Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Palo Xanto. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Palo thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Music is about purity to me. It’s about capturing a pure moment, exploring it and moving with it into what may or may not turn into a creation, a song. This is the purpose for me. I am at a point in my life where music isn’t about trying to “make it” or trying to achieve this certain benchmark of what so-called success might be. It’s feeding me in fulfillment and in spirit more than it could ever pay me in material or accolades. The more it spreads and connects with people is a great thing of course, and yes it feels amazing when it does. But overall, it’s a luxury and a gift for me to be able to continue to create and share what I do. The energy I get from putting a song together or a visual concept, is still the driver, now more than ever really. So it’s this pure place for me that I value most.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Yes, I’m Palo, aka Palo Xanto. I’m a music artist residing in the High Desert area of Yucca Valley, CA, neighboring town to Joshua Tree. Music has been a life long journey for me and continues to be. Starting in my early teens and being one of the only MC’s at my high school, I began as part of a Hip Hop group in the Bay Area (illa-dapted) which was active for many years. We built a cult-following in the Bay before migrating to Los Angeles to expand our reach. We disbanded a few years after the move but I continued and joined/created various other bands and projects which each one was unique, mostly raw and underground in nature, spanning from Hip Hop to electronic to variations of rock and experimental.

In 2017, I moved to Joshua Tree to get away from the noise and chaos of the city. I’d become a bit burnt out musically and creatively. My first job in the area had a few instruments on hand. During down time, I’d start playing with the acoustic guitar that was there. This became somewhat addicting and before I knew it, I’d purchased my own guitar that I could play at home when I wasn’t working. Soon enough, songs started pouring out and my music, the style of music I’m sharing now, had become a thing.

This style of music is what I call High Desert Blues Rap. It’s bluesy, it’s groove heavy, and it’s a mix of rapping and crooning over an acoustic and raw soundscape. The content of the lyrics includes themes of soul searching, inner reflection, self-affirmation, the questioning of truth, and the occasional reference to cannabis and psychedelics throughout.

This is my first endeavor as a solo artist which I’m proud of and and feel that each step of the journey has led me here.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I don’t have the largest social following or claim to know everything about this but some of my fellow music heads and other creative folks have asked me about the social media thing so I feel it’s only right to share what I do know. To me, social media can be looked at as your own personal marketing team and public relations space all in one. It’s where you have the control to share whatever is you do as well as with who you want to share it with. It’s a curation space for you and your own personal/professional world.

I took to it pretty quickly when Myspace first dropped. I saw the value of it because prior to that, there was a lot more you had to do in order to share your work. I remember the times of having to press up physical copies of flyers, CD’s, etc. just to be able to share what I was doing. This would cost a lot of extra time and money in hiring a graphic designer, going out and distributing the goods everywhere we could and then some. Now, through social media, it’s a few clicks, and a continual push from there. I think folks get overwhelmed and lost in the indifference to it. Feeling like it’s a chore and something you have to do rather than something you get to do as part of your outlet. I know it’s not the same muscle as creating music or whatever it is that may be your passion. But, when it’s done right, it serves as a direct reflection of you and your passion. It can be an effective way to share and build an audience around your creations.

As far as methods of how to do it, there’s no one-size fits all but if there’s one thing that does work, it’s being consistent. Once you have identified a few key things, visually and message-wise, it’s about staying creatively consistent with what you share. I say creatively consistent, because consistent by itself can be interpreted as just posting the exact same thing everyday which doesn’t work. Creatively consistent means finding the throughline in your work, in your visuals, in your message, and sharing pieces that live within this on a consistent basis. There’s no one way to do it. For example, you can take a full music video and chop it into 30 second clips and share it as separate posts. Or you can sing an acepella of a song you just released with the streaming link in the caption. Or you can film a conversation with you and a friend, take the best pieces and post that. There’s no right or wrong. It’s about letting people into your world and it can be as raw or as produced as you like. Whichever fits you best.

Lastly, don’t get hung up on numbers. It’s not just about having millions of people following you. There’s plenty of successful independent folks out there with what would be considered to be low to average numbers but their audience is fully engaged with them and fully supportive. It’s about finding your people and connecting with who’s really into what you do and what you share. These are the folks who will walk the journey with you and will actually buy what you’re offering – i.e. pay to see you perform, buy your merch, tell their friends about you, be proud they found you.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Similar to any independent business, I think a good practice for folks is to get into the habit of supporting their local artists and shopping small as they say. As a society, I think there’s a traditional consumer mindset that says, you only shop at the largest and most “established” businesses. This crosses over into the types of art we consume as well – music, film, etc. where folks only buy into things that are hugely commercial such as blockbuster movies or the latest pop artist. If we can shift into the mindset of understanding that art and music are some of the most natural human things and not just reserved for the pop “elite,” there’s plenty of inspiration and deeper connections to be made with creators of all types. I think through connection platforms like social media and streaming that don’t have so many of the old industry gatekeepers in the way, it’s starting to make a dent in this mentality where people are discovering new and independent artists more frequently. But the shift as a society is still in early progress in my opinion.

A good start is to go out and pay to see a local show, buy merch from an independent artist you just discovered on a streaming service, reshare an artist’s work on your social media page. The more commonplace these things become as a whole, the more independent artists can seriously make a living through their art.

Contact Info:

• Website: paloxanto.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/paloxanto
• Twitter: twitter.com/paloxanto
• Youtube: youtube.com/@paloxanto

Image Credits
FTBANK photo by Rerun Photography