Musician Xenia Rubinos takes the Marketplace Quiz
Think back to your first job. Maybe you learned a lesson that stuck with you or maybe you used the money you earned from it to make an impulse purchase you really, really wish you could take back.
Musician Xenia Rubinos sat down with producer Raghu Manavalan to take our Marketplace Quiz, a questionnaire based on experiences with work and money. Her latest album, “Black Terry Cat,” is out now.
Fill in the blank: Money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you ______.
Shoes! [laughter] All of the shoes. I think I just thought that because I have one pair of shoes right now that I’m wearing to death this summer, and I kind of need new shoes.
What is the hardest part about your job that no one knows?
Standing up for your idea, like when you have an original idea for a song or video or something that you want to say, it’s hard to articulate the ideas that you might have or to get other people on board with you and get them excited about it, and to get them to see what you’re seeing. You know, to ask people to constantly imagine things that they might not see in front of them, or might not hear right away. Asking them to have an imagination can be challenging.
What is something you bought that you now completely regret buying?
There were like these foie gras french fries that were being sold outside this venue that I played somewhere in the South out of a food truck that seemed like the most luxurious, incredible thing that I could ingest and spend my dollars on, and I definitely regretted it afterwards.
What is your most prized possession?
I really assign a lot of soul to objects. There’s this ring that my cousin gave me, and it’s a really cheap ring. I think they just sold it at a street fair or something, but I liked this ring that she was wearing. It made sounds whenever she talked and when she gestured with her hands. They were like these collection of little twinkly stars, and they kind of hung off her finger, and made this twinkly sound when she walked into a room. I complimented her on it, and she just took it off and gave it to me. And one by one the stars had fallen off, so now there’s like one star left, and I don’t wear it anymore I just keep it. But I used to wear it every day, and I love that ring.
What advice do you wish someone gave you before you started your career?
It would have been cool to have someone tell me to believe my own hype, and only my own hype. And that my ideas, and what I create, and what I have to say, and who I am is enough, and is valid, and is the most valuable thing that I have. And that I don’t have to look outside of myself for something that I want to be. That I am already those things. That’s maybe good advice. It’d be useful to have.
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