INTERVIEW: ALEX FASSO
Up and coming singer/songwriter Alex Fasso spoke to our writer Keely about his upcoming EP, recent TikTok popularity and an unexpected feature in Rolling Stones India.
So firstly tell me a bit about yourself. How are you going right now?
I’m kind of great at the moment, I’m recording a new EP which is hopefully coming out later this year. Trying to put some music out there which is kind of really difficult at the moment, 'cause you can't even rehearse with bands or anything. But yeah, I'm kind of loving life I actually love lockdown in terms of creativity. I'm actually doing more than I would if we're out and open so it's kind of a weird blessing in disguise.
That's really great that you're being like you feel like it's being really productive for you! Can you tell me a little bit more about the new music that you have coming up? I know you’ve already dropped two singles this year.
The singles that I’ve dropped this year are ‘Love You More’ and ‘Northside’ were just a bit experimental, to essentially just test the waters and see what people like and what they don't like and just using the feedback after that to further the EP. I think there's five songs on there I'm doing a couple with Will Scullin from Big Words and doing a couple on my own. I’m just trying to make as much (music) as possible and then refine it down and cut it. I'm just really excited to have some new projects out there, which are more fulfilled projects rather than just a single.
That sounds so rad! What is your process look like in terms of putting all of that together? Because I know obviously would be quite different now because we can't see people.
This is how it starts for me, I always tend I write all my songs in the shower, I bring my phone in the shower. I think of maybe a melody and I sing it into my voice app on my phone. I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s the soothing water who knows, but I always I always write my songs in the shower. I usually start off with just writing lyrics or coming up with catchy song name or whatever. To me, personally, I know a lot of musicians might disagree with me; but I think that the lyrics are by far the most important part (of a song.) More so than how well you can play guitar, or how well you can sing, or how well produced you are. If you're telling a great story throughout your song, that's all that matters. So for me I always start off with the concept of a story, and then through writing it I come up with the instrumental ideas but really that's kind of second rate to me.
That’s really interesting, I like that you right things in the shower. It’s super unique.
I've had a lot of close calls where I’ve dropped my phone in the shower had to get the bowl of rice out.
I know that feeling all too well! Following on from the writing, what does your production process look like? How's your production process been?
Slow, really slow recently 'cause II like I can sing and play guitar, most musicians can but where I really struggle is producing on my own. I know my way around production software, but I think the main thing that I miss which benefits my music the most is having people around me to bounce ideas off. I really don't like recording or producing or mixing alone, I think its kind of detrimental to the outcome of the song. Because if you don't have those people to bounce ideas off, you could be putting our song which you think is great but without those secondary ideas it might not come out great. You kind of need that trampoline effect. It takes so long trying to produce a song with someone else at the moment, instead of just having someone sitting next to you to bounce ideas off. You have to send an email with a Dropbox link… You know it's just so tedious. So I just cannot wait until we’re out of lock down because I am ready to roll, I'm so ready to make some music.
So youre latest single is titled ‘Love Me More’ can you tell me a little bit more background about that?
I wrote that song probably about four years ago, in the shower believe it or not. I just kind of sat on it for a long time and I started playing it live here in there. Whenever I would play it live people started to sing along, and I was like oh shit I haven’t even put this song out and people already know the lyrics. I thought it was just about time just to kind of bite the bullet and you know actually produce it. But with that it was kind of a weird thing because I had this article that came out and said “Alex Fasso is dropping a new song this Friday,” and I was like oh shit, am I? I don’t think I am. and then I was like Oh my God I've got it like write and produce a song really quickly.. So I thought, why don’t I do Love me More? I recorded it in this room in about two hours, then sent it off to get mastered. I kind of forgot about it until it came out and David my manager reminded me. Not to degrade the song at all, it’s a great song. I just think that through the rush I kind of lost track a bit. I’m really happy that it’s out there.
What was the publication?
It was Rolling Stone India, as one of the best up and coming artists! When that happened, I was like this is fucking unreal. I was kind of blown away when that came out because it made me feel like a proper musician, and that the work that I put in is actually paying off. I will finish my career happily knowing now that I got an article in that wonderful, wonderful publication.
I know that you’ve gained heaps of traction of TikTok lately, have you been trialling songs on there to keep connected with your audience?
TikTok recently has been crazy for me, I don’t know what it is. I think TikTok’s so weird because if you put a video out there, it can have such an avalanche effect once people start liking it and it just rolls on and on and on. It’s kind of awesome to see for not just me, but other artists on TikTok are getting that recognition and gaining big audiences and big viewership’s from just uploading to TikTok.
Recently because there has been no live gigs I have been experimenting with songs on TikTok. I might write the first minute of a song, and go “oh okay, I think this is pretty good. Let’s put it on TikTok and see if people like it.” Sometimes it gets good reception and sometimes it doesn’t, but I guess that’s music. Again, what I was saying with having someone to produce with, I guess this is just a more magnified version of that where you’re showing everyone a demo being like, “hey, what do you think of this? Let me know.” I know I should write the music that I want to make, and I do, but it’s kind of great to see where my audience is, what they like, and things that I can do to cater to them. I’m just really loving TikTok at the moment, I just think it’s so great. I honestly spend hours a day on it just scrolling through and looking at great musicians.
That’s incredibly easy to do… I did notice that you popped some mashups up on TikTok recently.
Yeah! I did one yesterday where a mate and myself were just playing guitar in the backyard. I always like to be filming on my phone in those situations. In my most recent mashup we were just playing and we’re like “oh these chords are kind of cool.” And then I started singing ‘thank u, next’ by Ariana Grande, and did a bit of Kanye West’s ‘American Boy’ over the top of that. I performed that live once and it went really, really well. I’ve got one that I’m working on at the moment with my band, which we will hopefully play at an upcoming live gig. It’s a mashup of ‘Gimme More’ by Britney Spears, which I think is one of the best songs ever written, period.
I wanna touch back on your upcoming ep. Can you give us any hints of what sort of direction you’re going in? As your last two singles have sounded quite different.
I think it's kind of perfect combination of the two. It’s definitely a love-themed EP and I feel like people can relate to it whether that be the depressing side of love or the extremely poetic side… They’re all love songs which I’m really excited for because I think it creates a love story throughout the EP. It starts of a bit low-fi and then gets a bit rock and roll towards the end. There’s a couple of collaborations on the album, there’s a song with Holly Hebe which she sings on and helped produced. It’s called ‘House by the Lake,’ it’s really cool and I’m really excited to release that one. Working with her on this project was just an absolute pleasure, I’ve actually never met her, I had DM’d her asking her to be on the song which is how it all came about. I can’t wait to meet her, because I think she’s so fantastic and I’ve kind of idolised her live as well because I’ve seen a couple of clips of her playing shows and she just brings the house down. Having that control over an audience is so rare, especially for softer music. It’s incredibly difficult to do and she does it so well.
Speaking of live gigs, you have one coming up very soon right?
Yes! That will be at Stay Gold in Fitzroy on the 18th of November which I’m headling with St. Emerald and Tilly VW.* There are more in the works so you’ll have to stay tuned for those to be announced.
I’m really hoping we come out of lockdown soon because I need to rehearse with my band ASAP. We haven’t played together on any of these new songs that are coming out at all, so hopefully we’ll be able to get together to get things nice and tight. It’s going to be one of the biggest gigs I’ve ever played, and the fact that I’m headlining it is very cool.
*Please note, that this event is now sold out but keep your eyes peeled for upcoming shows.
Lastly, who are your top three Aussie artists/acts right now?
Right now? Big Words number one, I think they’re fantastic. I work with Will and Kieren and I just think they’re phenomenal. I’ve heard a little bit of their new album and it’s a masterpiece, I genuinely just love them so much.
Stella Donnelly is always going to be one of my biggest influences, she is top tier. I’m hoping she releases a new album this year, that would be amazing. I saw her live once at the Corner, it was one of the best shows I've ever seen. Her stage presence and her voice, again like I was talking about with Holly, the way she can control a room of that size with just her playing guitar and have it be dead silent and everyone paying attention to you is so hard to do. She’s amazing, and she’s an amazing writer. She’ll always be my biggest influence.
Tame Impala, specifically Kevin Parker’s production. I really like diving into the pieces of his songs and hearing specific production things, like filters on microphones and certain drum sounds. I really like the experimental aspect a lot.
I was never really a fan of Spacey Jane, but recently I’ve been listening to a lot of their back catalogue and realised that they’re actually really good. When they were popping off, I didn’t get it. So it’s been a bit of a late burn but I actually am really enjoying them.
OH King Gizzard, they’re actually number one. They are just incredible… I know this is more than three but they’re just great. Like how can you make close to 20 albums and make every single album a different genre. It just shows how talented they are, and they do everything themselves. I really idolise that and I’d love to do that kind of thing one day.