Trials and Triumphs of Alexz Johnson –BarkBiteBlog Interview
Alexz Johnson would like you to know that she’s still exists. The former star of Instant Star, a fictional television show based around a teenaged girl winning a sort of American Idol, is now an indie artist trying to make a name for herself in the industry.
After many ups and downs along the way, the Canadian singer released her debut album Voodoo about one year ago. The album, which draws from many different genres and eras in music, does little to remind listeners of her Instant Star past (with perhaps the exception of “A Little Bit”), carves Johnson her own niche in the vast indie genre.
In about a month a remix album from The Demolition Crew entitled Voodoo Reloaded will be released in an attempt to make the songs slightly more palatable for the average listener.
We spoke to Alexz Johnson while she perused the Egyptian mummies exhibit at a museum. She told us about the old and new versions of the album, what she has planned for the future, and triumphs and heartaches she’s felt along the way.
Q: Your voice is used as a part of a TV show? How did that happen?
A: To be honest, it was really kind of crazy how it came to be. I didn’t write “Time to Be Your 21,” so I didn’t have any idea that it was gonna be played in Pretty Little Liars. Me and my brother wrote a bunch of music for Instant Star, so I would have heard if it was a song that I had written, but I guess Epitome Pictures just kinda opened up their song catalogue for certain shows to grab songs that they like, and I guess they just picked “Time to Be Your 21.”
It was really cool, because it ended up I think reminding a lot of people, like “Oh, where’s that voice from? Who is that?” and they started looking me up. It was really, really cool. It was a pretty special week, to be trending and stuff, because when you’re so passionate about this you start being like “Is anybody hearing this stuff?” and then finally it starts to break through and it’s really cool.
Q: So what have you been doing lately? Can you tell us a little bit about that?
A: After my stuff with Epic about two years ago I came back immediately to Vancouver and worked on an indie record called Voodoo with my brother. We put it out and it was awesome, we played shows for it. It was cool. I feel like on an indie level it’s kind of difficult to reach a mass audience, though with the Internet these days it’s really great for me to be able to kind of extend out to fans worldwide, which seems to be kind of what my fan base is, it’s kind of all over the place.
I was doing a show and the producer Demo Castellón, who’s Nelly Furtado’s husband, came and saw me perform “Voodoo” and couple other others. I guess he really loved “Voodoo” (the song) and had this idea that he wanted to re-produce and make Voodoo not sound as indie by taking indie songs and make them sound a little bit more radio friendly, more for a mass audience, not just this specific indie market. So he took it and re-produced it. I guess now he’s been tweeting about it; it’s been really cool.
Q: What’s your favorite remix as of now?
A: For the remix I’d have to say “Look At Those Eyes,” “Taker,” and “Superstition.”
Q: To have recorded an entire album only to have it caught up in record label politics, which unfortunately is an issue that more and more artists have been suffering from with the industry is decline, how were you able to move past that experience and put out “Voodoo” more independently?
A: It was hard. I’ll be honest with you: I started a blog, called AlexzHasABlog.com, because so often I get asked – you know, I’m 24, and people that have been watching me and my career and listening to my music – I get asked “What are you doing? What have you done sine Instant Star?”
And it always feels like this huge kick in the stomach ‘cause it’s like you know, I’m fighting really hard. I was on the label for a year; I was basically in hibernation doing songs for a record that was taken from me, all the material that I wrote. Then I went back into the recording process, which isn’t performing live, it’s back into the studio again, where I disappear again for eight months. With the blog I wanted to really be able to explain to people how, when you’re in it for the music, when you’re really doing this because you wanna get great music out there, I just want them to see the journey. And see how it’s so much easier sometimes when you’re on a good label not writing your own music…but it’s never been my style. I really have this idea of what I want to do and it comes at a price: it takes time.
Q: How did “Voodoo” come together – who did you work with and what inspired you?
A: Really, I just worked with my brother. We got signed to Capital first, and then Epic/Sony based on the songs that we wrote in the basement. So I basically just went back into the basement, me and my brother, went to our own studio that we have with our own equipment and just wrote. We wrote for months, about three months of writing, and there is some older stuff that we hadn’t used on the Epic album. Yeah, so it was just us.
Q: The album obviously has an indie sound, but there are a lot of more world-like notes in it too. How did that all come together?
A: I’ve just always loved Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush and Paul Simon. I wanted to do something different, that a lot of other artists aren’t doing now. I don’t know, something’s just appealing to me about world sounds and stuff.
Q: While I get the feeling that Drake doesn’t exactly like to talk about his time of Degrassi, can you about the experience of being on Instant Star and the effects, if any, it had on sort of informing who you are as an artist today?
A: It really only benefitted me, I feel, because I was kind of portraying what was happening in my life at the time. I was able to kind of co-write with a lot of different writers and stuff. Looking back now, I feel like it was giving a pretty solid idea of what the industry is about, and that’s what I think is very cool about the show. It felt kinda different, to me, and at the time it really opened doors for me in a really positive way. I’m very thankful I that I had an opportunity to be a part of a show like that.
Q: Like you said, you were locked up for so long recording, do you have plans to go on tour soon?
A: I do, yeah. Well, my album Voodoo Reloaded is coming out April 26th worldwide. I just played a university yesterday and that’s the goal, the goal for me to even do the remix album. The idea of doing this whole remix thing was so I could get enough behind me to be able to go on tour with a band, because as you know that costs. Being on an indie label you want to find innovative ways of doing that. So that’s kind of the plan, to go on tour this summer.
Q: How’d the show go yesterday [4/4]?
A: It was really cool, actually. It was University of Western Ontario. It was cool – just acoustic, just an acoustic show, but it feels so good for my soul to finally be connecting with the fans, with the people that wanna hear the music. It’s really nice.
Q: What else do you have planned for this year?
A: Hopefully some cool side-projects…I haven’t disregarded acting 100%. But music is definitely my focus. Writing more material, finding innovative ways of getting it out there. Just, honestly if I can survive as a musician, then that’s awesome, and if I can I’ll still continue doing music forever. But that’s kinda the goal, just make authentic music and try to have fun.
