Artist To Listen: Lexie, Vibin’ On Her New Track “I Still Got A Crush On You”

What will it take for Lexie‘s vocally complex, cheerful yet occasionally melancholy, melody-fueled pop to attract a bigger audience this year? Basically everything that she’s doing right now. We can’t get enough of it, and it’s difficult to think that this excitement won’t quickly spread to the rest of the music industry.

When it comes to the production of music that uplifts the soul, Lexie believes that one must put in a lot of effort without sacrificing one’s integrity in the process. After all, the degree to which you successfully imitate others is not nearly as important as the fact that you are an individual artist. We refer to her newest track as “confessional songwriting,” and it features visuals and a melody that are inspired by coming-of-age films and lo-fi, respectively.

In light of the fact that Lexie maintains a full-time job in addition to her music management responsibilities, we still took the time to prepare some questions for her to answer on our first ever weekly segment entitled “ARTIST TO LISTEN.” We are indebted to her for contributing her time to this feature, for which we are extremely thankful. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Lexie just yet, read on and keep up with her social media!

So, Lexie, how did you get that moniker? Tell us about yourself; do you enjoy seashore sand and sun flowers on rainy days?

So Lexie came from my first name. My real name is Alexa and my friends and family would either call me Lex, Lexa or Lexie. For me, Lexie really stood out as an artist name because it was catchy and may dating siya. It was a good mix of cute and taray/arte which I think pretty much sums me up as a person. (laughs)

Lexie is kinda like my alter ego. She’s cool, confident and talented. She’s hella badass. And me, Lexa, the one who writes the songs….I’m just me. (laughs). In a way I get to channel my thoughts and aspirations through her. The duality shows in my music too — I Still Got a Crush on You is mellow, sweet, and more intimate while Psychic is very savage, baddie energy.

That’s really what I love about making music — there aren’t any rules and you don’t have to be limited to one style. I’m very explorative and I don’t wanna be boxed by a certain genre. Like I’m down to do slow ballads then sing-rap the next.

Outside of music though, I enjoy the outdoors so much. I can’t not be around nature. I just need life around me – the sun, trees, water, animals, and people. It really affects how I am throughout the day and how I perceive things. I actually lived in La Union for three months last year and more recently there’s a growing community of musicians there, I find it super cool.

What kind of creative approach and atmosphere do you employ when writing a song?

When starting a song, I mostly let the melodies flow based on how I’m feeling. Sometimes I’m able to freestyle the words when I feel so much. Sometimes I have a hard time condensing my thoughts into phrases. For me, there’s no fixed formula to it.

But one thing I keep in mind when writing is to get real and honest. Like, really expose my thoughts and emotions out in the open. My goal is to be genuine and write about things that help me get through stuff, hoping that if it makes sense for me it’ll make sense for someone else.

I also enjoy creating remixes of my favourite songs, wherein I keep the beat and just change the lyrics to my own experiences. That’s when I get most vulnerable. I touched on a bunch of personal topics on these remixes, it’s basically my open diary.

Before recording, do you have any specific rituals?

No actually, I never thought of that. I don’t have anything specific that I do, I should probably create one (laughs). Hmm I guess I prefer recording my own vocals? I get self-conscious kasi when the engineer is just there. I know, eventually I’ll have to learn not to be like that but I’m also still waiting for the day I find an engineer/producer who I’m really comfy to share my ideas and be stupid with. They say it’s kinda like dating and I agree 100%. (laughs)

I Still Got A Crush On You is the title of your fresh new single; could you tell us more about the inspiration for the song and whether or not it was written about a specific person? Or is it one of those summer flings?

So I wrote this song a really long time ago and it was the first song I posted on SoundCloud for fun. It was about this guy from high school who I had a crush on for the longest time…I don’t know hanggang dun lang. Like we talked when I was in university but it didn’t happen anyway. Sorry guys, no juicy story here! (laughs)

You’ve been performing original and cover songs for the past few years; do you want to one day sign with a major label? Or do you prefer being independent?

I’m not really closed off to the idea of labels but since this is my position right now where I’m doing music independently, I just focus on the learning curve of how to do things better. It’s really hard having a full time job at the same time though — my day job pays for my music, so I work.

There’s work on top of work. Corporate work, producing work, songwriting and creative work, and content marketing work. It’s tough. It’s a bunch to handle all at once while also balancing my own personal life and happiness. Will being signed to a label help? Sure. Do I want to be signed to one? Depends.

My goal is to find people who love music genuinely and at the same time can do business. I’m not looking for people who’ll use my music to run their business.

You’ve performed predominantly English songs; do you hear yourself writing and singing in Tagalog?

I actually want to. There’s this artist, her name is Lolo Zouai. She’s Algerian, French, and American. I’ve seen her include Arabic, French and English in her songs and they fit very well. I want to do something similar but it needs to sound good and not forced. I have yet to write Tagalog lyrics though, I tried but it was kinda difficult. Maybe one day I’ll work something out.

Is there anyone to whom you’d like to express gratitude or give a shout out, perhaps the person behind your new song? (haha)

Although this song was inspired by someone in the beginning, I think the meaning we give songs progresses and aligns to how much we’ve also changed overtime. Basically, it just depends where you’re at in life.

At the time, the line “I got you but I still got a crush on you” was lovey dovey. I was fantasizing about someone I had a crush on for the longest time. Nowadays, it evolved more towards my life. For me it means loving life and being grateful for where I am now.

What else can we expect from you and your upcoming projects?

Songwriting to me is some sort of metareasoning. The more I write, the more I realize. So for sure, upcoming projects will have themes touching on individualism, reflection, spirituality, love, loss, society, etc. It gets deep bro. (laughs) On a lighter note, I’ll still continue creating songs like Psychic cause I love getting hyped too.

I have two more singles lined up so I’m really excited to share those two very soon. For now, I Still Got a Crush on You is out on Spotify and all other streaming platforms. Thank you so much for the support so far and I can’t wait share more of my art with you.

STREAM: I STILL GOT A CRUSH ON YOU