Alex Kinsey opens up on going solo, making his cool friends dance and The X Factors need for mental health support
Nearly six years after Alex Kinsey won The X Factor US with former partner Sierra Deaton, the 27-year-old has spoken out about the shows lack of aftercare.
The US version of the show ended in 2013 but Alex has admitted that despite dreaming for years of going out and playing shows and being in a position where people cared enough to listen to my music, the option to speak to someone about his mental health would have made the world of difference.
I would have loved to have gone to psychiatrist for a year to make sure I wasnt going crazy, he says.
There was a psychologist on the show – always a post-show interview win or lose – and they check you to make sure you wont go crazy but a 20-minute conversation isnt enough to tell whether I will crazy an hour after I won.
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I did feel that if I needed it and made it apparent I needed it [the show] probably would have figured something out but it was never offered, he adds.
On the show it was accessible, there was someone there but after? It would have taken a conversation started by me.
In the years after their win, Alex and Sierra were allegedly dropped by their record label – with the pair reportedly never being officially told – and in 2017 they confirmed that their romance was also over.
But now Alex is back with a brand new solo EP which he debuted at LAs iconic Hotel Cafe on 6 June and despite the singer songwriters history on one of the biggest TV shows in the world, he admits hes still nervous to go solo and release the incredibly personal tracks he has been working on.
I am nervous about this week specifically because its the first time I am doing these songs, he says.
The six-track EP, called Party Of One, is a blend of edgy indie and moody pop but he says that these six songs were picked because there is nothing about any of them that is the same.
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All of them are on the EP for different reasons… I just genuinely like the music, he says, when I get to the car these are the six I wanted to listen to, and now they are out I want others to listen to them.
When I wrote them – there are sessions when you walk out either going that will be something or Ill never hear that again, and all six the first time I heard them I thought these will be something and they all evolved into this EP.
He does have a favourite though.
I love Oh Mama as its the most out there and the least like me, he admits.
I am not the coolest person in the world but that song makes me cool. It makes all the people I think are cool dance so anytime I play it for my friends who are cool they are like that one is sweet, so I base it off of that.
For Alex, becoming a solo act after years of working in a duo is a terrifying prospect but he says thats because people find comfort in having another opinion.
When you have someone who has the same goals and is creating the same art, its nice, its like having a fallback with another opinion and the scary part was the decisions were mine and if they were the wrong ones, they fell on my shoulder… but when they are great decisions, its so exciting.
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Jason Mraz, John Meyer, Andy Grammar and The Beatles are, he says, always the core of where my music comes from but acts such as Billie Eilish and Wolf Pack are also inspiring him and as new music comes along he finds his inspirations change as well.
As for whether hed ever return to The X Factor stage, he admits that when the show was cancelled in the US he was left disappointed Read More – Source
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