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Photo by Christian Dillard

Mercurial, dark and filled with sonic equivalent to struggling to keep your head above air, TRXY!’s latest album is absolutely appropriate for the world date right now. If you need distorted melodies draped over languid rough beats, have a love for retro shoe gaze, then everything about this album (On repeat inside the OTW hovel for a while now) is deserving of some playlist shelf space. Wanting to know where this sound came from, its influences and what else might be ion the horizon, we caught up on a few week ahead of this brooding release: 

OnesToWatch: Why are you an artist? 

TRXY!: Well, I started making music from the old content I used to do. So before I started making music, I used to post nostalgia content with the PS2 and all the old games and everything from that era. Then, eventually, when the shoe came back in the summer of 2023, it was really a no-brainer to add it with my content. So that's pretty much how that started. 

Love it. I'm always fascinated by a nostalgia you never experienced, which I think is a very internet-specific phenomenon. How did that come about? What about that left an impression on you?

I had two older brothers, and I pretty much grew up with all that stuff – watching them play all the old games. I got a lot of inspiration from them.

Older brothers, say no more. But what about musically? When did music feel like a good form of expression for you? 

My dad, he's been making music for almost my whole life. I would be at the studios all the time when I was little. Just constantly being around the music scene, that’s what inspired me. 

What kind of music was your dad into? 

He was more into the hip-hop sound, more like that Southern hip-hop. 

Besides music, was there anything else that felt like a way of expression for you? 

Honestly, not really. Music was my only help in the long run, because I never really looked to anything else but music. Music's probably what got me through a bunch of stuff. 

Love it. What about your artist name, man? How did you land on the name Trxy! 

I really didn't know what to call myself. When I released “Realize,” I still didn't even have a name. I just figured out I’d use my own name. 

I'm going to dive into your process a little bit. Do you have a way you approach writing every time? 

I just usually just make music in terms of whatever I'm feeling in a moment. I try to make it as authentic as possible. 

Do you record yourself and then revisit stuff? Do you literally just improvise? 

I just go into everything brand new. 

Wow. That is very rare. 

Yeah. 

Maybe it's the hip-hop dad. You're just punching in every time? 

Yes, I have a very different work flow than a lot of people, but it works for me. I think hearing a bunch of inspiration from other bands is a big part of it. My ideas have a lot to do with me going back and listening to all the super old bands and getting inspiration, maybe even some of the movies I'll watch from that early 2000s era. That's where I get a lot of the inspiration from. 

Is that deliberate in any way? Are you saying, I want to write something and then finding a source of inspiration and then it happens? Or does it just sort of happen organically? 

Yeah, it usually just happens organically. 

That's so fascinating to me. And it also makes me feel old, because I think all your source inspiration is my youth. Let's get into the new record, Drowning in Bliss. That's a beautifully expressive feeling. Is it ironic? Is it genuine? 

It was meant to be a metaphor, because drowning in bliss is generally a positive term. I was looking at it like a cynical statement, like everything is great in the world. 

And what about in terms of putting together an album. How did you gather these songs?

At first, it was supposed to be an EP and we eventually changed it to an album. I definitely had to lock it down and make sure I didn't regret any of the songs later. I regretted making some of them, but I feel that's part of the art journey. 

Given your writing style is pretty unique, how much editing did you have to do? Did you have a lot of songs that you left off or did it just keep growing into an album and then it was done? 

It grew into an album, for sure. It was just me making a bunch of songs and choosing which one fits better on the album. 

I’m also fascinated by your visuals, your aesthetic. Obviously, it feels a little contrarian. Definitely nostalgic, anti-internet a little bit. How authentic is that to who you naturally are?

It's something that's always been a part of me. Everything that I put in my music, the stuff that I grew up watching myself, it's definitely been a part of my life forever. That's always, always, been something I incorporate into my music in some way. 

Do you have an ambition for this record? Is there a dream way it is received?

Not necessarily. For this record, it was definitely a mix between different genres and some out of the ordinary stuff for me. I think this album is going to do really good. 

All right, love it. If we ambushed you late at night and were hungry, can you whip up a meal? What would it be? 

I'd probably make a chicken sandwich with some fries. 

That works. What's a place you've never been to that you hope your music takes you to? 

Oh, Hawaii. I don't know why Hawaii. 

If you could invent your perfect show, who would you be playing with? Either opening or supporting? And where would it be? 

Oh, My Bloody Valentine. Maybe add Deftones.

I still feel part of my hearing loss is attributed to My Bloody Valentine. That band is maybe the loudest band. I don't understand how it's so loud. It doesn't make sense. 

Yeah, I think I think Duke Kevin Shields, he makes all the shows more loud on purpose. 

Do you have a favorite venue or a place you'd love to go to see that? 

Probably somewhere like Dublin, where they normally have their shows or, maybe Brazil, in that area. 

Great choices. I would love a non-music recommendation. It can be anything – activity, travel spot, something to read, something to watch, whatever you want. 

The movie Thirty Days of Night, it's honestly the movie really that shaped a lot of my inspiration for my aesthetic and style.

Okay, what about a music recommendation? 

I would definitely say Loveless by My Bloody Valentine. Chapterhouse’s third album, Whirlpool, Before and After. It's a crazy, crazy album like no other. 

Lastly, just want to end on anything you want to share. It can be advice, shoutouts, “Hi mom", whatever you want. 

So I am currently working on an EP from my second band. It's a record fully dedicated to old 90s shoegaze. It's a new project I've been working on and definitely trying to drop it in the next two weeks. 

Thank you so much, man. 

Thank you! 

Listen to Drowning In Bliss below: