MUSIC NEWS: Xani Awarded Best Musician at The Music Victoria Awards

Xani awarded Best Musician at the Music Victoria Awards 2022
+ performing in the Always Live Soundbox

On the back of her Australian tour celebrating her latest single ‘Michelle’, dancing queen and violin virtuoso Xani will be collecting a trophy at the Music Victoria Awards for Best Musician on Tuesday 13 December at The Edge in Federation Square. Set to release her upcoming concept album An Inaccurate History of Electronic Music in early 2023, Xani’s music-making is boldly, brilliantly, her own, taking audiences on mesmerising adventures into the spaces between pop, jazz, electronic and chamber music, now selected as a winner amongst the vast list of incredible nominees at the Music Victoria Awards and performing in the Always Live Soundbox this Sunday 11 December from 3-5pm located in The Arts Centre forecourt.

While she has a way with a bow and strings, Xani also has a way with words as she describes the meaning and emotion for this award - “ When I was four years old I felt a strong calling to play the violin. I knew that it would be my life’s purpose and that I would serve my community through sound, songs and music. With an open heart, I took to dedicating my life to the violin. I think of myself first and foremost as a musician. I am also an artist, a songwriter, a composer, but I identify with the word musician most to describe my work in this one precious life. “Musician” feels to me like it comes from the same majestic world as “magician”, “mathematician” and “statistician”! I wield music, sound and songs out of the universe into connection, culture, belonging and encouragement to listen to our own heart’s desires. I love this power and responsibility. I love the whimsical, unpredictable life that I lead. And yes, it is also full of constant rejection, insurmountable challenges and it’s so easy to lose direction as your inner compass gets battered about a bit.”
 
“Right now I have finished an album of music. It is the end of a creative chapter for me and three years of wielding, dreaming, trusting and inner wrestling. Soon it will be yours! It is the story of the global ban of dance floors and what that meant for human nature. The album is an antidote to that moment. That’s what music can do. That’s what a musician does. We encapsulate a moment in time with more than words or harmony, and instead a feeling. One we can all remember together and learn from. Reflect on and process. So trust me my darlings, music is what we need.This award is a little nudge and a little push to keep serving. To keep dedicating my whole heart to the way of the musician. To stay on my path and to keep on going. Trust myself and the world around me. Thank you for being here. Thank you for inspiring me. We all need music. Remind me of this the next time I am full of doubt, will you? I’m so totally rapt, proud and pumped to be the winner of this award, and will work even harder to cultivate safe, supportive and creative spaces for all musicians and our audiences. And I will continue to push the envelope with songs, sounds and the music we make here in this state. Thank you, thank you, a million times thank you.”

The first chapter ‘Dreaming of You’ was inspired by the world of disco and the chapters to come pay homage to Kraftwerk and German techno, Acid House, Trance and the second, her hip-hop laden track ‘Michelle’ dripping with punchy vocals and a funky bass line.. An Inaccurate History of Electronic Music is the place Xani escaped to over the solitary months of lockdowns, when dancing with, or performing to humans wasn’t an option. A world within her own reach where dance lived on and metamorphosised into something bigger than the present. At the heart of it all, An Inaccurate History of Electronic Music is an acutely personal interpretation of electronic dance music’s evolution through the ages. A party album where chapter by chapter the (inaccurate) history of dance music is tracked by a veritable musical alchemist and total EDM fangirl.

 Catch her performing at the Always Live Soundbox this Sunday 11 December from 3-5pm, located in The Arts Centre forecourt, or live streaming over on twitch. Every show with Xani is a little bit different, no show the same as the next and her musical adventures are certainly like no other.

‘Michelle’ is out now via CD Baby and Bandcamp