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Greek born,  LA-based Elena Charbila is behind the cinematic pop (as she now defines) project Kid Moxie. Just before her live performance at Release Athens Festival 2018 (along with Richard Ashcroft and Rag ‘N’ Bone Man), we managed to “grab” a few words from her. So, this is it!

Lets show some good manners! Elena, feel free to introduce Kid Moxie project to our readers.

Kid Moxie is a project I started in my living room in east Hollywood about ten years ago. I got kicked out of my apartment by my land lady because of it.

You recently shared a ‘Dirty Air’ remix by The 5th Galaxy Orchestra, and earlier a ‘No Island’ rmx by Menta. How did these collaborations take place?

I was just lucky enough that both these two super talented artists offered to do a remix for me. I admire both of their work.

How do you feel about sharing the stage with living legend Richard Ashcroft and Rag ‘N’ Bone Man, on May 31st for the Release Athens Festival 2018? What’s gonna happen that night?

I have loved Richard Aschroft for quite a while so I m hoping I can express that to him backstage! I’m an equal parts nervous and excited about the show.

How is living and creating in L.A.? I guess the opportunities are more than crisis-hit Athens. Correct?

Yes correct. There is this feeling in L.A that anything can happen which you don’t feel anywhere else in the world. That feeling is priceless to a dreamer like myself.

“Gutter Pop”? How do you find this term for describing your music?

That was how I used to define the early gritty electro pop I was creating. The production was kinda low fi therefore “gutter”. Now I tend to call my music “cinematic pop”.

Excellent video ‘4AM’ was shot in Moscow by Vasily Ovchinnikov. From LA to Moscow is quite a long distance!

Vasily shot the video in Moscow without me, we hired two interesting looking models and I think that worked pretty darn well.

Which electronica/electro-pop bands/acts have influenced your sound most?

Depeche Mode, Yazoo, John Carpenter, Björk.

Cannot resist in asking about your acting career. Your most recent feature was 2015’s “Bereave”. How can you combine both acting and music/songwriting? Are you thinking of dedicating yourself 100% on acting or music in he future?

Acting and songwriting although they both come from the same need, the need for expression, they are very different in that songwriting allows for much more creative freedom. I don’t really plan to dedicate myself solely to either, just open to wherever life takes me.

What holds the future for Kid Moxie then?

I just finished my first movie score for a film called “Unpleasant“, it’s a movie that I am very excited for the world to see. I like to think of it as an “emotional sci fi” kind of film and I m also acting a bit in it too. I have a few live shows coming up including a show with Luxxury next Saturday in Athens and I’m also working  on my new EP which will be out next year.

Last one! Name your 3 desert island movies and albums…

Movies: “Batman Returns“, “Mullholand Drive“, “Three Colors: Blue“.

Albums: ‘The Double Life Of Veronique (OST)‘ by Zbigniew Preisner, ‘Violator‘ by Depeche Mode, ‘Ray Of Light‘ by Madonna.

Christos Doukakis