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Exclusive Interview With Swedish Independent Artist, Singer & Songwriter Alex Alexander

Hello Alex, welcome to HONK Magazine! Can you introduce yourself to our readers?

Hi, First of all thank you so much for the feature! I am Alex Alexander a Swedish artist with 26 singles out and now my brand new EP Helpless. I’m from a small village in the south of Sweden. I started with music at 12 years old playing guitar and at 19 years old I toured for 2 years in Asia (Vietnam, Thailand, China). And the last couple of years I have been traveling a lot working in studios as a songwriter and producer around the world.

How is the music scene in Sweden different than the US? What made you move to LA?

The Swedish music scene is really cool. There are so many talented singers, instrumentalists and producers in Sweden and it’s overall very easy to work with people. I really like the LA market because of the work ethic. People are working 24/7 and the hustle is really on another level. My move to LA has been planned for the past 2 years, but as any European may know its really tough to get a valid Visa for the United States. I got really lucky this year since my Artist Visa got approved right before the pandemic, So now I am just waiting until things get better so I can go back.

You have just dropped an outstanding EP Helpless – what did inspire you to create it?

Yes, I am so proud and happy about this EP. The inspiration comes from my life you know so we never had any preset subject to write about. Me and Johan just went in and wrote about what we felt at that moment.

Helpless is your debut EP, but you released a bunch of projects before that. Why did you wait so long with publishing a collection?

Yes, as you may know, the release schedule is so different nowadays and it’s very focused on singles. Especially if you’re an indie artist like me and you’re building up your career and fan base! We wanted to make sure that my first bigger project was really thought through in terms of sound, style and the look of the artwork. I could have squeezed even more songs but it just felt like this Tracklist was perfect and it came together very organically.

Johan Randén produced and wrote the whole EP with you, how did the work look like? How was your chemistry during creating Helpless?

First of all, Johan is one of the most talented musicians, producers I ever worked with! His talents really are mind-blowing on the guitar! Me and Johan have a very organized and structured way of doing songs now, I think that’s what happens after your 40th song haha! We wrote and produced all these separate EP songs in literally 1-2 days from nothing to full production with vocals. I’m not gonna lie there was quite a lot of red wine involved :). But at this moment we almost always come out with a full song after our 1-day sessions.

What’s your favorite track on Helpless? Why?

I really like “Helpless” & “Lyin’ Eyes” because they blend in a lot of the Latin flavor that I am a very big fan of! I pretty much grew up playing Santana songs and a lot of flamenco, Spanish guitar so I think these influences are deeply rooted in me!

Can you tell us a bit about your upcoming projects? Are you planning any collaborations, or maybe releasing music videos?

At this moment we are looking to push this EP to its full potential over the summer! I might do a music video for either “Helpless” or “Lyin’ Eyes” under the summer. I have a couple of singles that are ready as follow up singles. I was thinking of different features that we are already trying to lock in but we are also thinking of saving a lot of songs to work towards an album by early next year!

Anything you would like to add?

I would just like to personally thank all my fans for the support and kind comments about the EP! I also want to encourage all of you out there to stay positive and keep working forward. I know these are some very hard times, but together as a world, we can get through it!

Alex Alexander on Instagram

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