BREAKING
XENIA
RUBINOS
BY HILARY HUGHES
PHOTO BY SHERVIN LAINEZ
BACKSTORY: A singer who doesn’t defy one genre, but embraces them all—rock, jazz,
bolero, salsa, hip-hop, R&B, you name it—in her experimental groove
FROM: Hartford, Connecticut, originally, and now based in Brooklyn
YOU MIGHT KNOW HER FROM: “Cherry Tree,” the track off 2013’s Magic Trix that features
little more than Rubinos’s trippy vocals and the battering of a drum kit
NOW: Celebrating the release of her latest full-length, Black Terry Cat, out now on ANTI-
XENIA RUBINOS IS JUST AS MUCH
ABOUT THE MOVEMENT AS SHE
IS ABOUT THE MUSIC, AND SHE’S
FEELING IT TODAY.
confessional conduit that threads a
It’s a sunny afternoon in Greenpoint,
her communicative fabric: before her
the kind that makes you wish that the rapid
inventive, eclectic debut Magic Trix,
development of the Brooklyn neighborhood
Rubinos was a jazz composition student
yielded more trees and other shadow-
at Boston’s Berklee College of Music,
providing structures instead of the naked
where she honed her theory chops;
skeletons of buildings mid-construction,
before that, she grew up in a household
and Rubinos is recuperating after properly
that encouraged sharing favorite sounds,
introducing her new album, Black Terry Cat,
whether they were show tunes or the
to the world at a show across the river in
salsas and meringues of the Caribbean,
an East Village basement the night before.
where her family has its roots. Her dad
At the performance, Rubinos scaled the
used to take her to see musicals, and she
furniture, pranced straight into the crowd,
can trace her own flair for heartbreak,
and rolled through the album with the
intensity, and compelling choruses to
fluidity and grace of yesteryear’s jazz and
a mutual appreciation for Judy Garland
cabaret regulars. The first words we hear in
and Cuban cabaret icon La Lupe. “That
“Don’t Wanna Be,” Black Terry Cat’s second
instilled a love for drama that I’m just now
track, sum up her straightforward appeal: “I
realizing is in my performance,” she says.
rule this place with a golden fist… I’ve got
“A little over the top, a little dramatic.”
things to make your love grow thicker / I’m
on planes to make your headspace bigger.”
album and ANTI- debut—furthers the
Those words continue to echo out of that
dramatic strengths of Magic Trix, in
tiled basement on Second Avenue and
that Rubinos’s voice is the steady
up over the water as we rehash the night
constant amid the clashing rhythms
before on a bench in Transmitter Park.
and lyrical tension. Paired with the
“I think I just become possessed and
controlled chaos of Marco Buccelli’s
I’m out of control at a certain point,” she
drumming, Rubinos can skate over a
says. “I’m really bound to do whatever,
hip-hop barrage with the dexterity of
jump off a really high stage and just not
a veteran rhymer (“Mexican Chef”)
realize it—it’s not premeditated. I grew a
and backstroke through viscous R&B
lot in the past year or so of touring and
lines (“Lonely Lover”). But it’s the
understanding where I’m at. Every day,
confrontation
that’s evolving and growing. I’m trying
difficulties that sets Black Terry Cat
to get more comfortable in my body; my
apart from her prior work, as Rubinos
voice is my primary instrument, and it’s
pokes at the negative developments in
inside of my body, which I sometimes feel
the world around us.
really disconnected from.”
The
idea
of
Rubinos
direct line between listeners and the
inertia of her stream of consciousness.
Music has always been a part of
Black Terry Cat—her sophomore
with
socio-political
“A record is a photograph of an
feeling
idea,” she says. “Then it takes on its
disconnected from anything, let alone
own life as people hear it and do what
the source of her powerful mezzo-
they will with it. Playing live is one of my
soprano belt, is a strange one, especially
favorite things to do, and it’s the way I
considering how Black Terry Cat is a
give life to the recorded material, to the
songs. That’s the way they continue to
change and grow.”
12
FLOOD