Xen’s musical career stretches back to their childhood, when they began singing the national anthem at school events, often in front of hundreds of people. They were first able to become comfortable in the spotlight with the help of a second grade music teacher, who coached them in singing in front of people: “She started off by turning her chair around so her back was to me, and I’d sing to her back. And then she would slowly start to turn her chair around every time.. And that started the whole national anthem journey,” said Xen.

Meanwhile, their original songwriting voice was emerging. “I first started writing songs about horses… I wrote this really heart wrenching song about a horse that had passed away, and was sitting at my piano, self taught, just messing around. I don’t know how old I was, but I was very young. I don’t remember the song at all at this point, but I think people were like, getting teary eyed, or they were like, ‘wow, you really have big feelings.’” This early venture into creatively expressing complex emotions would prove predictive of the great power and emotional resonance of the music they create in their adult life.

This quality is evident in Xen’s most recent EP, ‘Love, X,’ released in 2022. The project is the collaborative effort of Xen and producer Malcolm Francis, another Vermont-based artist. Most of the songs on this project were written in-studio, with Xen taking inspiration from existing instrumental tracks that Malcom had put together to craft original melodies, and lyrics rich with personal meaning. The result is a project which combines the exploratory and rich sounds of Malcolm’s studio production with Xen’s deeply human and soulful vocal style to create songs as emotionally stirring as they are texturally and rhythmically exciting.