Bio
Brenda Xu (pronounced “shoo”) was born in Northern China in the city of Harbin. At the age of 5 she moved with her grandmother to California. As a teenager, she would record herself singing along to Tori Amos and Sarah McLachlan, and taught herself how to play guitar. After graduating from UC San Diego with a degree in Political Science, she wandered from job to job, ignoring her creative inclinations. It was not until she started writing her own songs that she found direction and purpose and finally pursued her true calling.
After releasing a 6-song EP that year in 2007, she soon became a staple in the San Diego music scene and began playing shows at venues such as Lestat’s, Dublin’s Square, and festivals such as Ray At Night and Artwalk. Nominated for Best New Artist in San Diego’s Honoring Acoustic Talent Awards that year, she has since opened shows for international touring artists such as Gregory Page, and Renata Youngblood.
Her music has been described as haunting and melodic with a rock influence, and has been compared most often to that of Aimee Mann. Her songs have received airplay on various radio stations, including San Diego’s KPRI 102.1, Boston Progress Radio, and Insomnia Radio and her debut EP has been written about in The SD Reader, The North County Times and Performer Magazine. She released her first full-length CD last year and was nominated for “Best Acoustic Artist” in the San Diego Music Awards.
Press
June 2011 article/interview in San Diego Acoustic
March 2010 album review of A Little Illusion in San Diego Citybeat:
“Xu’s rich songwriting skills are evident in every track on A Little Illusion. With a country lilt that sneaks in when you least expect it, Xu opens with a driving beat underneath a velvety-smooth, Suzanne Vega-esque voice and transitions into a captivating combination of acoustic guitar with an ethereal production that sounds almost as if it were being played in reverse. Leaving behind her delicate nature from previous songs, she tears a hole in the album with the standout track, “Count to Ten,” in which she growls under a slapping percussion with a voice seemingly influenced by PJ Harvey. Xu’s abilities as a vocalist on this album appear to be wide-ranging, if not boundless. And joined by the talented musicians with whom she’s surrounded herself, Xu has found a combination that will undoubtedly lead her to success…” -Justin Roberts
September 2009 interview in San Diego Reader
November 2007 article/interview in San Diego Reader
September 2007 album review of It’s True in San Diego Troubadour:
“Many fledging artists are often forced to conceal an unrefined vision and lack of experience behind youthful exuberance and full-band production values. Some may take years to uncover the glint of promise that will make Singer/songwriters with stipped-down, starkly orchestrated debuts run an even higher risk of revealing a dearth of craft development. Still, every once in a while someone emerges with an album that manages to tap into an unexpected groove and bring a surprising glimpse of fruition to the latent present. Witness Brenda Xu, who has managed to acheive this with “It’s True.”
Despite being sonically sparse, this less-is-more EP is ominously intense. Sven-Erik Seaholm produced the equisitely recorded acoustic and electric guitars and lushly sung vocals with vast aplomb, but the dynamic peaks and valleys of Xu’s material and performances are at the eye of this quietly raging emotional storm. She could have easily let the static yet harmonically intriguing acoustic guitar riff from “Count to Ten” rest on its laurels; instead, Xu builds up the intensity with several different and equally alluring vocal hooks (some edgily distorted), the shock of clacking sticks following a brief lull, and the kind of deft vocal phrasing that can resurrect the wisdom of hyprid cliches like “Just live it up one day at a time.”
Sure she’s young, exhibiting the time-honored case of bed-spins from progressively subjugated ideals, and she comes perilously close to abusing her Coldplay priveleges on four of the six tracks (DAH dun dun DAH dun dun DAH dun), but Brenda Xu is definitely on to something here.” -Simeon Flick