Exclusive Interview with Bahamian Dynamo Alex 242
Alex Christine is new on the scene and this Bahamian beauty is going to be a household name before you know it.
She likes to go by Alex 242 which is the Bahamas' area code that she is from. She is proud of her roots and proud to be representing. Believe it or not she used to be really shy to sing in public but realized she needed to get over that when her beloved Grandmother died. Her grandmother always begged Alex to sing for her, but Alex couldn’t get over her shyness. Her first public singing engagement was at her Grandmother’s funeral to honor her. And from that point on Alex realized life is to short to be held by by one’s fears.
We first heard Alex when we heard the first single off of her yet-to-be-released (unnamed) debut album called ‘Let ‘Em Know’ which features rapper Eve and we were quite impressed.
We caught up with Alex when she was in Atlanta with producer/writer extraordinaire Dallas Austin. Not only is she beautiful she is sweet, has her head on straight and is talented.
She wrote a lot of of the songs on this upcoming album with Dallas. But ‘Let ‘Em Know’ is her first attempt on her own. The album feature producers Drummer-boy, Stephen McGregor (from Jamaica) Cory Enemy did the hard-core electro sound but Dallas is her go-to guy who brings out a side to her that she didn’t know she had.
Before heading to Atlanta in 2008, Alex would write music, and poems from the attic of her house in the Bahamas. She made her own demo up in the attic producing it, writing it and recording it. She was so proud of her production. She met up with Alan Cates in the Bahamas while networking. It was his taking her around to song-writing festivals that got her out there meeting the right people. He invited her to Atlanta where a lawyer friend of his Joel passed her demo on to Dallas and the rest, as they say, is history.
Dallas is a visionary and saw through the talent that is Alex 242. And thank God. Months later Alex met with Dallas, Alan and others in the Bahamas and that was the beginning. As she says ‘one person changed my life’.
Alex describes her music as twang music and I asked her what she meant by that because whenever we hear the word twang, visions of banjos and country songs come to mind. She tells me Twang is an acronym that came up from a late-night writing session but she was a bit embarrassed to tell but she did anyways. Her and Dallas wrote a song called Hustler and when it came to the bridge part, Dallas wanted Alex to do her thing. When she was thinking ‘okay what is my thing’ something came out of her, this crazy voice that they called ‘that voice.’
Flash forward to Jamaica and she’s working with Dallas writing a song that she wrote the words ‘they can’t get my twang’. So many people were trying to put her in a box wanting her to sound like all the other singers whereas Dallas let Alex be Alex and hence ‘they can’t get my twang’. So she decided twang was: Titties, wings, ass, the ‘n’ word, and grits. That originated from a late-night session where they were eating wings and it just kind of flew out of her mouth.
Her purpose behind the song entitled Twang was to let people know Alex is breaking all the rules. You can not box this powerhouse in. She will be true to herself. She wanted to show that you don’t have to fit a stereotype and that you can be true to your own unique flavour. And thank God for that!
We touched on the music industry and how she is surrounded by very good people who have her best interests in mind and let her know what the ins and outs are of the business. They all advised her to stay true to herself and she’s thankful for the good early advice. And she has seen it all but she knows there is more to see but she can handle it.
Coming from the Bahamas she lived a very different life where if she were not in the industry would not have seen. She’s learned a lot and despite the rough spots in the industry she LOVES what she does and it’s all worth it.
Although a date for the release of her upcoming album has not been set, ‘Let ‘Em Know’ is the world’s introduction to this dynamo. And she’s really excited for people to hear what is coming up although she says the ‘feel’ of Let ‘em Know’ is consistent with the rest of the album. Each song tells a story.
I asked her where she sees herself in five years and the first thing was ‘to be happy’. This is a down-to-earth girl that keeps it real. She seriously is the whole package. She hopes that by then millions will have been touched by her music and she’s also toured the world and had at least one hit record. More importantly she wants to be able to touch at least one life with her music because that is the point she says: ‘for the message to be received and understood the way I intended it to be’.
Something tells me she will have more than one hit and will most definitely be touching people with her music.
Check out Alex's website at Alex242.com, her Facebook Alex242music and her Twitter Alex_242.
