Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexander Durow
Hi Alexander, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I just have a passion- or maybe more of an obsession- with creating. It’s always felt like what I’m meant to do with my life. My family has a video of me banging on pots and pans with wooden spoons- like a makeshift drum set- at like 2 years old… I started piano at 7, producing at 13, I released my first album at 19, played my first stadium set at 21, started learning guitar at 22, and now I record other artists and work on songs/albums/projects that pull me in creatively. I just released an album I spent 4 years working on, It’s called ’98Warhol’ and it’s the end of a tragically chaotically beautiful era- and beginning of a new exciting time- in my life. I guess I’m just focused on working growing as a human, and getting the ideas always playing in my head onto a physical medium. I’m finally starting to get good at guitar haha, and that’s fun ‘cuz I have so many songs I’ve written for the guitar, now I can start to make those songs for real.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Hahahahaha… nah, but I can’t think of a single person I’ve met- or really even seen online- who would describe their life as a ‘smooth road’. I’ve been really fortunate in my life in so many ways, though, in that a lot of the hardest parts of my life are the reasons I grew… like that phrase ‘grow through what you go through’. I definitely use my music as my way to vent… The lyrics, melodies, that manic feeling I bring to a lot of my songs, is because those songs are written as my way of explaining, distracting, or like- healing. So I understand why people keep putting me in sad vibe playlists… but honestly I think if you really listen to my music as a whole sonic picture, it’s really more triumphant. Like, with ’98Warhol’, I’m trying to use (the album) as a way understand my own cycles of love/loss, and it’s meant to be almost a love letter to the idea that everything must die to live again, and you can know that and still lose yourself in every moment along the way. That might be tragic, but to me it feels beautiful and inspiring.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I can let myself feel pride on occasion for some of my works, right now I’m especially excited about my new album, “98Warhol”, it’s the beginning of a space in the creative world I don’t see happening. I wrote 10 songs for 98W, and the last song I finished for it- ‘Avant Gore’-was recorded almost two years ago… when I listen to the album I can hear how rough and unpolished my artistic process was compared to where I’m at now, but I can feel the pain and it translates, like to me it stands up. And now I’m in the process of exploring a similar concept to Andy Warhol in a different medium, I’m working out the proper ways to show how slight changes in production, or even a complete re-make of a song, can create wildly different emotions. I see people make remixes, or some people do covers, but I like the idea of taking my own songs and recreating the idea of the song, letting the physical process create the difference in the feeling/outcome of the record- like Warhol using silkscreen to create ‘Marilyn Diptych’.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
I’ve been watching ‘Great Art Explained’ and similar channels on YouTube, I think today’s video world misses out on how incredible still life was pre-camera. Art before certain technologies had to come from a completely different space, so I’ve been studying the icons, as well as some deep diving.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/durow
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deaddurow/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alex.durow.9
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC39fMoWSZ8IefsaAuQ5xWYg
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/deaddurow
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/album/66ZYzji8e43f1FqoiVoP7a?si=Vldple5wSmGKXkRhTPugHw
Image Credits
@clifford__jones, Christa Johnson