KMIH, Mercer Island, this is Seattle Music and Artist, Alex Shaw. Alex Shaw is a Seattle born and raised singer, songwriter, and producer. Before the age of 22, Alec has written, sung, and produced three albums, not letting COVID be an excuse to slack off. Alex meant his time helping to write and produce Sanfiskam's album, Sleeping Problems, along with creating his next album in his downtown.
Alex's fourth studio album, quantity, will be released this upcoming February with incredibly powerful and well-produced songs. I'm Ellie and I'm being joined by Alex Shaw. Alec can be heard on our radio, he can be heard, and he can be heard performing live on the same stage as Dave Matthews and more at a smash benefit concert tomorrow at the Moore Theatre. Welcome, Alec.
Hey, how's it going? Good. Thank you for coming on. Yeah, you made me sound really cool there.
So for the smash benefit tomorrow, it's super important to earn money for the Seattle artist to have important health benefits and resources, and I'm curious to know how this opportunity came about for you. You know, it came through the organization that is curating it, Black Red, and it's very important to them to help local musicians. They give grants, actually, to different bands and artists who are voted on every year, and they curated the event, and I played one of their events before COVID started, and so they asked me to be part of it with Sam. That's awesome.
Are you excited to meet anyone tomorrow? Dave Matthews, definitely. Yeah, Dave Matthews is definitely going to be very exciting to watch. Oh, yeah.
And speaking of Sam, I was talking with her yesterday, and she mentioned you were a really big Beatles fan, and so I'm wondering if you have a favorite, like underrated Beatles song. Underrated? Ooh. Man, I wish I knew that the head of time is like so many, right?
I know, it's hard to choose. Let's just say Lady Madonna. That's a good one. You mentioned how songs can get boring if they don't have lots of textures and different rhythms and counter melodies, so I'm wondering if there's a certain instrument that whenever you add it to a song, you feel like it immediately adds this depth to it.
Well, I like to kind of do your pads and stuff, and then you can layer that in behind whatever song it is, but it can add a lot of depth to a song. Yeah. Would you say that your favorite instruments player do you have a different one? My favorite guitar is really easy for me because I've played guitar for 13 years, so it's more natural, right?
Yeah, and so I'm assuming that's what you usually start your songs with, or do you start them different, like do you start with a different instrument before you add the other ones? I tried to start with a different instrument every time. Like you said, I don't know who told you that, but I did a full of that because I'm ADHD. I understand.
I like the variety, right? So if I can, I'll start it with different instruments or a sample or something. Yeah. So on your recent single, I was looking at the credits for Nobody But You, and you have a lot of very impressive people, and I'm wondering how you find these people to work on the songs with you.
I don't know how I do that. I kind of like pretend like I know what I'm doing, and then people join me and work with me. I like that. Any night.
I think I see people. Yes, kindness is always the answer. Yeah. So your first album, you released when you're 17, and obviously it's probably going to sound a bit different than your upcoming album.
And so I'm wondering if there's any songs from your first album or from any of your earlier work that you can think about how they would sound if you made them today versus five years ago. How I would make them today. Yeah. Like if you were creating a song you created five years ago, but today with all your knowledge now and stuff, would you change anything about one of your songs?
Yeah. I would make it. I would make it good. No.
Yeah. Like first album, I mean, it's just like a random podge podge of things that I thought were cool, you know, because I didn't really have any idea what direction I wanted to go. So the songs are kind of all over the place. I think I would try to make it sound more like what I've landed on more recently.
The last two albums I feel like I've landed on a sound that is kind of like this combination of my influences, which are folk and some gospel just church me the groups, you know, kind of put together. So you have soulful vocals, Otis Redding is someone I listen to and then the Beatles and different folk artists, Simon and Garfunkel, you know, stuff in the 60s. And so I think I found a way more recently to combine those influences in a way that doesn't sound too forced. And I would love to take some of those old songs and make them and bring them to that sort of vibe, you know.
Yeah. And that's awesome. And last question, and you kind of went into it a little bit just now, but what can we expect from your upcoming album? Well, you just played a song from it that I, who gave you that song?
I didn't know. That's not the least. So you guys are getting some unreleased material. But it'll sound more dramatic, I think, than my older stuff.
I think that's the best word to use. And it's more emotional, it's more dramatic. It's more kind of vibrant sounding, I guess. Yeah.
I was listening to it a little bit, and it is so incredibly powerful and just listening to the lyrics. You can feel the emotions and stuff. And it's very beautiful. Thank you.
I appreciate that. Yeah. So thank you so much for coming on. Make sure if you have the opportunity to go see Alec in person tomorrow at the More Theater for the Smash Benefit concert that helps the album artists get music help and benefits for their health.
So this is Alec's single, Nobody But You.