Interview with Alex Page

Alex Page is an indie singer/songwriter from London who has been uploading his own music and covers onto his YouTube channel over the last year or so during lockdown. His debut single 'Life In The City' was released yesterday on all streaming platforms. Some of you may recognise Alex from performing at our After Midnight Festival back in February, and for our promotional trailer on our YouTube channel as well. I am so happy to see this release from Alex and am sure that you will all really enjoy this song.

Hi Alex, how are you?

Howdy! I’m doing good, thank you! Thanks for having me.

How would you describe your sound to the readers?

Well right now, the central genre to my sound is an acoustic/singer songwriter, with a blend of bedroom pop and lofi-indie. However, I plan to develop and further, as any artist should.

Who are your biggest musical influences?

Growing up, I absorbed a vast array of genres, whether it was at parties or the car radio or my dads iPod. But even as my taste in music constantly changes with my rapidly advancing age, I’ve found that indie music is a genre that has always been in the background or right in my ears at full volume. It started with bands like Arctic Monkeys, the Vaccines, Two Door Cinema Club, Vampire weekend. And over the years, I’ve explored different styles of “indie” music, such as Mac DeMarco and the 1975. Right now, it seems I’ve come full circle with my tastes, with bands like Modern Baseball, and every band that has ripped off their sound, reminiscent of my earlier tastes. But the one thing in the genre that remains constant is the DIY ethic and attitude that it champions. So, to sum up this long diatribe, I’d say indie music.

‘Life In The City’ is out now, and it’s your debut song release! How does that feel? I know you’ve been uploading songs and covers to YouTube and attending open mic nights, when we were allowed to of course, to perform.

Yeah! I’m pretty chuffed, if I have to be honest. 16 year old me would be over the moon right now. I now feel like my claim of being a “musician” is somewhat legitimised as a result. It’s also crazy to think that it’s going live just over a year after I first uploaded it my YouTube channel. I’ve never played this song live yet, so I'm hoping it’ll get a good reception when I can play.

How did this song come together? Did you face any challenges due to the pandemic?

I was in a band with two other friends called the Commoners, and we wrote a lot of material that we never released, for various reasons. I came up with the chord progression, with originally had a harmonica line to it, of all things, but I couldn’t seem to get pen to paper when it came to lyrics. However, when I created my first completely independent song by myself, it gave me the confidence to revisit it. And one night, I played around with some ideas, and by the time I went to bed that night, I had the rhythm, a verse and the chorus. This was all back in October 2019, so the only challenge I faced was juggling work with nights out drinking, and writing lyrics whilst being extremely hungover.

What was your main inspiration for this song lyrically? Do you have a favourite lyric or line?

The lyrics were mainly inspired by the expectation that university would be an escape from home, as many of us who went to uni might think. However, for personal reasons, I really struggled in First Year, and soon, home became an escape from university, too. So, the “cabin by the coast” lyric is me voicing my desire to escape the frantic and stressful expectations of what my life was like at that point.

Is this song part of a bigger project that we can look forward to?

Well, I don’t wanna say too much. However, there is definitely more music to look forward to in the second half of this year, so keep your eyes out for that! As we speak, I am working on new music right now, so if you like “Life In The City”, there’s more coming where that came from!

You’re performing at our Summer Daze Festival in June, and I am really looking forward to that, but now that everything is opening up again, do you have any plans on playing any in-person shows any time soon?

I’m hoping to get out and play more, but right now, my focus is to build a setlist, whilst also work on new music for the time being. That being said, there will be live shows coming very soon.

And lastly, what music have you been listening to recently? Anything you can recommend to us?

Right now, I'm listening to a lot of Modern Baseball, as well as their guitarist’s new band, Slaughter Beach, Dog. American Football for all you emos, Tiny Moving Parts for all you Blink-182 fans and Sleepy Dog for all you stoner mathematicians.

Thank you so much to Alex Page fro taking the time to answer these questions for us! Be sure to go and give 'Life In The City' a listen from the streaming platform of your choice, it's well worth your time. Remember you can also catch Alex performing a few songs for us at our Summer Daze Festival on June 12 in support of Girls Against.

Listen to Life In The City on Spotify here.

Follow Alex Page on Spotify here.

Subscribe to Alex Page's YouTube channel here.

Follow Alex Page on Instagram here.

All After Midnight links here.

Music Submissions and enquires to aftermidnightblog1@gmail.com