If there is one thing that is clear after Lexi’s sold-out show at the Troubadour on Saturday, it is that she deserves it all and more. On her first-ever headline tour, Lexi was able to relate to her fans and showcased how she is so incredibly authentic and real – if you could not tell from her music already. Lexi’s songs provide a safe place for many listeners, as she turns her bittersweet memories of love into brutal honesty. Her vulnerability and ability to connect with her fans through her music are what make her popular. 

Lexi’s music covers relatable topics such as heartbreak, self-sabotage, love, and fear, yet her tone is sweet and effortless, and her songs are cleverly written and produced to sound like they would appear in a late 90s/early 2000s film–and yet still appeal to a modern teen audience.

 

Before Lexi’s concert in LA on Saturday, and before she left for her tour entirely, we had the opportunity to chat with the rising 20-year-old singer-songwriter, before she took the stage at the Troubadour. Follow our conversation below to learn more about Lexi and her story with music!

You obviously have a lot going on right now, and a lot to look forward to. You have an amazing single that just came out 5 days ago, “what’s the matter with you” and you are about to kick off your first-ever headline tour, congratulations, this is such an exciting time for you, we are excited for you over here at LADYGUNN. With all of these things going on right now, how are you doing? how are feeling about everything?

Lexi: Honestly I am doing pretty good. This year has been a whirlwind of emotions, a lot of ups and a lot of downs, but overall, I think, how could I not, not be happy when my first ever headline tour starts in literally a day – I leave tomorrow morning and I am really just stoked, I feel really lucky to be in the place I am in, in life and mentally. It has taken a long time to get here, but I am very happy right now and just enjoying life and enjoying every little moment of everything going on. I have had a lot of realizations this year that I think have helped me learn to just enjoy the little moments in life and not get too ahead of myself because I tend to do that, so I am just really happy right now.

You mentioned your tour, what are you most excited about on your tour?

 

Overall, I am just excited in general for this tour, I feel like I have waited my entire life for my headline tour. I have only done two opening acts in the past year, and it has been a dream of mine. So the fact that this is even happening is so surreal, I can’t even comprehend that it is real. I am definitely most excited to obviously play this EP that I worked really hard on in front of people, who love this EP as much as I do. But not only that I am just very excited to meet everyone that is coming to the shows. Connecting with fans is really one of the important things for me, and it’s super difficult obviously to do that on the internet and online, you know you see names and numbers and all these things, but when it’s in person it’s like, “Oh this is real, this is happening.” You hear people’s stories and how your song helped them, and you hear people screaming your songs, it’s just the most important feeling to me. I have worked really hard to put the best show that I could possibly put on together, for everybody, and overall it is gonna be the best time. I am so excited to meet everybody and play songs, it’s gonna be great.

You touched on this a little bit, but when listening to your music, it is clear that you are very honest and vulnerable. You touch on “regular things” like heartbreak, self-discovery, love, and mental health. Does vulnerability come naturally to you when you are writing?

 

Honestly yes. I feel like a lot of people are like “Lexi, how do you say all of that so easily, like how do you talk about things so traumatic in your life or sad or just all these emotions that you go through that might not be as easy to express in person or in regular day-to-day life”. Something for me, when I am writing, is just so natural and easy, I think it’s my only way of really, truly expressing how I feel about something. I have always been like that at least since I was a kid and writing songs. I always put how I felt emotionally into my music. So I feel like it’s always been something that has been very natural for me to do. It is kinda like my own therapy in a way, if I were to go to a therapist… Writing music is kinda like going to a therapist for me. Just knowing that whatever I put down on paper or whatever story I tell, knowing that that is gonna possibly help so many people around the world and help people feel less alone and heal go this emotion together, makes me so happy and that’s one of the biggest reasons I do it. Not only is this going to inspire so many people, but help so many people.

Connection is definitely something that we feel through listening to your music. It’s also something that a lot of people can connect to, not just one specific type of person. Going off of that, love, heartbreak, sabotage, and also fear are all themes in your EP, closer to closure, and also your new single “what’s a matter with you.” How have these experiences that you convey in your music given you new perspectives on love and what it means to you now?

 

I have always been such a big romantic person. When I first fell in love, I knew to love, I had never fallen in love and had never been in a relationship. I was so blinded by love and so deep, deep deep into this relationship. Honestly, I am so grateful for the way it happened and ended the way it did because yes, it gave me a whole new perspective on relationships and myself and not only did it teach me so much about love and what I deserve and my worth, but it taught me so much about myself internally and how I need to grow in certain aspects of life and what I really want in a relationship. It’s taught me so much about my friends and how to handle and balance everything in my life. I have learned probably every lesson you should learn within a couple of years of dating, all within a few months thanks to this break-up and I have this new feeling when it comes to loving again, obviously, I talk about it in “what the matter with you”, but it’s such a scary feeling knowing how my first relationship ended. I was so happy I never saw what was coming and then it ended terribly. To me, that’s the only way I know a relationship is supposed to go. When I am trying to start these new relationships its difficult not to think about, “ok what if I get hurt again, what if I go through something like this” and I think that’s taught me a lot about emotions and really listening to my heart and myself because, at the end day, it’s so important to take care of yourself and protect your heart even when you think something is supposed to go a certain way, it’s supposed to feel right and it doesn’t feel right it’s taught me a lot about trusting your own intuition and just living in the moment. I could literally go on about that topic forever because I learned so much, but I am very happy, I wouldn’t take back anything that happened to me just because I think every person no matter if its something like you thinks someone is your soulmate or whatever it is, I think that each person and each relationship comes into your life to teach you a lesson and then you eventually find the one you are staying with but I just kinda look at all of the possible sides of everything after that breakup. 

 

That is definitely a really good thing to be able to do when you go through those tough situations, but like you said you learn a lot. You also kinda touched on this, but can you give us a general overview, of what is special about “what’s the matter with you?” and tell us more about what the process of creating “what’s the matter with you” and what that was like for you?

 

I wrote this song about a boy, obviously because most of my songs are about boys, but this one specifically was really interesting because I have never felt this type of emotion before, where I felt like it was kinda this first connection that I really had outside of my break up and it kinda felt like the right person wrong time almost. I have this perfect, gentleman boy in front of me and I just really couldn’t feel anything even though I knew we had something and it felt special, I just couldn’t allow myself to let him in. and it was honestly really scary and I knew I wasn’t ready and I kept pushing myself and I was so mad at myself and was just so frustrated at the whole situation because I was like “Why, why Lexi, why can’t you do this, why can’t you just let him in, I think you are ready” but honestly I was not ready and I am really happy I listened to my heart and my emotions because I think it’s so important to not force yourself, or force yourself to do anything and everything happens for a reason, I always live by that and it’s so important to be happy within yourself before you are happy with someone else. And I have a lot going on and that was something that I need to focus on. I wrote this song back in July, and the process of writing the actual song was so much fun. I wrote it with one of my good friends FINNEAS. He and I, always have the best time in the studio, he really understands me as an artist and a songwriter and just as a person. It was honestly so fun, I think we wrote it within 2.5-3 hours or something and I was telling him everything that I just told you about all these weird emotions, these emotions I was going through and yea it ended up coming out now. And it’s been really cool to see how it’s grown as a song, starting with the demo and then the master, and just all the responses I’ve received, I am feeling really grateful.

You definitely did a great job of capturing all those emotions, it’s really cool to hear about the process and the final product, it’s really interesting to me. You talked about collaborating with FINNEAS, and you have collaborated with a few other people too, just producing, how has collaboration been for you?

 

Collaborating has been so good, these past two and a half years, I feel like I have really narrowed down who I love working with and who I enjoy making music with and I think one of the best parts about writing music and having collaborators, whether it’s a producer or writer is that I get to work with people tata re a good friend of mine and people I love working with. And obviously, everyone I work with is incredible and I feel so lucky to have a great team and support system around me, it’s really awesome. I also just love working with people, I think when you have an incredible producer, whether that producer writes or not, or you have a writer in the room, it’s so fun to bounce ideas and get other opinions from other people. I write so many songs in my bedroom alone so when I get to be in the studio with people who understand me as an artist and they ask me a different perspective or opinion on something I am going through, it’s a really interesting perspective to  reflect on, “ok, that is really cool, I would have never thought about that if I didn’t come in here.” But it’s a great process I love it. 

Yea that’s awesome, I feel like being able to collaborate with your friends is almost a dream…

 

Right? There is no other better position I would want to be in. You are with these people and you tell them everything about you and you are literally open to them, so it makes it even better when they are your friends. 

 

1000%. This question is somewhat unrelated, but I know that you go to USC, but what was the plan before making music and touring, or was it always music? I know you have been wiring songs since a really young age, and you grew up very involved in musical theatre, but was the plan always music, or were there other things you wanted to do?

 

I think music has always been the endgame plan, but I didn’t realize it for a while.Yes, I have been writing songs since I was 6 years old I grew up in musical theatre, and I was always performing and singing around the house, but I didn’t really consider it as a career. I was just doing it because it was something that I enjoyed. I didn’t realize it until COVID happened, once COVID happened, I obviously was like what is gonna happen now, I have no idea what is going to go on in this world, so I applied to college, I had been acting for years and years prior so acting was my main focus, but when covid happen the industry shut down and I had this incredible opportunity to sit in my room every day and write songs. Through that, I really uncovered my passion for music, and was like “oh, this feels right, this is what I am meant to be doing right now.” As the year went on, the past two years of writing new music, I cannot imagine my life any other way, it really is my entire life and I do not have any other plan. Obviously, there are so many things I want to do, I have so many passions and hobbies and so creative things I want to do, but I am very happy right now with the music I am making and the career path I am heading on, and its crazy to look back at my life. Really it’s always been there, but I have never really seen it until I committed to the craft and I am so happy I did because my life would be a lot different. 

 

I feel like covid had a big impact on the music industry just because many artists were able to have that moment of reflection…

 

Definitely

 

And I feel it also made people more vulnerable because everyone was in a way dealing with the same feelings…

 

Totally

 

We have talked about this connection aspect which is part of the reason why I think you are on the rise right now because you are so vulnerable you are able to connect with so many different people. When people are listening to your music what do you hope they take away from it? 

 

It is so nice to know that I am not alone…. When I am making music I know that honestly, all of us go through the same thing…No matter who it is and where you are in the world, this music I am making is connecting to so many people and it’s helping so many people heal. I get DM and messages all the time, from so many people expressing to me how much a certain song helped them get through a really painful time in their life or make them feel like they are not alone. This world can be a very lonely place even if you have a lot of people surrounding you, it can still feel really lonely. I think music is one of the only things that ties a lot of people together. When you think about it everywhere you go there is music playing, in the store, the restaurant, the car, literally anywhere you go music is playing and I think people gravitate toward music to feel something, feel emotion, and it’s a really beautiful thing to know that I am helping so many people and it’s honestly the reason why I do music. Knowing like, “OK, I can change someone’s life just by writing a song…That is why I do it because I am able to express emotions that a lot of people aren’t able to express…” Like I keep saying I am just really grateful and extremely excited about where my music is going to go from here.

 

This is our last question, I would love to know what you are looking forward to the most just for the rest of the year and also coming off of your headline tour, I am not even gonna wish that away, I hope that goes as slow as possible for you, but what should we look forward too later this year?

 

So many things are happening right now, that I am so excited to start talking about… I think the one thing I would like everyone to know is that there is so much coming and I am working very hard to make an incredible project for everybody. I am very very excited about what’s to come. Ahh, there is so much, I wish I could say more, but just know there is so much coming!

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Words + Photos// Will Bollini