Over one million monthly listeners on Spotify alone, more than six hundred and fifty thousand followers on Instagram and just shy of four million followers with almost seventy million likes on TikTok, are pretty impressive numbers for any artist but when you consider that Alexandra Kay has got there as an independent artist really shows how commitment and dedication to your craft really can pay dividends. A UK debut at last year’s C2C: Country to Country festival in London was followed by the release of her first full-length project “All I’ve Ever Known” in October which topped iTunes charts around the world, that really sets the tone for why she is becoming one of the most in demand artists in country music. After a sold out UK tour including London’s Islington Assembly Hall, the Illinois native found her way to continental Europe for the first time to headline the Spotlight stage at this year’s C2C: Country to Country in Rotterdam and Berlin before further German dates in Cologne and Munich alongside Hannah Ellis and Lakeview. During her time in Berlin, where we were very lucky to be able to catch her sets, Jamie hung out with Alexandra to talk about her first German experience along with her UK return, her goals for the future in Europe and the little matter of playing some shows with a guy called Jelly Roll.
It’s so nice to meet you, I think we’re going to have some fun. “It’s so nice to meet you too as we haven’t spoken before so and it’s the first time so let’s go.”
In case you hadn’t guessed, I don’t speak much German either. “I had noticed, well I barely know any German at all.”
Well, I have learnt to count to ten and the words for “beers please” which is pretty much the most essential thing to know, then I can do “thank you”. “Oh wait, I know that one. I can say thank you, it’s danke!”
I think I need to learn sorry and feel I should be saying it a lot because everyone is far too polite here. Have you noticed that already in how the Germans are even more polite and respectful as an audience than even we are as Brits? “Everyone has been so polite here. I don’t know if I would say more polite than you guys though but they are very respectful especially when it comes to listening and the concert experience. We just came off a UK tour right before we came here and the concert experience there was completely amazing, I mean it was a completely sold out tour so of course it was crazy but here you could hear a pin drop at every show that we have played this morning. They were just zoned in and it was so nice.”
As you brought up the UK tour, let’s start there. From what I saw across socials it looked absolutely wild. “Yeah it was so good, we sold out in Glasgow, Manchester and London. London was insane, it was like the loudest I have ever heard my songs sung, it was awesome.”
Islington Assembly is a really cool room too and the fact that you came over for the first time last year for C2C where you just played the daytime stages, then you come back this year and are selling out a room just shy of a thousand people which is amazing. You have skipped about three levels on the touring ladder here which is incredible and what I saw most from the videos of your shows was that if someone knew nothing about you and just got dragged along with a friend or a partner, they would have loved everything about the show because you do have a lot of energy. “I do, I have a lot of energy in general but when I get on stage, if you’re just standing there not having any energy, the crowd are going to feel that too. I throw every bit of emotion whether that be in the happy, energetic and the grungy or I am like on my knees in the ballads and the Everleave’s of the set.”
Before I saw you this morning, I was quite interested to see how you go acoustically after seeing all these videos of you running around where you can’t keep your arms still because you are like me how you talk with your hands. That is so different when you are just on a smaller stage with just one guitar player up there with you, how do you find changing between the full shows and doing the stripped back stuff? “I’m not going to lie, I hadn’t played an acoustic show in a long time so it was challenging for me this morning a little bit. The first show was a little weird because usually I have a whole stage to run around on, I have a wireless mike and have these things that I do with the music so, it’s like how do I continue to look entertaining when I’m just in front of this microphone. It’s great though, I actually love acoustic shows because I can tell the stories of the songs which on my latest album “All I’ve Ever Known” that follows me through the hardest year of my life going through a divorce with my ex-partner. It’s really nice to be able to tell the stories and give the audience some context before going into those songs.” The way I think I first came across you as an artist was when you did “Best Worst Ex” with Julia (Cole) and I love JC, I just find that compared to a lot of American’s, she really gets us and has a more British sense of humour as she really gets into the banter with us. I’ve known her for about five or six years now and to be honest I have no idea how I first started listening to her before that but the organic discovery like how she led me to you is one of the great things about music.
Particularly with you as an independent artist, the way people will first come across Alexandra Kay is so different, it’s not because you are being pumped constantly on country radio or there aren’t big labels whispering into our ears of who they want us to push, it’s all through organic discovery so I guess working the DSP marketing and building on the socials has been a big factor of your success really. “It’s been the only part of my success. I mean if you look on my Spotify it is strictly from people going in and typing in Alexandra Kay, searching the music then clicking play. It’s not from being playlisted, I was just on my first editorial playlist with “Everleave” and now being able to get that attention from Spotify is really cool which I’m really happy as an independent to have that. It was just you post this TikTok and you know that it’s going to get a tonne of views, like remember when I used to do, I would post one of those knowing it would get the views then I would post an original song after to piggyback off that momentum. That was how I was getting my original music in everybody’s face at first and now I have just built that loyal fanbase that listen to everything as soon as it comes out. The album was number one on iTunes in the UK, the US, Canada, Italy and without the fans, I have nothing if I don’t have them.”
There’s another avenue on the horizon that is going to introduce A LOT more people to your music. Right now, as far as bookings go, getting to jump on tour with Jelly is definitely up there. How did the whole thing come about? Have you met before? How do you know each other? Did he ask you himself? This must still feel wild to hear someone say it but YOU ARE GOING TO OPEN FOR JELLY ROLL IN HUGE ARENA’S so tell us the full story there. “First of all, it’s all of the above but it’s very much so a pinch me moment. It was actually really great when they made the artwork and I saw my face on there because I was like ok, it’s real. I actually met Jelly two years ago at a CRS party at his label and he actually stopped me and said oh my gosh, you’re the coffee girl on TikTok. He was like I watch you every morning and my wife loves you so, I was like oh my gosh, thank you so much and we ended up taking a picture together that day where he said man, you’re killing it as an independent, stay independent for as long as you can. Throughout the years I ended up opening for him on so and so date here, a festival there or a one off here and we would always eat dinner together so, we just became friends. When I found out that I was in consideration for being the opener for this tour, I just sent him a message before he took his hiatus for the rest of the year where he puts his phone away, first of all saying Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, I wish your family all the best from me. Then I said I just found out that I was in consideration for the tour and if I did get the opportunity, I will make you proud, I will make sure this is the best opening act you’ve ever seen, I’ll work my butt off and I’d be forever grateful for it, thank you have a great holiday and just left that there. He responded back saying he’s always rooting for me and always bringing me up when he goes in there so to find out that I got it was just really a surreal moment for me and I’m going to hold up to my word to bring the best damn show that I can every night.”
Coming back to talk about my little island, you’re not doing our version of C2C this year because you have had your own tour, but you did it last year, have come back again and like we said before the London show was in a big room. It’s a really nice space and the sound is really good. “The sound was great and it’s beautiful in there but speaking of C2C and I’m just going to put it out to the universe now that I hope to have a main stage slot next year! We had to skip this year with the way that the tour worked but I hope to come back in 2025 and be on the main stage for you guys to kill it and have a whole new record to play on that stage so, that the goal!” I’m keeping everything crossed for you girl because I would love to see that! Now that you have been over here twice, in terms of your planning going forward, how much of a priority is looking to keep coming back to Europe? “it’s such a priority, I have said it at every show that we have played and especially in the UK. I have said that we are going to come back every year and now that we’re playing Germany, I’m planning on coming back here too. Seeing the way that we did it with C2C in London and coming back and headlining, where we went from not knowing that we had a fanbase to now selling nine hundred tickets in a day In London, the next year I want to do the same thing in Germany and I expect each time we come back to make it bigger, better and more grand. We will definitely be back every year, one hundred percent.”
This is so much fun but I’m worried about that tea of yours going cold. Are you a fan of the hot tea? “I do love hot tea but I’m more of a camomile hot tea kind of girl, I do like black hot tea too though.”
See as a Brit and we are really big on drinking tea, black hot tea isn’t really something we do. It’s not a thing that we tend to do. “I thought you guys had black tea as like your coffee in the morning. What kind of tea would you have?”
Yeah it is a morning thing, also a big afternoon thing too but you would always have it with milk. I drink coffee black but tea without milk just feels weird even thinking about it. “Oh ok, I gotcha. You would have it with milk and like some sugar, the same as we do with coffee.”
There’s one of the major differences between the UK and the States with how you guys seem to find adding sugar the solution to everything. “Ha-ha that is so true.”
When I was last in the States we did like a road trip from Nashville to Clarksdale, through Chattanooga and Pigeon Forge, then back to Nashville where we drove through Alabama and tried real sweet tea for the first time. That was literally half a pint of sugar in a cup and then all the ice in there, because that’s another think you Americans are obsessed with. “I know but it’s delicious. That’s another thing that I’m going to make sure that I do when we come back over here next time. We’re kind of getting in the groove of it now, it was our second time going to the UK, it went so great and we were on a tour bus this last time which was great but when I come back for a third time I just want to have more sightseeing time. I just want more time to do things, it felt like we didn’t do anything as we didn’t have time because we were so busy and I felt like I just wanted to sleep ha-ha.”
Oh yeah totally, you know the reason you are here is for business and to work but if you are here for two weeks off and the only day you have off is the day that you arrive which you need to get over jetlag, you’re not taking much out of it for yourself. It’s almost like saying I love London, it’s such a great city but all you really have seen is Heathrow airport, your hotel and backstage at the venue that you are playing. “Exactly. It’s that, the inside of a bus and whatever restaurant will give us food at three in the morning which is normally McDonald’s or “MAC-DONALD’S” as you guys say it.
Me and my friends would say Maca’s. “Oh ok, what do you get from Maca’s?”
I tell you, the German McDonald’s is way better than what we have at home. “What, why are they all different?”
They have so much more choice here. It’s all about curly fries which we don’t have and more importantly, they still do McRibs here! When I went in there last night at like one in the morning, my little face was so excited because we haven’t had them do a McRib at home for probably five years so I’m just like I don’t care how much this costs tonight, I’m just filling my face big time! “Ha-ha. There are such McRib STAN’s who just love them so much. I haven’t had one in I don’t know how long but I did get the McCrispy, which we don’t have in the US and it was really good. Also, chicken nuggets here are healthier and like real chicken where ours is like grey.”
Everything over here and particularly in England will have less salt in it because we have standards and regulations because sugar, salt and smoking, even though you would never guess it here in Germany because everyone has a cigarette, but they are things that governments think are really bad for you and want reduced. Thank you so much, I have loved this AK! We will one hundred percent keep in touch and share everything that you have coming out, It is so refreshing to see people thriving that are really working their ass off and getting opportunities because of fan support and the work that you put in yourself. Looking at your numbers and how you have achieved everything, I think a lot of people will take inspiration from how you are doing things and the biggest thing about you is how real you are. You are so warm and full of energy both on and off stage, there’s no act, that is who you are. “Thank you, I’m just so happy to be here. Every opportunity that I have I’m happy and grateful to have it because I had to fight tooth and nail for it, it’s not something that someone just handed to me saying like you have talent, here’s this. I had to work up from the bottom of the barrel to this point. It’s my first time in Germany right so it’s smaller crowds, in the US where we do two thousand tickets by ourselves and now in the UK we do a thousand tickets there, then to come here we are just starting. Every time you go to a new country, you are back to the bottom and start working your way up. It’s so humbling every single time and really cool to see just how much work that we still have to do but I’m so grateful.”
The debut full-length album “All I’ve Ever Known” from Alexandra Kay is out now and is available HERE. You can find details for all of Alexandra’s upcoming North American shows by checking out her WBESITE or you can be the first to be in the know about any news of forthcoming new releases and what she is up to by following along on INSTAGRAMTIKTOKTWITTER & FACEBOOK.
C2C: Country to Country will return in 2025 for three days of festivities in Berlin over the weekend of March 7th to 9th which you will be able to find further detail on their WEBSITE and on INSTAGRAM & FACEBOOK where you will also be able to relive highlights from this year’s event.
The event will then roll back into London, Glasgow and Belfast the following weekend between March 14th and 16th which you can keep a look out for all forthcoming details at the event WEBSITE or socials (INSTAGRAMTWITTERFACEBOOK) with line-up details expected to be announced later in the year.