Alisa Xayalith on her new music including latest single ‘Roses’
New music about the importance of hope, resilience and self-belief. Her last minute 48 hour trip to New York and performance on Jimmy Fallon. Working with Jason Soweto (Benson Boone, Imagine Dragons and Sir Sly) and Tyler Spry (U2, One Republic, Switchfoot and Peking Duk). The empowerment that comes from building your skill set as an artist and more.
Fuzzer: Thanks so much for taking the time to chat to us! How’s it going?
Alisa Xayalith: I am exhausted, I’m not gonna lie! I just got back from New York at like 1.30 this morning. I just had the most whirlwind week. Last week, my friend, he’s MDing for Foster The People - he messaged me and said “Hey, Foster The People are doing a performance on Jimmy Fallon. Would you and Laura (his partner who is also an artist and a vocalist) be down to sing some background vocals”.
Fuzzer: Oh my gosh amazing, that’s so exciting!
Alisa Xayalith: And I thought he meant like record some vocals and they’ll put it in a track kind of thing. I was like “Yeah yeah no I can totally do that, that’s totally easy. I can record this and send you the tracks”. He’s like “oh no, I’m saying like come do the performance”. And I’m like “I have a song coming out, I just moved house, I’m still unpacking, I have press and I have so many things” (laughs). But I was like, why not? What’s one more thing to add to my schedule? So it was really cool - rehearsed with the band and all the boys were just so welcoming and so lovely and it was really cool to reconnect with the band after all these years because our bands kind of came up at the same time. They haven’t released any new music for about 8 years so they’re about to start a new chapter themselves. It was really nice. So I just did the thing last night and spent 48 hours in New York and now I’m back (laughs).
Fuzzer: Wow, so cool! Exciting times, that’s so good! So you’re based so you're based in LA at the moment? What is your day to day normally look like?
Alisa Xayalith: Honestly, right now? It's just a bit crazy. It's just been an incredibly deep transitional time, just like the turning over of old and new and grieving things and kind of having this strange rebirth. I described it to a friend the other day, I feel like I'm carrying around the death of something and the grief of something, but also the rebirth of something. It's like the duality of these two things, and carrying this around amidst just trying to live life, and personal life right now is really beautiful, and it's really wonderful, but moving house is not fun by any means. I've been living in my house for six and a half years with my partner. So you can imagine just all of the things you accumulate and you have to get rid of. And then, right in the middle of that I was shooting visualizers and packing. So usually with things like this, it's like a day at a time. You know, you can plan for things to happen a day to time, but everything is happening everywhere, like all at once. I'm just trying to go with the flow (laughs) but I saw this meme Instagram the other day. It's like somebody kayaking down really aggressive water rapids. It's like, I'm going with the flow but the flow are these intense water rapids. That's kind of how I feel right now (laughs). And then also the beginning of a new relationship with Network Music, who are going to be releasing all my songs with me, so it marked the beginning of that chapter. It's just so many new chapters beginning all at the same time.
Fuzzer: Yea I can totally understand, I’ve been in those water rapids before! And it kind of happens like that in life it seems, like everything big happening at the same time.
Alisa Xayalith: Exactly! So life has been crazy, but it's crazy good stuff. It just requires my ears, my eyes, my attention to detail so that things just don't fall by the wayside and get lost.
Fuzzer: So good. And congrats on the release of your new track ‘Roses’. It's such an incredible song and what a return! How does it feel to have that out?
Alisa Xayalith: Thank you! It feels so good. It feels really awesome and it's so satisfying for somebody like me who's been sitting on top of a timeline of just goals and benchmarks. It's nice that I can just be like “Okay, the first flag is going down in the sand. This is where we start on the little road map”. And I have little benchmarks in the road of where I hope to go and where it'll take me. So it's just really exciting.
Fuzzer: Yeah, so, so good. And what was the inspiration behind this track?
Alisa Xayalith: I think I was feeling the opposite of what I do now, just being stuck in a rut, just going through the motions, nothing was getting better. I think for a really long time over the nearly three years or so, I've been doing music for such a long time, and it seemed impossible to go at it on my own. And I think I was just feeling really discouraged but trying my hardest to do all of the things to make my dreams come true. To go and do writing sessions and meet a bunch of new people, and it's really hard to really connect with people whose music taste aligns with yours, and lots of trial and error, and just feeling like “am I ever going to find my people that can kind of help me with this vision I have?”. And my partner's a producer but you know, he's got his own career, and I don't want to do that typical thing that happens when artists and producers get into relationships, you know? (laughs) Naturally he has an opinion, and naturally he has everything I write and can see the path forward for me so he has helped me quite a bit. I think with ‘Roses’, I was just really longing for a change, and longing for like the turning of something to happen because I've just felt so stuck in one place for so long. And when you get really stuck in one place for a long time, anybody would give up but I didn't.
Fuzzer: We're so glad that you didn’t!
Alisa Xayalith: I think being an artist, you have to have a certain level of delusion, and maybe that just really saved me in that moment. So I really loved the idea of writing a song about planting things. And if you nurture it and take care of it, something beautiful will grow and you just have to wait. And I feel like that is a great metaphor for kind of just where I was. I'm like, “if I just write these songs and if I fight for the ones that I really believe in and try and figure out how to make the production work and how to get them to the finish line, and if I just keep doing this enough times, I'll have enough songs that I'll feel really good about”. And slowly but surely over time, we just chipped away and chipped away and chipped away. So it's just like a real exercise in trusting myself too and trusting that my instincts will kind of take me where I need to go. So ‘Roses’ means so many things to me but ultimately it's a song about hope and being resilient in a time that is really dragging you down.
Fuzzer: Yeah, it does feel like a journey of perseverance like you mentioned, and the message to just keep on going, not giving up. I feel like a lot of people will be able to connect with that message as well. And what was the writing and production process like for this one? For this one, you worked on it with Jason Soweto (Benson Boone, Imagine Dragons and Sir Sly) and Tyler Spry (U2, One Republic, Switchfoot and Peking Duk) who have amazing accolades of their own.
Alisa Xayalith: So Tyler Spry is my partner and he actually mentioned Jason Soweto to me because he is in a band called Sir Sly, and Sir Sly came up around the same time as The Naked & Famous - same kind of production reflexes and indie guitar. He's just so talented. And my first introduction to them was Tyler saying “Hey, let me connect you with them. You should go do a writing session for their band”. And I was like “Ah, okay?” And so I turned up and Jason, Landon and Hayden thought that I was walking into the room so that they could write a song for The Naked And Famous. I'm like, “Oh no, Naked And Famous isn't happening right now. Okay, well, there's been a miscommunication. But you know what, you guys, I'm down to write something if you want to write something”. And I spent the day with them, and we wrote a song called “Little Deaths” which was on their album that I really love. And then after that, I just had a really good time working with them. And I hit Jason up, and we started doing the writing sessions together. It came very naturally. I just love all of her sounds, like his synth, his guitar tones, drums, he’s got a tape machine. He's got an amazing studio set up, so he was really well equipped, kind of just like everything is just ready to plug in and go - little bit like a playground. And so Tyler and I went over to his studio house, and I was like “Okay guys, I'm just going through it right now. I don't feel really despondent, and the band stuff is on pause, and I don't know what I'm doing”. But they just gave me the space to write the song and I'm really grateful for it, because Jason and I went on to write a few more songs together. And yeah, it's been great.
Fuzzer: Yeah, so good. And what's like one of the main highlights or core memories that you've had working on this song or across the new music you’ve been working on?
Alisa Xayalith: I think for me, I was learning how to find my own voice. And also it was around the time when I was learning how to really record my own vocals and and really get to know my voice again. And it's interesting how much more you put yourself under a microscope when you're just listening back to yourself versus having somebody else record you and then they will listen back. So it was an exercise of not judging myself, and really being my hype man. Being in a room by myself listening to my takes and being like “you sound so great, girl”. Like “let's do that again, you've got this” (laughs). Just a real exercise in just trusting and believing myself that I could do the thing. And I felt so empowered when I was like “Hey, I've recorded all the stacks for the harmonies, verses and the chorus. I'm gonna bounce all these stems and send it to you, like I've comped and tuned them so you can just drop them into the session and add vocal production”. So it was such an empowering process in terms of my skill set, so I've just continued to learn and grow and become more self sufficient and more capable.
Fuzzer: I love that! And I guess in the studio it can be so challenging. Obviously there's a lot of repetition and just going over and over again until you find the “perfect” take or whatever. Do you have a feeling when you know you've gotten to that point when you gotten it on the spot, or is it more like you’ve got to listen to the takes separately and then you craft it all together?
Alisa Xayalith: I think it just depends. Sometimes I do get in my head, and I'll do like a million takes and lose the plot, and then it might take me like two days to kind of confront myself and how I sound. Or just feel like I don't know how to sing anymore. What's my problem? (laughs) But I guess that's just what happens when you are playing the central role in your daily life, and you have to put yourself under a microscope and learning to be kind and learning to be patient is part of the game. I think for most people in creative fields who have to self generate ideas and execute them and get to the finish line.
Fuzzer: And what is one of the most important lessons you've learned just in general playing live with your experience playing the biggest festivals in the world including Coachella and Reading?
Alisa Xayalith: You know, I come from a really big family. I'm like, one of seven kids. So I grew up just having to roll with the punches, think on my feet, and that has bowed really well into this line of work. Because in terms of playing live, I can prepare as much as I can ahead of time and when I show up, if things aren't working, I'll just figure it out on the spot and just roll with the punches and do the best I can. And I feel like that's been a really valuable skill for this whole life that I live (laughs). And it even happened on Jimmy Fallon. Everybody has in-ears connected to packs so they can hear themselves and everything, and one of my ears just didn't work. It was a faulty cable. And I was like “Oh, wow. Fuck it, rock and roll. I know the song. I know how to sing it. It's gonna be fine”. And meanwhile, my friend who was singing, she was like freaking out for me. I'm really grateful for the years of experience I have had as a performer, I'm not freaking out. If I was doing this for the first time then yeah, I'd be freaking out.
Fuzzer: Yeah I guess that can happen anywhere even in the most professional settings. Like I’ve seen stages catching fire, you just gotta roll with it I guess! So for each of our interviews, we customize a cocktail recipe relation to the project that we're talking about. So if Roses was a cocktail, what kind of cocktail do you think it would be?
Alisa Xayalith: I think I would make it like a Paloma. Like something sour but I want like a little bit of chili in there, a little bit of sweetness. Sour, salty, spicy.
Fuzzer: Great! That sounds amazing! So I'll work on a recipe and then share it once this interview comes out.
Alisa Xayalith: Yeah because it's like refreshing, a little bit of sweetness and there's little spice at the end (laughs).
Fuzzer: I love that! And what music are you listening to at the moment? Are there any new artists that you recommend we listen to, or any Kiwi artists that you love at the moment?
Alisa Xayalith: I've really been stuck on this one UK artist. Her name's Etta Marcus, and she's just so cool. She's just like this cool indie singer songwriter that I think is so great. And then I also really love this other artist called Jelani Aryeh who I worked with a few times, but I just think he's so talented. He's like this half black Filipino kid wanting to make music that sounds like Bloc Party. Just his heritage alone, you just wouldn't expect to see somebody like him making that kind of music. I’m like “Please let me write with you more! I love your project so much.” It’s just been a while since I’ve written with an artist where I feel that way. I’m just like “We must put you to the forefront of indie music. We need more faces like yours in this space!”. And then obviously with New Zealand artists, I’ve been working with Rita Mae - I love her, she’s so cool. And I love Georgia's project, Georgia Gets By. I love those artists. Just love the dreamy guitar, and good songwriting.
Fuzzer: That's some great answers. And my last question for you is what's next for you in 2024? What have you got lined up before the end of the year?
Alisa Xayalith: Well other than impromptu background singer duties (laughs), I will be releasing more singles and making more visualizers. I just learned how to use DaVinci Resolve so I can edit all my videos. I think it really is a time for artists to just really learn new skill sets in terms of like content creation. And I think that's something new for me at the moment that I'm trying to master. And then there will be talk of shows. So I've got a lot going on. And then also just my regular writing sessions with other artists, and I have a few songs coming out that I've co-written with some artists this year which is very exciting. It's always exciting when you write songs with artists and they put them out. So yeah, there's a few things in a pipeline that I'm excited for.
Keep up with Alisa on Instagram, TikTok, Spotify and Apple Music.
