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An Interview with Alt-Pop Rising Star, PENNY X

Berlin-based PENNY X is a young Alternative-Pop artist likened to Olivia Rodrigo, Tate McRae, GAYLE and Maggie Lindemann that has defined herself as straightforward with her story-telling and lyrics. 


Her sound is built by a mixture of electronic and organic elements that simultaneously showcase her versatile voice. A vocalist who’s range varies from belting to whispering in one track, PENNY X writes her songs like short stories. 


After releasing her first singles in 2022, which already displayed different facets of her music, the singer now shows a louder and darker side to a Riot Grrrl interpretation with her new single ‘back to your dads’. Read our interview with the rising star below:

1. Who is PENNY X?


PENNY X is basically me writing songs as self-therapy and hoping sharing them can help somebody else out there as well. I’m all about honesty and straight forward story-telling lyrics and I’d categorize my music as Alt-Pop. 


2. What are some of the hurdles you face as a woman in music?


When I was 19 I got told by a man in the music industry that I have to hurry and make it now before I get too old and lose my charm. Do I need to say more? 


3. What are your opinions on the industry and what it can do to be better?


We all know how important social media and especially TikTok has become for the music industry and of course it can be a really helpful tool for artists but I think it shouldn’t be more important than the music itself. So when it comes to what the music industry could do better I’d say: listen to the music instead of looking at numbers and followers. 

 4. What is the local music scene like in your area?


I live in Berlin and I actually moved here because of the music scene - a lot of creative people from all over the world that you can collaborate with and there’s concerts happening every night. 


5. Which country would you like to perform in most?


In the US - I lived in Chicago and Nashville for quite a while and I loved the music scene there, especially in Nashville. Also England, Sweden, Ireland and the Netherlands are countries I’d love to perform in. 


6. Do you have anything exciting planned now 'back to your dads’ has dropped?


I’m gonna release my first EP in February and I also have so many more demos sitting on my hard drive that I can’t wait to work on and release. 


7. What's a key part of your creative process?


My first step is always to think about what I wanna say. And my last step is to listen to the master of the song on the shittiest headphones I have and if I still like it, then we‘re done. All the parts in between are always different.


8. Which artists will you be listening to the most in 2023?


So far Sasha Alex Sloan, Ava Max and Noah Cyrus could be candidates. Also I got a feeling Julia Michaels and JP Saxe might release new music soon since they’ve just broken up. I love both of them as artists and I literally cried when I heard they had broken up because they were my collaboration dream come true. 


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