How do you celebrate your birthday? Cake? Presents? Drop a new song? That’s what Alexander 23 is doing with his latest offering ‘How to Drive’.
A raw and personal song about the confusion and wonder that comes with adulthood, you can check it out below alongside a video made up of home movie foottage. Awww. Ickle Alexander. Isn’t he a cutie?
It’s the lead track on our weekly New Music Friday playlist, The Cut, bringing you the most Dork friendly version of the new tracks out this week. Listen below, or follow on Spotify here.
Described as a bookend to a chapter, and a start of a new phase, it’s a release worth marking. To celebrate, we decided not to go with party bags and little cardboard hats, and instead grabbed hold of Alexander for a quick catch up.
Hi Alexander 23! Happy Birthday! How’s it going? Are you having a good 2023 so far?
Yeah! Been drinking a lot of smoothies mostly which has been cool.
You’ve just dropped a new single, ‘How To Drive’ – where did it come from? It’s pretty heavy lyrically, isn’t it.
‘How to Drive’ isn’t about anything; it’s about everything. Life can be nuanced, and life can be simple and it can get real hard to tell between beauty and pain. Even that last sentence, like, is that insightful or just bullshit. I don’t know. ‘How to Drive’ is about not knowing, I think.
Did the song go through a lengthy evolution, or did it come to you fairly fully-formed?
I wrote it pretty quickly before my last tour started, but just didn’t have time to record it before I left. I booked Electric Lady in NYC on an off day and was able to put the whole thing down in a day. For a song so emotionally complex, I wanted the recording process to have as many limitations as possible.
You’ve teased it a bit live and online – what’s the reaction been like? Has it been connecting with people?
It’s been so beautiful to see people connect so strongly with the song before it’s even out. Sometimes that can be scary because I’m like, damn well, I hope they like the actual song lol. But this one feels different. There are so many little hidden gems in the actual recording that I can’t wait for people to hear.
Do you know how to drive?
I am the best driver in Los Angeles… I fear no parking spot.
It feels like you’ve got on with new material super quickly after releasing your recent album, are you feeling particularly inspired or are you always a fast worker?
I am certainly feeling inspired, but also the writing of my last album was done so long ago. I have so many new feelings and experiences to write about, and I just finally have the time now post-tour to dive in. I think I’m the same as everyone really, fast when it’s easy, slow when it’s hard. It just happens to feel easy right now.
What else are you up to at the moment? Do you have any other exciting projects you can tell us about?
This morning I made three fried eggs and then heated up a leftover yellow curry from last night, and then combined them. It was unimaginably good; I would legitimately pay $18.57 at a restaurant for what I just ate. Also been producing a lot of music for other artists.
Do you get any time off at all? How do you spend it?
If I retired today, how I spend my time wouldn’t really even change that much. Actually, maybe I’d be in Hawaii; I’ve never been there.
Alexander 23’s single ‘How To Drive’ is out now.
