Alexander 23 released his first EP, „I’m Sorry I Love You” in 2019, and even then, it was crystal clear that the main focus of his music are his emotions. He further proved it with his latest songs, and his second EP, which is coming very soon, is shaping up to be a real emotional rollercoaster, as he says writing it was just like that. Millions of people can relate to the Chicago native’s brutally honest lyrics, so it should come as no surprise that his song “IDK You Yet” was certified gold in the US in these past couple of days. Still, he doesn’t believe he’s special in any way: he says that he goes through the same things as everybody else, but that’s exactly what makes his music so relatable and special.
We sat down to chat with Alexander a week before his 26th birthday via Zoom, and to our biggest surprise, it quickly turned out that he’s actually Hungarian!
This is exciting for me because I’m Hungarian! My last name is really Glantz which is Hungarian, so it’s an honor!
Of course, we couldn’t miss the opportunity to teach him a Hungarian word, but before that, he told us about his beginnings as a songwriter, his song with Jeremy Zucker, his inspirations, we asked him how he would define success, and he even told us the incredibly cute story behind the very first song that he ever wrote – exclusive interview with Alexander 23.
First of all, happy early birthday to you!
„Aww, thank you very much! I appreciate it.”
How is the New Year starting out for you?
„It’s starting out really good for me, honestly. I just finished this EP that I’m super excited to release so I can’t complain, it’s been good to me so far. I’m hoping that it stays good and it’s better than 2020.”
Did you make any resolutions?
„I did make a few! Some music specific, and honestly, most of them are not even music specific. Like, I’m trying to read a book a month. That’s a big one for me. I know that sounds like a very lame, small goal, but…”
No, that’s actually very cool!
„Yeah, and music-wise, I just wanna be more consistent as far as releasing music. I think 2020 kinda threw off my rhythm a little bit, as I think it did for a lot of people with the lack of touring and other stuff going on.”
I just wanna get back to consistently releasing music because I’m always writing it so I might as well put it out.
Let’s go back to your beginnings a bit. When and how did you start writing songs?
„I started writing songs when I was pretty young, probably like 10 or 11 years old. I started on guitar and I think whenever someone starts playing guitar, their immediate first desire is to become an absolute shredder, like you wanna be Eddie Van Halen, so I definitely went down that road.”
But I think, and I’m grateful for this because I don’t think this is always the case, I kinda quicky learned that, hey, I obviously wanna really practice the guitar and get really good, but what’s more important to me is to be able to tell stories and write songs.
„I’m thankful that I realized that fairly early on and shifted my main focus to really just taking in and writing.”
Do you remember the very first song that you ever wrote?
„I do and it was a very funny song. I was 11 years old or whatever, and I broke up with my girlfriend at the time, whatever that even means. The next day, I realized that I made a terrible mistake so, by the water fountain at lunch, I said “hey, you know, I really made a big mistake, I’d really like to be your boyfriend again” and she said, “if you really feel that way, you’re gonna have to go and prove it to me because you really hurt my feelings”. So, naturally, as any 11-year-old boy would do, I went home that day and I wrote her a song, and it worked!”
Honestly, looking back, I think that positive reinforcement was probably something that made me think, hey, maybe I’m okay at this!
You’re not just a singer-songwriter, but a producer too, and you produce your own songs. What’s your favorite part of creating?
„My favorite part of doing it all I’d say is that there’s the least amount of latency between my brain and the song.”
You know, if I think it, I have the skills and the ability to make it happen right away and exactly how I hear it, which is a super liberating way to feel.
Your first EP, “I’m Sorry I Love You” is kind of more up-tempo production-wise, while your latest works, “IDK You Yet” and “Brainstorm” are more stripped back. Was this an intentional change and is it the direction your music is going?
„Yeah, I think it was intentional, in a way. For my second EP, I definitely put more emphasis on the songwriting itself. You’ll see just a little bit less electro-inspired production. Moving forward, my goal is to balance the two, where I can really-really place a lot of importance on the songwriting while simultaneously be able to do a few more up-tempo songs, as well. There are a couple of up-tempo songs on the EP that aren’t out yet that I’m also really-really excited about.”
Which song of yours would you show to a person that doesn’t know you yet?
„Well, it’d be a miss if I didn’t use this opportunity to say “IDK You Yet” considering you said “don’t know you yet”! But yeah, I’d probably say “IDK You Yet”.”
I think it’s a song that definitely reflects the tone that I would like an aspire to continue taking just as far as kinda digging in to these super personal yet universal emotions.
Who were your biggest inspirations growing up, and who are they now? Did they change?
„Some changed and evolved with me but then there are certain kind of staples that I always go to. Someone like John Mayer, whom I think will always continually inspire me. He’s someone that’s so incredibly musically gifted but always remembers to put the song first and I think that’s something that is a timeless attribute of someone. I think all my favorite musicians, whether it’s Fleetwood Mac or even just my friends now that I really enjoy their music, I think one common thread is that they’re all incredibly talented, but they all remember that the most important is the song.”
Everything should serve the song rather than your ego or your specific skill out of songwriting.
Now that you’ve mentioned your friends, you recently put out a song with Jeremy Zucker, “Nothing’s the Same”. Can you tell us a bit about that song? What were the main inspirations behind it, and how did it all come together?
„Jeremy has been a friend for a while and is obviously incredibly talented, but that was actually the first day that we had gotten the chance to work together.”
We just got together at my house, and were just kinda talking out how we felt, just two dudes, just chatting it up, talking about feeling, and before we knew it, we kinda had this song concept that resonated with both of us.
„I think it was important for us that if we were ever gonna do a song together, we wanted to be believable. We wanted it to be about something real. And what’s more real than how you feel in 2020? Before we knew it, a few hours later, the song kind of just wrote itself, in a way.”
The video is also a very good representation of how most of 2020 looked like for a lot of us. Who came up with its concept?
„We kind of all did, between Jeremy and our creative director Stefan Kholi and the director Jason Lester.”
We were obsessed with this idea of being trapped in the monotony and the routines that we all made throughout the last year and started to really question and wonder “was it always like this? Did we always feel like this?”. Because, not to quote the song, but it can get very hard to remember.
Obviously, 2020 was extremely hard for a lot of us, but I feel like, for you, it went quite well. You played your very first headline show at the beginning of the year, you released you biggest song to date, “IDK You Yet” and had your debut TV performance at James Corden’s show. All in all, I think we can say you had quite a successful year, but what I’m curious about is, how would you define success? What does success mean to you?
„First of all, I agree, I’m super grateful that all facts considered, 2020 was very-very kind to me and a lot of people had a much rougher time. As far as success goes, I think one of the most difficult parts of 2020 was that I love playing shows, I live for playing shows.”
I obviously love writing songs but playing shows for me is the greatest pay-off.
„It’s so incredible to see how many times my music has been streamed, it’s surreal, I can’t even comprehend those numbers. The easier way for me to measure how good of a job I’m doing as far as connecting with people emotionally, because that, I think, really is my job when you boil it down, is shows. So, the biggest bummer was that I wasn’t able to have those moments and have those shows where you can kinda see it in front of your face how you’re really impacting people and how they’re connecting to the words that you wrote.”
© Ashley Osborn 
© Ashley Osborn
Let’s talk about your new EP. We saw that it’d finished, you posted about it, how long have you been working on it?
„It’s been a while! Honestly, since “IDK You Yet”, so it was kind of an 8-month writing process of really just trying to dial in exactly how I felt. And obviously, like everyone else in my life, a lot has changed both professionally and personally in these last 8 months, so it was certainly kind of a rollercoaster.”
It wasn’t always easy to write this EP, and to get these feelings onto paper and into my computer, but I’m really, really, really happy and satisfied with the final result.
„I think it definitely captures how I felt over the last 8 months, for sure.”
Is it just you, or are there any collaborations on it?
„It is just me. Besides that the song with Jeremy is on it.”
And when can we expect to hear it?
„It’s coming soon! It’s coming real soon.”
Now, I’d really like to know your opinion about a very specific subject. You know, there are these people, who like, cry over boys that they haven’t even met in real life…
*Laughing*
So, what’s up with the song “Cry Over Boys”? Your fans are going crazy for it!
„Yeah, I know! Honestly, at this point, I feel bad! I feel like I’ve just teased it so much, and I put it on the internet way before it was even really finished. But having said that, it is not extremely finished! I was really-really excited for people to hear the whole song, honestly, because there’s a lot more to it than what I’ve prematurely leaked onto the internet so far.”
This next question came from one of our readers, she was like, “does he know that his music saves lives?”. She told us that it really helped her through stuff.
„I mean, that’s honestly one of the nicest things anyone could ever say to me.”
When I go in and write a song, the intention is, to be totally transparent, never to help someone, it’s really to help myself.
„It’s a very selfish process, and I think it needs to be like that for me to be the most honest and most vulnerable. And in turn, if I do my job well of being honest and vulnerable and selfish in the creation process, I’ve found that it can help other people.”
Because what I’ve learned is that I am incredibly not special! There’s nothing special about me, I am just a regular fucking dude and everyone else is going through the same shit that I’m going through.
„So, if I’m just honest about it, then in turn, I’m able to help people, which is by far, nothing’s close, the coolest part of my job and my life so far. I’m so grateful that I can play that role in other people’s lives, it’s such a blessing and it’s so cool to see.”
Finally, is there a message that you would like to share with your Hungarian fans?
„Just that I love you and I truly appreciate you. I’m baffled that you even exist! Because I’m from the middle of the United States, and the fact that you have heard my music, let alone like it enough to call yourself a fan, is so incredible to me. I hope to make it back to the motherland soon!”
Before we let you go, we would like to teach you something, so you can kind of take away something from this interview, as well.
„Please!”
You’ve mentioned you’re Hungarian. Do you know any Hungarian words?
„I don’t, but I’m eager to learn!”
Okay, so is it okay for you if we teach you how to say “I love you” in Hungarian?
„Yeah, please!”
Alright, so it’s “szeretlek”.
„Szeretlek.”
Yeah, perfect! For the first time, like a pro!
„I’m a natural!”
