Interview with Xienhow
Interview Questions with XienHow:
1. How long have you been in the music game?
I wrote my first rap to Junior Mafia's - "Player's Anthem" around mid 96' when singles used to be released with the song, a remix version, and the instrumental. I started really writing and rapping regularly shortly there after.
2. What makes your music different and unique from other bay artists?
What makes my music unique, is that it's all real. I make music from my perspective and I talk about real life issues with the intention to uplift and unite. I also do grimey street music heavy with bars and a gutter feeling as this a large part of where I grew up and became who I am, but I do it to get out my aggressions and anger when I feel the need to channel that energy. I don't refer to women as Bit$3$ or H03$, I don't glorify drug sales or violence and I talk about things that matter to me, and what I feel matter to a lot of people that are not spoken for.
3. If I could look at your ipod or smart phone, what kind of songs or genres would I find?
To be honest, it's mostly gonna be hip hop (Though I do love Light Rock, Classical, Alternative and R&B Music), and with the fact that I am a mentor/consultant/Director for a lot of up and coming artists, I spend a lot of time listening to the music of the artists I work with like Jack Tradez, Canibal Lecture, Zyme, The Wryters, Xp, Fredo Algebra, Zeps, Telli Prego, Blaze N Kane, Dregs One and a lot more independent artists (most specifically ones that I work with directly), who can really use support from someone with my skill set. No disrespect to a lot of the other artists out there doing there thang, but they don't need my support or help, there's millions of fans out there for that. If I am listening to music from known artists, it's going to be a bit more old school like Nas, Outkast, Biggie, 2 Pac, Big Pun, The Lox, Bone Thugs, and so and so forth.
4. I know you travel a lot, where have you traveled to?
I have been to a lot of places all over the U.S. on multiple tours like virtually all of the West Coast States From Colorado, Wyoming, Montana down and over to California, and pretty deep in to the East Coast with New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut and so on. Internationally I have traveled quite extensively to places like Japan, France, Belgium, Holland, Spain, Germany, The Philippines (15 times and living there for months at a time), Thailand, Vietnam, Belize, Mexico (So Many times I can't count, including living there), Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan (Multiple Times) and more.
5. And if you could live outside of the U.S. where would you live?
In a lot of places. I plan on having homes throughout the world, in the southern and central Americas, Asia, Europe, Africa, and more.
6. Would you say your more known outside of the United States or equal to being known in the U.S.?
I have definitely continued to develop a strong following in Asia, but my fan base in America continues to grow as well. I don't worry about it, I just focus on continuing to get better, putting out quality product I believe in consistently and doing what I love, everything else is out of your control, so there is no need to focus on it or worry about it.
7. How did you get your stage name?
I went on a spiritual journey to Taiwan in 2001 (Long Story that I will one day tell), my first international trip aside from Mexico and found my way to become who I was born to be Zen. I wanted my stage name spelt differently than my birth name so I spelled it more of the "Asian" way with Xien. One main thing I always have to keep pointing out is that XienHow is one word with a Capital X and a Captial H not spelled "Xien How" with a space. It's a thing I do with all my companies/brands and there names like "LivenFire" and "TeamDoneSon" and so on.
8. If you had one wish, what would you wish for?
I work for what I want so I don't really spend time wishing, but if I had to choose, I would chose for Humanity to truly see and treat each other as the brother's and sisters that we are. We are all family.
Much Respect.
Don't forget to follow and subscribe to his social sites:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/XienHow
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/xienhow
Instagram: https://instagram.com/xienhow/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Tru3H0w
