the positives and negatives of putting your stories out into the world?
It is more positive than negative! The way I create songs is to write about my point of view for a certain issue / stories that happen around me. After releasing the song “Skin” I was thrilled to receive a lot of supportive messages from fans and they told me they can relate to the song well. Which is sad in a way because it seems that a lot of people are also dealing with body image issues – but on the other hand, I am very happy that my song “Skin” is kinda making a difference and it can serve as a companion along our way. It has been a very heart-warming moment.
What does your creative process look like?
As I write and produce on my own for my artist project, my creative process can be as freely as I wish. I can start with a melody and an idea I jotted down earlier. I also like to start to produce a track and topline on it. It really depends! I think I’m very lucky to be able to produce and write at the same time so I can make artistic choices without limitations. On some occasions, I love to write and produce with others as well! Working with others gives me a different perspective to my own craft and it helps me grow as an artist!
What is a moment you felt the proudest?
I used to think a proper measurable achievement, like getting awards/ hitting milestones would make me most proud. But nowadays the moment I feel the proudest is to have gratitude for all the good things happening around me and I can have a healthy heart and body to embrace them.
As a producer for other artists, is there an artist that you would love to produce for someday?
I do! Taeyeon and Chungha! I have been listening to a lot of K-pop since I was a teen! Apart from my own artist project, I also team up with writers and producers in Finland, US, Japan, Sweden etc to write for Kpop! Currently, I’d say I’m a Cpop producer/writer, but I really want to expand my artistry to Kpop. I hope one day I will have the chance to see my name on the credit page. Kpop always fascinates me creatively.
How do you balance between producing and working on your own projects?
To be honest, when there’s deadlines, there’s no way you can prioritize your own project. I always push my releases because of a lot of deadlines and work from my full time job as an art event producer and a music producer for Cpop. Creatively, I do not stress too much about it – I usually leave myself more headspace for doing creative work, like I’m more creative during the day time, then I’ll arrange songwriting/producing sessions in the morning and in the afternoon. At night, mainly doing music business stuff like planning and administration stuff. I hope it can be balanced in a better way in 2023!!
