We interviewed multi-talented singer-songwriter sad alex to ask her more about her latest single and team-up, how she got into music from initially doing Physics and what’s next for her in the pipeline.
Having experimented with songwriting since the age of 12, Alex long struggled with the idea of folding herself neatly into a box – until she made the liberating realization that she didn’t have to. Raised on a broad musical palette of playlists and mixtapes, her work is a millennial mash-up of the genres that have soundtracked her life: emo chord progressions and melodies play out over trap-influenced drum tracks, while pop song structure and vocal production give everything an irresistibly addictive finish.
Her releases this year include ‘All the Way Over’, ‘stockholm’s a ghost town’, ‘hypotheticals’, ‘sfs’ and more!
Her recent collaboration also saw the young music artist teamed up with gnash for her latest track ‘i’m glad that you found someone’.
Also read: Sad Alex unveils new collab single with gnash
Did you know that aside from making music, this talented singer-songwriter also does the illustrations on her singles.
Wow!
We wonder what other talents she might have up her sleeves…
AL365: Hi sad alex, Vanessa here from AsiaLive365. Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions. Congrats on the new single with gnash. What was it like collaborating with Garrett on this song?
sad alex: Working with Garrett was awesome because he is super talented and easy to work with, and it was also a moment where I got to collaborate with someone I’ve been a big fan of for a while. He had a lot of creative ideas for the direction of the song, in the writing process and also in the marketing of the song for the release. There were actually like 3 or 4 different versions of the song before we landed on the final one!
AL365: We saw the little self-promotion video on Instagram. Did you really go to Spotify’s headquarters to record that?
sad alex: Haha yeah that was a fun one. They did end up supporting the song so maybe I did. What do you think? 😉
AL365: We love how you do your own illustrations for your single covers. Which one is your favourite so far?
sad alex: Thank you! My favorite so far is probably “dear whatever”. It was one of my earlier singles and a really challenging concept but it really hit the nail on the head for the energy and story behind that song, which is also one of my favorites I’ve released.
AL365: So besides music and art, what other talents do you have?
sad alex: I have a double jointed left thumb and can spin a basketball on my finger. Lol but I also used to dance pretty seriously until I broke my kneecap 4 years ago, but I have recently finally been able to start getting back into it so hopefully I can improve for these upcoming releases! I’ve always wanted to do some sort of dance video with a song.
AL365: Why the name sad alex?
sad alex: First and foremost my last name is “saad”, which is Palestinian. The majority of my songs for a while were sad leaning, even though my personality is pretty upbeat and sarcastic. I wanted to kind of “reclaim” the definition of the word “sad” to encompass all of this for me: my background, my life stories, my sense of humor, etc. Sad songs don’t always have to make you FEEL sad.
AL365: What was the first song that you ever wrote, how old were you, and what was it about?
sad alex: My first song was called “bad day” lol. I wrote it when I was 12 on the piano because I was having a bad day. Revolutionary.
AL365: We understand that you studied Physics in college. What made you decide to become a full time music artist?
sad alex: I did study physics once upon a time. I originally was planning on following in my dad’s footsteps and was pre-med in college. For whatever reason I always only viewed music as a hobby up until that point, making it a career didn’t seem like a reality. But about halfway through college I had a major turning point while interning with my dad’s practice when I realized that as much as I respected science and medicine, it wasn’t something that truly resonated with me. I would stay up late and get excited for songs I was writing and listening to music, not for what went into working in medicine. So halfway through college I adjusted my major to “physics with a music concentration”, a unique major the Loyola Maryland physics department designed for me. That department was super supportive and I really appreciated how open-minded they were.
AL365: There’s always a seamless and deep connection between an artist and his/her songs. What is that one song that deeply resonates with you at the moment and why?
sad alex: “disarm me” is one of my deep cuts from my first demo EP ‘songs you’ll probably never hear’. It’s very personal, about my destructive and repetitive habits with my own romantic relationships. The guitar is actually an iPhone demo recorded by my ex on his bed, who the song is about too. You can hear us laughing and talking if you listen closely. I just cried in the car, to it the other day lol.
AL365: We saw that you had a Dating/Music/Livestream performance party to help folks find someone as well as to launch your single ‘i’m glad that you found someone’. Where did the inspiration for that come from – and what has the response been like from your fans now that the single is out?
sad alex: That was an idea from my team at Red Bull that we were super on board for. We’ve been doing a lot of livestream performances so to spice it up with the dating show idea was really fun. I’m excited to expand on that for some upcoming releases as well. I’ve been getting overwhelmingly positive feedback from fans about this song and it’s been really touching. Sometimes we need that sweet sweet validation ya know?
AL365: Speaking of performances, what do you miss most about live shows?
sad alex: As basic as it sounds I miss the genuine human connection. I’ve been drinking the kool aid of live streaming and it’s sort of essential for the music industry right now, but I miss the closeness of seeing your actual fans eyeballs… being able to communicate directly with them, the stage lights and endorphin rush and all of it. It really can’t be emulated in the livestream format. But it’s been really interesting to get creative with how to perform limited to a digital platform, seeing what other and bigger artists are doing, etc. I thought it was really cool how the VMA performers for example created super intricate and whimsical little worlds to pre-record their performances.
AL365: What’s next for you?
sad alex: We got new releases… new collabs… new videos… new sounds… I’m really excited to show my versatility with some of these upcoming releases and continue the story arc for sad alex. and once we are able to safely, will definitely start back up with live shows 🙂
AL365: Anything you like to say to your fans and our readers out there?
sad alex: Stay sad baby.
