{"id":5983,"date":"2014-10-28T22:12:31","date_gmt":"2014-10-29T03:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alexz.net\/?p=5983"},"modified":"2014-10-28T22:12:31","modified_gmt":"2014-10-29T03:12:31","slug":"alexz-johnson-cmj-interview-pancakesandwhiskey-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.alexz.net\/?p=5983","title":{"rendered":"Alexz Johnson CMJ Interview — PancakesAndWhiskey.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a great interview from one of the coolest website domains I’ve seen in awhile, pancakesandwhiskey.com<\/a>. You’ll want to read this one all the way through. <\/p>\n

\nSource<\/a><\/p>\n

eaching the end of day two of CMJ, livers are already overworked, eardrums are rattled, and knees are stiff and sore. So far the shows and panels are living up to all expectations for what I was hoping for this year, and there\u2019s always room for more. The end of day two saw me taking my first trip to the newly re-opened Living Room. The once staple in the Lower East Side music scene is having its \u2018soft opening\u2019 this week for CMJ events, and was looking pretty impressive in its newer, larger Williamsburg home.<\/p>\n

Indie-pop\/singer-songwriter Alexz Johnson was the reason for the trip over to the Living Room for Big Picture Media\u2019s showcase on a dismal, rainy Tuesday. Some may recognize her from television shows, but she\u2019s slowly and steadily built a following for her talented singing and songwriting abilities.<\/p>\n

With her most recent album, Let \u2018Em Eat Cake out since last week, the twenty-seven year old played one of her two CMJ shows this week and blew everyone at the Living Room away with her incredible vocal abilities and strong pop-friendly rock songs. Like all CMJ shows, the set was unfortunately shorter that one would hope, but Alexz made the most of her time on stage wowing the crowd with songs of the new album, and an amazing close out with the soulful ballad in \u201cThank You For Breaking My Heart\u201d that left everyone covered in goosebumps.<\/p>\n

With so much going on this week there are only a few interviews taking place. Carefully selected, the first one being with Alexz made to be well worth the tiresome trip through the rain.<\/p>\n

P&W: Let \u2018Em Eat Cake has been out for a week, how\u2019s the reception been?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alexz: It\u2019s been really good<\/p>\n

P&W: What has the process on this project been like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alexz: It\u2019s been a two-year process. Some of the songs I wrote a while ago that I ended up bringing out from the vault, and some of them are brand new. I only wrote the songs title track about five months ago. I decided to pledge it instead of going with a label, which I\u2019ve done a couple times and it hasn\u2019t always worked out. Just due to some internal changes I\u2019ve recorded for some major labels in the past and they were never released.<\/p>\n

P&W: I\u2019m sorry<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alexz: That\u2019s okay<\/p>\n

P&W: Fuck the man<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alexz: Fuck the man indeed. That\u2019s what \u201cLet \u2018Em Eat Cake\u201d is about. I mean the album is kind of representation of my experiences of a woman at twenty-seven and the whole journey of heartache, and rediscovery of myself. You know, finding what I really have to say and just growing some big hairy balls in this industry when you\u2019re a female. So I funded the album, got David (Kahne) to produce it, got my brother to produce a couple tracks up in Toronto, and it\u2019s become this real labor of love between two producers and the two different vibes going on sonically. It\u2019s good to finally have it out and being on tour for two months. Right now I\u2019m just going to keep going as independent. I\u2019d rather be broke and have control over my words and songs and of course I just want to do whatever the fuck I want to do like get my outfits made for me.<\/p>\n

P&W: How was it working with David on the album?<\/strong> For those who don\u2019t know David Kahne is a well-known music producer throughout the industry who as worked on projects with artists including Paul McCartney, The Strokes, Regina Spektor, and produced Tony Bennett\u2019s MTV Unplugged album which won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1995.<\/em><\/p>\n

Alexz: David is amazing. It was a real tug-of-war sometimes too, because he\u2019s so opinionated ya know? I feel like when you work with such established artists throughout his career it would be tough working with younger generation artists like myself, but he does it really well. He listens to me. It took a lot of humbling shutting up on my end, and trying new things, but at the same time a lot of standing up. A lot of it came down to tastes and sounds- he likes digital programs and I like live and off the floor. Everything we were doing strategy-wise was very current and now. David would keep saying to me that everything that Aretha Franklin would do in the studio was very current, new, and now for that era, even though now we see it as old. He brought that mentality and I really respected that. He was so great to work with throughout it all. I was really glad he was able to come out to the show tonight.<\/p>\n

P&W: You touched on how you were able to fund the album yourself with the help of PledgeMusic. What\u2019s it like getting that kind of support?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alexz: Pressure. I mean it\u2019s great and I love it, but it\u2019s certainly a lot of work. I got a lot of slack for the album taking up to a year and a half to put out. When you open up the door to allow them to fund your project you\u2019re also opening the door for some to say \u201cI want this now\u201d, \u201cFuck this, it\u2019s taking over a year to get done\u201d.<\/p>\n

P&W: I mean in a way they\u2019re shareholders, they\u2019re investors<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alexz: Yeah kind of. I mean the whole entitlement thing happening in society is kind of a piss-off. It\u2019s certainly a question of if I\u2019ll do it again. I mean I still love it. The support has been so amazing. I can only do so much though. The vinyl\u2019s taking a little long to get out so we sent out a signed hard copy of the album to those waiting on it. I feel like I just want to make sure everyone\u2019s taken care of.<\/p>\n

P&W: What\u2019s more stressful, fans putting pressure on you to get the album out or label executives?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alexz: I think it\u2019s pretty equal, but with fans I really feel I owe them this. They\u2019re human beings so it\u2019s much more emotional. With a label it\u2019s like \u2018fuck you guys I\u2019ll do it myself\u2019, but with fans there\u2019s just that pressure of not screwing up. At the same time you can\u2019t make everyone happy, you just can\u2019t. When you have thousands of people pledging to something you\u2019re going to have some who are sitting at their computer every day saying mean things while there are some who are super positive towards you. I\u2019m dealing with these people one-on-one every day. So what if you get someone who\u2019s got issues and posting mean shit on your pledge wall? I have to look at that before I go up on stage ya know?<\/p>\n

P&W: Where do you feel you get your sound?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alexz: I dunno. I don\u2019t listen to any stuff. I mean \u201cLet \u2018Em Eat Cake\u201d was a just a riff. I was just vibing. I really don\u2019t know, I don\u2019t pull from anything. I write what I would want to hear and try not to overthink it.<\/p>\n

P&W: Are you your music\u2019s biggest fan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alexz: No.<\/p>\n

P&W: Are you your music\u2019s biggest critic?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alexz: Probably.<\/p>\n

P&W: Do you ever get to the point where you think you\u2019re being too critical of your music?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alexz: I let it go. I\u2019m just a human being. We all die. I put it down on paper, I record it, and put it out there. This is how I feel truly- fifty percent of people are going to like you, and fifty percent aren\u2019t. I\u2019m sorry, I know that\u2019s harsh, but it\u2019s true. It\u2019s really true, and they\u2019re not going to tell you to your face, but fifty percent of the people aren\u2019t going to like you. They\u2019re going to find a reason to not. So at the end of the day I just can\u2019t please everybody, so I\u2019ll just do what a do and then, great, ya know? I\u2019ll live my life. I don\u2019t overthink it, I just don\u2019t care that much.
\n
\nP&W: How\u2019s your CMJ experience going?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alexz: Good. Tomorrow I\u2019m doing Webster Hall and that\u2019s it. Today\u2019s really my CMJ day. Then we\u2019re going out west for some L.A. shows, hitting Arizona, and really doing the two-month tour. I want to see some other bands on this bill, but I\u2019m already out doing that every night too, so I\u2019m not really in a place to listen I\u2019m in a place to play.<\/p>\n

P&W: Do you like the band that you\u2019re out on tour with right now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alexz: I fucking love the band I\u2019m out on tour with. They\u2019re so talented, truly amazing. The whole band is like a motley crew. It\u2019s not really a band it\u2019s like a bunch of people that are SO good at what they do and jamming on stage. I have to crack the whip here and there with rehearsals, but I\u2019m learning how to do that.<\/p>\n

P&W: Especially on the little bro?<\/strong> (Alexz\u2019s seventeen-year old brother is her drummer)
\n<\/em>
\nAlexz: No he\u2019s actually a really big fan of my music. Plus he\u2019s young and has a lot to prove. He wants to come to South America and Europe with me so he\u2019s got a lot to prove, but I\u2019m blown away by him.<\/p>\n

Article by: Tom Shackleford<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a great interview from one of the coolest website domains I’ve seen in awhile, pancakesandwhiskey.com<\/a>. You’ll want to read this one all the way through. Source eaching the end of day two of CMJ, livers are already overworked, eardrums are rattled, and knees are stiff and sore. So far the shows and panels […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13,17],"tags":[155,302,876],"class_list":["post-5983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-tour-3","tag-cmj","tag-interview","tag-pancakesandwhiskey-com"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t