Freak Slug

Freak Slug will perform at La Bellevilloise in Paris on 21 March 2026. Behind this name, Manchester native Xenya Genovese crafts a hazy, 90s-tinged pop that sits between dream-pop and lo-fi indie. Inspired by Ride and Mazzy Star, she prioritises atmosphere: vaporous guitars, supple basslines and vocals that oscillate between nostalgia and muted irony. Her early EPs — Videos (whose track “Radio” went viral with more than 13.5 million streams), I’m In Love and Viva La Vulva — conveyed a distinctly Los Angeles light. With her debut album, I Blow Out Big Candles, she broadens her scope: more playful, darker in places, informed by an art-school background and a self-taught practice that shape her songwriting.

In 2025, Freak Slug stepped up her live presence across the UK, Europe and the United States, appearing at SXSW in Austin and at festivals such as Latitude, Kendal Calling, Leeds Festival and Rock N Roll Circus. On stage she mixes off-kilter romanticism, wry humour and dreamy riffs, somewhere between cult indie and punk impulses. In Paris, the date at La Bellevilloise will present a panorama of her repertoire, from luminous melodies to murkier passages, with a forthright writing that recounts emotional chaos without détour.