Alex Andra in 2020 is a complex balance of surviving and thriving. “There’s something about my existence as Paige that means I spend most of my time just keeping my head above water,” she tells Eat This Music, “then there’s Alex who uses music and art as a catharsis and acts as a vessel to work through some tumultuous internal shit.” Alex doesn’t completely exist without Paige, and vice versa. Alex has been cooking a lot up behind the scenes, so 2021 is when she will start seeing a deeper level of AA and all she has mentioned.
Alex has actually been one of the more fortunate artists during this time. Living in Perth has meant that it only affected her gigs for several months, and she was supported financially through that the Job Keeper payments, and because she has other forms of income, she remained busy throughout.
“It has sparked additional rage, however, watching how the arts have been neglected by our government and community, frankly,” Alex expresses on the current climate. “We’ve been totally undervalued considering how much we contributed to prior, through and post covid.” Although Alex was reading up on how much money artists generate for the economy and the sickening small percentage they earn back, it needs to change.
“The hilarious thing is that Infliction [Alex’s new song] is about my relationship with social media and how toxic I find it.” Alex’s ‘Infliction’ is an icky battle of being complicit in an engine that chews people like her up and spits them back out. Alex continues in our chat about her song: “But the thing that keeps us going is that we have a platform and a community and a way to brand ourselves, it’s not so black and white.”
“When Jay and I sat down to write this we talked about what vibe we wanted to go for and I wanted something darker, moodier, heavier.” — Alex Andra on her newest single.
“As soon as he started laying down the structure I knew I wanted to write about social media as it’s been on my mind for a while, and the electronic elements of the song just made it feel really organic to combine the two,” Alex continues.
Alex’s very own life planned an important part in the creation of the song, in fact, Alex ran four different social accounts: her personal page, her acoustic duo Trouvaille, her synth-pop band I Call Val and now Alex Andra, additionally Alex contribute to a pet care company she worked for, Pet Friends.
“I’ve had a presence on social media for 12 years,” she reveals. “I’ve navigated online harassment and bullying, self-branding, scams, controlling my own marketing, censorship, and content creation.” Although, those aforementioned experiences do not mention the fluctuations of how these platforms perform for their users and how they warp over time to guzzle up peoples’ money only to bury their hard work if people don’t pay for visibility.
“Not a lot of thought went into why I released it now, it felt right, and just happened to culminate with a time that so many of us have turned to social media in a shortage of external stimulants,” Alex delves into why she wanted (or not want to) release the single. Alex also believes that she has been releasing “lighter” subject matter leading up to dropping the much rawer lyric matter. “I want to put emphasis on the fact that this is a serious issue that affects me, it’s just one that isn’t as gut-wrenching as some of the other material I plan on releasing,” she says.
As touched on above, Alex has side projects, most notably I Call Val, in fact, a lot of similarities between both projects are in Alex Andra, specifically in terms of some lyrical content, colourful imagery & high energy tunes, but the key differences present as Alex Andra is that this project is a direct extension of herself and no one else.
“It feels liberating to have an outlet like this where I feel I have limitless options and I’m so eager to express this heavier and more angsty part of myself artistically,” Alex reveals on her new project. “Having a strong pop intersect in this music makes me feel far more confident having my feminity at the forefront of everything I do, and it’s certainly present in ICV, however, I’m very aware of also representing other band members.”
Alex is keen to release a few more singles to really reflect herself as a well-rounded, 3D character in this genre and solidify the image (visually and sonically) she is building currently. “When the time comes for a larger release and/or live shows,” Alex reveals, “I want them to be larger than life, so I’ll be working really hard silently to lead up to something like this.” In the end, Alex just really wants to connect with and build the AA community right now because she is just getting so much love for her two singles and wants to give that positive energy the opportunity to flourish!
