Story / @bri.ng.schwartz
Photos + Styling / @jamesmountfordstudio
Hair / @shirinovahair
Makeup / @nikobeaute using @narsissist
XHOANA X is a longtime muse of LADYGUNN. We’ve had the pleasure of being caught in her artistic web over the years—she’s an artist who spins sphinx-like hits with underground integrity, slickness, and looks that assassinate. She sent off 2025 with a bang, releasing a new single titled “Don’t Push Your Luck”, a moody cinematic sound with black and white, flashing visuals. This new era marks a departure from the space-age soundscape of her 2023 GIRLGUN EP.
Outside of her video-vixen artistic persona, XHOANA is all smiles, a warm LA ray of sunshine during our bi-coastal conversation as I chatted with her from across the country, knee deep in snow and single digit temperatures. We discussed her new release, which has been four years in the making, as well as all things artistic aesthetic and inspiration, finding humor in the present times and looking toward the short and long term future.
2026 XHOANA X is perfectly encapsulated in Don’t Push Your Luck. We look forward to another year of dark, club inspired releases and memes galore.
I’m excited to talk more about “Don’t Push Your Luck” which is your first release in 2 years. What can you share about this new sonic era?
When we were writing, we were super inspired by the Berlin club scene. We wanted to have that heavy industrial party, fuck you, super gritty, dark but fun vibe and i’m super stoked with how it came out. I had never been to Berlin at the time. I have since we released the song, and it has such a vibe. I was born in Eastern Europe, so parts of it still have that Eastern Bloc, post-Communism vibe. The nightclub scene, it’s so known for that.
You first recorded the demo in 2022. That’s a long time!
It’s funny, because when we initially did the song it was such a stark contrast to what it sounds like. It sounded like Estelle’s “American Boy” ; it really went through a major switch up. It was fun, but I tend to go toward a darker kind of sound. It wasn’t me. It was too pink, and I was like “We need to add black to this.”
Has that always been your aesthetic? Or do you think you’ve moved toward that over the years?
I always like a dark gritty sound. So even with GIRLGUN, it has those moments of obscure sounds that are ethereal, but alienesque. “Don’t Push Your Luck” is definitely more clubby and industrial.
Did you have any artists who inspired the sound?
Not so much as the club scene itself, but I have heard it being likened to Nine Inch Nails, which is a compliment that I love and am super obsessed with, but we didn’t start with any kind of specific inspiration in mind.
I’d love to hear more about your collaboration with James Mountford on the “Don’t Push Your Luck” video.
I’ve been working with James since 2016. When we had met and we first met and shot, I’d actually fractured my ankle the day before, and here I came limping like a cat to his studio. I was like “we’re doing this.” and he’s probably like “this girl’s crazy” but looking back, that is how our collaboration started. We’ve worked together so many times on so many different shoots, visuals and cover art for different singles.
This one was fun to do because we shot it in the back of a shipping container in the middle of the desert. Anybody that didn’t know him would be like “this dude trying to kill me in the middle of nowhere.” Him and I are very alike. He’s a Cancer, and I’m a Pisces double Scorpio. There’s a lot of water energy, super creative. So we flow and work really well together.
It’s important to find collaborators that can get into your brain and meet you where you’re at.
He had this idea where we used Saran wrap around me to create a shiny effect. You can imagine in the desert in the back of a super hot shipping container. Again, if you didn’t know him that would be so out there.
Shipping containers are all the rage right now. On Tyler, The Creator’s Chromokopia Tour, he performed the whole thing from the top of a shipping container.
I love him so much, and he’s a Pisces like me. He’s so inspiring and I love his personality.
You share some qualities as far as humor in your online presence goes. You’re a meme queen.
That’s definitely in us. We can be spicy, but we love a good giggle.
What are you finding humor in these days?
Man, I mean ever since the whole 50 Cent thing started, that’s the energy. I mean, look at that man. He’s glowing, smiling in every picture, in every video picture. It’s the little things. Every day we’re bombarded by news that is appalling and traumatic. When we were kids, we thought of the future as flying cars. I have PTSD of the past and what I heard from my parents experiences being on the Eastern Bloc.
Anything that can give us a happy moment, or a moment of release, I welcome it. That’s why I say I love to be a giggler.
It’s been eight years since you released Catcher in the Rye. How do you think you’ve evolved and changed as an artist since then?
With every song that I released ever since then, I just became more of who I am. I trust my instincts more and feel more and more free to be weirder too. I let those darker, weird aspects of my psyche and my inner self come out and freely express them. Becoming a meme.
What do you hope the next eight years have in store for you as an artist?
I want to continue to grow, have fun and be myself authentically. I want to show newer artists that you don’t have to follow anyone else’s kind of steps. You just create what it is that you feel that needs to come out.
My last question for you is, what do you hope 2026 brings?
I’m working on putting a live show together, and I want to release more music. I’ve shot two more visuals for two more songs and am planning a third. I have another 20 unreleased songs that I slowly want to continue to put out. I also have a full album of 12 songs that I’ve done as well. So I’m continuously working and continuously creating. That keeps me in a good space.
“In 2026, I am unbothered Xhoana. No more nice guy. Everyone’s getting it. You bring it over here, you’re getting it. It’s petty time.”
Suit by Margiela @maisonmargiela
Dresse Bimba y Lola @bimbaylola / Fancí club @fanci.club
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