By Maxime Devillaz
Co-Editor-in-Chief
Alex Lynn, a junior maths/physics major, sat by the bar-like chairs just outside of the Starbucks glass doors, casually leaning over the counter, her legs free-flowing in the air. She smiles. “Having one of these performances in front of your friends really kicks you to do well, because they know you,” Lynn said. “If you make a mistake it’s a little more embarrassing.”
The Sydney-native has turned a beloved hobby into a potential career, and is now throwing up flyers all over campus to make her fellow Post peers aware of what’s to come.
When Lynn returned home over the summer, A&R Records, an independent music publishing company from Australia, liked one of her new songs, and offered to do a single release with her next year. The only catch: the cost of following through with the proposal would cost approximately $2,000.
”The thing with independent labels is that they don’t record for you, and there’s nothing free really, so you kind of have to give in what you give out,” Lynn said.
As part of the new four-song E.P., “Moon Rising,” that is expected to be released in February of next year, Lynn has worked on implementing new sounds into her acoustic feel. ”It’s called foc-electronic, or foctronic,” she said. “I have never really had the skills to do it yet, but have taken a few online courses, and some of the producers that I’m working with are really good at that stuff.”
New York has provided Lynn with opportunities hardly found anywhere else, including her performance at the Bitter End, a historical little stage where musicians like Bob Dylan have played. But her career didn’t start in known venues.
Blowing on a trumpet, and jamming on a guitar since the age of 10, she started early to write her own lyrics. Once, at age 12, Lynn was of fered to play one of her own songs as part of the school choir; she then felt the fulfillment that made her wanting to push it further.
At age 16, Lynn submitted all of her songs online to an independent Australian radio station, and—surprisingly to herself—got to the top of the chart. ”My songs were terrible, really bad,” she said, with a laughing emphasis. “But some of the talent reps and bloggers, would talk to me and give me advice on my songs. I’ve kept talking to them over the years.”
The inspiration for her songwriting comes in different waves; some stream from her experiences, others from personal interests and more complex thoughts.
“I’ve written a couple of love ones, but love songs are just sappy and boring,” Lynn said. “But when there’s songs that have a deeper level to them, I like that.”
The concert to support her funding of the E.P. will be held at the End Zone on Tuesday, Dec. 8, at 7 p.m. Entrance fee is $5. Lynn understands that college students and money is not the perfect match, but admits that no direct response is as valuable as the exposure and opportunity to play in front of her friends. “It’s good to have this performance opportunity where people come and see what I’m actually doing,” she said. “Maybe next time they hear a song, they’ll start talking about it to their friends, and so on.”
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