Rich@DallasVoice.com<\/a><\/p>\n
Local musician and playwright Danny Anchondo may better be known by his stage persona Mr. Pixie. That alter ego has helmed his creative side, and this year, he\u2019s working overtime.<\/p>\n
After debuting a new stage show last year, Anchondo has continued Mr. Pixie\u2019s momentum with both a new album and an expanded version of his play Selfie-Conscious.<\/p>\n
Back in June, Anchondo dropped his newest album, Whatever Home. It was initially intended for release last year, but timing wasn\u2019t quite on its side. The personal and conceptually rich album\u2019s release this year, however, ended up feeling just right.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like it came to its own time,\u201d Anchondo said. \u201cThis was a culmination of a lot of work, and I hoped to have it out the previous summer. But with the show and other projects I was working on, it kept getting pushed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Plus, he said, as an independent artist, he believes the album was a DIY creation that speakson many levels.<\/p>\n
The title, Whatever Home, directly references the multifaceted idea of home \u2013 whether it\u2019s the physical body or a dwelling. This theme is particularly poignant for Anchondo, who is in the process of moving out of a home he\u2019s inhabited for 16 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I was coming up with this concept, I would imagine this deity who has inhabited this home, and each song represents a different room as well as the life that one would lead in this home,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt is something to finish this album and then be about to leave this home.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The opening track, \u201cOld Friend,\u201d acts as the album\u2019s entryway, and, according to Anchondo, it signifies new beginnings and bidding farewell to the past.<\/p>\n
The closing track is also one of the album\u2019s most emotionally resonant tracks, \u201cSpider Lilies,\u201d is dedicated to one of Anchondo\u2019s cousins who passed away.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw this as symbolizing a transition from one type of home into a different kind of home,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The album\u2019s vibe has an easy flow to it, but Anchondo serves his rock out moment, too. \u201cJust Shut Up\u201d \u2014 which he envisioned as the \u201cbathroom of the house,\u201d a place for cleansing but also where \u201cdirtiness\u201d occurs \u2014 touches on a common struggle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always had some punk rock ambitions, and this was my moment to release,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of queer people often give in to negative thoughts and that self-talk that goes with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He sings, almost growls, the lyrics \u2014 Maybe I\u2019m not beautiful\/maybe I\u2019m not fuckable\/maybe I\u2019m not loveable\/But I can\u2019t listen to all this shit in my brain \u2014 before singing out the title.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of these moments where these bad thoughts come in, and I\u2019m telling myself \u2018Be nice to yourself, stupid,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t until I was in the studio where it found its character.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think songs will make themselves known to you, and I knew what this was gonna be like.<\/p>\n
And then when Mark Baker laid down his drum track, that added a raw energy to it all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whatever Home has become Anchondo\u2019s first album to receive radio play, notably showcased on KXT\u2019s The Homegrown Show which featured his track \u201cThe Followers.\u201d
Anchondo, a multi-instrumentalist who teaches violin and piano, has been a fixture in the Dallas music scene since moving from El Paso in 1999. For a while he had a regular gig at Alexandre\u2019s on Sunday nights.<\/p>\n
Initially on a classical music trajectory, a formative incident in the guise of a car accident at 19 led him to embrace his now more rock-inspired path.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to be more Tori Amos than anything,\u201d he said. But this pivotal moment birthed the persona of Mr. Pixie, who has evolved over the years.<\/p>\n
That evolution has added theater performer to Mr. Pixie\u2019s resum\u00e9 in Anchondo\u2019s original stage show Selfie-Conscious, which premiered last year at The Festival of Independent Theatres (FIT).<\/p>\n
The show is an interactive and musical and satirical look at today\u2019s relationships with our digital presence versus our real one. Pixie guides the audience that helps him create an avatar for his new social network by taking real-time selfies. The show will be reprised in January \u2014 running Jan. 9-11 at the Wyly Studio Theatre through ATTPAC\u2019s The Elevator Project.<\/p>\n
This has given Anchondo the opportunity to expand on the original version.<\/p>\n
The new iteration will be longer and incorporate more audience interaction.<\/p>\n
And, he notes, \u201cThe world is a different place from last year, and the digital world is different.\u201d<\/p>\n
So this new version will deliver a darker and more demented Mr. Pixie steering the exploration and the audience while also adding some new music to the show\u2019s soundtrack.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, I won\u2019t pretend I\u2019m a playwright, and I imagined this whole thing as a song that\u2019s taken my hand to lead me through,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I love how theater experiences can be transformative for people and It\u2019s been great to explore this idea of conflating our actual reality with our digital reality.\u201d <\/p>\n