Alexander 23 on his new EP "Oh No, Not Again!"

From releasing “Dirty AF1s” to releasing his new EP Oh No, Not Again!, Alexander 23 is an incredible artist/songwriter who writes from his heart. His EP, released on February 19th, navigates what it can feel like being in a relationship and battling with one’s internal thoughts about specific situations. We got to chat with Alexander 23 and listen in on how he created his EP.

Your musical style has changed a bit from using a Launchpad with electric guitar along with incorporating unusual sounds such as voice distortion, to creating songs that are more stripped down, and all your songs have very detailed lyrics that paint beautiful imagery. How has your journey been with discovering your musical style?

I think when I first started, I was just so overwhelmingly excited by being able to produce that I did some stuff that I’m proud of and I think is cool but I wouldn’t necessarily do now just because I think you kind of like learn the rules to break the rules and now I just feel more confident as a producer. Having said that, I definitely have gotten super heavy into the lyrical and songwriting side of a final master record. It's like anything, like when you learn a new skill, there’s a pendulum aspect to it where you go all the way one way and then you go all the way another way just to find where the lines are for you. And I’m really happy I did because now I feel super comfortable moving forward that I’m gonna be able to blend those two worlds a little bit more and really find something special and unique.

I admire how raw your lyrics are because I feel like people can relate to them.

I spend definitely the most time on lyrics out of anything in the process so I’m really happy you feel that way.

Photo by Yising Kao

On Alexander 23’s creative process of making his EP, he shares:

“I think for me, what was exciting about this EP specifically was that it was almost like an accident. Like, I didn’t set out to write an EP at the very beginning and then it kind of became increasingly clear over the writing process over the last year since “IDK You Yet” that these songs belong together in a way. And then it became a fun challenge like “Ok, how do I really tie this together and really communicate the theme that I’m trying to communicate?” and it’s called Oh No, Not Again! and for me, it kind of chronicles the life span of a relationship from yearning for someone to finding someone to there being some turmoil to maybe not working out to trying to recover and to finally moving on. And it’s a pattern that I’ve definitely seen in my own life just getting into a cycle of having that happen over and over again, making the same mistakes over and over again and not learning from it so Oh No, Not Again! felt like a lighthearted way of saying “Why the fuck am I like this?’”

Alexander 23 describes his EP in three words:

“Sad but hopeful. The happy things I feel, I just feel happy, I don’t need to do anything with that feeling. And when I’m sad, that’s the kind of stuff I need to do some stuff with and figure out and work through with. So I guess I can explain it through the “IDK You Yet” lens. That song is definitely super sad in a way, but the qualifying word “yet” is an incredibly hopeful word. It’s like, I feel like this now, but I can acknowledge that I will not feel this way forever. So that for me kind of sums up the “sad but hopeful” vibe that I’m trying to accomplish.”