Spotlight: Alexander 23 'Oh No, Not Again!' EP
☆ By Holly Alvarado ☆
HONESTY IS ALEXANDER GLANTZ’S ULTIMATE SUPERPOWER - The heartfelt stories he originates through the gaze of Alexander 23 unfolds as the tell-all manuscript of love, lust and heartache—only to call himself (and the entire millennial generation) out in the process. But as opposed to other mid-twenty-year-olds with a notebook packed with lyrics and guitar chords flushed on the pages, Glantz doesn’t sulk; he shines.
The 26-year-old pop star invites the discussions most seem to glaze over: a longing for the perfect partner while acknowledging “I won’t feel like this forever”. Between the goose-bump enticing lyrics and the ability to forge every emotion into soft ballads, it’s insane to ponder the idea of Glantz only beginning his rise to stardom nearly two years ago. With pop hits like “IDK You Yet” serving as the first single off the EP, boasting over 160 million streams, he doesn’t stray from the sensations that build-up to the surface. Instead, he molds it into vulnerable melodies and a new nine-track EP Oh No, Not Again!.
“The more I wrote it, the more I kind of saw myself in the lyrics,” Glantz tells us via a press conference hosted by Universal Music Group and °1824. “Just the way that I can kind of fall into a cycle of really romanticizing romance where I put my want for love or a partner ahead of my happiness or an actual sustainable solution. I felt comfortable calling everyone else out because I feel like I'm calling myself out just as much. I wouldn't write anything that I also wouldn't do myself.”
The Deerfield, Illinois native never had trouble relying on his intuition. He honors it, nurtures it, and recognizes that even with the ego shining through most days, it’s the heart that allows him to tell the stories that connect so admirably with the world. The emotional transparency is what makes the little details of Alexander 23 so enticing. At the age of 23, Glantz decided to leap into music, drop out of college, and give his burning passion for songwriting a shot—luckily, working in his favor.
“I think there's a version of me that's an engineer and is living some semblance of a happy life, but for me, it just came down to what's going to give me the most fulfillment and what's going to make me the happiest,” he shares. “It became increasingly clear that only music was going to fully satisfy that itch to just be my own person and express myself however I wanted. As Kacey Musgraves says, ‘follow your arrow.’”
What makes the young pop artist so skillful at writing is his technique for observing anything and everything: the pain, the wanderlust, the joy, and the feelings in between. The new EP Oh No, Not Again! was conceptualized by the inner workings of lost thoughts and the idea of connecting with anyone willing to listen.
“What was kind of exciting about this EP specifically was that it was almost like an accident,” Glantz says. “I didn't set out to write an EP at the very beginning, but then it became increasingly clear in the writing process over the last year since writing ‘IDK you yet’ that these songs belong together in a way. It became a fun challenge of how to tie this together and the theme that I'm trying to communicate. It chronicles a relationship’s lifespan from yearning for someone to finding someone to there being turmoil, to maybe it not working out to trying to recover and then to, you know, finally moving on. It's a pattern that I've definitely seen in my own life, just kind of getting into a cycle of having that happen over and over again, making the same mistakes, and not learning from it. So Oh No, Not Again! kind of felt like a nice light-hearted way of saying why the fuck am I like this, you know?”
Despite having the formula to master international hits, it’s still a shock for the young artist that so many connect with his ability to articulate growing-pains and angst with such clarity. Although, navigating the corridors of life through a pandemic led Glantz to heavier realizations. With having nowhere to turn but the paper and pen that laid before him, Glantz drew out the treatment for the next EP that pours into the inner workings of his mind and for thousands of others.
“I hate this phrase because it's so overused, but you're not alone,” Glantz says while smiling. “Sometimes people ask me ‘how did you land on your songwriting perspective or how'd you get there?’ and for me, I've realized the more comfortable I feel as a songwriter, there's a direct correlation with how much I've been able to suppress my ego and realize that I'm not special. These things that I'm feeling are not specific to me even though they really feel like they are a lot of the time. I just want people to listen and hear another human that is going through very similar stuff. I just might happen to have more time to think and write about it. But it's maybe the same level of insightfulness that you would come to in your own conclusions.”
As the EP Oh No, Not Again! enters the charts, Glantz notes the nine-track project can be summed up as “sad but hopeful”, giving listeners a chance to recognize the pain while only acknowledging the healing that comes shortly after. Alexander 23 has only been around for a few short years, but the young pop sensation is barely getting started, bringing us along for the smooth, love-filled ride.
“I want fans to keep in mind that there's another real human that you know feels the same way that they do. Go take it for a drive. Just take it somewhere and spend some time with it, you know, if you have the time and bandwidth to do so. I hope it can serve you in a similar way it served me.”
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