Daily Discovery: Xenia Sky, “Finding Jimmy’s Ghost”

Updated:

May 12, 2014 5:33 pm

Videos by American Songwriter

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ARTIST: Xenia Sky

SONG: Finding Jimmy’s Ghost

BIRTHDATE: 9/20/1991

HOMETOWN: Red Bank, NJ

CURRENT LOCATION: Brooklyn, NY

AMBITIONS: tour, tour, tour and get back in the studio soon! Although I just released my new EP, “Ghost of Jupiter” I’m at work writing again. I hope to have enough support behind me to release a full-length next time around. I’d love to publish a book of poetry I’ve been working on about a haunted ex-brothel in the Lower East Side. It explores ghosts, gender, and power. Also, one day I hope to own a horse, you know, so I can gallop off into the sunset, fight villains, etc.

TURN-OFFS: people who eat tuna fish on the subway, sexism, racism, all the isms

TURN-ONS: guitars, cowboy boots, good poetry, coffee, the woods, Beyoncé and French

DREAM GIG: Opening for Brandi Carlile

FAVORITE LYRIC: “I could drink a case of you and I would still be on my feet”-Joni Mitchell

CRAZIEST PERSON I KNOW: Probably myself.

SONG I WISH I WROTE: Fiona Apple’s Extraordinary Machine

5 PEOPLE I’D MOST LIKE TO HAVE DINNER WITH: Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Yo-Yo Ma, Bobby McFerrin and Tori Amos.

MY FAVORITE CONCERT EXPERIENCE: Fiona Apple at Music Hall of Williamsburg last year. It was a completely sold out show and my friend and I went to try and buy tickets off of scalpers. We had a strange feeling about it so we held off and started making friends with people in the line. As the doors opened, tons of people were turned away because of counterfeit tickets. A few minutes later, one of the girls previously on the line came out to smoke. She licked the stamp on her hand, pressed it to mine, and then we both had stamps. For some miraculous reason the bouncer let me in because I told him that my stamp mostly washed off. It was an electrifying show and I sang every song at the top of my lungs. Fiona fans really come together.

I WROTE THIS SONG: I wrote this song as way of processing a disastrous relationship. I wrote it when I started to feel as if I didn’t know myself anymore. I was dating an alcoholic at the time and felt so much that I was in love with him even though he treated me terribly. He lied to me about so many things: his age, his children, his wife, his drinking. I was driving home from the Dewey Beach Music Festival at 2 in the morning during a huge rainstorm when this great streak of lightning hit and all the sudden I said to myself “that’s it, I’m done”. And I was. This song is about that moment.