Review Fix Exclusive: The Famous Daxx Talks ‘Gamble’ And More

Review Fix chats with singer/songwriter The Famous Daxx to find out about her origin in music and so much more.

About The Famous Daxx: 

The Famous Daxx’s sophomore single “Gamble” is out on all major platforms now.  The song is the second instalment of four singles, following the debut “Weatherman”. “Gamble” is a moody ballad about being stuck and pondering the future, carried by Daxx’s soft vocals and psychedelic guitars. It is inspired by the spaghetti-western soundtracks of Ennio Morricone as well as the retro sounds of artists such as Arctic Monkeys or St. Vincent.

When Daxx feels overwhelmed she writes. Words, fragments, melodies, noises, collecting emotions in sound to find a release. The outcome are songs about growing up, feeling too much while the world tells you to feel less, being too loud while you’re expected to stay quiet, growing too fast while people tell you to stay small and being sad and angry about things even though people think you’re being dramatic. What Daxx doesn’t want, is to fulfil expectations and have a label stuck to her.

Daxx moved from her hometown Munich to London in 2018. Her influences range from classical music through opera and jazz to the guitar driven music of the 60s, 70s and 90s. While the different styles shine through in arrangements, harmonic movement, and melodies, Daxx creates her very own universe with cinematic soundscapes that feature prominently her soft and haunting vocals. 

Review Fix: How did you get involved in music?

The Famous Daxx: My parents really like music and always wanted me to have the option to play an instrument. I started with recorder then played violin for a few years, then clarinet and then I had singing lessons as a teenager. I also started to learn guitar and piano by myself, my mum used to play both so we always had a guitar and a piano at home.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

The Famous Daxx: It is normally quite spontaneous. I will have some kind of idea, either a line or a melody, and then just start playing around on the guitar. When it’s a good idea, it will start to flow and I normally write whole songs or at least major parts in one go. Often it is about something that has been in my head for a while. I will then often let it sit one day and start demoing, I focus a lot on getting every idea out as quick as possible, my attention span is super short and I forget things if I don’t record them. I take usually like 6 hours to work on a demo and get all my initial ideas down to create the feel I want for it, and then I will just let it sit with other demos for a bit until I feel like proper editing and cleaning it up. 

Review Fix: What inspires you?

The Famous Daxx: Before lockdown a lot of inspiration came from personal experiences. But during lockdown I felt like there was nothing going on that I could write about, so I just started watching random stuff on Netflix, listening to other people’s music, reading a lot of books and articles to find inspiration. I’m really excited that I was able to write some songs that don’t just reflect my own experience, but tell someone else’s story, but in the end everything comes from a very personal and internal place. I pick up a lot of sounds from gigs and music I listen to and then try to recreate them with my instruments, which often leaves me with something completely new.

Review Fix: How has Covid affected your art?

The Famous Daxx: As I said before, it gave me a push to find different ways of inspiration. Also having so much time to myself made me practice more, I played a lot of bass and guitar and got a lot better at production, just because I didn’t have much more to do.

Review Fix: What does music mean to you?

The Famous Daxx: That is kind of a difficult question, I feel like it means the same thing to most people but still everyone experiences it differently. I feel like I can express myself through it, but also it is probably the one thing that I was always good at and never had a problem to understand, so it is a part of me that comes naturally more than anything else.

Review Fix: How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you?

The Famous Daxx: Wow okay, I don’t even know anymore at this point. I would want to describe every detail, but I think that might not be very helpful. I think for me there is so much inspiration from so many different places that I find it hard to put it into words. But if I had to try, I would say it feels like the moment when you leave the house to go somewhere and you’re a little bit moody and need a song to feel like the dramatic main character while walking down the street.

Review Fix: How are your live shows different from your studio work?

The Famous Daxx: I haven’t played live since recording these songs, and before it was a lot different, just because the songs have changed so much. I will soon put a band together again and then see how it will sound, I am open to experimenting with different arrangements.

Review Fix: What inspired your latest single?

The Famous Daxx: It has had a lot of different influences since it was written. I wrote it when I was 19 or 20, so I can’t remember the exact event, but around that time so many things in my life were changing and kind of up in the air, that I was often feeling confused, like everything was out of my hands and at the same time going too fast.

Review Fix: What are your goals for 2021? 

The Famous Daxx: I will release two more songs and start playing live again, and I am working on finding a way to keep recording. 

Review Fix: What’s next?

The Famous Daxx: In a few months my next single will come out.