Alex B - Singer

[00:00:03] I support Karthia with Raj because special guest Alex be a very talented singer

[00:00:11] How are you Alex?

[00:00:12] I'm good, how are you?

[00:00:14] Fantastic, not too bad.

[00:00:16] Thank you.

[00:00:17] Thanks for coming on, obviously we have seen some of the information

[00:00:21] I will ask you a lot of the detail because I don't know that much of the information about

[00:00:27] you obviously but also the information which I have for the CPIC talk is he started

[00:00:35] what are the age of 18 was it 18?

[00:00:38] 16.

[00:00:40] He started 16, yeah.

[00:00:42] Yeah.

[00:00:43] Okay, how did that begin?

[00:00:47] I mean it just started honestly with a couple of voice lessons.

[00:00:53] I knew that I loved singing and that it was really enjoying it.

[00:00:59] And I was like let's just get better at this.

[00:01:02] So yeah, I started at that point and really tried to, yeah, hone my skills.

[00:01:10] Then just kept progressing after that so I took what I learned in my time with my first

[00:01:17] teacher and applied that to rearranging.

[00:01:23] Like covers of things and I picked up the guitar and so started a company myself.

[00:01:30] So really started just with like, you know, kind of that I'm singer-songwriter.

[00:01:35] I'm just going to accompany myself because I really love to do this.

[00:01:38] And then it took me a number of years before I actually went back to school to then,

[00:01:45] you know, do all the music theory and you know learn about like songwriting and depth and things

[00:01:51] like that.

[00:01:52] And so yeah, really studying my voice in depth as well alongside all of those other kind

[00:01:59] of basic music foundations.

[00:02:01] And so now, yeah, I'm at the point where I'm writing and posing, arranging, coproducing,

[00:02:09] yeah, playing a lot of instruments.

[00:02:11] So it's yeah, it's great.

[00:02:12] It's come a long way since then.

[00:02:15] Well, yeah, would that be when you were, is even on time?

[00:02:20] That's good.

[00:02:22] Yeah, so I didn't go back to school until 26.

[00:02:25] So like 10 years before I actually went back to school.

[00:02:28] Yeah, yeah, so now I am, yeah, officially in the like professional stage after I've gone through

[00:02:35] school.

[00:02:36] So.

[00:02:37] All right.

[00:02:38] Okay.

[00:02:39] Yeah.

[00:02:40] So, sorry.

[00:02:41] You helped from a Canada.

[00:02:43] Yeah.

[00:02:44] Yeah.

[00:02:45] So, it's Montreal.

[00:02:46] Is it?

[00:02:47] Is it from Montreal?

[00:02:49] So originally, yes, from Montreal.

[00:02:51] I actually lived in Victoria, British Columbia now.

[00:02:55] Right.

[00:02:56] So, please be clear all the way on the West Coast.

[00:02:58] Yeah.

[00:02:59] What type of music is seen is Canada?

[00:03:04] I mean, what, what are we music do they go for in Canada?

[00:03:08] Oh gosh.

[00:03:10] Literally everything you could possibly want.

[00:03:14] There's every kind of genre.

[00:03:16] Yeah, a huge kind of jazz like industry here as well.

[00:03:26] But a lot of really great kind of like pop artists as well that are kind of making it big.

[00:03:33] Yeah.

[00:03:34] So, pop jazz RME.

[00:03:36] Yeah.

[00:03:37] A lot of really great composers as well.

[00:03:39] So, yeah, there's literally something for everybody up in Canada.

[00:03:45] Countries and other big one up here too.

[00:03:48] Yeah.

[00:03:49] Country.

[00:03:50] Yeah.

[00:03:51] I did hear that country.

[00:03:53] Country is getting big in Canada.

[00:03:57] It's getting big in the UK as well.

[00:03:59] Country music as well.

[00:04:00] So.

[00:04:01] Yeah.

[00:04:02] A lot of people are getting to country music.

[00:04:03] A lot of new new talent coming through.

[00:04:06] So, you know, we've spoken to us spoken to on here on the warm podcast.

[00:04:11] So yeah, definitely and what kind of genre do you categorize yourself in or is it a mixture of different genres?

[00:04:21] Mynase Sacha mixture I found like as I go through this whole project.

[00:04:28] Everything is just a little bit different.

[00:04:30] So I'm kind of pulling on a lot of very like vocal heavy techniques.

[00:04:35] So like extended, what we call extended vocal techniques.

[00:04:40] But overall my styles are really kind of like based in RNB and soul.

[00:04:46] And then I've kind of just changed the flavor of it a little bit depending on what it is.

[00:04:51] I'm trying to kind of convey or get across.

[00:04:54] So really kind of in that independent realm but at the foundation a lot of it is kind

[00:05:00] of coming from that RNB background.

[00:05:03] Yeah.

[00:05:05] So did it so is it so or do you like a band?

[00:05:10] Right now, it's pretty solo.

[00:05:14] So a lot of my tracks are voice heavy piano heavy and then I spend a lot of time with my producer

[00:05:24] kind of going over things and adding, you know, different sense and things like that just to kind of create a bit of a soundscape.

[00:05:34] So we've been kind of having a lot of fun creating that.

[00:05:37] And I do like the electronic aspect.

[00:05:40] I look forward to actually having more instrumentalists come in when I start doing like live performances with this album and

[00:05:48] and then further yeah projects down the road as well.

[00:05:52] But yeah, when you're on a smaller budget you kind of look at okay how can we pull this together?

[00:05:58] Oh, what we've got.

[00:06:00] So yeah but it's been really interesting and it's been a lot of fun actually to kind of

[00:06:06] you know go through like hundreds of sounds just to be like yes that's the one I want

[00:06:10] for this particular yeah section or song.

[00:06:15] Yeah.

[00:06:16] Is anyone used to listen to in RNB or dance or any?

[00:06:22] Oh, I got such a hard question because I like I enjoy so many different genres that there's never just one.

[00:06:30] It kind of depends on the day but that being said who do I want to pull on first?

[00:06:38] I would say like hmm I love so like if I think of like bigger kind of voices you know

[00:06:49] I look to like Adele, that was a big fan of Jostone growing up as well.

[00:06:54] I know she's big in the UK there and so they've kind of been formed a little bit more of like my

[00:07:02] vocal style maybe but I love like you know singer song writers and arrangers like you know

[00:07:08] give a capacity or like a Lizzie McAlpine and so I never I'm just like drawn to one artist

[00:07:16] it kind of depends on like okay what kind of movement my anorie now. So yeah and there's just so many

[00:07:22] amazing artists out there that it's so hard to just pick one yeah. Yeah any any any any any one in

[00:07:30] one of your family who is who is a bugger on in music or did you see self?

[00:07:36] Growing up my dad was in a band and he got I think just retired this year so that was like 40 years

[00:07:43] of them being together and playing together and he was the the bassist and the singer

[00:07:51] and yeah so really just like heavy musical influences from him but also from other people in

[00:08:00] my family not that they were necessarily musicians but they just had a great appreciation for for music

[00:08:07] and so growing up yeah my sister and I we were exposed to quite a bit at an early age and so

[00:08:14] we just yeah kind of dove in to music and myself a little bit more than my sister so I'm kind

[00:08:23] of the one and only almost full fledged musician. I also have a couple of cousins who were in

[00:08:29] a few bands and and so a very artistic family like all around yeah we like taking the stage so

[00:08:38] I mean they say they say in acting an acting number of retirees is at the same music they never you

[00:08:44] say you know see that it has retired but doesn't mean it's actually officially ever retire.

[00:08:50] I you know I can't say exactly I can't speak for others I'm sure some people have gone through

[00:08:57] their career and then you know left it almost entirely for myself I would be very hard pressed to not

[00:09:06] like use my voice I think like there was kind of a running joke growing up where like I couldn't go

[00:09:14] a couple of hours without singing something or humming something and it was very passive like I

[00:09:19] often didn't even realize I was doing it and so I don't think I'd ever be able to like leave it behind

[00:09:25] and like officially retire.

[00:09:28] And you're still you're still in the planet I know?

[00:09:32] Yeah yeah. So yeah okay and so so so majority of the music you release

[00:09:42] a couple of music which we were talking about in a moment as well is this music yourself publishing

[00:09:48] music or do you get it is it like a few people helping you out with the music?

[00:09:53] So entirely kind of self released yeah yeah I have had some help with the social media aspect

[00:10:01] of things because marketing is not my forte by any means but yeah when it comes to putting the whole

[00:10:10] project together between myself and my producer it's been entirely kind of self run and so

[00:10:16] for least so yeah so you obviously provided me with the link which is Alex's big is that your

[00:10:27] official website link? What I released to you was basically my what we call electronic press

[00:10:37] kit so just it has a lot of things to do with it. That's why I thought I was asking because I don't

[00:10:42] or publish it to the to the world. Yeah and give him the link but okay how do how do you

[00:10:51] have the official website for your fans? I do yeah so I actually the website that you have if

[00:10:57] you take away the slash EPK then that's the website that's the rest of the website.

[00:11:04] If you so if you take away EPK the rest is in the website here.

[00:11:07] Okay okay because I thought that I'd put it pretty on here so okay so if you put it on

[00:11:25] the one that's around one actually yeah this one yeah this would be okay okay

[00:11:32] dot c a so so okay so so this is your official website in total at the moment you release

[00:11:39] one in two singles is that is all right. Yeah so far two singles I had my first release in

[00:11:48] gosh it was December 1st kind of did them very close together and then I did one kind of holiday

[00:11:55] single as well the first single release was called I'm fine and it's the first of five songs

[00:12:04] that will eventually be on a full EP that goes through the different stages of grief and that's

[00:12:11] like the big project that I'm in the middle of right now so the different stages so our denial

[00:12:19] anger bargaining depression and then acceptance and so I'm fine with the denial stage and actually

[00:12:27] this coming Friday so March 29th the track for anger is coming out and that is titled very

[00:12:36] a daughter okay so is that like an emotional track it's probably the heaviest I would say of all

[00:12:48] of the tracks yeah so it's definitely yeah definitely I think going to be the most

[00:12:55] different of all of the tracks in the whole project yeah but anger is something that's very

[00:13:03] unique and not often expressed or experienced by myself like very often or very easily so it was an

[00:13:10] interesting kind of project and and song and itself to put together yeah on this is at least like

[00:13:20] character like you made these characters for the single or they're like based on some

[00:13:25] summer certain stances are realised for. There are definitely an each song have pulled on my

[00:13:33] experience so the whole project is based on grief in general but we go through these different stages

[00:13:41] of it and so that's why I've got a song for each stage and it for a total of five songs

[00:13:47] so yeah this one is definitely like based on a few experiences in my own life where

[00:13:54] yeah really brought up those feelings of anger and frustration and a lot of it was you know

[00:14:02] not being heard not being listened to and kind of suffering the effects of not being recognized yeah

[00:14:13] and so yeah it was a very yeah a very interesting song to put together I'm excited about it

[00:14:19] I'm really happy with how this one turned out so. So okay so regarding the track which is said

[00:14:31] you released so you released two tracks so far and anything you're going to release an EP this year

[00:14:41] yeah yeah so track number two released on March 29th and then the full EP with the rest of the

[00:14:48] tracks we should be out May 31st. So the first couple of tracks so how do you how do you

[00:15:02] write these tracks do you write in the morning or is any particular time you write these tracks so

[00:15:08] no so I don't have any like one time or it's okay this is my song writing time

[00:15:14] because often these things like they can never really be forced I can't like sit down and be like okay

[00:15:22] you're just going to write this out often it has to be you know kind of inspired and so sometimes

[00:15:29] even though maybe I've set aside a block of time maybe I'm just meditating on that

[00:15:37] that subject matter or you know maybe I'm just coming up with like thoughts and ideas around the subject

[00:15:43] and I'm not necessarily writing writing because it is often each song is kind of an unfolding

[00:15:50] I've often written you know maybe a chorus or a verse and then or you know maybe a couple

[00:15:56] of them but then I have to come back to it because I know that okay something needs to come next

[00:16:02] but I'm not sure what it is just yet and because I'm very particular about what

[00:16:08] is said in each song and so I never just want to like fill blank space so I always put a lot of

[00:16:16] thought into what what each verse and chorus and all the words that I'm using you know are

[00:16:23] am I sure that okay that's how I want to say it or this is what I want to say that kind of thing

[00:16:30] all right okay so so when what when did you use music then I like to bring an instrument as well

[00:16:38] time all yeah piano is kind of my main instrument in the songwriting the sense I am not

[00:16:48] you know the most proficient pianist let's just put it that way but yeah that's how I kind of build

[00:16:55] my chord progressions and my sound because often when I'm doing that I'm also hearing other

[00:17:03] instruments so I'll write pieces and in parts for other instruments as well not that I play those

[00:17:09] instruments I often will put those to other instrumentalists to record for me but yeah so that's kind

[00:17:18] of how I work when putting a song together yeah all right okay but yeah it sounds it sounds really

[00:17:31] really good what's a reaction like in kind of the recording of music and uh yeah gosh I mean

[00:17:41] so far so far so good I think you know gaining traction these days can feel like a massive

[00:17:49] undertaking because they're so much available and they're so so easy to get your music out

[00:17:56] now where before it was like you know you had to have a demo and you would send it to like a

[00:18:02] record label and so you really had to make sure okay like this is good and we've got this in the bag

[00:18:07] we're now artists can really not only like experiment but also yeah be a little bit more in control

[00:18:16] of you know how their music goes out um and what they put out they're kind of in that creative

[00:18:23] control that being said you kind of have to switch hats you're no longer just the artist and

[00:18:30] the songwriter and and producer whatever you might be you have to then be the promoter and the

[00:18:37] you know the the market coordinator and marketing coordinator and things like that you have to

[00:18:43] you know kind of put on your social media hat and kind of get yourself out there as well so

[00:18:48] I would say that's my I got help with social media because I was like I don't know

[00:18:54] how I should be going about this so I'm kind of happy with where things are at and I'm happy

[00:19:00] that I've got like a small fan base that's looking forward to the next song but also the full

[00:19:06] EP as well so I really feel the the support of my family and my local community and I look for it

[00:19:14] to kind of branching out into obviously the rest of Canada and and other parts of the world as well

[00:19:19] if we can kind of stretch that far that would be amazing how big are you so you you've you don't

[00:19:27] like to talk um music concerts and I mean or venues in Canada regarding your music yeah it's been

[00:19:36] a while because of the pandemic so I had to actually I actually had to finish my schooling online

[00:19:47] in the middle of the pandemic then you know slowly kind of get things back on track so that's why

[00:19:53] it's taking me until about 2024 yeah or now it's to finally have this project kind of rolling so

[00:20:01] I haven't really done live performance in about a year I'd say and that's mainly because

[00:20:09] I had to get my tonsils out last year and so I was yeah unfortunately having to rest quite a bit

[00:20:17] and actually retrain my voice a little just because it was actually affecting how my voice was kind

[00:20:25] of coming across because my tonsils were so big they were taking up a lot of space and so yeah

[00:20:31] I'm actually really excited to get back on stage and that'll be later this year.

[00:20:38] Yeah you're saying about uh self-publishing like I said it is a bit uh as well it doesn't

[00:20:46] open a bigger um up-reneed for you know open me single because they don't have to go through

[00:20:53] that they're more likely used to do before or need to be used.

[00:20:57] But art for new singers to come come up but now you can self-publishing music but

[00:21:03] as well as uh they are pros and cons to everything I guess like you said so if you do self-publishing

[00:21:09] then you have to wear lots of hearts in marketing and gaining media and giving media exposure so

[00:21:18] how how how how hard is it to gain media exposure for yourself when you self-publishing

[00:21:23] um I find a particularly tricky um it really is um not something that like is easily done again

[00:21:33] just because there's so much else out there and it's like okay what is gonna make someone stop

[00:21:39] and want to like engage with your your real your music your whatever it is right and um yeah so

[00:21:48] I find that it really does require a lot of like engagement but also like being online quite

[00:21:56] of it and that's not something that I I like to do. I'm not like posting constantly um and I

[00:22:05] I kind of will stand by that even if it doesn't necessarily get me you know tons of followers very

[00:22:11] quickly um but when I do post for me it I want it to be meaningful and so you know maybe it's not

[00:22:19] like the advised like you should be posting all the time and you should be doing this and doing that

[00:22:24] and I'm very much just want to go about it in a way that works for me and that kind of

[00:22:31] inspires like authentic and more um yeah meaningful kind of connections and engagement with with people

[00:22:39] who are interested and so um I kind of like to operate that way and I'm okay with that

[00:22:46] even if it does mean my audience is a little bit smaller for now um it just overall is the best thing

[00:22:52] for me and I kind of have to stick by that yeah is there any plans to do any for your music

[00:23:00] is there any plans for any music videos I'm able to do music videos for it or is there a

[00:23:07] I'm hoping it's really gonna come down to kind of kind of analyzing the metrics right so

[00:23:16] one all of the music is out it's like okay which one did really well you know do we want

[00:23:22] to create some of that like video content for it because yeah I I am still in even the recording

[00:23:30] process of one of the last tracks for this project so um yeah it's really just been about like

[00:23:36] okay let's get this music out and then we can do these other bits for it later so I do hope to

[00:23:42] hop into yeah some more like visual production for some of these tracks yeah

[00:23:49] I mean you have a bit of like a YouTube channel at the moment or is there any plans for YouTube channel

[00:23:54] there's plans yeah so I really like it's interesting to kind of see all of this unfold and really

[00:24:02] the at the heart of it is like okay make sure you have the content first and so um I'm looking

[00:24:07] forward to really having that kind of in my by back pocket and then being able to kind of create

[00:24:12] more content with that for you know um additional kind of visual aspects to my social media including

[00:24:19] yeah YouTube as well because that I do have a channel but I haven't really published it because there's

[00:24:25] nothing on it right now yeah it's tricky isn't it when you when you when you when you

[00:24:30] doing everything yourself is and you need to draw everything is exactly right before you do it

[00:24:35] before you get into it so as you need is a trick you place anywhere to be honest even

[00:24:39] I even I find a trick you must also know yeah so I see you know uh is finding the time

[00:24:47] to publish stuff and you know keep on posting stuff um so there's a lot of the balancing

[00:24:53] up here you have to you have to do so so so any any tentative date or be your when do you say

[00:25:00] yes your next single is coming up yeah so next single is actually the Friday March 29

[00:25:08] yeah and then the full EP will be out on May 31st

[00:25:13] yeah and do check out on our lexbysa website Alexbay.ca official website and on the

[00:25:22] can people purchase your music directly from there or do they go onto the iTunes website all

[00:25:28] they would have to go directly to iTunes if they wanted to purchase any of the tracks

[00:25:32] but there is an audio player on the website so you know if you want to check it out kind of for free

[00:25:39] you know you can do that as well if you love it by all means go ahead and buy it I would absolutely love

[00:25:44] that yeah and so that's kind of where it's at I'm on most streaming platforms so definitely

[00:25:51] although the big players apple amazon google play Spotify youtube music all those big guys

[00:26:01] a couple of this smaller ones which i'm forgetting I know there's a lot of title users out there

[00:26:06] and so yeah you can find it on title as well so yeah I look forward to yeah kind of hearing some

[00:26:14] feedback especially with the new single coming out yeah yeah definitely yeah i'm sure i'm sure

[00:26:22] it's going to be a lot of feedback about i'm sure i'm sure your dad who is the musician who's been

[00:26:28] in the position for such a long time was he was he surprised or did he expect you to be a singer

[00:26:33] um i you know good it's a good question i i was always encouraged i don't think there was ever any

[00:26:43] like expectation they just more wanted me to like just you know what you're great at this if you love

[00:26:49] it by all means go into it and if i decided one day that i didn't love it anymore they would have been like

[00:26:55] that's okay just go find the other thing that you love and so i think you know dad and laver are very

[00:27:02] happy with the kind of where things are at so yeah definitely i'm sure i'm sure they're

[00:27:10] they are super super proud of uh you doing it all the all these are wearing so many hats and you know

[00:27:16] getting a music out uh doesn't does absolutely terrific but on this dude check it out to check

[00:27:23] Alex uh music all the latest uh i know coming here music which is coming out on the master

[00:27:30] to him like like i said do check it out on the on the website which is uh on here we will put

[00:27:38] the link on the description as well you will do uh check it out on the description here beyond

[00:27:43] there on on the chart uh i'll explain to see here and do check it out and obviously all the good places

[00:27:51] all the music uh it is available on there so you can you can purchase the directly on the website

[00:27:58] or no you're best you are planning as some things today as well sort of gonna keep you for too long now

[00:28:06] on there but yeah so lots and lots of exciting stuff happening uh at the moment so

[00:28:16] these two singles which you released what what they both released um with the release last year

[00:28:23] oh how was it? yeah uh very late last year so um the first track um of the EP called i'm fine

[00:28:32] that was released on December 1st and then a week later i had um actually like a little holiday

[00:28:39] song called Maybe that i released as well so those are the two that are out right now and then

[00:28:45] yeah there's a lot's more to come in the next like two months pretty much

[00:28:49] all it's an exciting exciting exciting exciting exciting stuff happening on there is absolutely

[00:28:56] under we'll try to if we can get in for uh when you release it we will try to put on the on

[00:29:04] the one when agenda for the cast on website as well i'm not on there so do um do check it out

[00:29:12] on this this uh this week is releasing um on this Friday the 29th which is which is a good Friday

[00:29:20] on in the UK so we try to put further there um i don't know do you guys celebrate good Friday or

[00:29:27] is it or no yeah yeah all right okay wow great grace a great stuff great a great stop first of

[00:29:36] all thank you very much for coming on on the on the Sunday and uh and wishing you all the best

[00:29:42] for your new single i'm sure it's gonna do really well thank you um there and anything else you

[00:29:48] like to add there no that was great yeah thank you so much for having me and i i really appreciate

[00:29:54] yeah just being able to have a conversation and and speak with your listeners as well that's yeah

[00:30:00] really really nice yeah thank you thank you very much for coming on on the next and have a

[00:30:07] great rest of the Sunday is it early in calendar the moment uh yeah so 1138 for us right now

[00:30:16] we have a game dark down here in the UK now yeah yeah because we're still in March so it gets dark

[00:30:22] about sixish still yeah so yeah yeah yeah so it still goes so yeah absolutely enjoy the rest of

[00:30:32] your Sunday and all the best for your new single and you album on Troy i'm sure it's going to

[00:30:36] really well thank thank you thank you very much thanks so much here thank you