Xande Cruz

HOW MANY GIANTS HAVE YOU KILLED by Rosabelle Diaz www.freshoutmedia.com Although most people, at some point in their childhood, have been guilty of using the shower head as a toy mic, very few actually grow up to pick up a functional, non-water spewing microphone and take their fantasies to the stage.
Xande Cruz doesn’t particularly like his voice. Not in terms of singing, it’s the accent, he says. So when I pull out my mini-corder to capture the words my shorthand won’t recall in a few days, he appears a bit hesitant. But after switching tables to a less crowded area of Marbar in University City, ordering smoothies and a late lunch and witnessing the waiter’s nonchalance toward the whole affair, he starts to open up.
“I used to collect, like cans and cardboard boxes and pretend I had a drumset. I used to take a shower and pretend that I was singing, there was always an idea in my mind,” he says, when I ask him if he always wanted to be an artist and where he got the idea in the first place.
“We didn’t really have an artist in the house. Everybody was sort of nine to five people,” he pauses as our smoothies arrive. “But yeah, it’s pure instinct because I don’t have any artists in the family, anyone who is in the music business.”
“Was there any particular person that influenced your music or your decision to be a musician?” I ask, sliding my smoothie to the end of the table where it can’t splatter on my notebook.
“I think the first person that helped lead me to do it was my father, cause, you know, he used to sing in the house and he was very alive in terms of art. You know, he could be an artist, but maybe because of obstacles he didn’t become an artist, but by nature he was very artistic… but yeah, my father.
“He was a musician or-“
“No no no, he was a nine to five guy…. not as much artistic as far as doing things, but just his spirit- a music person someone who appreciated music and not just music but art. He would go places to see art exhibitions and all, he would take us to museums and this and that.”
“So how would you like the people who influenced you to feel about your music and what you’re doing now?”
“I hope they enjoy or they would see a little bit of themselves in my work and support. I think their attitude is, they don’t care about what’s going on now because of the industry but sometimes a lot of people that you like are not around anymore. Sometimes, they’re a little bitter about what’s happening; they don’t really care what’s going on.” He pauses. “You know, just because of the industry, not because of lack of creativity.”
“Have you run into any people that have that attitude?”
“I see it all the time in interviews, in magazines, and close friends. It’s a normal reaction… Sometimes you do a remix of a song, right, I’ve heard so many stories like that, a DJ does a remix of somebody, and the artist, sometimes they love and sometimes they hate and sometimes they cannot do anything about it,” he laughs, “but, uh, they’re not going to approve every time. But I hope, you know, they can see—answering your question— understand what I’m trying to do.”
Our photographer walks in then, drawing our attention away from our interview microcosm and towards the happenings in the rest of the restaurant.
“That’s Junior, you know him?” Xande points to the DJ, who is eyeing a menu a few tables away.
“Who?”
“DJ Junior.”
“Oh yeah, did you invite him to save you from the interview?” I joke.
“Yeah,” he says, “I told him, look, say it’s a coincidence.” We’re both laughing but I’m doubting a bit if Junior’s appearance is incidental or some sort of premeditated out in the case that our afternoon meeting turns into a disaster.
“But you’re doing good,” he reassures me, waving his hand across the whole scene, the scribbled up pages, the cassette recorder standing behind the salt and pepper shakers and the sugar substitutes.
“When you did your concert, you incorporated live art,” I note, referring to the CD release party at World Cafe live on April 26th. “What kind of image do you think you create with your music?”
“The way I see it, it’s colors, it’s layers, it’s shapes. Some parts of the pictures could be really busy, the others could be really calm but it’s some combination of colors and flavors.” He looks around, too aware that most of the attention from the few patrons in the restaurant is focused on our table. Junior calls his cell from the other side of the dining room and they share a private joke.
I sip the last of my smoothie until it slurps. “Have you gotten any certain reactions that you didn’t expect from your music?”
“No. Not yet! It surprises me every time people are not dancing,” he says throwing his hands palms up in a ‘why’ gesture, “but that doesn’t happen very often.”
“Are most of the shows you are doing in Philly right now?”
“Yeah, but we’re booking in Europe, too. And Japan, also. We’re sending stuff to Japan as well.”
“I think the majority of your audience- correct me if I’m wr - www.freshoutmedia.com

“…The recipe for the band’s unique sound is a liberal dose of percussionists, a splash of potent horn section, a dash of electric guitar and bass, all stirred in with the scratches and electronic samples of the DJ. This dizzying, unbelievably eclectic mix of sounds and musical styles seems pure confusion when listed on the page, but during the live show, the sounds are blended expertly and served up as a mouthwatering cuisine that hints of this and that, but has a flavor all its own. It’s a favorable sensory overload, inducing rare moments of synesthesia; it’s music you can taste.” - www.freshoutmedia.com

Though he currently resides in Philly, Xande Cruz delivers energetic music like he was performing on the streets of Brazil. He's backed by a boisterous rhythm section filled with percussion and rocking guitars. - www.download.com