Q&A: Geri X

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Bulgarian-born Geri X's striking, emerald hair hangs past her tiny shoulders. An intricate tattoo snakes up the left side of her chest and long, thin neck. It's almost always visible when she performs her confessional, touching tales of love won and lost. The petite 25-year-old could easily pass for a high-schooler and has often been mistaken for one - especially when she first started playing out.

Geri X has been a woman of considerable talent and mystery ever since she hit the Tampa Bay coffeehouse circuit several years ago. In 2006, the St. Petersburg resident self-released the sparse, achingly sincere record "Can't Make You Happy." Local critics lauded the CD as a minor masterpiece and it sold thousands of copies - a huge number for a D.I.Y. release. Geri X followed it with the similarly sounding and equally emotive "Anthems of a Mended Heart" in 2007. In January, a new, full-band version of that album came out on the Tampa-based national label 24 Hour Service Station. After spending several months in Wisconsin, Geri X has returned to St. Petersburg permanently, she says. We caught up with her while the candid singer/songwriter was being driven from St. Pete to a gig in Dunedin.  

 
On May 2, I watched you play to a packed house at Skipper's Smokehouse in Tampa. As someone known for such somber songs, you really looked like you were having fun up there.
We haven't really had a big, full-band show since we got back [from Wisconsin]. Ever since the band got together we've really been looking forward to full-band shows. It's so solid, so loud. I definitely get into to it more when the band is around.
 

You were rocking out with an electric guitar and looking more comfortable and confident than I recall from past performances. Do you feel more assured these days as a frontwoman?
Yeah, it really helps to have the band's support and musicians with me on stage. Just rewriting the songs with them, in general, helped me be more confident. Now, I view everything we do as a band and what's best for the music. In a sense, it separates from me from my music. It helps me step back. When I performed solo, the music was just my way of therapy.

 
You're getting ready to launch a Hot Topic Tour with a show at the clothing store's popular International Plaza location in Tampa. And then it looks like you're hitting every Hot Topic outlet in the Tampa Bay area. Tell me about how those gigs are going to go.
Those are going to be acoustic gigs - completely unplugged. The store sponsors local bands to play unplugged for 45 minutes. We'll be selling our own merchandise. It's almost like playing a record store but a little more corporate, a little more effective. Hot Topic is a big chain. If it takes off, we'd like to plan national tours around it. Starting in Tampa is perfect.

 
Do you still play solo shows?
There are definitely designated gigs for solo performances, for which I fully prepare myself. I always hated playing solo.

 
But there are fans that prefer you to play solo, right?
There are fans who like acoustic to full band. At first, people were shocked. They were just used to me. It was really loud. They said they just came to hear my voice - but I loved it.

 
Did you feel like Bob Dylan when he "plugged in" at the New Port Folk Festival in 1965 - and got booed?
I really felt like that! My sister's boyfriend is a diehard Dylan fan and so I've heard all that stuff. When he started playing electric with The Band and people were booing him he told them to fuck off! I definitely felt like that. I never feel a need to prove myself. Either people like me or they don't. I'm comfortable with some fans not liking the full band.

 
In 2007, you self-released the bare bones, excellently intimate and folk-y "Anthems of a Mended Heart" album. Then, earlier this year, the Tampa-based label 24 Hour Service Station issued a slightly different collection of more fleshed-out, country-rock songs under the same album title. What prompted you to return to the studio and rerecord "Anthems"?
In all honesty, I really didn't want to do it. First, the original, [2007] recording process with "Anthems" was horrible. I didn't want anything to do with it. It was the most half-ass thing I ever released. But we sold it and people loved it, for which I'm grateful. [24 Hour Service Station president Marshall Dickson] had the idea of rehashing songs from "Anthems" and then doing new songs. I was very against it but as a band, we voted on doing it ... It was our first record with a label to push so it was kind of what we really needed to do but I didn't want to disappoint fans. I didn't want them saying, "Why is she releasing the same thing again?" But those songs sucked in my mind and it's definitely a better version with whole band and it made sense to give "Anthems" a second chance and to emerge on the national scene with a better product. We're looking forward later this year to doing a record the right way, in a studio, not in a bedroom!

 
"Anthems of a Mended Heart" is filled with memorable lyrics that have this mesmerizing, diary entry feel - and they're delivered with such raw emotion. Are all your songs rooted in first-hand experiences?
Absolutely. All of them are. I've never been a fiction writer. I draw, too. I'm the same with anything I do creative. And I can never force creativity. If need three more songs for a record, I absolutely cannot sit down and write a song. Writing songs are basically a resolution to a conflict I'm dealing with. That's the hard part. I have to have a problem.


Check out Geri X music and upcoming tour dates at gerixmusic.com.