Getting to Know Celeste X — Weirdo Music Forever

Celeste X has had our interest and admiration for a few years now as a result of unapologetically bold performances and significant contributions to the L.A. underground scene. Through her solo recordings and live performances, as well as impressive music, photographic, and video collaborations with boundary-pushing artists, Celeste X has established herself as a dynamic talent making her presence felt throughout Los Angeles and beyond.

We recently met up with Celeste X for a photo session, but couldn’t resist asking some burning questions, so the photo afternoon also included a spontaneous interview. While we’re eagerly looking forward to touching base with Celeste X again soon about her upcoming music releases, we’re thrilled and honored to share our impromptu tête-à-tête in the meantime.

Bobby Weirdo: First, I wanted to confirm that ‘Celeste X” is the correct moniker for your work. I know in the past it’s been “Celeste XXX”, but now I see you’re using “Celeste X”. Is that correct?

Celeste X: I used to go by “Celeste XXX” and recently I changed it to “Celeste X”. [Celeste XXX] was basically a play off of “XXX”, traditionally meaning explicit content, but to me it meant poison – I love the double meaning. When you look up “Celeste XXX” on Google Images, you can find my performance pictures – with paint in my eyes and looking distressed – among some hardcore porn. That was my peak performance era – the idea that sex and art coincide. The “XXX” was very fitting, and the idea of creating somewhat of a “feminine masquerade” of myself appealed to me.

As time went on I started to change and became more focused on the music versus the performative aspect. I thought “Celeste X” felt more fitting, [and] also a lot easier for people to find. If I were to get deep with it, I do feel like it was a necessary name change for me. I was very dedicated to my performances and if you take a look at my past performances you can really see how much pain I felt. It was like an onstage exorcism every night, and it didn’t even match my slow synth pop jams!

Honestly, I don’t even think people knew I made music based off those performances. So in all, my work reflects where I’m at in life, even if it’s not so pretty. The name change is actively helping me into a new era of music and performance. “Celeste XXX” stuff is still on Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud et cetera, though.

*Celeste X at WMF HQ in October 2021. Photo: WMF*

BW: I’ve also been curious for a while now about your track “Call You Mine”. That’s your original song, right? I love it, and the only reason I ask is that the song has such a great vibe of familiarity, but it’s still Celeste X.

CX: Yeah, I’ve gotten that before, because I used really 80s-sounding chords.

Suzy Weirdo: Like a Prince song.

CX: That’s my favorite; I love being compared to Prince. I love his chords, so I do use a lot of those synth lines.

BW: You made that album Trauma Ballads at home, right?

CX: Yeah – I started making music on my laptop at home. I come from the most non-musical family ever. They have a limited mindset about what instruments are, so [they don’t consider] me doing things on Logic or on my computer music.

I would just do it despite what my parents thought was rock ‘n’ roll. Even the early recordings were in my closet on my little headphone mic. But I always liked that lo-fi quality, so it’s all home-recorded.

BW: Is the material on Trauma Ballads informed by actual trauma, or were you doing something else with that title?

CX: I feel like when I make music, it’s usually because I’m in extreme distress. It’s my coping mechanism.

I think I named [the album] that because Nick Cave has the album Murder Ballads. It was me in my room during the pandemic, but the songs were pop and fun. It’s weird when I make things [because] I’m not really in that mood – I’m just tricking my brain in that moment to feel upbeat and sing about things with double meanings, and stuff like that.

BW: Anna Nicole Smith has significance to you…

CX: Oh yeah – I love her so much. I think I love her so much because she’s the embodiment of the tragic blonde story that you always see – Jane Mansfield, Marilyn Monroe, Sharon Tate…and then there’s Anna Nicole Smith. I just love her because she’s so free-spirited. I remember I had a dream where she appeared to me in a monster truck at a cemetery. I was like, “Oh shit – I don’t know why I feel so connected to this person, but I do.”

She also said something so cool: she said she had sex with a ghost once. That is so goth; people don’t even know how cool she is!

BW: Is 2 Die 4 a functioning band?

CX: It is. I wanted to do something with my friend [Kristine Nevrose] in The Tissues, because she’s Filipino and I’m half-Filipino. I [thought] it would be really interesting if we were a band speaking Tagalog – native Filipino – but [musically] like Prince and Vanity 6. We [wondered] who could do the instruments for that [type of project]. Laura [Callier] from Gel Set is my good friend, and I asked her. She ended up joining the band and playing a show.

We all agreed that it has so much potential to be a Bananarama type of band and we want all be present while we’re recording. Everyone’s busy [with other projects] but it is a functioning band.

BW: So when you do get to record, will all the lyrics be in Tagalog?

CX: No. The basis for 2 Die 4 is like how back in the day the girl groups would be like, “I miss my man”, but this girl group is going to be like “I’m going to kill my man.” It’s going to be really tough, like Switchblade Sisters, and we’re taking inspiration from old [movies] like Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! It’s more aggressive girl group lyrics.

BW: Are you still involved with Princest?

CX: Yeah, Princest needs to come out with a record or an EP – I just have to ask Neon about that. Neon is the ringleader of that group, and she produces all the music for it. She’s a perfectionist, and not in a bad way, but she likes stuff done in her certain kind of way. I think that’s what makes it lag, because I was like, “Girl, we’ve been a band for like three years and we haven’t put out anything!”

SW: We really enjoyed seeing Princest perform at Rec Center in 2018.

CX: Oh yeah!

BW: We snapped a photo of you both with Gary Wilson that night.

CX: Oh yeah – that was so fucking cool! God – I miss those days. That was really fun.

BW: You’ve collaborated with talented people around L.A. on video projects as well, including Lily Noise and Peter Kalisch.

CS: Peter and Lily are just my good friends in general, and I love Lily’s video artwork. It’s so retro, but in a creepy way. She likes dark humor, so if I want to do something like a Richard Ramirez-inspired groupie painting thing, she gets exactly what I’m saying. And Peter’s just an all-around freak. I admire and love his work ethic. He’s so cool.

BW: Another videographer-musician friend and collaborator of yours – and someone we admire here – is Jenny Sayaka Nono.

CX: Oh yeah! We just did a video together. We’re twins in the video, doing a mukbang in purgatory. We’re pretending to eat people’s brains, but it’s like the spiciest ramen ever, so we have tears in our eyes.

BW: What’s coming up for Celeste X in 2021 and 2022?

CX: I’m probably going to get some new music out before 2022. I feel like November is purgatory – the weird month between Halloween and Christmas – so I’m looking to get a few songs out.

One thing that I’m interested in doing is mixing noise with pop music, so taking a genre people don’t usually call a genre and [putting it] into a structured song. So I’ve been working with some noise artists to put out a two or three song EP, probably in November.

I’m doing a January Queerspace show in New York with Peter, and I’m looking to play some shows, so I’ve been revamping my performance stuff. I like to dramatize things, making it more like you’re watching a movie. I want a bed on the stage. Have you ever seen the Brian De Palma film Body Double, where it’s like you’re watching someone through the window? That’s the vibe I want it to be.

BW: Is Queerspace branching out to New York as well? I didn’t know there were shows there.

CX: Yeah, [Peter] wants to do a Queerspace tour. Geneva [Jacuzzi] played the last one. My friend ¿La Pregunta? played too.

BW: I’m looking forward to speaking again around the time your new music is coming out.

CX: Yeah, that would be great.

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