April Q&A

I received some questions from you guys in the comments so here we go! Thanks for all of the thought you all put behind these :)

Q1:

Hello, dear! Is there anything you'd like to share so far about your 4th album? I'm so excited to see you're back in the studio. 💓 Sending lots of love.

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Hello! I think this album is going to be a little less depressing than the last, I’m writing with the live performance in mind.

Q2:

Have any of your favorite books or works of literature impacted your songs and songwriting, such as a literary technique like allusion or extended metaphor? (Love you Alexandra, you’re one of my favorite artists ever!)

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Thanks for listening! Good question, well I think early on, because I was so young and had such little life experience, I was taking a lot from the themes of the books I was reading at the time, which were mostly classic novels like “On the Road” by John Steinbeck, “Lolita” and, “The Sun also Rises” by Hemingway, etc. Nowadays though, I have lived a lot more life so I mostly write about my own experiences. I use a lot of alliteration and literary idioms in my writing, but you know I never went to college and I never studied literature or songwriting in a proper educational setting so I’d be lying if I said it was all more than just me winging it and hoping for the best lol.

Q3:

i really admire how how your writing has evolved across your projects, do you feel your influences have changed over time, or is it more about refining a core sound? And when you’re recording vocals, do you rely more on instinct, or is there a specific intention behind how you deliver each line? 🖤

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Great question! Yeah my influences evolve sort of based on how I’m feeling in my life, I rarely listen to much of anything lately because I am constantly taking notes on how things are sonically in each song and it makes it a little less enjoyable to listen to music really. With my last album, my intention from the start was to make an album based solely on my instinct without making too many references to outside influences, and then…. I ran out of ideas. As for vocals, I am trained on how to get what I need out of my voice, so I follow that along with my own instincts on how to convey the right emotion, I don’t like to do more than 2 or three takes because I start to overthink it all and I become very frustrated, I’ve learned that your voice is living there inside of your body, so finding it in the right place inside your diaphragm and throat is the best place to begin, and then using it to orchestrate the right emotion comes second.

Q4: has there been any/what books have inspired you when writing beneath the lilypad? :)

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Hmmmm… Gosh it’s been over three years since I finished writing Beneath the Lilypad so this one is tricky. But, around that time I was really loving “Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead” by Olga Tokarczuk, “Farewell to the Muse” by Whitney Chadwick, and “Small Things like These” by Claire Keegan, I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I read a lot mystery novels and listen to non-fiction books on my phone a lot, if you like a juicy mystery book for fun, I love Alex Michaelides’ books.

Q5: Hi Alexandra, I have a few questions whose answers I’m curious to hear. What were some of your earliest musical influences, if you had any? What type of media inspires your creativity the most? And what themes and symbols do you naturally seem to be the most drawn into? (both in your writing process and media consumption)

Happy to hear you are back in the studio, sending lots of love xx

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Lovely questions! Truthfully, my earliest musical influences were NSYNC and Hilary Duff lol but I grew up in a household of Lou Reed and the Beatles, then when I got a bit older it was The White Stripes, Nina Simone and Billie Holiday. Paintings, photography and film inspires me most, I am a very visual person. Women’s empowerment and defying the stereotype of woman as muse is what I’m most drawn to. Thanks!

Q6: If you could collab with anyone (dead or alive) who would it be?

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Nina Simone or Kate Bush!

Q7: Can your BF get you on track with LDR? A collab would be amazing!

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Haha! No, I would never ask him to jeopardize his professional connections for the sake of my career.

Q8: Hi Alex, I had a question: Do you remember the first time a piece of art (movie, book, painting..) made you feel truly seen, and was that the moment you decided you wanted to do the same for others? Also, can’t wait for the new album xx

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Yes! The first time I saw a painting by Frida Kahlo I was so moved and I knew in that moment that was what I wanted to do. Thanks!

Q9: What will the next album be about? Similar or different from the others? so excited for it!!

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Right now I’m exploring the effects of abuse I’ve suffered at the hands of men as a child and into my early twenties and how my understanding of that has changed now that I am older, I am dealing with a lot of anger right now and trying to write about my own empowerment.

Q10: i’ve heard of artists being in three categories, a writer, singer, and performer, how do all of these resonate with your experience of being an artist in our times?

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I love this question! I have always considered myself a writer first because that is always what brings me the most joy and intellectual satisfaction, after that I am a singer, because it comes easily for me, which may sound egotistical but it’s the truth. I don’t think of myself as a performer at all anymore, I have no desire towards performance, I don’t need that sort of validation nowadays. In our times, for me, expression is more important than ever, expression keeps us from silence, which is deadly.

Q11: Where’s your favorite place to go?

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The forest where I grew up.