Alexsmind is the experimental project of Gainesville, Florida artist Alex Smith who describes the sounds as “More music to feel one with the universe and the inner self, ranging from dreamy to noisy, dark and bright, but mostly guitar-centered soundscapes.”
Alex recently released a record called “The Sojourn” which you can check out here.
I caught up with Alex to talk about their early musical influences, how they started playing music and the making of “The Sojourn”.
CMM-What was the first music that really made an impact on you as a kid and what artist or band did you enjoy the most?
Alex: this is a hard question (all of them may be hard for me to answer lol) because I feel like my musical adventure was like a gradual growth over the years. I recall playing piano when I was around 6, but we (I say we a lot cuz I have a twin brother and we did everything together back then, I apologize) got taken out of it after a few months for some reason. We got into video games very heavily for many years and really gravitated towards the music on them. Some anime too. Many of the common ones like Yoko Kanno, Nobuo Uematsu, Kazumi Totaka, etc. then I got into nu metal and Korn and Slipknot were my favorite bands as a kid. Also listened to a lot of Lil Jon thanks to Need for Speed. Fell in love with Buckethead, then got into heavier music discovering the Acacia strain, Behold the Arctopus, etc. Then took a huge left field and listened to classical music for a few years (Rite of Spring is my fav classical piece). And then I kind of just jumped all over the place. Got addicted to various groups like death grips, the roots, Meshuggah, and others I can’t name. Now I dabble in music that literally ranges from pure silence to pure noise and everything in between. It feels very blissful to be able to appreciate all kinds of music, kind of like a John Cage philosophy, even “music” in your surroundings and nature (I mean, hello, field recordings!). But to answer your question in shorter words, I think the answer was from all the damn video games I played and my growing appreciation for the music in it. It’s so diverse and expansive I couldn’t help but get sucked in.
CMM-When did you all first start playing music and creating your own songs?
Alex: Tbh I like that you said All in this case. Now, in the sense of alexsmind, it is a one man solo project and I do everything myself since 2022 to now. However, I have started making “music” since I was 13 back in 2007 with my brother. We were homeschooled (technically just delinquents) and had a lot of time on our hands. From then all the way to around 2013, we have literally composed hundreds of hours of music, and slowly grew our styles and “talents” thru self teaching most of the time. Our early music was such a joke, it’s kind of charming to me (I’m actually hoping to release our very first album someday cuz I love documenting that history and the humor behind it too). But it is gratifying to see us evolve from then to now, and even know I still consider myself a complete amateur. Back then we used DAW’s like garageband and cubase and all of the music was synthetic or using samples. We made many genres of music this way. Very fun and expansive for creativity. If you’re curious, you can find some of it on “TheTwinsCompositions”.
We don’t really compose together much (he lives in Oklahoma with his wife rn) but we still do music and talk about it a lot. Just had a deep convo with him today about it in fact. I can’t wait for him to make more music. I miss him.
CMM-You recently released a new record called “Sojourn”. What was the writing and recording process like? Any particular gear and instruments you used during the recording sessions that helped inspire you?
Alex:This project was a plan I had for when I went on vacation to a cabin at a barn in Georgia. I really wanted to kind of have a lightning in the pan moment and record everything while on the trip, so everything you’re hearing was when I was in Georgia. The only thing I did was some post production back in Georgia cuz I dont really have a portable laptop (I did bring my steam deck but the Linux daw system is sooooo difficult for me to use, all I did was make that extremely bad 30 sec piece “feeling silly” on it lol). I utilized a lot of one takes, field recordings, use of crappy recorders and tapes (only minimal, I mainly used a Tascam DR-05X), various crappy equipment (both guitars and amps and such didn’t even cost me $60, and I think the pedals I got with the pedal board was $100 total). Had a wood frog block, a cheap Korg monotron and volca sample, and other things I can’t think of right now. Hell, one of the pieces was me literally recording am frequencies in my car driving back from being in woodbine ga. So, it was a lot of experimentation for me. Finding what I could get cheaply was a great inspiration, using what you had. If I had more time I would have even done a Wesley Willis tribute piece but I didn’t plan that far ahead.
Yes, it was very fun, and gratifying, but as a listening experience, I don’t deny this album is very self-indulgent and probably one of the worst projects I made so far because of how incredibly messy it is. But that is how I feel personally.
CMM-If you could do a score for any film director who would it be and what would the film be about?
Alex: I remember reading one of your recent interviews asking this and the guy I read mentioned David Lynch, and I would have to agree with him on that. RIP, I’m going to miss him. However, in all honesty, I likely wouldn’t take my music to places as huge as that, depending on the circumstances and what I can do. I prefer a peaceful life but I like the idea of just slowly growing this project of ideas I make for myself and seeing if any cathartic can come from others with it. But with that being said, I prefer smaller projects and getting into more local things. I would love to do music for local artists and film makers. I mean heck, that is what my brother and I did for a while, we did music for small video games and short films.
CMM-What do you have coming up next? Any new recordings or shows?
Alex: Funny enough, right after I made the Sojourn, I also released a single of a 13 minute doom metal song heavily inspired by Boris. It just sounds so good to my ears. Then I ended up making another single that I consider the “mascot” of my project under the name of the project with the image I used that I call “beautiful chaos”. Feel free to buy that image as stickers if you would like! But yeah, I’m always releasing something because I do it for myself, and if it is too much for everyone I apologize, but hopefully it can be enjoyable for someone. Otherwise, I know it is enjoyable for me. I currently have about 6 projects planned and I just need to execute them in due time (I work full-time at the University of Florida so sometimes time isn’t with me, same with energy and dealing with mental issues, which is the main inspiration of this project “alexsmind”).
When it comes to shows, I have never done a show yet for alexsmind. I do have some plans but that will be years down the line, and I’ll likely do a mock live show as a YouTube video first to see how I feel. Plus I virtually have no fans and zero following lol, so it would be a waste right now, but I do find the idea fun. I have a projector and sheet to blast images to my face with a dirty mixer VHS thing I made to blend video signals to create a glitchy effect. I want to incorporate improv live as well. We will see what unfolds as time goes on.
And if that is all, I want to thank you for this opportunity you have given me, Dave. Keep on keeping on and I appreciate your love for music and supporting the small ones out there doing their best and what they love.
