aleksiah on Channeling Feminine Rage
We all love the sensation of discovering a fresh artist, someone underrated and underground that you can become a long-term fan of. 23-year-old musician, aleksiah, from Adelaide, Australia, might just be that exciting new addition to your Spotify playlist that you’ve been waiting for.
aleksiah has always loved and been involved with music, having done write-ups for her university’s magazine, but she’s not quite sure where her new career is taking her yet. A self-proclaimed overthinker, aleksiah knows that wherever it ends up going, she doesn’t really want to put a label on it — understandably so: the coolest artists’ sounds are ever-changing, ebbing and flowing over the years. While aleksiah has certainly made a lot of “pop-y” music, many of her recent sessions have been darker, with a more rock feel. “I’m coming out with a single in [about a week and a half], and it’s a lot rockier, a lot more depressing, a lot deeper than the previous stuff,” says aleksiah.
That single, aleksiah’s third release, is called “Pretty Picture.” It has a nostalgic, pop-punk, Avril Lavigne vibe, different from the soft, mystical crooning in her song “Fern” and upbeat indie instrumental and vocals present in “Ant Song.” In the bridge of “Pretty Picture,” aleksiah passionately sings, “It’s the same shit happening again / I keep coming back to when I was able to draw a line in the sand.” Both the lyricism and production signify a shift in the musical story that aleksiah has been crafting in all of her releases. This change has been inspired by what she calls, “feminine rage.” Looking back on her time in high school and university, aleksiah remembers a friend group that wasn’t full of the nicest people. “I’m just filled with this desire to go back in time and shake myself and tell myself, ‘You deserve better. You deserve better than this,’” she says. When it comes to this new music, aleksiah is taking that sentiment and running with it, letting all the bottled up emotions from the last three to four years run wild.
A lot of the topics to be found in these upcoming messianic tracks touch on womens’ issues, issues that, in her country, aleksiah feels could be spoken of more frequently. “The values and what [Australians] are comfortable speaking out about are super different from what I’ve gotten used to, [having grown up on the Internet],” says aleksiah. She doesn’t view many of the elements of womens’ issues as being taboo, whereas others in Adelaide might, and wants to incorporate these thoughts and feelings into her music.
For this reason, one may assume that the songwriting process is tumultuous and difficult. That’s not the case for aleksiah. It’s poetry; the lyrics and melody infer what the chords will be, and so on, until they’ve manifested themselves into songs perfect for a gentle makeout session or even an impassioned drive. “Fern” was written about a girl aleksiah had a massive crush on in high school and “Ant Song” was written about her current partner. Both were crafted whilst aleksiah laid in a comfy bed, surrounded by positive emotions and great care. “I feel like [writing this music] should have been harder than it was, way more like grinding and crying tears. But, it just feels really nice,” the artist says. “Pretty Picture” is catharsis for aleksiah — in a different way, like pouring out all her angry emotions into writing. Thus, expressing herself comes naturally, the way writing a diary entry might.
The intersection between fashion and music comes as comfortably to aleksiah as songwriting does. “When I’m wearing clothes on stage or in a photoshoot, it’s something that I would be proud to wear in front of anybody,” she says. For these events, the musician gets help from friends — who also function as incredible designers. For the cover art of “Ant Song,” one of aleksiah’s friends, Lucy, lended her the thrifted, flowing white dress she wears — and helped pin it. Another friend, Eliza, made the headband crown she wears out of fake pearls and zip ties she spray-painted gold, and another friend, Billy, made the ornate necklace laid on her collarbone. aleksiah’s fashion adds to the authenticity and unique perspective of an Aussie, queer womanhood that she brings to the music sphere, and she doesn’t shy away from untraditional, funkier items and patterns.
As an Aries, aleksiah considers herself to be very goal-oriented. She’s always trying to one-up herself and continue moving the goalposts. A past fear of aleksiah’s was the idea of live performing, but she conquered it by making a promise to herself to have as many gigs as possible. She played approximately thirty shows across Australia, and flew almost everywhere to do so. “You can’t really drive anywhere, so I’ve gotten a lot of frequent flier points [...] I hate flying as well, which is really funny,” she jokes. However, aleksiah isn’t scared anymore and has grown more comfortable with herself. “I kind of realized that the audience [isn’t] there to boo you or anything. They’re there to support you. If you make a mistake, they’re not going to get the pitchforks and fire torches out and kill you or something,” she says.
aleksiah has big dreams of collaborating with international artists and broadening her horizons. She wishes to write with those that live in different settings, write in different languages and sing different genres, and her fanbase plays a huge part in getting her one step closer to all these musical aspirations. “Very small artists really do appreciate people actually taking the time to listen to us because we’re not promoted or put in anyone’s face,” aleksiah says. Her music is for anybody: the girls, the gays, the they’s, the men and everyone in between. More than anything, aleksiah hopes listeners will find retribution and comfort in what she has to say and share with the world.