"His music isn't matching syllables to rhythms. It's capturing life within sound. Watch this one as he undoubtedly will be serenading the world's iPod upon the release of his album early 2011." - Brent Burns at KickKickSnare.com
"A powerful and energetic composition bringing the right amount of orchestral sophistication to your speakers, framing Alex Boyd's singing perfectly. I'd say a definite treat for whoever's on the receiving end of Alex's smoky, steamy vocals." - Brent Burns at KickKickSnare.com, on "Light Up Tonight"
". it's fresh, infectious and intelligent. What a pleasant surprise for the pop music landscape. The world is thirsty for something this bright and uplifting." - Frank Cody, founder of Broadcast Architecture
Alex Boyd was about 10 years old when he decided to follow his dreams. He'd been singing and performing since the age of 7, and by 13 Alex had chased down opportunities most kids would never even dream of — he danced with Debbie Allen at the Kennedy Center, sang with Patti LaBelle and acted alongside Bruce Willis.
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But nobody was going to hand him a golden ticket. After growing up in northern Virginia on the Beatles, Metallica, Johnny Mathis, and Eminem, Boyd was inspired to take his skill set to the next level, and auditioned for Washington, DC's famous Duke Ellington School of the Arts. Once being accepted, he had his first taste of culture shock — the hockey playing suburban teen was now in a hardcore inner-city environment where urban soul and hip hop reigned supreme. While he learned to adjust, he discovered Musiq Soulchild, D'Angelo and A Tribe Called Quest, all the while learning the techniques of classical voice. After his 2nd year at DESA, just when he'd gotten his bearings on city life, his world flipped again as he earned a scholarship to the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy, located in one of Michigan's national forests. Boyd went from sagging his jeans and skipping classes in DC, to wearing a uniform and exploring the forest on a daily basis. Alex's focus at Interlochen became yet another one of his many influences: Opera.
Fate, however, intervened. Boyd, a bit too rebellious for the often rigidly enforced guidelines of the prep school environment, got booted from the academy and found himself back on the East Coast — just in time to audition and score a part on NBC's Fame in 2003. When the series wrapped, he stayed in Los Angeles and started writing songs. He left the classical world behind, and rediscovered many of his earliest influences. Even after having tried his hand at R&B, pop, neo soul, jazz, and even funky rock, he still had not yet found a musical direction he could embrace as his own. In 2008 his instincts finally led him in the right direction: to the classic, groovy, soulful sound he lives and breathes on his Jive Records debut Commit Me due later this year.
The key to unlocking his true creativity was Andy Rose, the producer who's been Boyd's right-hand man since 2008. Rose convinced Boyd to ditch the electro-pop songs he'd been singing which had racked up almost a million hits on his MySpace and follow his always reliable old-soul. "The first records I ever made were old Chet Baker and Sinatra jazz standards," he says (his favorite singers are still Stevie Wonder and Donnie Hathaway). "Even when I was studying opera, I wanted to be Harry Connick Jr."
During a jam session with Rose, Alex sang off the top of his head, "The way you shine so bright, girl you could be my lighthouse." And that was his light-bulb moment. The two slaved over the track, which would become "Light Up Tonight," Alex's first major release from his upcoming album.
Love — losing it, finding it, learning to live with and without it — is a recurring theme on Commit Me. "Snap" is about a split Boyd initiated and immediately regretted as the worst mistake of his life. "She had me at the snap of her fingers, and literally I would have dropped everything for her at that time. Nothing else mattered," he says of the uptempo track, which comes with an irresistible horn section. Common, the album's lone guest, throws a rhyme on "Between the Lines," an introspective song about self betrayal and misunderstanding Boyd wrote nearly 8 years ago. "I remember being in tears at the bottom of a wine bottle with a wet piece of paper and a pen, scribbling out lyrics. I was facing intimidating questions about whether or not I was the person I thought I had been raised to be, or if I was even capable of being that person at all,"he says.
And while the album definitely bops with a classic soul vibe, there are many adventurous, edgy moments. The title track, which the pair whipped up "when we were in this whirlwind of dreams coming true" after finally landing the Jive deal, starts with a "They Won't Go When I Go" gospel aesthetic before shifting into a more grimy pop section. "It's got movements that feel like something Freddie Mercury might have enjoyed," Boyd says. "And it was recorded with a full live band."
Looking back now at his tumultuous journey to Commit Me, Alex can recount every high and low moment with his sharp storyteller's eye for detail and drama. But his bottom line is now, as it's always been, pure honesty. "Things really changed for me was when I stopped listening to the way I sounded in the headphones while I was recording, and started listening to the way I felt," he says. "The world is hurting badly, and I hope this music will somehow help to heal people everywhere. At the end of the day, that's what all musicians truly are; caregivers. I think it comes with a huge responsibility to deliver the message that you're willing to stand by until the day you die."
