Meet XOV: Musician, Visual Artist And Global Citizen

XOV

Chicago – Damian Ardestani, better known as XOV, is an extremely talented visual artist, filmmaker, photographer and musician. The Iranian born, Swedish-bred rapper turned pop artist has seen his fair share of troubles and turmoil. Through it all – running with gangs, losing his teeth in a violent, bloody fight, and losing his business, home, and lover – his art has helped him to fight his demons. It also gained him the attention of Lorde, who hand picked XOV to be a part of TheHunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack she curated.

Ardestani spoke with Best New Bands about his dark-pop, working with Lorde, his soon to be released EP Lucifer, and abandoning society for a time to live alone on an island with his dog, Everly.

You’ve been dubbed as Lorde’s protégé. I read you met Lorde by direct messaging her on twitter. Is this true?

Well, I didn’t direct message her. I received a direct message from her.

That’s pretty impressive!

Yeah, it was! I remember I was sitting in the studio and my phone beeped. I looked at it, and it said you’ve got a message from Lorde. I didn’t take it seriously for one second because I have a lot of fans that have [twitter handles] that are Lorde of the Rings and stuff like that, so my natural inclination was that this is probably someone else… I just laughed it off, and I told my manager, after reading it, “I got this message from this fake Lorde account.” She was like, “Can I look at your phone?” She looked it up and was like, “This is verified! You should send her an email!”… I sent her an email, and she answered me. She said, “I’m a big fan of your stuff. I’m doing the Hunger Games soundtrack, and I would love for you to be a part of it.” And that’s how it started. (laughs)

You wrote the song “Animal” for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. What was the writing process like?

Well, Lorde was really hands on; she let me know what kind of mood she wanted. Obviously I’m a big fan of the movie myself, and I looked into the book. I read parts of it just to get into the vibe…We just sent emails back and forth with different ideas basically, and “Animal” was the one that ended up on the soundtrack.

You’ve classified your music as dark-pop. I read you had a rough upbringing, which has influenced your writing. Would you say that’s why you call it dark-pop?

No, I’ve always had this darkness in me ever since I was little. The darkness has always come out through poetry or art. It’s my way of getting it out of my system. I’m not a negative or evil person, but like everybody, I have my demons, you know. When I write a song or create art – because I also do other things, music is not my main thing – when I create art, I let this dark force out. That’s why it becomes dark music. I’m releasing my EP in the middle of January, and you’re gonna hear what I mean when you hear it. It’s called Lucifer.

Can you talk a bit about Lucifer?

“Lucifer” is the main track. It’s my proudest, but all the tracks I’m really proud of. It’s been a yearlong process… I’m very influenced by 80s hip-hop, 90s R&B, and modern hip hop music. We actually managed to capture all of those elements on the EP. It’s definitely a unique sound. The songs are very different from one another. Some are angry. Some are sad. Some are just beautiful. It’s just a very interesting experience that documents the past six, seven years of my life.

Will “Boys Don’t Cry” be on the EP?

Yes, it will be.

Can you tell us a bit about “Boys Don’t Cry” and what inspired the song?

I think everyone has a major crisis at least once in their life. I had a crisis where everything in my life crashed: my finances, my relationship, my company. I was left without a job or a place to live. It sort of all crashed. At that point, I hit rock bottom. That’s when I moved to an island in the middle of nowhere, just to process and heal. That’s where I wrote “Boys Don’t Cry.”

I read about that. The island’s called Rindö, right? Are there a lot of people on the island or are you pretty much alone?

Yeah and well no, usually in the summer there’s a lot of people there on vacation, in cottages. I moved there in September and I stayed during winter.

So you were you pretty isolated during winter, then?

Yeah I was pretty isolated. To go buy groceries, you had to walk twenty-five minutes through the woods. Then you had to take a boat. It was a project!

I saw you were living there with your dog.

I actually got the dog because I was so fed up with people. I didn’t know who was my friend and who was my enemy. I was like f**k society. F**k everybody, I’m leaving! I’m cutting the cord, but I’m getting a dog just to not go insane. (chuckles)

What’s your dog’s name?

Everly. It’s like Beverly but without the B.

You were born in Iran but your parents fled to Sweden to escape the conflict.

Yeah, when I came to Sweden I was one.

What was your experience like growing up in Sweden?

I grew up as an immigrant in another country. It was different. It’s not like the U.S. where you feel like an American. Here I definitely didn’t feel like I was part of society or Swedish society. During my teenage years, where I grew up, I got into a lot of bad stuff, gangs, and there was lot of violence…Music has always been the main thing throughout my life. I started rapping when I was an angry teenager. I was into Swedish gangster rap. I started writing poetry and that evolved into rapping with these gangster rappers and doing gangster shit. Then things got out of control. I got into a lot of fights. And then I was hospitalized. I lost my teeth. Then I decided to leave it all at around sixteen.

Have you returned to Iran?

No. A lot of my upbringing has been about trying to find my identity because I haven’t seen myself as Iranian, and I haven’t seen myself as Swedish…In all honesty, I feel like I’m a citizen of the world.

XOV will definitely become a citizen of the world as he tours the globe this coming year.

Follow XOV on facebook and twitter to keep track of his tour dates. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, featuring “Animal,” is available now through Republic Records. Click HERE to purchase it.
Sarah Hess

Sarah Hess

At the age of six, Sarah Hess discovered True Blue by Madonna. This resulted in her spending hours in front of the bathroom mirror with a hairbrush microphone, belting out "La Isla Bonita" off key. Her love for music only intensified over the years thanks to her parents; her mother exposed Sarah to The Jackson Five and had her hustling to the Bee Gees, while her father would play her albums like 'Pet Sounds' and 'Some Girls' from start to finish, during which he'd lecture on and on about the history of rock & roll. Sarah would eventually stumble upon rap and hip-hop, then punk and alternative, and fall madly in love with Jeff Buckley and film photography.

After attending The School of the Art Institute in Chicago, Sarah went on to study education at Dominican University, earning a degree in history. When not teaching, writing, or taking in a show, she is most likely to be found with a camera to her eye or hanging out in a darkroom.


You can follow Sarah Hess on twitter at @Sarahhasanh and view her music photography on her website: smhimaging.com.
Sarah Hess

Latest posts by Sarah Hess (see all)