M e e t P Y X I S

“I started singing as soon as I could make a sound,”

says Gabriella Caspi, better known as the electro-pop artist PYXIS. “I whistled, I hummed, and I wrote my first song when I was 8. It was called ‘All Alone’; I still remember what it sounded like….”

She’ll never forget it, either. After all, this was around the same time Niven Garland cut some proper recordings with the young singer at Capri Studios—the same space where the well-known engineer helped INXS wrap their Full Moons, Dirty Hearts record. 

“I met Niven through Michael Hutchence’s wife,” says Caspi. “She’d heard me singing in their house because I was friends with their daughter.” While no one had ever mentioned her striking voice before, Caspi soon found herself torn between two creative pursuits: songwriting and acting school.

The latter took place at New York’s Black Nexxus studio under the tutelage of Susan Batson, a former coach for such major Hollywood figures as Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise, and Juliette Binoche. “I played her a song I’d been working on one afternoon,” explains Caspi, “and realized my dream had always been—and will always be—music. Acting taught me how to tap into my emotions for performances, but my first love was songwriting.”

That passion merely grew as Caspi left acting behind and focused on collaborations with such fellow writers and producers as Shane Stevens, Emily West, Jesse McCartney, Angie Beyince, Sidnie Tipton, Pinkslip, Shea Taylor, Gazzo, Erika Nuri Taylor, and Hailey Collier. Not to mention several years of rigorous songwriting sessions in Nashville, including a stint at the WTF (Warner Track Factory). 

“I kind of dreaded the auditions in acting school,” says Caspi,“because I felt like I was playing the role of someone who wants to act. Turns out I was actually a songwriter who wanted to sing.”

She’s also a fan of everything from James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, and Etta James to Moby, Prodigy, and a wealth of hip-hop and R&B heavyweights. Which brings us to PYXIS, a solo project that pushes all of the above into completely new territories, much like the “mariner’s compass” it’s named after. So while it’s easy to draw parallels between PYXIS and such left-field stars as Halsey, Fiona Apple and Lana Del Rey, that’s really just a jumping off point for something much bigger. 

Or as Caspi puts it, “As a woman in music, there’s a constant feeling of needing to apologize for your sexuality or your boldness or your tears or the emotional rollercoaster we all ride. I wanted to find a way to stop doing that and I think I'm on my way. From that PYXIS was born.”