There’s an undeniably sunny energy about 22-year-old songwriter Alix Page. You can feel it in the way she talks about her life, creative endeavors, and especially in the words she shares about the community of musicians and fans around her. It could just be a Scorpio thing, but we’d say that this glowing, passionate person is really just who Alix Page is. Her confessional songs are vulnerable and honest, making for truly relatable listens for her fans. Combined with intentional instrumentation, Page’s allure seeps beyond personality and into her discography too. 

Akin to similar voices in the indie space such as Phoebe Bridgers, Clairo, or Angel Olsen, Page is a rising voice in the world of melancholy pop, and while she’s still early on in her career, she is already getting a taste of the recognition her music warrants. She toured with singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams while still just a sophomore in college, had her own headlining tour last year, and later this fall she’s going on tour again with a rising peer in alt-pop, Sarah Kinsley. 

Still, rather than pressuring herself to keep the momentum of her career going full speed ahead, these days Page is working on cultivating a healthy relationship between herself and her music. Musician or otherwise, Page is still only human, and everyone deserves a day spent roaming around art museums, or to take some time off to dive into the intricacies of a new relationship. In the end, even these days of relaxation end up being productive for Page anyway, with many of those moments lauded later once they reappear in the lyrics of her songs.

Still, Page has mentioned in past interviews how sadness is often the greatest of all inspirations behind her projects. In her song “Radiohead” she mourns the loss of the songs she can’t listen to anymore after an ex ruined them for her, while in “25” she imagines what her future might have been like if she had stayed in a past relationship. But now, in her latest single “Girlfriend”, she’s flipping the narrative, allowing herself to lean into her own unbridled happiness for a change. (She wrote the track as a homage to her boyfriend.) That new single is finally out today, and she sits down with 1883 to discuss the making of the new project, a newfound admiration for her hometown, what fans can expect from her upcoming EP, and more. 

You went to an arts high school. I was curious, was music always something that you expected to turn into a career, or was it just something that you really enjoyed and wanted to explore more? 

I definitely knew that music was always going to be what I wanted to pursue, but I didn’t come from a musical family. In my world, the only way I thought someone could make it was from going on “American Idol.” I didn’t really want to do that, but I was still going to do music. I was going to make it work and figure it out somehow. At my arts high school, obviously just being surrounded by people who are also doing it [music], it’s way easier to be like, hey, how are you guys putting music out? What’s DistroKid? Who are you guys working with? And that’s how I met most of my collaborators and producers and bandmates. So that was a huge turning point in just making the dream a literal reality.

That’s awesome. So were you an avid watcher of “American Idol” growing up?  

Yeah, growing up, it was a big thing. I remember watching Carrie Underwood win. I remember Kelly Clarkson’s first album coming out and loving “Since You’ve Been Gone”. That was the best era of TV.

I agree, I used to do the same thing with my family. We’d always watch “American Idol” together every week. Those times were so fun. 

Yes, like, the texting to vote and everything, that was so crazy looking back.

Yes, it was a full event! I really do kind of miss that era too. But looking beyond music, I saw that you’re also big into journaling too. Not even just traditional journaling either, junk journaling. How do you feel like that helps you as an artist? Does it help to see all your thoughts sorted out on paper and see what you have going on creatively?

Honestly, I use it for so many things. Some artists, they end up just writing poems basically and that ends up being their songs. I feel like my journaling is the very literal “dear diary, this is what I did today.” For me, it’s really nice to just get all of the messy, not-gonna-sound-good-in-a-song, clunky, and disorganized stuff out onto paper, so then the song that I write can have space for actual lyrics and stuff. My journals never end up coming out looking super poetic. It’s just basic thoughts. But I feel like that leaves room for the songs to breathe. It just gets all of that out of your system before you go put a song to paper and start creating melodies with it.

In a few of the journal entries that you’ve shared, and songs you have out too, you mention some of your inspirations for your sound. For example, you talk about Frank Ocean’s “White Ferrari” in your song “Frank”, and I even heard that you wrote a song from the perspective of Daisy from the Great Gatsby, which is so cool.

Wow, that’s a deep cut. 

I thought that was so interesting! But I was curious, how do you normally find inspiration for your sound? Does it find you in a way and sort of subconsciously influence what you’re doing? 

In high school, again, coming from a not-super musically-immersed background to a school where everyone is so talented, I was just like a sponge, taking all of it in and getting inspired by so many different things. In high school I was reading “The Great Gatsby” in English class and that was so inspiring, and then I was falling in love for the first time and that was inspiring, and then I watched, like, “Scott Pilgrim Versus the World” for the first time and I wrote a song about Ramona. I was just experiencing actual fun art for the first time. 

I feel like when I was younger that was way more of a thing, and now my songs are definitely more related to my life and my experiences and my feelings. I think sound-wise, I’ve been really inspired by bands. Super indie, guitar-based bands like Slow Pulp and this band called Ratboys are at the top of my list right now. That feeling of growing up, playing music with friends, that’s what I always want to go back to in my mind when I’m writing songs. So I think that’s been the kind of mood I’ve been going for in the new songs. Just starting them on acoustic guitar and expanding them out just from there.

That’s definitely a cool evolution. I love “Scott Pilgrim Versus the World” too by the way! That’s on my, um, what’s that app called where you rate movies? 

Letterboxd?

Letterboxd!

Yeah, well, I feel like it’s that kind of a thing too where I watched that at a high school friend’s birthday party, and his family rented out a really small theater in Long Beach that has just one screening room, and for his birthday party we watched Scott Pilgrim on a big screen and had pizza and it was just so much fun. So I feel like just that experience of watching it too is just really fun memories.  

That’s so special. Beyond movies, you just touched on some of the bands that you like and listen to as well. What are you listening to right now? 

I feel like Slow Pulp was more like last year. Honestly, I love the “Wicked” soundtrack a lot right now, that’s been kind of inspiring. I love BeabaDoobee’s new stuff. The band Momma has been really, really inspiring to me lately. My friend Kali just put out an album under the name Superfan, and it’s amazing. The album One Million Love Songs by Bnny, that’s also up there right now. That’s kind of a lot, but, yeah. 

No, that’s great. I haven’t heard a lot of those so I’ll have to check those out later. Speaking of stuff you enjoy, I saw that you have a Substack too where you share a lot about your life. Did you name your page [Your Name Twice] after a lyric from your song “June Gloom”? 

Mm-Hmm.

I love that. I also really love that you’re able to answer questions from fans there. I feel like it’s a really great way to connect with people in an untraditional fashion. How did the idea for that start, and have you felt that it’s helped you connect with your fans on a deeper level?  

Well, originally, I was on MailChimp doing newsletters once every three months, and I started taking those more seriously. Last year I did a Christmas gift guide and fun stuff like that. People seemed to just really like them. At the time I was going through a lot of songwriter’s block because I’d been sitting on a bunch of songs for a long time. It was hard to start writing new things while I still had those in my back pocket. Something that really helped was just writing those and trying to not worry about writing new songs. Again, just writing for the sake of writing and getting something on paper, it kind of became a tool to still reach out to fans while I wasn’t releasing music, and it ended up being really fun. 

I switched over to Substack a few months ago because it’s just a better platform and more interactive. But yeah, I’ve been loving it. It’s a good tool to reach fans, like you said, in an unconventional way. I think long-form writing is really fun and in a weird way kind of trendy and coming back. I think even long-form videos and YouTube are coming back. I love it. I think the more people that are writing and reading longer writing is amazing.

Yeah, I agree. You’re making me want to get a Substack. 

It’s so fun! It’s really sweet. 

Well I wanted to dig into your single now, obviously, because that’s what we’re here for. I heard that you co-wrote this track with your friend Lucy Healy. What was the process of writing it like?  

That was so fun. Do you know anything about Lucy and what she’s done or written? 

Not really. 

Well we connected for the first time because we both did a summer camp. I think I was like 16, and we ended up writing together there. She’s been working so hard for so long and has a bunch of songs in the new Madison Beer album, she just did the crazy LISA song “RROCKSTAR”. She’s getting insane credits right now. We just reconnected last summer and I brought her into a session with [my producer] Andy, and we started from scratch. I basically just gushed about the new guy that I was seeing. She already knew about it because I had gotten coffee with her, and we were just chit-chatting and giggling the whole time writing about it. It came super easy. I think we had the whole song done in a few hours writing-wise.

Part of it also stemmed from my boyfriend, and who it’s about. I was just starting to see him at the time and we had both made a playlist for each other. At one point I got brave and put the song “Boyfriend” by Best Coast on it. The whole hook of that line is, I wish he was my boyfriend. He responded and put “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” by The Ramones on my playlist. It was just the straight-up quality of how laid out it was that was so funny to us, and we just decided to go with that and flat out say, I want to be a girlfriend. So that was how it came to be. 

I love that story so much.

It’s so goofy. 

It’s so cute though. When I first started seeing my boyfriend, we did the same thing, making playlists for each other. I was thinking the same thing then of, what can I sneak in here that’s not too obvious? Is he gonna read into these lyrics?

Yeah, like, subtweet. I kind of hope they don’t notice, but, I kind of hope they do too. It’s so funny. 

Yeah, exactly. It’s cool that “Girlfriend” was able to come together pretty quickly for you too. I feel like that’s always a marker of a good song, when it comes together naturally, like it’s almost meant to be.

Yeah, well, it’s also hard working with friends, because before this we were like, okay, if we don’t have writing chemistry, it’s totally fine. We’ll still be friends, it won’t be awkward. And then of course, as it happened, it was so much fun and just flowed so easily. I just really trust her and her taste so it was awesome. 

Going off of that a little bit, I know you talked in the past about how it’s harder for you to write songs that are happy. I can feel that way as a writer too. It’s just easier to put stuff on the page when you have something you really want to get out. But for you, after writing this song, do you still feel that way? Or did writing it make you rethink things?  

I think it definitely made me rethink things. You’ll hear more of the songs as they come out, but what I learned from writing so many happy songs in such a short amount of time was that I think it really is just a matter of inspiration. Coming off of my headline tour last year and meeting this guy and just learning so much new music from him, there were so many things that I was inspired by. Talking to him and hearing all this new music and knowing what I wanted to play live from what I had been playing live, all of that stuff just added up and created these six or seven songs that are going to be coming out. 

So yeah, I think my perspective definitely changed on that. I used to think it was so much easier to just pour your heart out into a sad song, but I think it’s more just the inspiration factor and the catalyst for what makes you want to write. And once in a while, that is just being really happy or being really excited about someone.

You just mentioned your upcoming EP. What can fans sort of expect from that? 

Well there are definitely some sad ones in there. I couldn’t not do any sad ones.

[Laughs]

But most of the sad ones are older. I don’t think I’ve written a sad song in a hot second. The oldest song that will be on it is from 2020, which is crazy. Most of the other ones are pretty recent, like as of last summer. One of my best friends and bandmates from high school produced like three out of the six songs, so that was super fun to have him step into a producer role for the first time. I feel like that’s like the most that I can say right now, but I’m super excited.

It’s great that you still have those connections from school. So you have a song on the new EP from 2020, and you put a song on one of your older EPs from when you were 16. I know I look back at some of the stuff that I did when I was younger and I’m like, oh that’s cringe. I’m curious, do you think you’re still able to find inspiration from your past self? 

I honestly think it varies from song to song. I think “Stripes” is maybe the oldest song that’s out currently, and I feel like that one to me weirdly feels like I could have written it yesterday. It just feels very true to my writing style and roots and my first inspirations as an artist. But certain songs like “Frank” I look back on like, oh no, not the white ferrari, like it’s so funny. But again, that’s where I was at at 16. I was mad at a guy for telling me he was gonna take me on a date and we were gonna listen to Frank Ocean and we never went on a date and listened to Frank Ocean. That’s just where I was at and it’s totally fine. 

Yeah, that makes sense. And how do you feel like you’ve evolved since first starting out? Do you feel more confident in what you’re doing? 

Honestly, if you had asked me that in November, I would have been way more jaded in my answer. I was in a place of feeling pretty discouraged and music was taking a long time. I just felt like I was under scrutiny, even though I’m not really under that much scrutiny. But I think even in the last like three or four months, I feel so free and happy to be doing what I’m doing, and I think I just learned that there are no rules, truly, to any of this. You can be as DIY as you want to or as involved as you want. I think it’s just all been a huge learning process, but the more that I just focus on what sounds fun and what’s gonna make me the most happy, that’s always led me in the right direction. Obviously since my first song in 2020, I’ve definitely grown my audience and gone on tour, but I’m really back in a place of peace with just songs coming out and not really caring if they go viral tomorrow. I’m kind of just happy to be playing the long game and doing it because I love it, and the fans seem to be having fun too, and that’s kind of all I care about.  

That’s great. I love that response. I’m 23 so that’s really inspiring to hear. I’m in a similar mindset now too where I feel like I put a lot of pressure on myself to do all this stuff, and I have to remember to just enjoy the ride and like what I’m doing. 

Yeah, I feel like also, if you’re 23, we just lost so much from COVID, and a lot of my friends are finally just now getting over the hump, of well, okay, I literally lost a couple of years off my life, I might as well try to just have fun and make up for some lost time and not freak out about having a job that I’m gonna have forever right now and all that kind of stuff. 

Definitely. I have that conversation with my friends, like, every day.

Yeah, no, literally every day.

Well, we’re in it together. Another question I had, and this is sort of out of left field now, but, I did want to ask about what your writing process is like typically. I know I asked about your collaboration with Lucy, but is it different for you every time or do you have a routine? 

I would say it’s pretty different every time. It’s definitely good practice to start something, and even if you don’t like it for a while, just finish it anyway just because it’s good to cross the finish line as many times as you can with songs. But I think a lot of my songs have come together really quickly and kind of just been done. I’ll go through phases where I don’t write a new song for months and then something clicks and I just go through a week where I just write a million things down on my notes. Then the week after that I’ll sit down and everything will come together at once. It’s maybe not the most methodical, structured way to do it, but it’s been working for me so far. I think doing sessions here and there to get you out of yourself and just throw other brains into the mix is really helpful too. Putting out the journaling and the newsletters helps so much too because it’s just nice to be writing either way. If I’m not in song mode it’s nice to still be like putting things out there and stretching that muscle.

Yeah, I think that variety is really important. Since you just talked about having spurts of creativity coming to you, what do you do when you aren’t writing? What do you like to do in your free time?  

Since writing and music in general is so structureless, I do really well, honestly, when I’m really good about cleaning my room every day. Going on walks and reading and trying to go to a museum every once in a while and that kind of thing. I’ve even gotten a little bit more into cooking recently and that’s been so good, because you can’t be on your phone when you’re cooking. Using your hands and that kind of thing is really good for me. I feel like that only helps writing feel better, because if all my time is writing time, it’s just too much time to write. So yeah, I think that kind of thing really helps just make my brain feel better. I love museums as an off-day treat. They can be really inspiring for visuals and cover art. That’s a really fun way to get inspired for that. I love movies too, even like the dumb ones. I watched “Fly Me To The Moon” yesterday with my dad and kind of loved it. It’s the most random Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum movie, but it was so funny. I just think activities that help to engage you when you’re not on your phone is the most important thing for me to not feel crazy, because my whole job feels like it’s on my phone sometimes, and that can be hard to get out of.

Yeah, I have a similar mentality to you again there too. I need to have that structure and be self-disciplined about writing, so I definitely relate to that. But, anyway, I know you’re from California, and you’ve talked in the past about how you’re not a big beach-goer, but you find that the beach still inspires you anyway. I was curious about how big of an influence where you grew up has really been on your music?

I love that question. I feel like I’ve really been in such an Orange County pride phase. Orange County, where I’m from, gets a bad rap, and rightfully so, because a lot of the politics are insane and it’s a really strange subculture. But it’s just so beautiful. The beach here is so beautiful. In the summer, it’s like 10 degrees cooler here than LA and it’s so nice. And, I don’t know, I think even just the Orange County bands that have come out of here too. My bassist, his mom went to high school with Gwen Stefani and we talk about No Doubt all the time. I used to work in coffee and the guy that owned the coffee shop was always like, Gwen Stefani used to work in this coffee shop down the street, and there are just so many stories with music and that kind of culture. I think Gwen in particular, she is just really, truly an Orange County girl, and I really relate to that. Just coming from not a huge city, I feel like I just crave suburbs weirdly. 

I went to a concert with my mom and it was various previous founding members of a bunch of different bands. One of the guitarists from the Goo Goo Dolls and one guy from REM. So random but we know the bassist of Sugar Ray too, just from family friends and church, and he was one of my first mentors. Just Orange County music culture is kind of a thing, and my hometown pride is going really strong right now for some reason. But yeah, as far as the beach, pivoting to the beach specifically, sorry, I got so off track. 

No, you’re fine, it’s interesting. 

I love going to the beach. I just hate the ocean. That’s my only thing. I’m so afraid of the ocean. I think it’s just the waves and how unpredictable and big they are. But the beach is just so calming. Also, during COVID, I was going in the fall of 2020 a lot because it was so empty. Still if you go on a weekday in January, you’ll be the only person on the beach and it’s so amazing. I’m also a Scorpio and people have told me if you’re a water sign, the water is comforting to you. I don’t know if that has any meaning, but I definitely feel like when I go to the beach and just sit and look at the water, it’s very calming and refreshing. Also just to get outside and connect with nature, because so much of my job is sitting in rooms and writing.

Yeah, definitely. It’s good to have that balance. I’m a Cancer too, so I feel you with the love of the water. 

Really? Okay, yeah. I love swimming, but I just hate the ocean. Growing up I had a pool and I was always in the pool and swimming. It’s so peaceful. That’s so funny. 

It’s a water sign thing. I definitely feel the same way about the beach. I grew up by the coast in Charleston, and I also do not like going in the water, but I do find looking at it is very calming. 

Right. 

Especially at night.

It’s so beautiful, and just like the sound of it. I kind of love the feeling of sand on your feet too. Even though it sticks to you, it’s so nice. 

Yeah, that definitely is a comfort. Well it’s been a few years since you released your debut project, and you’ve toured with some pretty big names since then. Now you’re about to tour with Sarah Kinsley and just a lot of cool stuff is happening for you. Personally, I think you’re about to blow up. But, looking back, how does it feel now that you’ve come this far? And, looking forward, what’s your end goal? What do you hope to do in music? 

Looking back, I feel like I really did hit the jackpot with, again, the people I met who have helped grow this ecosystem of artists and producers. It’s been so much fun. And again, having come from Orange County is really just fun and cool to me too. But looking back, I don’t think I thought that I would be touring this much this early. Growing up, I didn’t go to that many concerts. I think my first concert was Taylor Swift at Crypto when I was like 13, so I didn’t even have a concept of playing smaller rooms and being in a van and what that would even look like. I was so unaware of the touring world that’s out there and the independent world and how much you can accomplish by doing it by yourself. It’s been so amazing, and, again, I’ve gotten so lucky with the people that I’ve met. 

But I don’t know if I’ll ever want to play Crypto or arena-sized rooms. I think my goal is more to keep hopefully the same fans coming back to every show and to still cultivate that community. That part’s been really fun to me. The artist part of it is so much fun too, like finding the best merch item to pull, and finding the visuals to match the song perfectly. That kind of stuff is so fulfilling to me, so I think it’s mostly just about being able to do all of that forever, and tour forever. If I can keep the same people coming to shows and just keep touring, that’s kind of my goal. But at some point, like, I would love to maybe get into teaching a little bit too. I love musical theater, honestly. There are so many things, but I think it’s just fun that the possibilities are so endless. I want to just dip my toes into as much of the music world as possible. So that’s the main goal. 

That’s great. I can tell that you love what you do, so that’s always like the best thing. Do you have anything you want to add?

As far as teasing some of the new songs, if “Goose” is anyone’s favorite song of mine, they’re gonna be really excited with the new songs. I think that’s probably the closest to the direction that we’re going in with “Goose” and “Toothache” and that EP. We’re going back to that style of bandy, guitar-based, upbeat stuff, which is really exciting. 

That’s super exciting! I’m so glad that you sat down with me and talked about yourself and the single. This has been really fun.

Thank you so much for having me, it’s been so awesome. So nice talking to you.

“Girlfriend” is out now.

Interview Camryn Teder