#alex napping

Album premiere: Alex Napping, Mise En Place

Alex Napping

Photo by Helmut Sutdio

Austin-based quartet Alex Napping draws from the deeply personal and the sonically groovy to create storytelling with a beat. ‘Mise En Place’, the band’s upcoming sophomore full-length, weaves together the uncertainty of adulthood with a personal desire to establish existential structure. Revolving around a formative relationship, this album tells the story of lead singer Alex Cohen’s conflicting roles as both person and partner while highlighting a sophisticated, dimensional sound from the band at large… We talk to Alex Cohen about personal success, exploring spontaneity and colouring books…

// Chat! Chat! //

/ a conversation w Alex Cohen at YVYNYL / 

Alex Napping is a band that has worked hard on finding their place in the music cosmos. But it has taken time and moving across the country to find its way. When band leader Alex Cohen wrote me again since she sent me a Letter to YVYNYL under her solo project Pema, she said, "there's definitely a certain agony to waiting (to release a record) -- do I even connect to these songs I wrote almost two years ago? (Yes, I do, thankfully, but from a completely different perspective).” That perspective is what I wanted to learn more about, to understand where she’s been traveling over the past couple years.

Alex Cohen: Hey Mark! It’s Alex.

Mark Schoneveld: Hello! Great to connect. 😊

Alex: Yes! Sorry about all of this confusion haha... Really not sure what’s up,

Mark: #technology, right? 😊

Alex: Truly!

Mark: So where are you right now? home? work? the park?

Alex: I’m at a coffee shop/diner in Brooklyn called Trade Union. One of my favorite neighborhood spots!

Mark: Nice! I’ve been there. Brooklyn is good like that. You go there a lot? Or are you living there right now?

Alex: I’m actually living in Brooklyn, yeah! I moved up here last June. The rest of the band are still in Austin (I go back there a lot). T

Mark: What brought you to BK? Why the move? not for the winters haha

Alex: Haha you know I thought the winters would be a lot worse actually! This has been a mild one, though, I hear... But I’ve always wanted to live up here. I felt stagnant in Austin. Professionally and creatively. I felt like the energy of the city didn’t match my internal energy anymore. It was a great incubator and a great place to figure out a bunch of things about myself. But once I figured them out I felt a strong push to leave.

Mark: You hadn’t grown up there?

Alex: I moved there for college and stayed a little bit afterward, so I was there for 7 years. I was actually born on Long Island and spent most of my early childhood around the east coast (both of my parents are from Philly) so I jokingly say that I’ve finally returned home after all of these years.

Mark: haha nice. Do you get back to Philly a lot?

Alex: I wish I went more often. I still have a lot of family there.

Mark: I’m not a Philly native, but I’ve been here over 10 years now. I love this city. Will you be touring down this way anytime soon?

Alex: It’s a super fun city! We’re planning a May tour right now and will definitely be rolling through. I’m excited to get a chance to play a show there -- bunch of incredible bands coming out of Philly right now.

Mark: Who are some of your favorites?

Alex: I love Mannequin Pussy! The record they put out last year was incredible and we got to play with them in Austin in November. Super sweet people also. Love S P O R T S also.

Mark: I’m listening “Romantic” right now. Very Blonde Redheadish, right?

Alex: Oh yeah. Also just generally a versatile record, which I feel like is something I look for a lot in music these days.

Mark: Grrrl bands, eh? Do you associate yourself in that realm?

Alex: Hmmm. You know I’ve always felt like we’re not punk enough (and not in a bad way), but the older I get the more I realize that being a woman in the “indie rock” (or whatever) world is inherently punk. Well, punk in the sense that I feel like anybody of work I make is some sort of political statement.

Mark: Indeed. ’Tis the season/world we live in. Do you write any political songs?

Alex: Not overtly political. But I do write a lot about my experiences as a woman, which can be construed as political, I suppose!

Mark: Tell me about your band. Sounds like you’re all close buds.

Alex: Yeah! We definitely are. So, Adrian is the other guitarist and probably my closest creative collaborator in the project. Andrew plays drum and Tomas plays bass I’d known all of them for a long time before we started the project. We’d all been involved in different projects around the Austin music scene. One of those situations where I don’t really remember how I met any of them, they were always just kinda there. Haha.

Mark: haha, I know how that happens. 😊  blessed with friendships, along for the ride.

Alex: yeah! it’s been pretty surreal how things have panned out. I mean, I liked all of them as musicians, and they were all my first picks to be in the band when I was toying with the idea of starting my own thing. But it’s a. crazy that they all said yes and b. crazy that they all stuck around. In retrospect, none of us had ever collaborated and it seemed like a pretty random selection of musicians in the beginning haha. But it’s worked out!

Mark: so what’s coming up? the new record! what’s the summer going to look like for you?

Alex: Yes! We have a record coming out in May! We’ll be doing an East Coast run in May and then head out to the west coast in late June/early July. I’m also finishing up the 2nd record for my other project right and so I’m also trying to do a short east coast tour for that to tighten up/work out the live set. So, in essence, lots of touring. I’m also hoping that we’ll be heading back into the studio this fall, so I’ll probably head to Austin for a good chunk of time to rehearse for that.

Mark: Busy! That’s great. Do you have to balance a day job for all the travel plans?

Alex: I’m very fortunate that I can pay the bills with a remote part-time freelance “day job” -- I have a little bit of anxiety about how that’s going to work out with the amount of touring that I’ve got planned for the year, but I will cross that bridge when I get there!

Mark: Trust. All will work out. 😊  Thank you for your time, Alex. I truly appreciate it. Get another coffee and have a wonderful afternoon!

Alex: Of course! Happy to chat with you! Have a great afternoon also and hopefully see you down in Philly sometime! 😊

The Alex Napping full-length record is coming out on May 5th, 2017 on Father/Daughter Record.

If you’d like to chat with me, send me an email.

Pema, the solo project of the wonderfully talented Alex Cohen of @alexnapping, is the newest addition to our cassette series roster! We are very excited to share her first single "Depend" which premiered today via @stereogum, along with a lovely video to accompany it. Her new album, Bad Habits, will be available through us on cassette and digitally on May 18th. View the full article

Weak Knees  by Alex Napping

It's here y'all!! 'Bad Habits' by Pema (Alex of @alexnapping) is out today! Listen to this funky, soulful album from any of these places ~

Spotify

Bandcamp

Amazon Music

Apple Music

Google Play

TIDAL

YouTube

Alex Cohen is the mastermind behind the dream-pop band Alex Napping. Their latest album, Mise En Place, is one of the best albums that’s been released so far this year. In this interview we talk about her love of music videos, the collaborative writing process in the band, and her dreams of writing a YA sci-fi novel.

Q: One of my favorite aspects of your music is your lyrics. How do you usually go about writing your lyrics? Is it a very intentional process where you say, “I’m going to sit down and write a song now,” or do you have a journal that you draw from when you’re feeling musically inspired?

A: It’s a process that is always evolving and changing for me! I would say, for the songs on this record, the lyrics came as I wrote the music and accompanying melodies. All of the songs were very reactionary to things that were happening in my life at that point in time and I wasn’t really drawing from any past experiences, but rather responding to my current state of mind. But, that’s not really the case with the ‘Trembles’ singles or the record I’m currently working on. Q: You just returned from an extensive tour and you’re setting out on another tour in a few weeks. What has it been like for you to play this new batch of songs from “Mise En Place” for audiences all over the country? A: Touring is super fun and very exhausting and so many other things all at once. It’s been partially strange to be touring off of songs that were written as early as 2014 and recorded in early 2016 and that have been part of our live repertoire for a while now, especially since we have a ton of new material we’re working on, but it’s obviously fresh for pretty much everyone else, so that helps to keep it fresh for us too. We also did finally get to add a live version of 'Wife and Kidz' to our set in May which has been fun to perform and one of my favorite moments in our set right now.

Q: It seems like on this album the songwriting was a highly collaborative process, so did you have any trouble arranging these songs for your live sets? Was it something that you had in mind while you were in the studio to make sure you would be able to recreate the songs live?

A: The album was about half and half in terms of things that we had been performing before recording and vice versa. It was challenging, but both fun and rewarding to figure out how to perform songs live once we’d finish making the record. In those instances, a lot of pieces may not be present, but I almost prefer for live performances and recordings to be completely difference experiences from one another. I also don’t like to limit us in the studio by being concerned with how we’re going to figure out the live version. I feel that we’re an innovative and adaptable group and we will end up figuring something out that not only works, but is different from the recording in a special way.

Q: You recently released a music video for “Fault,” which is one of my favorite songs of the year. You wrote and produced the video, so was it a challenge for you to put visuals to such an emotionally intense song? A: Thank you so much!! Making music videos is one of my favorite auxiliary aspects of being a musician. I think in another life I would be a filmmaker. Coming up with the idea was actually a very natural process for me and I knew early on that I wanted to parallel the guilt and blame over the crumbling of a romantic relationship (what the song is about) with the guilt and blame experienced with having an eating disorder (what the video is about). The original concept was something that was pretty different than what we ended up with (due to things like budget limitations, etc), but the same emotional thread was always present and even as the loose “plot” adapted and evolved, I always knew the feelings I was hoping to move people through as they watched the video. Having Eleanor Petry, the director, on board helped streamline that process even more because she was spot on in interpreting all of my ideas visually and just generally did an amazing job bringing my vision to life.

Q: What was it like working with Father/Daughter Records to release Mise En Place? A: Working with Father/Daughter was amazing! Jessi, who runs the label with her dad (hence the name!), is one of the hardest working people in the music industry right now and she cares so much about her bands and her projects and their interests, which is extremely refreshing and rare.

Q: According to your bandcamp, Trembles Part I and Part II are based on a short story you wrote. Have you ever published your stories or have you only put your lyrics out into the world? A: I haven’t published anything! In college, I used to make a zine filled with poems I wrote, but that’s the closest I’ve ever gotten to publishing anything. There’s going to be a big storytelling component of the next record and I’m working through what that’s going to look like when it’s released and if there are going to be any companion pieces. I also have big dreams to one day write a YA sci-fi novel. Q: What’s in store for the future of Alex Napping? Does the new record you’re working on build off of the sounds and style found on Mise En Place and your earlier material, or would you say as of right now that it’s taking a bit of a different direction?