Alexis Strum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Alexis Strum | ||
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 Screen capture from the "Bad Haircut" music video.
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| Background information | ||
| Birth name | Alexis Rebecca Strum | |
| Born | July 5, 1978 | |
| Origin |  Chingford, Essex |
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| Genre(s) | Pop | |
| Years active | 2002–present | |
| Label(s) | Warner Music Group (2002–2003) Mercury Records (2005–present) |
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| Website | Official website | |
Alexis Strum is a 28 year old English singer songwriter. She co-wrote "Still Standing" on Kylie Minogue's album Body Language and "Nothing Good About This Goodbye" on Rachel Stevens' album Come And Get It.
Contents |
[edit] Career
[edit] Pre-Contract
Alexis was born and raised in Chingford, Essex; her parents are both half Polish, with Belgian blood from her father's side and Italian from her mother's. As a child, Strum worked hard at school to achieve good academic results, but discovered her love for music, and her want to be a performer, after she had attended a school concert, where a covers band where playing Mudhoney and Nirvana tracks. She bought a guitar, and experimented, performing Elastica and L7 tracks, before experimenting with computer-aided production, to emulate the sound of a full live band on her own. She studied English at King's College in London and attended and performed gigs, "enhancing" her CV to get performance spots. After four or five years of working odd jobs and performing here and there across London, as well as lending vocals to tracks by Thrillseekers, Lange and Ed Case, Strum signed her first record contract.
[edit] "Addicted"
In 2002, Strum landed a record deal with WEA records, distributed by the Warner Music Group. There she co-wrote and recorded an electronic-pop album, working with producers such as Xenomania. A single release was scheduled entitled "Addicted," with a video added to music television channels, and promo CDs sent ro radio, alongside an album sampler. The single was cancelled due to lack of media support, and Alexis was released from her contract soon after. The album sampler features the tracks: "Addicted", "Coming On Strong", "Rock This Disco", "Still Standing", and "Nothing Good About This Goodbye" - two of the tracks were later recorded by popular artists; "Still Standing" features on Kylie Minogue's 2003 album, Body Language and "Nothing Good About This Goodbye" features on Rachel Stevens' 2005 album, Come And Get It. The album was also set to include tracks entitled "Still", "Keep Up", and "Rodeo" - these, alongside the album sampler, have been leaked illegally onto the internet.
[edit] Writing In The Wilderness
Following the disappointment of being dropped from WEA records, Strum left Britain to travel alone to Antigua on holiday. For two weeks, she sat in a hut with no electricity, covered in mosquito nets and trying to plan what she would do next. Still songwriting, Alexis wrote two songs there - "Cocoon" and "Stay Until Summer" - and when she returned home, self-produced them into finished versions. Re-building confidence in herself, she returned to venues she had played at previously, and went back to performing gigs in London, before sending a sample of her work to the management of Billy Steinberg - writer of Madonna's hit single, "Like a Virgin," Cyndi Lauper's "True Colours" and "I Drove All Night" - requesting a session with him. Together they wrote a track called "It Could Be You." She then called on Magnus Fiennes and Pascal Gabriel, both of whom she had met previously, to add touches to the album she was recording.
[edit] "Bad Haircut"
By early 2005, Alexis had recorded her second album, semi-acoustic, but with leftfield beats and electro synths - "I don't want to get wrapped up in myself. There's a whole slew of female singer-songwriters going, 'Ooh, I'm so bloody tortured'. 'Oh, I'm in so much pain, la la la'. It's so calculated. Get off the stage," Alexis says - and signed a deal with Mercury Records. They loved the album, but felt it lacked a "first single," so Strum went back and wrote and produced a track called "Bad Haircut." She also started writing a blog for the popular music web site, Popjustice, as well as launching her own official web site and MySpace profile.
In August 2005, following a spot at the V Festival, it was announced Alexis would release her debut single and debut album in September 2005. The news was met with critical acclaim, and album reviews were positive ("Her approach has a lightness of touch which is graceful and uplifting. Don't be surprised to find this among the Mercury nominations for 2006" - Music Week, "An album of catchy melodic lolli-pop" - The Observer, "Armed with a fresh, pure voice and lush pop arrangements, she should soon be chart bound" - The Daily Mail), but once again, Alexis was spurned by most radio and TV outlets, despite the "Bad Haircut" video featuring up-coming actor, Tom Ellis (he now has a starring role in "Eastenders"). The single was released, but missed the top 40, and plans to release the album, entitled "Cocoon" were quickly shelved.
[edit] "It Could Be You"
In early 2006, a video to the track she co-wrote with Billy Steinberg, "It Could Be You," was sent to music television, set to a new version of the song to that which had appeared on promotional copies of the "Cocoon" album in late 2005, remixed by Ash Howes. The song was spurned, yet again, by radio, but television support grew strong, and, although the record company pulled the single release a week before its due date, the video was among the top 10 most requested on UK channel, The Box for a few weeks. Once again, plans to release "Cocoon" after the single, were also shelved; however, the single was added to iTunes UK, and the album was also added (by mistake - it was later removed), giving fans the opportunity to legally purchase the songs pre-release.
[edit] "Go My Own Way"
In March, shortly after "It Could Be You" had been cancelled, Alexis announced via her MySpace blog that she had exciting news. She revealed all in April, announcing that she had scored the theme tune spot to the much-hyped new ITV drama series, "Vital Signs", starring Tamsin Outhwaite (the girlfriend of Tom Ellis, who appeared in Strum's "Bad Haircut" video!), over more established artists, such as KT Tunstall. The track, entitled "Go My Own Way," is played at the start with vocals, and at the end in instrumental form, and was added in its entirety to iTunes. Alexis said that, whilst the track will not be the next single, a new mix of the track will also appear on a revised version of "Cocoon."
The album received an official release of sorts in May 2006, when it was released on iTunes. Fans could legally download the album. The digital version featured both the original and album versions of "Go My Own Way", the single version of "It Could Be You", and the previously unreleased "The Starting Line".
In May 2006, Strum made an announcement that she would be undergoing surgery, and would be unable to return to work until September 2006, when she had recovered. In September 2006 Alexis posted a message on MySpace stating that all was well with her health. She also added a note saying that her album will not be released as was planned and that she is taking herself out of the music scene. "I have decided after this big lifechange that I need to address my priorities and do sthg different for a bit- time for a new challenge! Challenge Strum!".
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
- Addicted (2002) (Cancelled)
- Cocoon (2006) (cancelled)
[edit] Singles
- "Bad Haircut" (26/09/05)
Available on CD, featuring the video and B-sides, "Train Off The Track" and "Might Be The One," digital download, and exclusive acoustic version digital download
- "It Could Be You" (13/03/06)
Available on digital download, featuring B-sides, "We All Fall Down" and two remixes of album track, "Why Me, Why Now" by Bent and Blu Mar Ten, and exclusive acoustic version digital download
