Planetary Group took some time to get to know Alexa Rose, an Americana artist with a vast, hopeful sound.
Planetary Group: Tell us about your latest release. How did you come to create it?
Alexa: I wrote Headwaters over 2020. Most of the songs were written in 2020, and they were pretty fresh at the time we recorded them. And last year I was just thinking a lot about cycles and how time moves inconsistently throughout our lives in a way we can’t ever predict, even though we think that we can.
So there are a lot of cycles in the songs and there’s sort of an overlying theme of time and time being out of our control. And I sort of try to use water in the songs to represent time a lot. So I settled on the title Headwaters.
PG: Share a bit about your musical journey, from when you first started making music until now.
Alexa: I think that my musical journey began when I was really, really young. I just always have loved to sing. But I don’t think I’ve ever really considered myself a super technical musician in any way. And I think a pretty big theme of my own development as a songwriter and an artist is just the feeling that I don’t know what I’m doing and sort of settling into that and finding the magic.
I’ve always kind of written little songs. Somebody in my family gave me a guitar when I was 13 or 14, and I learned a couple chords and started putting songs together. I really feel like that’s just still what I do when I write. And I’ll probably keep doing that that way.
PG: Let’s talk about the music that you love. Pick one album for each category below & tell us a bit about it!
- An album you grew up listening to:
Alexa: My mom would play Raising Sand, the Alison Krauss & Robert Plant album – it was just in my ear a lot. When it came out, I was probably 12 or 13 and I didn’t really care about it a lot in particular. But then as I got older, I realized a lot of the songwriters on that record are artists who I really love now and who have, I think, influenced my own writing. Also Metamorphosis by Hillary Duff. Top 10.
- The album that influences you the most as an artist:
Jack: I would say probably Joni Mitchell’s Blue. Or Car Wheels On A Gravel Road by Lucinda Williams.
- The album you currently have on repeat:
Alexa: It’s summertime, so been bopping to HAIM a lot. Just can’t resist. HAIM, one of my favorite bands. HAIM if you’re listening, I love you.
PG: What do you want people to take away from your music?
Alexa: My goal as a writer is that people always feel seen in the songs. I try to leave space when I’m writing, to leave enough abstract of a feeling along with my own personal experiences. [I try to] create this space where everything I’m writing is coming from an authentic personal place, but that whatever that means to me might mean something different to you and that you can find something to relate to in it. So that’s the biggest thing.
PG: What’s next up for you?
Alexa: I’m just going to keep putting out music, writing songs. Hoping to get on the road a lot in 2022, come see you and play those songs for you. Yeah. A lot of long walks with my dog.
