Interview With Young Music City
This interview covers stuff like how the current tour came together, songwriting, and her PledgeMusic campaign.
We got to sit down with famed actress turned artist, Alexz Johnson as she headlined her second Canadian/American tour; a series of independent shows stretching from Toronto to California. Fueled and funded by the demands of her fans, and organized by the band themselves, the miraculously makeshift 10 city tour showcased rhythm, rock and soul courtesy of, Misty Boyce and Jay Stolar, and and co-headliner, Charlene Kaye. And furthermore, reminded us why we are forever fans of the amazing artist and entertainer that is Alexz Johnson.
YMC: So first of, just tell us a little bit about the tour – where have you been going, what are you doing, what are you excited to see?
Alexz: Oh my gosh, well I was on tour, I think 7 months ago; I toured across the states – and at first I thought it was a little soon to get back on tour again but I also felt like it was good timing too because I had launched this “pledge campaign” for my next record and so we were hitting some of the same places, but about half of the tour is new – it’s been great so far – this is our 5th stop;
We were in Charlotte last night, and that was my first time playing there, and the night before that we were in Virginia and the night before that was Philadelphia, and we started in New York.
We just drove 6 hours this morning.
the band is awesome, I’m co-headlining with Charlene Kaye who I met in the Rockwood scene in New York – she’s a super talented, fierce musician and I respect her a lot. We just kind of hit it off and we thought, ‘why not just go on tour?’
We had Misty Boyce, who is in my band, and Jay (Stolar) and we just kind of came to be – we found the right musicians and we’re sharing each other, in a sense, and it worked out really well.
YMC: Well we’re from Nashville so we really respect songwriters and artists and we know that your write most of your stuff, so just tell us a little about your process – some of your favorite co-writers, etc.
Alexz : I write a lot alone and feel like that’s the evolution of myself.
I’m very close with my brother who is a songwriter and I find that when I write stuff on my own it’s very folky, and I don’t use my voice as much because I’m not great at guitar – so I’ll try to put something together – I’m quite fearless with writing, I feel, so I love when I just can get in the studio with a producer who just let’s me do what I want to do.
I’m very into production and logic and I’m very passionate about rhythm and beat and, for example, with ‘Running With the Devil,’ we play it on stage acoustic but it was written with a beat track and I free styled the song, which is weird because it’s kind of a mix of rap – but I love guitar so much, and it’s a folky song.
“Skipping Stone’ I actually wrote with Jimmy Robbins, who lives here in Nashville, and he kept playing this (beat) on guitar – and I was like “Just keep on doing that” and in one take, it just came out – and I listened to it back, and I was writing what I was saying, and it just became ‘this song’ – it was cool
But you know, it’s different every time; I’ve also been in a room with like 18 gangster rappers throwing down some Mary J Blidge and I’m like… ‘this isn’t quite my sound… but…
so it changes
YMC: So you mentioned your Pledge Music Campaign earlier – what’s it like be an indie artist now and getting involved with your fans
Alexz: Well I came from a major label world at a very young age. It didn’t happen easy, but it kind of did – I got a record deal and I was like “Cool!” and I was writing all this music in my basement with my brother, and he’s a lot older than me but he’s like ‘okay, we’ll do music together.’ He’s like the coolest guy in the world, even to this day, I can’t believe he wanted to work with me. So, we started doing music and I ended up getting a record deal and I included him in on that process and I split the advance and I got to pick my producer.
YMC: If you could colab with any artist, who would it be?Alexz: That’s a tough one, Sting would be amazing, Peter Gabrielle, Gotye would be rad.
YMC: If you could take anyone to ‘the back of the room’ who would it be?
I’d say likeee, Javier Bardem, or Daniel Day Lewis.
