Beatmaker Huxley Anne plays Low End Theory for the first time tonight, visiting the temple of bass that has inspired her since she moved to Los Angeles a few years ago. Utilizing the textures and energy of her new home along with the deep bass that has moved her for years, her music springs from desire, hope, and love. Young and restless, but with a calm center, Huxley Anne is someone to watch in 2017 as she releases new music and chases new adventures. We wanted to find out more about her past, her music, and her taste in tacos...
What's your favorite taco spot?
Once upon a time, it was just a table on the corner of Fig & Crestwood in Highland Park. Now known as Tacos Javier—-it’s my go-to for pastor. Just the other day I finally tried Cacao Mexicatessen, and oh my god, uni tacos. That’s everything I’ve ever wanted, uni on a taco.
What brought you to LA, what keeps you here?
Music brought me to LA, and music keeps me here. When I first moved here, it felt like everything was moving really fast around me and I was standing still in the eye of a hurricane. Six months went by, and I started to move into the hurricane slowly, meeting friends, playing shows, adjusting to life at light speed. After a year or two I became part of the hurricane that is LA and now I never want to leave. It’s like falling madly in love with a wild storm.
What's your typical day like, and what would a perfect day be?
Typical day starts around noon. I have the sleep schedule of a vampire and it’s really lovely. Noon, coffee, breakfast. I like to leave the house in the morning & see the outside world, wake up a bit. “Awake, shake dreams from your hair, my pretty child, my sweet one. Choose the day and choose the sign of your day, the day’s divinity, first thing you see.” Jim Morrison wrote the motto of my mornings. I start working on music, or graphics, or video content around 2PM. Usually the medium is decided by whatever deadline is coming up next. By nightfall, my focus generally settles into music entirely, I love writing from the hours of 1AM - 4AM. Everyone is sleeping and I feel most inspired in the quiet darkness.
A perfect day would start with a swim, in an ocean or a lake or a river, also around noon. Breakfast would be Eggs Oscar with a Bloody Mary, then to the studio of my dreams where 1000 synths are waiting for me, and all my gear is connected, turning on with the press of a button. I’d stay there until hunger drove me out, go eat sushi, then teleport to the jungle to dance naked around a fire before returning to the studio at night. Sleeping before dawn.
What were you like as a kid? When did you start making music?
I was a pretty serious, independent, tomboy of a child. I devoured books, reading almost more than anything else. I grew up in the mountains, around more nature than people, living on a ravine…so I spent a lot of time alone & outside. My parents were very open, letting me live as I please from day one. A childhood full of such infinite freedom lends itself to a very somber outlook as an adult, and a lot of wild experiences in youth.
Music was the grounding influence in my life as I grew up. I started dancing at age 3, piano at age 6, was on Napster torrenting albums at age 8. My diary was full of moody adolescent songs by age 12, shitty bands at age 16, then lots of lyrics & poems, half-hearted attempts at singing, finally opening Garageband in the desert on an iPad at 20 years old where I realized making electronic music was the medium I’d been searching for. Everything felt sort of scattered and unfocused before that—I always knew I wanted to pursue music, but I didn’t know how to translate the sounds I hear in my head until I started using a computer to do it. Synths work, too.
How did you link up with Tsuruda? And what's up with your collab tune, "Tacos"?
Tsuruda and I met right before my senior year of college, at an acid party. He wasn’t even Tsuruda back then—-he was using an old alias, as was I. We would hang out & go record shopping together, sampling vinyl to use in our solo projects, until we started dating in the spring. I remember us both changing our aliases around the same time, me becoming Huxley Anne, and him growing into his family name, Tsuruda. Then summer came and we were bored and everything was hot and we just made a track one day, an old song called Fire. The process was so fun and working together was so chill, we made many, many more. His strengths are my weaknesses, and vice versa, so we compliment each other perfectly through making art.
That fall, we moved to LA together. When we got our first apartment in Highland Park, we lived on tacos for days. Everything was new and LA was insane and we knew no one at the time, but the tacos were like the silver lining of our first year here. So we wrote a song about them.
Describe yourself in 3 emoji.
🌹 💀 🌿
Are you part of a crew, a movement? Is that sense of community important to you?
I’ve got two! The first is Dirt First—a bunch of skaters, music producers, and graffiti artists from Salt Lake City. They’re radical, gritty, insane artists who I love to death. The second crew I joined when I moved to LA. Courteous Family. They’ve become like brothers to me—-a bunch of the core members all live in Highland Park, in a couple houses close by each other. We’re growing up as a musical family and I can’t imagine what my life here would’ve been like if I didn’t know them. So yes, community is important to me, because music is too insanely raw to go at alone. RIP Dr. Derg, we will love you forever.
Do you have a lucky number?
8, infinity sideways.
Are you excited to play Low End Theory tonight?
Yes!!! My debut tonight will be alongside edIT, Geotic (Baths), and Alex Wiley. I got into the LA beat scene sound when I was in high school—-Teebs first, then fairy godfather Flying Lotus, then Ras G, then Gaslamp Killer, etc etc etc forever. I have the utmost respect for Daddy Kev. I'm imagining that playing there feels like riding a fire breathing dragon into the low end frequencies of my dreams.
Who are your top 5 rappers? Who would you most like to work with?
Earl Sweatshirt, Tyler, the Creator, MF Doom, Jonwayne, and Daveed Diggs from clipping. Working with any of these insanely talented artists would be an honor, yet would probably feel like eating cake from the devil.
Got any shoutouts?
Shouts to Wylie Cable for believing in me and releasing my debut album, Ilium, on his label Dome of Doom Records, out April 14th. Shouts to Alice Coltrane, Delia Derbyshire, Arthur Verocai, Dalena Tran. Shouts to the bartenders at The Raymond. xx
Follow Huxley Anne on SoundCloud.
