“I refuse to be put in a box and want people to instead remember me as an artist who will always be coming up with something audacious.”
Ximena Borges has grown in popularity in her homeland of Venezuela over the years but as an uproot living partially in New York, she’s now bringing her unique sounds to the states in an attempt to do the same.
Her new album, Joyful Noise, provides a fresh take on some holiday classics as she uses no instrument other than her own voice and a looper to create the desired effects. Be on the lookout for our review in the coming week, but in the meantime you can check below for our exlusive interview with Borges as she discusses the new release, her history with music, and her experiences with living between multiple countries.
I’m going to get to your new album and such, but first, how long have you been involved with music, and what would you say influenced you to take an interest in becoming a musician?
I grew up in a house of artists that was constantly filled with other artists, painters, writers, sculptors, musicians, designers, etc. One of them lead a baroque ensemble and needed a place to rehearse for a month, so my father offered his studio and they would rehearse there at any time of day or night while my father painted them. I was a little one-year-old who sat in a chair listening to them all day. They were the first musicians I saw actually creating music in front of my eyes. Then my mother had me take up the violin when I was two, as a teenager I took up the piano, and the voice was just a natural progression.
I could be wrong but it would be my guess that you have had some kind of vocal training at some point. How long have you been singing?
Yes, I started studying voice at 16 at Manhattan School of Music and then did my undergrad there majoring in Classical Voice. Since then I have been training my voice rigorously finding all its knocks and crannies which is exactly what has allowed me to experiment with it in this album.
So how exactly did you start getting into what you’re currently doing with the vocal layers and arrangements?
Well, it happened out of a need to create something on my own from beginning to end. In the classical music world, there is always tons of people involved, not to mention tons of money, too. I needed to make something with my own “hands” entirely. Coincidentally I began playing around with a recording app on the first iPad and realized how much fun that was! Now I’m totally addicted.
Did you always know that you wanted to do this entirely solo or had you considered working with other musicians at some point?
This specific album I wanted to do entirely solo. Of course I had the essential component of my grammy-nominated music producer, Gonzalo Grau. But other than that, the video is done entirely by myself, the financing through Kickstarter was managed entirely by myself, and the concerts I’m performing only require a sound guy basically cause I sing the whole thing live with a looper. It’s a great experience to have that much freedom and that much control also.
Nevertheless I would of course love to do another project where I could mix my looping with other instruments of course. I think I’m starting to create a language – a sound – for myself that I want to keep digging into and refining. It can go anywhere and I look forward to being very adventurous.
So your new album, Joyful Noise, is entirely vocal with no instruments and spans many languages. It’s truly unlike anything I’ve ever heard that I can recall. What can you tell us about your direction on this release and the choices you made as far as what languages to sing each song in?
Within all my adventures, I’m essentially a very rational artist. My decisions are by no means arbitrary. The direction I took each song in and the language was carefully thought out. From the beginning I knew I wanted to make it international somehow and started researching holiday songs from around the world. Then I started realizing a great deal of songs I was hearing were just translations of each other. So then it was even harder to decide what language would prevail.
In cases where it didn’t make sense to limit a song to one language I would do each verse in a different one, this is the case in the “Little Drummer Boy” and “Silent Night.” But there were others, like “Oh Christmas Tree,” where the decision was backed by its origin – Germany – and my interpretation of what that country’s essence is. So I decided to make it a little darker and groovier by turning it into a ’20s cabaret song.
And you successfully funded a Kickstarter campaign to make this release happen as you stated earlier. Can you explain your experience with crowdfunding it and why you chose to take that route?
Well, after going around with the recording and realizing how much people loved it but how hard it was to get someone to really pick it up and take it all the way, I decided it was only appropriate given the concept of the album to go with crowdfunding. This way it remained free and independent. It was an intense, emotional, exciting, challenging and infinitely rewarding experience. As everyone says, it’s a commitment of at least 5 months from prep to campaign to fulfillment.
I was lucky to count on many supporters who made big pledges and also tons of strangers who just loved the concept. Everything has been sent out to everyone now and I’m getting super happy responses from my backers. I look forward to doing another campaign for my next project! I am super proud to carry the tag of “successful crowdfunder” now!
According to your Facebook, you have a lot more interests and work other than just music. Can you share with us some insight about your other endeavors and anything else you’re currently working on?
As I said before, I grew up in a very eclectic house. No one was defined as only one thing- everyone did many things and continued to dabble into new stuff. So this created in me a curiosity and hunger for new ways of expression. I refuse to be put in a box and want people to instead remember me as an artist who will always be coming up with something audacious.
So right now I am also continuing with my classical singing career plus I’m writing, directing and producing my own multimedia interdisciplinary shows, am going to artists’ residencies to make new work and connect with other eclectic artists who I participate in stuff with, and am thinking about my next album!
I noticed that you’re a film lover and as a fellow film buff I’m curious as to what some of your all-time favorite films are and maybe what your favorite film of 2013 is as well.
Oh yes, let’s! All-time favs: Vittorio de Sica’s Bicycle Thief and Miracle in Milan. All of Charlie Chaplin. Marcel Carne’s Children of Paradise. Argentinian movie called Valentin. Totally love old hollywood musicals any night with some hot chocolate- give me any Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire or Rita Hayworth and I will be an utterly content gal. Had periods of obsessions for Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Cary Grant, Bette Davis, and Marilyn of course. 2013 I haven’t seen that many but I really liked Woody Allen’s take on Streetcar Named Desire in his Blue Jasmine.
So are you currently living in New York or Venezuela? Or do you move back and forth between the two?
I move back and forth between the two and dabble in Europe also. Venezuela is politically doing terribly but strangely enough the music and theater scene is flourishing — people need it. So it’s a great place to experiment with new things and see how they take. I’m a bit well-known there now, so I get good amount of attention.
I’d imagine the two being entirely different in most ways. Would you say that they both have influences on your music equally or do you find yourself more inspired by one than the other?
I’d say I’m inspired by both in totally different ways. Venezuela inspires me in that people need to have moments of joy yet also moments of revelation of hope, and that challenges me to create work for that purpose. New York doesn’t need me to inspire its hope, but it pushes me to break away from the norms and be different. Which then reciprocally makes me bring work to Venezuela which breaks barriers of tradition and pushes my work forward. It’s a cycle now that I say it. But in New York everyone is breaking barriers so it’s harder to stand out within that. You have to stand out for more than just being different. I’m still working on that!
How would you explain the experience of being on stage performing these songs from Joyful Noise all by yourself?
Oh, it’s a bit of a roller coaster, cause it’s stressful to get the beats right for it to all fit, and if you start at the wrong tempo, the looper just keeps beating you over the head with it! It’s not like a live musician whose tempo you can adjust throughout the song. With the machine you have only two choices: stick to what you’ve made even if it’s not perfect and figure out a way to make it sound good by adding other stuff, or singing the vocals with a different swing – which can be a super fun experience if you can pull it off. Or you apologize to the audience, erase and start over!
Also Im looping with my headphones on cause it’s the way I feel most comfortable and it’s weird ’cause I’m not hearing the result as it sounds in the hall. I’m not totally sure how people are hearing it. So when I’m done with a song and put the headphones down and see people clapping so loud, it surprises me every time. The cool thing I’ve discovered with this is that when an artist takes a big risk and lets the audience in on it, they will catch you no matter what. It works every time. They appreciate the fact that you are willing to jump over the edge for them. Just be humble and they will have your back.
So what plans do you have for the remainder of this year and 2014? Any new material or touring in the works?
So for the remainder of this year I have a few more shows in Venezuela with this album and also some classical Oratorios with orchestras. For next year, looking at possibilities of touring in Europe. All the while continuing to balance my classical singing career with my individual experimenting and my new show producing. Would love to do some more music videos also that might be what then becomes a full album. My head and heart are fired up with all the possibilities this new album has brought about and I look forward to taking it to its ultimate consequences!
Written and conducted by: Brian Lion – Follow him on Twitter
