Spotlight on Geri X

Geri X’s music has taken her around the world - literally. Her family lived in Europe until she was 10, when they moved to Florida’s west coast. Early on, she started playing piano, then guitar. She writes and sings her own songs. She’s an artist who put her heart and body into her music at a high price she doesn’t seem to mind paying. The Bulgarian edition of Rolling Stone Magazine named her Best of Indie in 2011, and in 2013, she recorded a duet with former Kinks lead guitarist Dave Davies. She’s made 15 albums. All the long hours of practicing and extensive touring has taken a toll on her body. These days, she’s working on a new album with some lighter touring plans with her drummer, Charlie, whom she describes as “an absolute art/music/everything creative vanguard and a complete unicorn”. Geri lives in St. Petersburg, Fla., and she and her mother and sister run a successful interior design business. Here’s an edited version of our conversations.

When did you start playing piano and guitar?

I'm classically trained in both piano and classical flamenco guitar. At 6 years old I was put in a music school/piano conservatory. By the time I was around 12, my relationship with the piano became pretty difficult and full of complicated feelings, so I asked my mom if she would get me a guitar. I started writing songs on the guitar as a form of self-therapy, a tale as old as time for us songwriters. I was accepted into the (high school) magnet program as a guitar major, and I started studying and playing nylon string classical guitar.

What style of music are you drawn to playing, or have you delved into a variety of styles? Is there a musician who has influenced your style of playing?

Cue the cliche answer here, but it's cliche for a reason - everything and everyone inspires me. All the styles and all the humans that make music that strikes me with honesty and that I can relate to. I went through all the phases as a teen and young adult, from metal to blues to rock to old school country to classical to emo and indie and Americana and Bossa nova. My left hand has lyrics and song names tattooed on it by Billie Holiday and Etta James.

I understand you’ve been on quite a musical venture over the years - could you share a little of it with us? Any hard-learned lessons other musicians might learn from you?

I wrote this song last month, and it's actually the most summarized answer to your question, so here's the story with a working title:

Self-fulfilling Prophecy

State to state, show to show

This isn't my first rodeo

I lived my life on the road

Signed record deals and broke them all

And it damn nearly killed me

But here you are to watch

If history repeats

I was number one in my hometown

Artist of the year in Rolling Stone

I won every trophy to be won

Then lost everything, and everyone

And I know you didn't miss me

Downin' whiskey like

A loaded gun

But it's a difficult existence

Desperation masquerades as freedom

And if the target's always moving

You can never reach the end

So a graveyard is the promised land

I dropped out of school and hit the road

In my shitty car with my shitty songs

We found showers, and paper maps,

and slept in truck stop parking lots

And it damn nearly killed me

But here you are to watch

If history repeats

But it's a difficult existence

High jackers play the victims

And this life's a never ending self-fulfilling prophecy

I'll fuck it up

That's a guarantee.

Can you tell us about your songwriting? Do you have a process? I’m thinking since you sign off as “singer/songwriter/professional sad person” you sometimes inject humor into your lyrics?

I honestly write whatever I feel. I don't get up and decide that ‘today I'm gonna write a rock song or a pop song.’ I honor the muse when she visits me and I just write what I feel and hear, without theme or concept or vision. What you hear is what comes out of me with very little to no editing or overproducing. It's been a long road for me. I actually did the math recently on how many shows I've played and how much I used to tour - in my career I've played over 5,400 shows and I've been everywhere, literally, for better or for worse - which comes with a lot of experiences and feelings and meeting folks from all walks of life, so the stories are never ending. And as for the humor, I laugh as not to cry. And ironically, the joke is always on me, which is not always fun, but at least it ain't boring.