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Groundsounds recently caught up with Alex Day, English musician and Youtube sensation to discuss his music, online success, and future plans.
GS: Your YouTube Channel has over 600,000 subscribers and over 100 million views. With such a substantial fan base that is very invested in your music videos and your vlogs, do you feel extra pressure to deliver content catered to your fans as opposed to other artists that are trying to reach the general public as a whole?
AD: Not at all – I’m definitely in the second category of making things for people in general, in fact I try to actively avoid doing anything that caters to ‘fans’ and sometimes intentionally try and put them off! I’ve always made it clear on my channel that I’m doing the things I want to do and I don’t seek anyone’s approval of my work, so I think reminding people every now and then of that fact is a good thing to do. I’m of course grateful for their appreciation, I just don’t want them thinking I’m dependent on it.
Through crowd sourcing you were able to get 2 singles in the top 20 charts, tell us about that experience. As a successful unsigned artist, what kind of response have you received from industry and label execs?
Labels have reacted with unanimous praise and confusion 🙂 They all agree that what I’ve done is very cool, they all have no idea how to do it themselves and they all have absolutely no interest in working with me to try and find out. Never mind. As you said, I’ve managed to get two songs into the Top 20, although that was more for industry exposure and wider attention in the press, which didn’t really work, so I’ll probably try to be disruptive in other ways in future.
I’ve noticed at the end of your videos there’s a particular logo of a rose and a power button, how did you create that image and what does it represent?
It’s my company logo – my job is as the owner of a digital entertainment company I started in 2011 called Blurose Ltd which pays for my videos and my music campaigns. The blue rose is seen as a symbol of attaining the impossible by many cultures as it can’t be naturally found in the wild, and I added the green power symbol because I’m making digital/online stuff.
What advice would you give to independent artists who are using YouTube as an outlet to make their music public?
Be interesting!! Don’t do what everyone else does, just releasing covers and only ever talking about music. Show some of yourself, showcase your songs, and most importantly write fantastic music and be prepared to work as hard as you can to get it seen and heard by as many people as possible if you really want to succeed.
You recently produced a single for Carrie Fletcher. Can we expect you to be producing more music for other artists coming up?
I’d absolutely love to, though I don’t have any immediate plans to. Production is my absolute favourite thing to do. I don’t have to worry about a music video or a live performance or a promotion campaign; when I finish producing one of my songs, that’s really the start of it all for me, but with someone else like Carrie the end of production is the end of my involvement, after which point I just get to point proudly and say “I did that”. If I could have a career simply making fantastic songs for artists I respect, I’d be very happy indeed.
If someone is new to your music, which music video would you recommend to them that you feel represents your style?
Good Morning Sunshine is the best mix of sincerity with silliness, I think, plus it’s my favourite song of all I’ve done so I’d like them to hear that one first!
One of my favorite songs of yours is “Good Morning Sunshine” because it is so upbeat and positive. Were you thinking of a particular person to cheer up when you wrote that song?
Hey, see, there you go! 😀 Yes, I wrote it about an ex-girlfriend of mine who I’d been with for many years. The song’s about someone who brightens your life up by their very presence and about being hopeful in the face of never seeing them again, hoping you can carry the feeling they gave you and take it forward on your own.
I heard you were a fan of the movie “Pitch Perfect.” Have you made any interesting mash-ups lately?
I do like it a lot, it reminds me of early Glee which is a great thing. Glee doesn’t even remind me of early Glee these days. I haven’t made any new mashups, no, although I heard one that mixed Somebody That I Used To Know and Locked Out Of Heaven pretty well.
Who is one artist or band you would like to do a collaboration with?
Bruno Mars for sure! It’d be awesome.
What are you working on currently, any new upcoming music we can expect from you in the summer?
I’ve written new songs but nothing I like enough to release yet, so for now I’m just letting the new collection sit and hope people enjoy it while I work on new stuff 🙂 I’d like to have a new song out by October, that’s my current time-frame.
Alex Day – “Good Morning Sunshine”
