Q&A: Alix Page On Her Musical Inspiration and The Creative Process
FULL OF SWEETNESS AND CHARM — Alix Page is creating tunes that represent her long lasting love for music. Naturally gifted, Page was musically inclined at an early age. Taking note of her daughter’s talent, Page’s mother also encouraged her musically by setting up piano lessons and voice lessons for her. From as young as she could remember, music has always been Page’s calling in life, ad her passion shines through her soothing, dreamlike sound.
At the age of 16, Page made a musical discovery after listening to Phoebe Bridgers’ album, Stranger In The Alps. This album inspired Page in her journey to find the most true-to-her musical sound. After Page’s first release, the feedback that she received was both humbling and motivating, reaffirming the engaging effect her music has upon her listeners.
As of recently, Page’s music has taken a more confessional approach. As she is more private by nature, this approach is both therapeutic and liberating to her. Page understands the beauty of vulnerability and hopes that her listeners can feel the authenticity and humanity in her music. She wants listeners to deepen their understanding of who she is — not just as a musician, but as a real person.
For Page, the creative process of making music varies from song to song. However, a commonality within her creative process is that she always starts with the lyrics of a song. One lyrical concept or one line usually drives the song in its entirety, with the sound falling into place based on the mood that the lyrics convey. With an intuition to language, Page processes through songwriting by talking through the lyrics out loud or writing them down. However, lately, Page has given herself more grace with the creative process, acknowledging the vitality of breathing and coming back to a work with a fresh mindset. Through this approach, Page has been able to formulate lyrics more organically and without the pressure of completion. She is learning to be kind to herself, and to let the lyrics speak to her with time.
With a deep fascination for people, Page gains inspiration for her lyrics through studying people from all times and walks of life. From the perspectives of Ramona Flowers to Daisy from The Great Gatsby, Page takes a unique approach to songwriting, letting her curiosity for people lead her to eccentric perspectives, forming her original and unforgettable songs.
Read on more to learn about Alix Page, the girl that we adore, with a sound that speaks to the soul.
LUNA: Hi Alix! It's such a pleasure to interview you! First off, how are you doing these days? Any plans for summer?
PAGE: Hi hi hi! I’m doing really well. Cannot tell you how great it feels to be fully vaccinated and done with school. Right now I’m taking one summer class, working a little bit, and writing as much as I can. I’m also binging Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix — easily the best thing I’ve watched on TV in a very long time.
LUNA: How has being an LA-based artist influenced you both musically and individually?
PAGE: LA has always been pretty close to home, and nowadays I spend most of my time there for school and recording sessions, but I’m kind of a fake LA-based artist ’cause I’m really from Orange County. My version of being involved in a “music scene” there was just going to a performing arts high school. That was my introduction to being part of a larger ecosystem of artistic people. When you’re surrounded by that much talent all the time you really can't help but absorb inspiration from everyone around you, so a huge amount of my music taste and knowledge is due to listening to my friends’ original songs and exchanging playlists with each other. I got really really lucky with an incredible high school experience with loving friends and supportive teachers that always encouraged me to express myself truthfully and keep writing better and better songs — it shaped me a lot.
Spending more time in LA recently has been wild. You’re just constantly reminded that everyone here wants to make it and everyone is well on their way to getting there; everyone’s hungry! It’s definitely kind of intimidating, but it’s also inspiring. I saw Phoebe Bridgers at Erewhon a couple weeks ago and Lauv at brunch a couple weeks before that, and both times I had a moment like, “Whoa, people really are just people and we’re all just trying to live and work and do our thing.”
LUNA: If you could describe yourself in three words, what would they be?
PAGE: Dua Lipa stan.
LUNA: You truly have the voice of an angel. How did you discover your passion for music? Was there any defining moment in your life that led you to pursue music?
PAGE: Thank you! I’ve been singing since I was a toddler — even before I could talk, I would just hum around the house and everywhere else I went. My mom was great about setting me up with piano and voice lessons early on and encouraged me to join the worship team at my middle school, which was my introduction to playing in front of people. From there I auditioned for my high school, where I really started to take it seriously and sort of grew into my voice and my style.
I’ve always known I wanted to do music, which is scary. I’ve had other hobbies along the way but there’s never been any real kind of back up plan. Hearing Phoebe Bridgers’ album Stranger In The Alps for the first time when I was 16 was definitely a game changer for me. I grew up getting compared to Taylor Swift (absolutely not a bad thing) and listening to whatever pop music was on the radio, but something clicked when I heard the way Phoebe writes. All of a sudden I started writing songs that sounded the way I’d always wanted them to, and I was writing a ton of them.
The reaction I got for my first release and the feedback from it was really reaffirming, too. When you put music out for the first time there’s no way to predict how it’s going to perform and if people will connect to it and keep listening to it. Again, I got extremely lucky with a lot of support early on and I’m still super grateful. That definitely motivates you to keep doing it.
LUNA: Your music is so sweet and dreamy — the type of music I want to listen to on repeat while I’m lying in bed or driving along the coast late at night. What is the mood or feel that you hope your listeners gain from your music?
PAGE: Honestly it varies for each song. Someone’s mood listening to “Frank” is probably gonna differ from their mood listening to “Stripes” — but at the end of the day it’s all about feeling things and feeling them a lot.
I realized recently that a lot of my songs, even the ones about romantic love, are weirdly more about me than the other person. I think this became more of a thing during quarantine; all of my newer ones are a lot more confessional because I was quite literally talking to myself when I was writing. It’s taught me a lot. I’m not a “secretive” person but I’ve kept my feelings pretty private since I was a little kid, so wearing my heart on my sleeve in songs is therapeutic for me and hopefully gives listeners a better idea of who I am as a person, versus just as a musician. That’s always been really important to me.
LUNA: How do you feel when you are making music? What is the creative process? Do you focus first on the lyrics or the sound of a song?
PAGE: I feel like my process changes every time. I’ve written some of my best songs in 30 minutes or less, some have started with an idea and then been returned to and finished 3 months later, some have been hours where I don’t move from the couch in my garage and really force myself to carve out the right words. I always start with lyrics though; usually it’s like one lyrical concept or one line that I expand on until I know where it’s supposed to go. I definitely process things by talking through them out loud or writing them down, so it makes sense that everything starts with words for me.
Recently I’ve been able to give myself a lot more grace with the creative process than I used to. There’s no real pressure to finish songs as soon as I start them, so I don’t feel frustrated with myself when I put certain ones away for a bit to let them breathe. I’ve gotten to the point now where I’ll be out grocery shopping or something and an old unfinished original will get stuck in my head and the perfect lyric I’ve been looking for from the beginning will appear right in front of me. I genuinely think a lot of that is just learning how to be kind to yourself and knowing when to let things rest.
LUNA: I love your lyric video for “Frank” — the animations are so fun and creative! What was the process like for making this video?
PAGE: YAY, thank you! Jordan Pories absolutely killed it. We got together over Zoom and I told him the story behind the song and the colors I associated it with and let him do his thing. It ended up being over 4,000 hand-drawn frames — he’s a legend.
LUNA: How do you gain inspiration for your music? Would you be willing to share how an inspiration was in service to one of your songs?
PAGE: I think I’m just really interested in other people all the time. This manifests itself in the form of the usual songs about relationships and breakups but I also have a song about Ramona Flowers and one from the perspective of Daisy from The Great Gatsby. I’ve written songs about my friends’ relationships and about my friends in general, too. A newer one I really love that I’ll probably never release is about Jeff Buckley. I have a huge soft spot for him and his voice, and I got curious one night and ended up on Wikipedia reading about his death — it wrecked me for some reason. The song’s just about stumbling upon that and thinking about it way too much. He was 30.
LUNA: What’s something that most people don’t know about you?
PAGE: I’m weirdly good at bowling and I’m passionate about going to the dentist. I think “She Looks So Perfect'' by 5SOS is a perfect song.
LUNA: Do you have any upcoming plans that you would like to share with us? Any short or long-term goals that you are working on currently?
PAGE: I have a single that’s very close to release-ready status that I’ve been sitting on for a little while. It’s my favorite thing I’ve ever worked on and I can’t even begin to express how excited I am for people to hear it. I keep telling people that listening to it while driving makes me wanna crash my car into a tree (in a good way), so make of that what you will.
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