Alexandra Savior on Self-Worth, Early Success, and Her Forthcoming Album
When you hear Alexandra Savior sing, it feels less like listening to a song and more like eavesdropping on a beautiful secret. With a voice that drips with vintage noir as if she was conjured by a David Lynchian dream, Savior’s tracks both bewitch and comfort, transporting us to a world where everything is fine.
First discovered by Courtney Love when she was seventeen, Savior quickly crooned her way into the hearts and playlists of millions, picking up production co-signs with luminaries including Alex Turner and James Ford along the way.
Our publisher, Kristin Prim, caught up with Alexandra to discuss her newest single, “The Mothership,” and her forthcoming album, Beneath the Lilypad, out May 16th via RCA Records.
KP: I found many parallels between our stories – succeeding very young and getting to be mentored by icons that we looked up to, which is the absolute greatest honor.
You were initially spotted by Courtney Love at the age of seventeen on YouTube, who went on to correspond with you regularly, which I’m sure was incredible.
Is there anything that you learned from that experience that you still carry with you?
AS: She introduced me to Stevie Nicks. That was a big one. She sent me a lot of references that have stuck with me, like Stevie Nicks and Fiona Apple. At that time, I was not exposed to a lot of female musicians, necessarily, that were also rock stars, so she introduced me to powerful women.
KP: That’s incredible. I’m so grateful for the early teachers in my life who turned me onto all of these iconic, powerful women as well. It changes your life.
I was fourteen when I first found any attention, and you were sixteen, so we were both very young. I have a very love/hate relationship with early success – I think that it can create a terror of a human just as much as it can create a great person, and it can set you up for a lifetime of despair and emptiness just as much as it can create a life of success and fulfillment.
What did early success bring you? Did you ever wish that it had found you a little later on in life or further along in your musical development?
AS: I do wish that I would have gone to college. It was too early, and I think that getting attention for something that you haven't really had the time to perfect, or for a skill that you haven't had the time to really invest energy into, was complicated because I was so underdeveloped as a songwriter and also as a person – as most people are when they're 16. It felt kind of like I was being rushed to find not only my identity as a songwriter and an artist, but my identity period. It caused me a lot of anxiety, and I think it made me susceptible to some forces that had no problem pushing me into whatever identity they thought would be right for me.
I think that I learned a lot from that situation, though. It has helped me be a little more certain in decisions that I make now, because I know what happens if you aren’t.
KP: Definitely. I always say that at some point you realize that this whole team you hired – managers, agents, publicists, whatever – are there to sell you as a product for their own benefit and not to improve you as a person. That’s when I let them go.
In a conversation with Interview, you said, “It’s hard to have people try to mold you into a version of what they find sellable, or a version of somebody else, or a version of everybody else. When I was sixteen, I went to a record label… I did a showcase and sang them three of my songs. Afterwards they sat me on a stool and asked me, ‘Do you want to be like Pink or Katy Perry?’ And I thought, ‘Oh, what have I gotten myself into?’”
As someone who has never been involved in the music industry from a creative standpoint, it blows my mind just how much they want to ready-package performers as products.
You have a very strong image and vision, and I don’t feel like your sound has really been compromised, only fortified through the years.
How have you navigated not being controlled by the industry?
AS: I think I would be a lot more successful if I was comfortable with allowing someone else to be in control of my work, but I wasn't – my career probably suffered from that. But I think that as a woman and as an artist, it was very painful to be put in situations where people were trying to take over, you know? A lot of the reason why it took so long for me to put this album out is because I was very sure in my decision that I did not want to be swayed within the process of this album being made or released. Your career doesn't have to be the most important thing in the decisions that you make. Your soul is much more important, and I learned the hard way to prioritize that.
KP: You definitely did the right thing. What advice would you lend women who struggle with the temptations of conformity, either in life or work?
AS: It's really difficult to be a woman because, whatever decision you make, it's like nothing is going to be right in the eyes of a lot of people. It feels tacky to say, but my advice would be to follow your instincts, especially when it comes to art. I think that we're taught as women to go against our instincts because, if we follow them, then it's a lot more difficult for people to take advantage of us. But you shouldn’t do something you don’t want to do, as you're the person that has to sing that song, you're the person that has to live that life, and you're the person that has to show this art to everyone. It's your name, and it's your face, and it's your voice, and it shouldn’t matter whether or not someone has an opinion about it – they're not the one that has to live with it, you know? If you can't live with something, then it's going to tear you apart.
KP: I think that’s great advice. As women, we instinctually have cutthroat intuition, and it’s our job to use it at every turn.
I read that after your manager quit, Columbia dropped you as an artist, which you said felt like an abject failure, and like it could have been the end of your career. Needless to say – and thankfully for us – this was not the case, but it’s so easy to just quit in times of great uncertainty and difficulty.
What kept you going, and did you learn anything from your setbacks? If so, what was it?
AS: Like we were saying before, I think I learned that if I just focus on the art itself and try to create something of quality, that eventually the right people will find me. It's sort of like being in a group of friends that maybe aren’t right for you, or getting out of a relationship with somebody that you're not compatible with. There's always going to be that time of wandering, and, you know, focusing on yourself within that time is only going to bring people around you who support you and understand both you and your vision.
We’re all constantly changing. I was so young when I signed with Columbia, and I really put my worth within the idea of having a label. I found that within making this record – where I didn't have a label until it was almost completely finished – that that's not really where my worth lies, which was a good thing to understand.
“Follow your instincts, especially when it comes to art.
I think that we're taught as women to go against our instincts because, if we follow them, then it's a lot more difficult for people to take advantage of us.”
KP: It definitely is. Our worth is always inside of ourselves.
Your single, “Unforgivable,” explores the misuse of power and was written as a mantra to stop blaming yourself for the things that you have been through. Of course, this is unfortunately a very common experience for women to face.
You write, “And when I get the chance, I’ll muster up some recklessness / And when I stick up for myself, I’ll use the knife that you once held / And when it’s time for you to pay, I’ll send an invoice right your way.”
What helped you turn a corner in stopping the self-blame cycle? What gave you the confidence to stick up for yourself against an abuser?
AS: Therapy. [Laughs]. I think that, instead of just learning how to stick up for myself, I realized that for a really long time I had been taking these experiences, putting myself on trial, and imagining that I'm in a courtroom in front of people who are deciding whether or not I have the right to be upset about being abused, or whether or not I was abused, or whether or not that situation was morally or ethically corrupt.
It really doesn’t matter what other people's perceptions of my life and what I've experienced are. First of all, no one really cares, but it also doesn’t matter because I’m the one that has to carry those experiences.
I wrote “Unforgivable” to give myself a reminder that it doesn't matter what other people think about what I've gone through. I'm not on trial… I'm just, you know, living with some traumas and stuff, as we all do.
KP: Is there any advice that you would lend to women who are seeking to do the same?
AS: My advice to others is that if something makes you feel bad, then it wasn't okay. It doesn’t matter if the other person or other people think it's okay. If it was not okay for you, then it's not okay for you. Just believe that and try not to think too much about the trolls… that live in our minds. [Laughs].
KP: Our biggest enemies always. [Laughs].
Your latest single, “The Mothership,” has such an interesting sound. Can you tell us a little bit about its writing and development?
AS: Thank you – that’s such a nice thing to say. "The Mothership" was one of those songs that I wrote within 20 minutes. That’s always really nice when that happens because it feels like it's been living inside of you your whole life, and you never knew that it was there.
I had pretty much finished the entire record already – I had written "Unforgivable" and "The Mothership” and went into the studio for two or three days just to record them. I was having such a hard time, so I tried to get into the mindset of thinking about what other people will experience when listening to them. Before, with this record, it was very personal, so we really intentionally tried to make both of these singles fun and things that people could feel, but also, you know, maybe like dance to a little bit. That’s where the production of it came in with Drew Erickson, who’s my producer. He played everything, which was different from how the other songs were recorded – I think that’s what made these songs a little more fun.
KP: I love your releases, so I’m very excited for your forthcoming album, Beneath The Lilypad. What inspired it? What should we expect?
AS: Thank you! I have bipolar disorder, and I was hospitalized during the making of this album, so I wrote the record while going through the cycles of my illness. I was hospitalized in the middle of writing Beneath The Lilypad and then came out the other side and wrote from a perspective of healing. I think it was really inspired by wanting to make a record that would convey the way that I experienced the world. Beneath The Lilypad felt like a title that would evoke a kind of world that’s separate from the world that we see in the open air.
It's funny, because I think that people have an assumption that medicating their mental illness would affect their creativity in this negative way, but I noticed that when I tried to take control over it, the songs were a lot more relatable because I was not making any sense before. I think that, romantically, we can look at insanity as this thing that spews beauty and creativity, and that just was not what I found to be the case. Those songs are a lot harder for me to grasp onto now. Listening to them now, I’m like, "Girl, what are you doing?" [Laughs].
KP: [Laughs]. I think that many of us can relate. All good things!
I think back to songs like “Cupid” off of 2017’s Belladonna of Sadness, and I can’t help but fall in love with so much of your music’s instrumentation and development – it all feels so careful and intentional in the absolute best way. Are you someone who writes your lyrics first, or do you start with these delicate but punchy and hooky melodies?
AS: That’s really nice. It was different with that one because that was a co-write, so the way that song was written is different than most of my songs now. I'll usually start with guitar, and I take a lot of, like, little sound bites of lyrics or things that I want to eventually turn into lyrics, such as sayings or quotes, and we’ll use those – but the whole lyric itself isn't really written until the music is written.
I try to keep a lot of simplicity. I think that thinking things need to be complicated to be good, or thinking that you need to outsmart everybody to make a good song, is a big mistake. When I try to get fancy with it, the song just doesn't translate. It just sounds like I'm being a dick.
KP: It becomes quite counterproductive, right? As is with everything else, the best things come naturally.
Aside from music, you also create stop-motion visualizers and collage work. When did you start producing visual work? What about it do you love, and do you feel that it informs or enriches your music in any way?
AS: Growing up, I wanted to be a painter. I never really thought too much about being a musician, so producing visual art started when I was really young. I was about 12 and I was like, "I want to be a painter. That's what I want to do." Even during the time that I was going to see major labels during high school, I had my dorm picked out at the art school that I applied to. It's always been there for me, but I just haven't had the chance to really invest as much time into it.
I would say that it's probably my main interest in life. I love music but because I'm not a visual artist or, like, that's not how I make money, I sort of have used my music career as a way for me to also explore other forms and mediums of art. I think that the music informs the collages and the paintings and vice versa, for sure.
KP: I totally relate. I first found success in the fashion industry very much so by accident, but then you reach this point of being stuck there, still wanting to chase after what really makes you happy. It’s incredible that you could figure out how to balance both much sooner than I did.
What do you feel makes a provocative woman?
AS: I think a provocative woman is somebody who doesn't apologize. I think we need to stop apologizing for existing and having, you know, needs and opinions.
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Photography: Angela Ricciari
