XELLE Exclusive Interview

It may not be as obvious to the ordinary pop listener, but to me, the reality has become scary. The Pussycat Dolls has become just Nicole. Girlicious has fled to Canada. Both Danity Kane and The Paradiso Girls have broken up. The entire new wave of girl groups have already died out in the United States. It may look dreary, but don't you dare think the art of the girl group is extinct. Rising from the ashes of girl groups past are three new girls (well sort of) here to rock your world.They consist of Rony, know as fierce Fifi on stage, pop singer JC Cassis, and RuPaul's Drag Race star Mimi Imfurst. All three of them are unbelievably sweet and funny, and they gave me some sick'ning insights to the past, present, and future of their group XELLE.

What's the real stroy behind the meeting of XELLE?

[JC]
Mimi was hosting a karaoke night at a bar in Chelsea, New York. Rony and I came in to sing.

[Rony]

We didn't know each other. We came in individually

[JC]

Rony and I sang songs separately, and Mimi thought we were great. She told us to come up on stage and sing with her.

[Mimi]
I basically made them sing with me. And since you don't say no to a drag queen with a microphone I got them to do it. I actually refused to tell either of them what the song was. I just said "Oh you'll be fine!"

[Rony]

And we were! We ended up singing Wannabe by The Spice Girls. We instinctively went into harmonies and it just felt natural to be on stage together. We just knew we had something. A friend of mine, producer Zach Adam, was in the audience, and he was so impressed he actually wrote us our first song -- Party Girl.

You know, since it holds such a special place in your hearts, you should do a cover of "wannabe" for the new album.

[They all laugh]
[Mimi]
Maybe as an iTunes bonus track.

[JC]
The funny thing is, we didn't realize it until later, but the Spice Girls' first video was a one take video. So that's another weird coincidence between us both.

Now, the name XELLE, I am told it is like "Extra Large" because you guys like to do big things. There's gotta be more to it, right?

[Mimi Amidst laughter from JC and Rony]
It's actually a Mayan Sanskrit that we discovered while hiking in the ruins of Africa. In a pyramid.

[JC]
It was given to us by a shaman during a sacred ceremony where he dubbed us XELLE.

[Mimi]

Joking aside, the name is a play on words. Our sound is a really big sound and we wanted something in big caps like that. And also, "elle" is french for "she," and in a group where one of the "girls" is not really a girl, it just seemed like the perfect tongue and cheek name.

[JC]
We're the girl group with something extra.

The bio section of your site is a huge text wall. It's packed with so much info on you girls, but nothing is said specific.

[Mimi]

The idea is to sort of keep it a mystery. We have all come from such sordid and amazing backgrounds to form a diverse group.

[Rony]

Do you have any specific questions about specific things?

I thought I was the one doing the interview here! But yes, yes I do. I was really impressed by whoever it was being able to take apart the guns!

[Rony]
Yeah. That's me. I was in the army in Israel. I can take apart and put together an M16 and an Uzi.

[Mimi]
So don't mess with us!

I will be sure to not get on your bad side.

[Everyone laughs]

The video for Party Girl was advertised quite blatantly that it was done without a permit. Have you gotten in any trouble for being so frank with it?

[JC]

I am definitely the goodie-two-shoes of the group, and I tend to worry about things being illegal. When it was decided we would do it without a permit I was just like "Guys! What if we get sent to jail for this?" But it turned out that the NYPD has enough on their hands without worrying about a bunch of crazy people dancing on a train at one in the morning. We did have some close calls, though. There was one time when we were getting ready to do a take and the doors opened to an MTA employee right there. My heart just dropped, and I was so scared. We just casually asked him to move to the next car and he did.

[Rony]

He must have realized that if he called it in he'd have to wait for a few hours while people got there, and it was cold so nobody wanted that.

[Mimi]

It was a big worry. It was done without a permit, so at any time while we were filming this, all that work and all that planning could have just gone down the drain. We had a very expensive camera we had to sneak on the train and so many extras donating their time. Then again, the sense of danger made it really exciting.

It must have been crazy to manage so many people on that small of a train.

[Mimi]

What we actually did is prior to filming we went into a train and measured it. We built a replica of it, inch by inch, in a studio just so we could rehearse. It was a lot of planning. The one thing we didn't account for that was actually the hardest part of the shoot was the train moving. Let me tell you. Dancing on a train in heels with forty or so extras is not easy.

[Rony]

We rehearsed it in stages. We did it a few times in the studio at first. Then we did it with just us on the train, and one time with as many extras as we could manage. We never got to do a full take of it before the night we filmed it, so it had us all really nervous.

How many takes did you end up doing?

[JC]
We ended up doing five. And even just that few takes was hard because we didn't have a lot of time, and most people were volunteering. And if we took too long we would run into the morning commute, so we only got to do five takes. We watched them all and picked out the best one.

[Rony]
Magic number three.

Now ladies, I need some insider knowledge on what to expect from your debut album "Queens".

[JC]

It's a good mix of party anthems and really serious tracks. We're trying to cover the whole world of what people thirst for in a great pop album. You gotta have those memorable ballads that stick with you forever, and you've gotta have the songs that you can party out to.

[Rony]

And they aren't simple songs about love and longing. We are trying to be more than that.

[Mimi]
We're calling it Megapop. The idea is to take the current outlook on pop music and then amplify it times a hundred.

[JC]
Our aim is to make every song unforgettable.

Are there any songs that deal with your unique outlook as a drag queen, Mimi?

[Mimi]
I don't think directly, no. I think a lot of LGBT artists when they first start out make music specifically tailored to the queer experience. I think that is great, but we want create something about life experience -- that anyone can relate to.

[JC]

We sort of wink at the idea of drag queens in our song "Queen" saying "I'll be your queen on the dance floor" and it leaves people thinking "Do they mean literal queen or drag queen?"

[Mimi]
We flirt with the idea, but we don't throw it in your face.

[Rony]

Because it's not about that. It's about the music. Its about being yourself and not being afraid to show who you are.

Do you guys have a tentative release date for the album yet?

[Mimi]
Nothing is set yet. We have a lot of things in the works. We have a second single coming out this fall. We can't say too much about it yet, but we are going to announce the date very soon. This album really means a lot to us, and we don't want to release it until everything is on our terms and everything is just right.

How do you manage writing such amazing pop tunes?

[Rony]

We have an amazing producer. Zach Adam is very much a part of our sound. He has a great vision for us.

[Mimi]
In some ways it feels like he's a part of the band. He's like our fourth band member. He travels with us and writes with us.

Rony, I was watching your video blog on the XELLE website, and I gotta ask. Where did Fifi come from?

[Rony]

When you get up on stage, you allow yourself to be, as Mimi says, a "Heightened Fabulocity" and you allow yourself to do so much more than the regular you would. Zach had a joke that when I got up on stage I got "all Fifi" and I guess it just took on a life of it's own as my alter ego. When I'm on stage, I'm Fifi.

[Mimi]

My alter ego is Sasha Fierce's sister Malia Fierce.

What about JC?

[Rony]

We've decided that we are Mimi, Fifi, And Jiji.

[JC]
I haven't agreed to that. But seriously, I think performing is such a part of who I am and what I do. I don't feel like a different person on stage. I feel like I'm doing what I'm meant to be doing all the time. So, I'm JC on stage.

[Mimi]
I'm also JC on stage.

[Rony]

I'm also JC on stage.

[JC]
Everyone should be JC on stage!

Time has flown by, ladies. Before we go, is there anything you'd like to say to your Royalty?

[JC]
We love you guys. We can't wait to make more Royalty on tour. Thank you for everything.

[Rony]
Its amazing to hear back from them all, to hear their stories of how our music touched them. It's incredible.

[Mimi]
If I could love you all, I would!


The group's video for Party Girl has gone totally viral. Give it a watch. Also, don't forget to buy the single on iTunes. It'll be the best 99cents you'll ever spend.