// Chat! Chat! //

/ a conversation w Alex Cohen at YVYNYL / 

Alex Napping is a band that has worked hard on finding their place in the music cosmos. But it has taken time and moving across the country to find its way. When band leader Alex Cohen wrote me again since she sent me a Letter to YVYNYL under her solo project Pema, she said, “there’s definitely a certain agony to waiting (to release a record) – do I even connect to these songs I wrote almost two years ago? (Yes, I do, thankfully, but from a completely different perspective).” That perspective is what I wanted to learn more about, to understand where she’s been traveling over the past couple years.

Alex Cohen: Hey Mark! It’s Alex.

Mark Schoneveld: Hello! Great to connect. 😊

Alex: Yes! Sorry about all of this confusion haha… Really not sure what’s up,

Mark: #technology, right? 😊

Alex: Truly!

Mark: So where are you right now? home? work? the park?

Alex: I’m at a coffee shop/diner in Brooklyn called Trade Union. One of my favorite neighborhood spots!

Mark: Nice! I’ve been there. Brooklyn is good like that. You go there a lot? Or are you living there right now?

Alex: I’m actually living in Brooklyn, yeah! I moved up here last June. The rest of the band are still in Austin (I go back there a lot). T

Mark: What brought you to BK? Why the move? not for the winters haha

Alex: Haha you know I thought the winters would be a lot worse actually! This has been a mild one, though, I hear… But I’ve always wanted to live up here. I felt stagnant in Austin. Professionally and creatively. I felt like the energy of the city didn’t match my internal energy anymore. It was a great incubator and a great place to figure out a bunch of things about myself. But once I figured them out I felt a strong push to leave.

Mark: You hadn’t grown up there?

Alex: I moved there for college and stayed a little bit afterward, so I was there for 7 years. I was actually born on Long Island and spent most of my early childhood around the east coast (both of my parents are from Philly) so I jokingly say that I’ve finally returned home after all of these years.

Mark: haha nice. Do you get back to Philly a lot?

Alex: I wish I went more often. I still have a lot of family there.

Mark: I’m not a Philly native, but I’ve been here over 10 years now. I love this city. Will you be touring down this way anytime soon?

Alex: It’s a super fun city! We’re planning a May tour right now and will definitely be rolling through. I’m excited to get a chance to play a show there – bunch of incredible bands coming out of Philly right now.

Mark: Who are some of your favorites?

Alex: I love Mannequin Pussy! The record they put out last year was incredible and we got to play with them in Austin in November. Super sweet people also. Love S P O R T S also.

Mark: I’m listening “Romantic” right now. Very Blonde Redheadish, right?

Alex: Oh yeah. Also just generally a versatile record, which I feel like is something I look for a lot in music these days.

Mark: Grrrl bands, eh? Do you associate yourself in that realm?

Alex: Hmmm. You know I’ve always felt like we’re not punk enough (and not in a bad way), but the older I get the more I realize that being a woman in the “indie rock” (or whatever) world is inherently punk. Well, punk in the sense that I feel like anybody of work I make is some sort of political statement.

Mark: Indeed. ’Tis the season/world we live in. Do you write any political songs?

Alex: Not overtly political. But I do write a lot about my experiences as a woman, which can be construed as political, I suppose!

Mark: Tell me about your band. Sounds like you’re all close buds.

Alex: Yeah! We definitely are. So, Adrian is the other guitarist and probably my closest creative collaborator in the project. Andrew plays drum and Tomas plays bass I’d known all of them for a long time before we started the project. We’d all been involved in different projects around the Austin music scene. One of those situations where I don’t really remember how I met any of them, they were always just kinda there. Haha.

Mark: haha, I know how that happens. 😊  blessed with friendships, along for the ride.

Alex: yeah! it’s been pretty surreal how things have panned out. I mean, I liked all of them as musicians, and they were all my first picks to be in the band when I was toying with the idea of starting my own thing. But it’s a. crazy that they all said yes and b. crazy that they all stuck around. In retrospect, none of us had ever collaborated and it seemed like a pretty random selection of musicians in the beginning haha. But it’s worked out!

Mark: so what’s coming up? the new record! what’s the summer going to look like for you?

Alex: Yes! We have a record coming out in May! We’ll be doing an East Coast run in May and then head out to the west coast in late June/early July. I’m also finishing up the 2nd record for my other project right and so I’m also trying to do a short east coast tour for that to tighten up/work out the live set. So, in essence, lots of touring. I’m also hoping that we’ll be heading back into the studio this fall, so I’ll probably head to Austin for a good chunk of time to rehearse for that.

Mark: Busy! That’s great. Do you have to balance a day job for all the travel plans?

Alex: I’m very fortunate that I can pay the bills with a remote part-time freelance “day job” – I have a little bit of anxiety about how that’s going to work out with the amount of touring that I’ve got planned for the year, but I will cross that bridge when I get there!

Mark: Trust. All will work out. 😊  Thank you for your time, Alex. I truly appreciate it. Get another coffee and have a wonderful afternoon!

Alex: Of course! Happy to chat with you! Have a great afternoon also and hopefully see you down in Philly sometime! 😊

The Alex Napping full-length record is coming out on May 5th, 2017 on Father/Daughter Record.

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