After the great success of his latest single “Circles”, alexdrake. has not taken his foot off the gas throughout his creative ventures, serving us a unique and intimate palate of his indie/alternative/emo rock style that shows you how he is taking the music industry by storm.
"Peace of Mind" opens up with the playing of spacious keys and the strum of warm electric guitar chords drawing you into the brisk initiation of lifting drums. As the cadence picks up, you fall further and further into this record leaving you hooked.
When the heartfelt and soothing vocals of alexdrake. are introduced, elements of the nostalgic Classic Rock era blended with Pop-Punk angst have you listening intently to each lyric crafted all while your toes are tapping to the compulsive instrumentation.
A wider vocal range throughout the chorus focuses on the dimension of harmonies alexdrake. delivers within the soft hidden layers that intensify the listening experience. The modern and sentimental arrangement of instruments truly complements the expressions carefully crafted by alexdrake. leaving us in awe of yet another hit release.
We can’t seem to get enough of alexdrake.'s passion and intensity that he exudes on his sophomore single, "Peace of Mind". We are patiently awaiting more hard-hitting content that our souls long for from this rising artist.
Congratulations on the release of your sophomore single, “Peace of Mind.” How did you come to collaborate with AJ Pedromo from The Dangerous Summer and form the concept of this hit single?
Thank you so much! I am so excited to release this track. It really gives a great sense of my Rock background and the direction this project is going. What is so funny about my connection with AJ, is that it obviously started with my being a huge fan. I grew up in the NJ alt/emo/pop-punk music scene and The Dangerous Summer was one of the major bands that a lot of us aspired to be like musically. They exhibit such a unique sound and style that sets them apart from other bands within the same genre. Obviously, AJ's vocals and songwriting perfection is something I've looked up to for some time. I believe we actually met at EmoNite LA - we both have mutual friends who are the founders of the event amongst other familiar friends and we hit it off. He is a great guy, he is always giving back to the scene one way or another. One thing that really stands out about AJ is his compassion for upcoming artists - he truly gets joy out of helping and teaching others and that's something you literally never see. After hanging out a bunch of times in LA and chatting music, when it came time for me to finally start writing songs for my new solo project, AJ was all about guest vocals on one track. This song jumped out as the single and one where I couldn't stop hearing his voice on. Low and behold, the mental concept became reality.
The concept of the song instrumentally is to pay homage to my early rock/emo/alt influences- with that loud punching lead guitar and the rolling bass lines. I even threw in some instrumental takeaways from NJ's finest Bruce Springsteen. Nothing better than a huge anthemic chorus! From a message perspective, this song really embarks on the turmoil we deal with everyday occurrences. Dealing with your boss, dealing with current societal stressors, dealing with any kind of aversion to what you love and what you want to do but still having "Peace of Mind" to do you and follow your dreams, passions, and internal monologues regardless of what is being spewed at you.
Could you please tell us about the process you took to carefully craft the lyrics we hear in this song? What did the studio session look like to track the vocals?
This song was entirely done in my home studio. Due to COVID my team has a great system where I write all the bass, drums, guitar, synth, lyrics, etc... and send on off to get mastered by my buddy Cameron Nadler who does great mixing/mastering work. Took about a week and a half to get the song down then I embarked on the lyrics. As mentioned earlier, the lyrics have a huge 'where we are at in society' influence. They are reflective of external stressors causing internal confrontation and how we as human beings should/can combat that.
How much of your New Jersey roots do you allow to influence the music that you create? Can we expect a similar sound and message in the anticipation of your upcoming releases?
This is an amazing question! My music is 100% influenced by my New Jersey roots. As I am sure everyone knows, people from New Jersey have an obnoxious amount of NJ pride. I am blessed to have had all the musical influences in my life starting with my parents and brothers straight through to my first alt/emo bands I played/toured with, all the bands I came across at Rutgers University's underground basement scene, and the giant scene of NJ emo music in general. I went to a high school where it was cooler to be in a band than to be on the football team. I'll never forget, I was late to a high school football playoff game because I had a battle of the bands - my coach hated that I was late... but music always came first.
Where I grew up (northern New Jersey), we had neighboring towns where bands like Senses Fail, My Chemical Romance, Thursday, Steel Train, etc all originated. So the early 2000s NJ Emo/alt scene was thrown in your face. At the time that these bands were getting big and debuting on MTV/TRL etc - I was just a kid aspiring to do that. Some members of Senses Fail actually went to my high school - so you had bands popping up left and right to follow that trail of rock band success. It was a really cool time to see so many young individuals being a part of a cool music scene and creating art together. It left a great impression on younger folks like myself who continued it. This NJ alt/emo/pop-punk sound will absolutely be present in my upcoming releases. I have 3 more - all of which are more in the vein of "Peace of Mind". The final release, "Let It Go" is actually featuring Nick Casasanto of Knuckle Puck.
What has kept you motivated and inspired throughout the course of 2020?
As we all know 2020 has been quite turbulent. If this song doesn't exemplify it enough, I always try to look at the bright side of things, even if it's a fight to maintain my peace of mind. Through a humanistic lens, I find it easier on my psyche to aspire for positivity rather than the latter... and that goes for my personal matters of 2020 and the external world.
I lost my mother in late 2019 which is a big reason I finally decided to take action and start creating music again. Music and the ability to create music is something she and I shared and she always supported me in my musical endeavors by pushing me to do so. Once she passed, I felt a closeness to her through my music and my creative process which absolutely kept/still keeps me motivated and inspired throughout this rough year, and as I move forward without her.
What can fan's anticipate next from you?
Well, after "Peace of Mind", I have 3 more singles that I will be releasing over the next 1-2 months. Some music videos and cool collabs. Then it will be back to the studio to continue writing. I do this all for fun and to put the pen to paper and express myself through song. I intend on continuing to release songs/projects forever!