XTX
ABOUT
Xie Tian Xiao, rock singer, guitarist, guzheng player, short form: XTX or X.T.X.
Born in 1972 in the town of Zibo, Shandong province, China. At the age of 9 he played roles at the Beijing Opera and appeared in the role of "Magnolia".
At the age of 15, after a run-in with the law in which he was placed under official surveillance, he taught himself to play guitar.
In 1990, he began composing his own songs. A year later, he moved to Beijing to develop his musical career. In 1994, Xie Tianxiao formed his first band, Hunters of the Cloth. Not long afterward, he wrote and recorded Ni Bu Xiang (English title: You're Not at All), the theme song for the film Vietnamese Girl.
In 1997, he founded the band Cold Blooded Animal with bassist Li Ming, his childhood friend from Shandong. Although the band went through a number of personnel changes (past drummers include Liang Xu, Wu Rui and several others), they soon established a loyal fan base. Between 1997 and 2002, Cold Blooded Animal performed hundreds of gigs in Beijing and released their debut album in 2000.
In 2001, Cold Blooded Animal were the first Chinese rock band to appear at the South By Southwest Music Festival (SXSW) in Austin, Texas. From 2002-2003, Xie Tianxiao lived in the U.S., in both Los Angeles and New York. Upon returning to China, he promptly proposed to his fiancee (now his wife, with whom he has two children, a boy and a girl) and set about re-establishing the band, renaming it "X.T.X. & Cold Blooded Animal.”
Today, Xie Tianxiao is regarded as China's "New Godfather of Rock" and is a regular festival headliner. His albums have sold hundreds of thousands of copies, and perhaps millions of pirated copies. He has toured China, Europe, the U.S. and Japan, and is a staple on Chinese radio and television. His latest album, Drawing Near, is a collection of ten of his greatest hits from his 20+ year career, released by Sony Music on July 15th, 2020.
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