Interview By: Emma Hintz + Summer Strickland
Photos By: Emma Hintz
Glixen is on the rise to be a household name in the new wave of Shoegaze bands taking over the West coast. Growing up in Phoenix, Arizona bandmates Aislinn Ritchie (Vocals), Sonia Garcia (Bass), Keire Johnson (Drums) and Esteban Santana (Lead Guitar) took the liberty in defying the normal Phoenix Arizona dream pop sound and formed Glixen in 2020. Releasing their first EP in August 2023 via Julias War, the band has already made significant waves, playing shows alongside Cowgirl Clue, Softcult, Citizen, and soon to play with Gliterer and Interpol. I had the chance to sit down with Glixen on their Tampa, FL tour date with Softcult and we had the most intriguing conversation about touring, upcoming music and more.
Do you feel that growing up in Phoenix, Arizona has had any influence on your sound?
Aislinn Ritchie: When I first started making music in Phoenix it was just indie music and dream pop, I feel like that really inspired us to have our own sound for sure. Now the scene has been growing, and there’s a lot more bands that fit more into our sound for sure, which is really cool to see. I’ve noticed the younger kids coming out to a lot of stuff, which is really cool.
Emma Hintz: I feel like tik tok has had a crazy impact on the kids growing up right now, it’s so much easier for them to find music they like. How do you think social media has had an impact on you guys as a band?
Aislinn Ritchie: I love using instagram but tik tok has never come natural to me.
As we sat outside the venue doing this interview, a fan of theirs sat down at the table next to us and chimed in, he said he found them on tik tok and saw the first date of the tour was in tampa and bought tickets immediately.
How has the tour been so far?
Aislinn Ritchie: I just can’t believe it, we were playing headline shows and going to cities we’ve never been to before and people were showing up. It’s been pretty surreal.
Emma Hintz: How was Pensacola last night?
Aislinn Ritchie: So fun, the crowd was so into it
Keire Johnson: And there was a skatepark across the street
What cities have been your favorite to play so far, and what cities are you most excited to play?
Aislinn Ritchie: We haven’t played a lot of these cities yet, so it’s been cool to see new places like Florida we’ve never been to Florida. We are really excited for the Philly show, Slide Away Fest, that’s gonna be awesome.
Sonia Garcia: I’m excited for New York, we’re playing this venue called The Meadows.
Esteban Santana: We’re playing Canada too, I’ve never been to Canada so i’m stoked for that.
Kiere Johnson: I’m gonna pet a moose.
What would you guys say is the most challenging part of playing a show?
Kiere Johnson: I think sometimes there’s rooms that don’t work for our sound, we played this one venue and it had a lot of windows so everything was just bouncing everywhere.
You guys just released a new song, forevermore, how has the reception been, how do you guys feel now that it’s out for the world to hear?
Esteban Santana: It’s been really great, we put a music video out that we are all really proud of, I love that song so it’s dope. We’re recording this year so we’ve got another single to drop as well as an EP.
Emma Hintz: So with that, what do you guys have in store for the rest of the year, what can people expect from you?
Sonia Garcia: A lot of shows, hopefully another tour, lots of recording lots of music being made.
What does the recording process look like for you guys?
Esteban Santana: We’ll start by writing a lot of songs and then we’ll record them at home, after that we’ll send it over to an engineer, this recording process is a little different because we’ll be recording in LA.
Emma Hintz: Have you guys spent a lot of time in LA?
Aislinn Ritchie: We play shows in LA all the time, we just played at the Echo and we’ve played 5 shows there so far.
Sonia Garcia: We love playing in LA, we love having an excuse to get out there.
Emma Hintz: How do you guys feel the scene in LA differs from the scene in Phoenix?
Estseban Santana: It’s very diverse, there’s so many different pockets of LA we haven’t even seen yet, and we feel like we’ve seen all of Phoenix because we live there. Both really great scenes, I love traveling to LA. Do you guys like Florida?
Summer Strickland: I used to be in this state of like, I need to get out of Florida, it's hot the people suck, but as I started getting into the scene I started to realize the people aren’t all bad and I can deal with the heat. Florida’s like its own gem, you just have to find the pockets of cool things.
Emma Hintz: How do you guys like Florida, being here for the first time?
Esteban Santana: It’s great, it feels like we’re on vacation.
Sonia Garcia: We stayed in this little beach town after our show in Pensacola, we saw the giant beach ball.
So you guys are playing with Interpol, are you guys excited for that?
Esteban Santana: Oh we are so excited, we grew up listening to interpol so when we found out that was happening we all freaked out. Its at the Mesa Amphitheater and it’s huge, it will for sure be the biggest venue we’ve played.
Emma Hintz: Kind of piggybacking off that question, who's a dream artist you’d die if you got to play with?
Sonia Garcia: Smashing Pumpkins
Emma Hintz: I can see it now you guys would fit with them so perfectly, and they just toured with Interpol so…
Esteban Santana: I would say Nothing but we’re playing with them in Philly, that’s my favorite band in the whole world I can’t believe we’re playing with them.
Kiere Johnson: There’s a bunch of bands on that bill that would have been my answer.
Esteban Santana: Of course like, My Bloody Valentine would be insane.
Aislinn Ritchie: My answer is Slowdive
Emma Hintz: Well we’re gonna manifest that one because they are touring…
Aislinn Ritchie: They just really harness that sound so well you know
Summer Strickland: They had one tour where they played in Florida and I was lucky enough to go and it changed my life.
Emma Hintz: It’s so cool to see so many bands from the 90’s and stuff having this resurgence and really connecting with the younger crowd.
Summer Strickland: I feel like it’s such an inspiration to see bands like slowdive who did start so long ago still making music and keeping their circle of dedicated fans.
Kiere Johnson: I feel like it could be really cool to play with Pavement or Beach Fossils or Beach House. Beach Fossils was kind of my introduction into more like, dream poppy stuff after listening to emo music for so long.
To conclude this interview, what are you guys most excited for in the near future?
Aislinn Ritchie: I’m just excited to make more music, play more shows, and to see what Glixen evolves into.
Esteban Santana: I’m so excited to play in Canada, and Philly.
Kiere Johnson: I’m excited for Chicago because my mom might come to that show
Emma Hintz: Any last words before signing off?
Kiere Johnson: Thank you for listening to our music
Aislinn Ritchie: I know I really can’t believe it. If I think about it too hard it will make me emotional.There was this 11 year old girl at the show in Houston and she made me a little bracelet that says sugar cube. She was in the crowd and she had brown skin and dark hair, she just really reminded me of myself, I couldn’t even look at her in the crowd without tearing up. I’ve always wanted to see someone that looks like me on stage.
Interviewing Glixen was an absolute blast, it’s really nice to see a band that is so passionate about what they make, and so grateful to the people who support them. If you have a chance to see them on tour I suggest you take that chance, if you are a fan of bands like my bloody valentine, slowdive, DIIV, just to name a few, Glixen might be your newest favorite band.
Find tickets to their tour here.
Find them on instagram here.
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