Alexina “Partying on my Own”

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Alexina about to hit the road with her appearance at Lunacincos Festival

Interview conducted on Nov. 27, 2020

by Dan Locke

Alexina releases her new EP titled “Partying on my Own.” This alt-pop-noir release is a heart-wrenching, yet ultimately triumphant breakup story, told chronologically from a moment of doubt after locking eyes with a stranger at a house party in “Cool Together,” to the cathartic, hopeful reflection on a tumultuous relationship in “The Millennial.” This deeply personal, autobiographical EP is lyrically raw and nostalgic complimented by bittersweet, warm synths and retro drum beats. Alexina speaks musically for her gender and generation- a girl growing up broke in a city where life is tough, who is scrutinized on social media, and who can’t afford rent. The “Partying on my Own” EP is an invitation to every other girl/guy who has been through these situations to feel powerful and dance along with these anthemic, sun-bleached songs.

Dan Locke: Alexina, what were your influences growing up?

Alexina: grew up in a wildly musical, bit mad but incredibly happy family – my Dad plays the piano, my Mum is just obsessed with music and my little brother plays the bagpipes. We’re a family of drinkers so there were lots of parties, dancing & music at home growing up! My parents played a lot of rock n roll – Pink Floyd, The Smiths, The Stones, Janis, Jimi – we had Dark Side of the Moon in the car CD player for about 7 years and Great Gig in the Sky was played all the time – usually at about 2 am when Mum and Dad were driving home from dinner. It’s probably the soundtrack to my childhood that record! I started playing the piano aged 5, the saxophone at 8 🙂 and played in bands at school. I listened to a lot indie/rock music – The Maccabees, Regina Spektor, Babyshambles – I guess my love of music was borne from guitar music & the idea that one day I could be a bold frontwoman too. Sadly my guitar playing leaves much to be desired.

How do you speak musically for your gender and generation?

I guess I can only really speak for myself when I write but I’d like to think that many of the themes I write about: falling in love, falling out of love, good friends, shit friends, going out too much, online scrutiny, the search for perfection, living in your 20s in the modern age, etc can be widely relatable. I’m trying to focus my writing on things though that aren’t often discussed in pop music – and work out how I can tell a story that hasn’t been told before. Producer Rob Brinkmann and I then try hard to make sure that each instrument & sound represents those specific moods and anecdotes too. Each sound is like a person or a character and no one’s in there without a reason.

Tell me more about the Scots female warrior in which your name comes from?

I grew up in Scotland and remember as a child in school learning about old Scottish warriors – many of them women and I was obsessed. My real name is Alexandra but I decided to adopt Alexina – a feisty warrior in homage to the woman and storyteller I feel I’ve become.

Why don’t you use the name Alexina Louie anymore?

Probably because it was never my name 🙂 however, I’ve checked her out music and I see he/she makes nice classical music which is what I’d like to do in about 10 years’ time!

While you were in school you played in bands. What were some of the names of the bands you played in?

Haha, one I totally can’t remember the name of – the other was a 5 piece girl band called The Supervenes. I can’t work out if it’s a totally amazing or terrible name – I still have the old band banner in my room at home from the first Battle of the Bands we did aged about 14! We pretty much just played Blur & Muse covers and we had such an amazing guitar teacher called Dr. McKenzie (who used to play with the Kinks) who helped us out. He used to wear yellow shirts and a bow-tie and had all these amazing tattoos underneath which we could see, but he’d never show us 🙁

The Lyrics for Silent Killer have been translated into 8 languages. Do you speak any other languages?

That’s pretty cool I didn’t know that til now! I scrape by a bit of with French – the only phrase I remember from school is “bien que je sache que l’habit ne fait pas le moins, j’ai du mal a judges les autres sur leurs vetements”. Not very useful but quite impressive when said really fast.

How did your song gets picked for the movie?

A friend of mine was the music sup for Terminal and she asked if I would have a go at writing a couple of pitch tracks for the movie. I remember thinking how perfect the brief was and we wrote the song unusually fast. It was a very natural process and I felt that maybe it could be something special but still felt very much like it would never, ever happen. It was a very surreal moment when we got it- I remember I was in the shower when I got the call. A v memorable shower!

During my search, I kept coming up with Wolffe. Can you tell us anything about that?

Aha – you’ve done some good detective work! She was my old self – a darker, synthesiser, sadder, more unsure version of who I am now. I still love her though, I needed to make music as WØLFFE to arrive at this point of making pop music now.

You just released your EP Partying On My Own. Can you tell us a little about the EP and why you titled it Partying On My Own?

The Partying on my Own EP is a sort of mini-break up album and each song tells a different story at each stage of the process. Cool Together is the first track, the pre-breakup track – a song about meeting this girl at a house party, tempted by her, but also undermining the relationship at the time, London was the sort of gut-sad breakup song written at the very raw point of us splitting up, Partying on my Own is the 4 am crying on the dance floor track where I’d gone out too many times to try and find some sort of solace, but sort of getting over it all (“But you’re never gonna call…and I don’t care at all”) and then Millennial is the final track which wraps up and looks back on everything with a more sober & mature outlook – maybe it wasn’t right all along. Partying on my Own is not only my favorite track on the EP but it summed up the general feelings & story pretty well I thought.

Any plans for a tour this year or next?

I have lots of shows coming next year which is v exciting – the first kicks off with a London show on 29th January.

Since you were born in Scotland, I am going to ask you about some artist from Scotland. I would like you to tell me something about each if possible.

Ok cool, I’ll do my best:
Bay City Rollers – iconic, I always thought Bye Bye Baby was by the Beach Boys when I was little but I love this band.
Belle and Sebastian – I saw Belle & Sebastian for the first time at Leeds festival YEARS ago and that was all I can remember really. (They’re great).
BiffyClyro – completely obsessed with Biffy from about the age of 18. Probably one of the last bands who’s records I would listen to on repeat & the first band I saw at Wembley. I have been in love with Simon since.
Mogwar – if you mean Mogwai YES I LOVE THESE GUYS. Totally in love with every one of their epic ambient creations – esp. “I’m Jim Morrison, I’m dead”
The Proclaimers – aside from Pink Floyd, 500 Miles was probably the second soundtrack to my childhood.
The Waterboys – can been found dancing in my pajamas to the Waterboys.
The Average White Band – FUNKING YES!
Mark Knopfler – my Mum and Dad love Mark.
Lulu – my mum loves Lulu.
AC/DC (Angus and Malcolm Young were originally from Scotland) – I was an avid gamer aged 14/15 and first heard Highway to Hell by AC/DC while playing Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3. That game really got me into a lot of hard rock music.
Nazareth – Should’ve featured on Tony Hawk – great.
Cocteau Twins – they remind me of sixth form at school a lot. On repeat!
Calvin Harris – go, Calvin! How amazing does he look?
Annie Lennox – :))))))))) enough said, she’s a Queen.
Chvrches – an amazing band. Very much got me into synth-pop.
*I’d like to add the Chilli Pipers – an iconic bagpipe band who play covers. Not to be missed live.