After releasing their first LP in April last year, the Newcastle band, Alexander play their second headline tour. Although a relatively new band, they have a growing fan base and are certainly a band to look out for. As Anth from the band told us “this is only the beginning”. We caught up with the band before their gig in Norwich to talk to them about their progress, influences and life as a band….

Hello! How have your tour gone so far?

Pretty well, yeah. No problems, no damages yet, a lot of fun. Not a lot of mental damage, no psychological intrusions. They’ve been good, just gone better and better.

When did you form as a band?

We’ve been friends for a long time. We’ve been in different bands I’ve known James for 10 years, we met Drew in college and Jamie on the local music scene. We thought we’d just get together and it was about 2012 when we came up with the idea of recording an album, and then in 2013 we decided to release it and be called Alexander. It’s been a year now and things have been great.

When you first formed, did you ever imagine having a headline tour?

Not for a long time, last year was so quick. We’ve had two tours; September was our first headline tour and now this one, everything’s just come round so quick.

What’s the worst thing about being in a band?

Probably how much time we spend together…! No, no I mean like when you pick up on the habits that get annoying, like it shouldn’t annoy you but it does because you spend so much time with those people. The smells annoy us too…. The positives outnumber it though, absolutely amazing.

How did you choose your band name, Alexander?

We liked the ideology of having a strong name that represented us all.

Why did each of you choose your instruments?

Anth – It’s kind of trial and error, when I started playing music, I was a drummer, then one day I was just like ‘mum, dad, I want a guitar now’.

James – I started playing guitar ‘cause I saw Anth playing guitar. When we started school, he was playing guitar and I was like, wow I want to play as well.

And then I came on to base, because I like base.

Jamie – I played guitar because I just really liked it.

Drew – My dad was a drummer.

So you released your debut album, Say Hello last April, how did fans respond?

It was mental actually. The weird thing is we’ve had parts of these songs for a long time, just as friends or in different bands or whatever, some we’ve had since I was 17. Having them released last year was kind of like testing the water for moulding something together. We’ve been proud of those songs for a while, just never showcased it on a national level. So once they were out there and people were listening, it was quite strange.

The feedback has been great and little things like online reviews have been brilliant. It’s been incredible.

How have you progressed over the past year?

We’ve progressed a lot. Last year was really busty for us, every month was planned out so it was very intense. We’re happy with how it’s turned out, we wouldn’t have achieved the success we have if it wasn’t for that pressure. We’ve got a fan base a lot quicker than other bands and we’ve pretty much put 5 years of band work into 1 really.

What inspires you when writing songs?

Honesty. Just like real events we’ve actually experienced. We inspire each other generally. Lyric-wise, we’d all agree that we’d rather write something that has lot of emotional depth to it rather than unrelative angst. We don’t write things which are too personal, more about similar experiences that a lot of people go through.

Stuff that’s a bit more real than ‘let’s raise our glasses in the air and drink’ – that’s written for nightclubs.

Your album has a mixture of styles, from the energetic title track, Say Hello, to the delicate A Sweet Song; which artists has influenced the album?

It was what we were listening to at the time, like Motion City Soundtrack and Jimmy Eat World. 2 years ago, we were listening to the same bands as a band, and they influenced us.

You do mature, like now we’re listening to more classics like Queen and we wouldn’t have 2 years ago.

Drew – When I was growing up, my mum and dad were listening to the Smiths, I used to hate that, but now I’m in a band I appreciate it.

What are your plans for the next few years and the future of the band?

After the tour we’re going to take some time and write.

Go for a long swim, a long long sauna, even better.

We don’t want to write for anyone else, in a way we love writing music that fans can relate to of course, but we don’t want to release a CD just for the money.  We don’t want to rush it; we want to take some time. It’s not about the labels or any of that for us; it’s just about being in a band and being friends.

You get a lot of bands who get a bit caught up with deadlines and making it big, whereas that takes the fun out of it for us.

When we wrote the LP, we had quite a lot of time to do that because we weren’t tied down to deadlines or anything, we want that again, to have a good time with no rush.

Unfortunately fan bases have short attention spans which put pressure on bands to constantly release new material. But if you’ve got real fans, they’ll stay there and wait. We’re excited. This is only the beginning.