From lo-fi beginnings to high production ambitions, Xenya Genovese explores new depths with her debut album, blending raw emotion, Northern charm, and a fearless approach to her artistry.

On the way to meet Xenya Genovese, who performs under the esoteric moniker of Freak Slug (itself nothing more than a joke about feeling like a freak and liking slugs), I was packed with endless others on a Central line carriage that was so hot it made my insides radiate. So when I finally made it to Bethnal Green, and found the non-descript street corner we agreed to meet at, her Mancunian charm and casual demeanour made for a welcome and literal breath of fresh air. Flanked by a suitcase and a shopping bag stuffed with a blanket, we searched for somewhere that would still serve us coffee at 6:30 in the evening. Xenya immediately started guessing my star sign, and only after two tries correctly landed on Aquarius, listing off characteristics that I didn’t know were associated with them, but swayed by her confident delivery.

As she deliberates which set of identical looking rickety picnic chairs we should perch up on, I do the customary amount of complaining about the above mentioned Central line carriage. “I think if I lived in London it would tear me apart,” Xenya jokes “I take on the energy of my surroundings and I don’t want to take on the energy of London. Everyone’s just passing. Everyone’s a stranger.” That Northern pride is just an additional factor that comes through in her music. With mischievous features and dressed in all baggy denim, Xenya feels immediately familiar. She’s incredibly charming but also openly very sensitive with her emotions. “I could never imagine that somebody could understand my music, like hear and feel what I was feeling when I made it” she says, “but I get it more now.” If it came out the mouth of someone else it may sound a bit pompous, but Xenya’s intonation conveys more a reverence of the path she’s made for herself thus far. Tracks like ‘Radio’ blew up on TikTok, and it’s obvious people connect to her music, but she is steadfast that her music will always just be a reflection of herself, including whatever changes she’s going through. “I'm not shy, so naturally my music isn't shy. It's just flirty and fun and stupid and serious and whatever emotion and feeling” Xenya asserts. “Not overthinking, being really impulsive and sometimes stupid with my decision making got me to where I’m at now, and I like where I am now”.

Her forthcoming debut album I Blow Out Big Candles, is an expression of all she’s achieved with her previous sound while also a reflection of where she’s at now. With a bigger audience and a bigger budget, she knows that her music naturally evolves. “You have to refine things to speak to a wider audience, that means less lo-fi and higher production stuff” Xenya says. “But the music that I'm making now comes from that history.” Though these are big changes from her earlier days of bedroom pop adjacent beginnings, she welcomes and confronts them head on. “I like making low-fi music because it can do it completely alone, but I really like working with producers who are really good at what they do and can just make it pop and make it cool,” she maintains, though her roots are always where she feels she can express herself the fullest. “The rugged nature of it, it's just not as clean, it's just dirty and a bit rough. Just like how I like my men, you know what I mean?” she jokes, “but I've got a taste and my taste runs all the way through my music.”

Originally a painter and visual artist, Xenya actually studied in London before moving to Barcelona to work as a videographer. “It was important for me to be there, but also it was important for me to come back when I did as well.” she says, “I didn’t plan it, but you can afford to not think about that shit when you’re younger.” Her move away and return to the UK proved to be the catalyst in convincing her to pursue music more professionally too, after hiding it away in her laptop’s hard drive for so long. “In Barcelona music started happening for some reason and when I came back to England it just started popping off.” Xenya explains, “I’d kept it really private for many years, like at least four or five years before I started showing people at all.” However, her origins as a painter still factor into her music process now, and the two share a symbiotic relationship on how she creates art. “Honestly, music satisfies me so much more than painting, it’s made me so into how textures play a part in both mediums though” she says on how the two compare, “sometimes the computer gets in the way of that natural flow with your hand (when making music), but it's still pure. It's still beautiful.”

Our coffees nearly empty, we circled back to her debut and especially its lead single ‘Spells’. “I just wanted to go grungey with it again and get heavier and just fucking get my attitude in there” Xenya describes. It shows, as the drum loop pulsates throughout and the distorted guitars cut through. “I'm more willing to show who I am in my music and like play around like with all different kinds of voices that I have” she says, and while she stands by the fact her more indie-pop sound from before was a reflection of who she was at the time, Big Candles is an experiment in representing the person she is now. She’s at once both soft and bullish, playful and reflective. Her favourite track on the project is ‘Piece Of Cake’, and even on the exuberant melody about knowingly indulging men who end up as empty calories, the bass is heavy and the guitars rip through the middle section. “God, this is why I don't date people. I like looking at cake, but don’t like to eat it” she jokes. The more I sat with Xenya, the more it was obvious that the record really portrayed her attitude of doing things as they are now and reflect later. “My mood changes like the fucking moon and sun, so catch me on a certain day, I'll be making a certain vibe, if you catch me on another, it’ll be a different one” she confirms, “I don't think about the future and I don't really think about consequences, which is why I'm me, and the music expresses that.”

Knowing that about her, I was curious about one more thing before we parted. What if one day she didn’t want to make music anymore? Would she follow that intuition? In response, Xenya put down her cigarette, looked straight at me, and delivered an emphatic rejection of the concept. “Fuck no. I’ll always make music, I itch to make music” she assures me, “I’ve always wanted to be an artist, and I’ve been one since I was a baby.” It’s a convincing answer. While I’m sure that Freak Slug will continue to change its sound and its approach, I am equally just as sure that Xenya won’t ever stop making music.