"This song will forever be tied to lockdown and quarantine".
Although lockdown and working from home is feeling more and more customary every day, chatting to Alexander 23 whilst he is at home in LA still feels surreal. Having recently written and released his latest track IDK You Yet, we speak about what it feels like to drop new music during these quaran-times. He says “For me, it’s only really excitement, and I think the reason why is because the writing process for me is the cathartic part, it’s not really putting it out… once it’s written, I just want it to help or comfort as many people as possible so it’s really just excitement that I can connect with massive amounts of people at the same time.”
As well as the single, LA-based Alexander has released the accompanying video, made up of beautiful artwork by Chris Ullens illustrating the song’s meaningful lyrics. Handing the creative power over to Chris for the video was not something that he had done before, but it made him even more excited to release it, as he tells me “I had no reservations in saying ‘Hey, this is amazing!’” The reaction to both the song and video has been overwhelmingly positive so far, especially on the Gen-Z favourite platform TikTok, with over 100,000 videos using his track! Seeing this reaction, Alexander says that “the coolest part of this song, in particular, is how many ways people have interpreted it. I know the reasons I wrote it and what it means to me, but to see the life it’s taken on for other people has been one of the most encouraging things as a songwriter.”
The song itself was written during quarantine and tries to reflect the feelings that we are all experiencing right now and also echoes a tough period of time that Alexander went through a few years ago. “Being in quarantine reminded me of a time in my life where there was more of a personal void, rather than this huge societal void. It took me back to a time a few years ago when everything wasn’t going so great. And so, the circumstances didn’t line up, but the feelings and emotions certainly did.”
Reflecting on the success of the song is hard, as “it’s such a strange time to have “the biggest song of your career.” The intimacy of touring and meeting fans is postponed but looking forward “first thing (he) will do is hit the road and tour and meet the people who are connecting with the song.” While we wait for the live shows, watch Alexander 23’s new video now and look forward to new music coming soon.
