Cindy Alexander released her 10th studio album, While The Angels Sigh, from Blue Elan Records in April, and has gradually rolled out a fleet of videos that will eventually cover each song on the album. It’s an interesting and innovative idea specifically geared to take some of the space filled by a lack of touring and has resulted in a great deal of creativity in the videos and a great deal of creative thinking in order to get them all made. While Cindy Alexander’s previous album, Nowhere to Hide, consisted of recordings in a live setting and via single takes, the new collection focuses more on musical collaboration and a movement even further into lyrical directness and honesty.
For Cindy Alexander, the period just before the pandemic and following made her realize how much we go about our daily lives not connecting with people and this experience has led her to a sense of awakening. It’s one that’s like coming out of a chrysalis, at times awkward and strange, but also worth pursuing since it leads to the “beautiful and real”. We spoke with Cindy Alexander about the making of her videos for While The Angels Sigh, her mode of storytelling, and her current musical mood. We also talked about the intriguing origin of Blue Elan Records and roped in label founder Kirk Pasich to comment on the label’s early days.
Hannah Means-Shannon: One thing about this pandemic period is that when there are no clear rules about how to handle creative work, you might feel that you have permission to do something you’ve been wanting to do, like start up a new project.
Cindy Alexander: I kind of did that with my content for this record because there was no budget for videos aside from things made in-house. We have an amazing team over at Blue Elan, but there are certain projects outside of that, so I’m fortunate that I have this Patreon. I decided to make my patrons the executive producers of the videos. Then I took that money and I went on Fiverr, and I found people to collaborate with in other countries. I hired this amazing guy, Anik, and he did some lyric videos for me. Then I found this amazing dancer and choreographer in Bulgaria, Emphis, and she has created some videos for me. She really gets my writing and it’s super fun.
HMS: Is that for the video for “Lightning”?
CA: She did “Lightning”. She did “Broken But Beloved”. She also did a video that isn’t out yet for the acoustic version of “Try, Try, Try”. She’s incredible. Then a friend of mine from high school pointed out that her sister lived just a few miles down the road from my new home. When Nicole Kallis came to town to quarantine with her family, we reconnected for a socially distanced walk, and it turns out that she’s a brilliant filmmaker! She did “Room at the Bottom” for me, and “Walking Constellation”. So I’ve been reconnecting and collaborating with people when, out of necessity, was born this incredible opportunity. Why go back?
HMS: I’m pretty amazed by this backstory on the videos because I never would have guessed they had such different origin points. I noticed they were very diverse, but they are wonderfully inventive. Great job on that!
CA: Thank you. Dee, from Blue Elan Records, made the visualizer for “Power of You” and she was really sensitive to how she put it together. She was taking inspiration from these videos made through my Fiverr connections to try to keep a similar aesthetic. Even though they are diverse, I’m always looking for a sense of poetry, and I think she did a great job with that. I’m trying to have a video for every single song on the record, as a companion piece. Since I can’t tour, I’m trying to virtually tour through having content and promoting each one.
HMS: I have spoken to several artists who have music with Blue Elan before, and they usually have interesting stories about how they came to the label. What’s your Blue Elan story?
CA: Oh, there’s definitely a story here. I’ve known Kirk Pasich, who is the co-founder with his son Connor, for many years. We first met in 2003, right at the beginning of my career, though my first CD came out in 1999. Between 1999 and 2003, a lot of stuff happened in my life where I would have great things happen and then would go into hiding. I was basically meeting all the wrong people during that time, including being sexually harassed and, not just harassed, but assaulted. But in 2003, I put out a record called Smash, and it was sitting on my desk in my father’s law firm because I was running my indie label, Jam Cat Records, out of my dad’s law firm. I was his secretary, but I could also use the office fax machine, phone and computer for my label.
My dad met Kirk, and he did what all proud fathers do, and said, “You have to listen to my daughter’s music!” He gave Kirk a CD, and Kirk called me, and we had lunch, but at the time I was already represented by an attorney. But we stayed in touch. Then, in 2006, I was on a show on NBC called Star Tomorrow, and I won the competition show based around original music, but the contract was not very good and it wasn’t right for me at that time in my life.
I decided not to accept it, but one of the attorneys on the other side was Kirk Pasich. He had been watching my career this whole time. In 2013, I was diagnosed with cancer, and I was very public with my journey. I was having trouble with the insurance company covering my reconstructive surgery from a double mastectomy. By law, it has to be covered, but they were still fighting me. Kirk reached out to me and wanted to talk since he covered insurance issues. I told him that I didn’t have money for an attorney, but he asked me to come in pro bono. He asked how the music was going and if I would be releasing a record. I had been writing through cancer, and though I had fan-funding, it was during a recession and people were less able to donate.
Kirk asked me what I needed to finish the record, and I told him. He gave me the choice of either joining a class action lawsuit to recover my medical expenses, or he would give me the money to finish my record. I asked why he would do this. He said, “Because I love your music, I believe in you, and I want to hear this record.” Obviously, I chose to do the record, and he would come in to the studio. When it was done, he said, “You need to do something with this.” I was just grateful to be alive and to have had the opportunity to make this record as part of my healing process, but he said that no, I needed to do something with it. So I said, “Well, you should start a label.” And he did. And that label is Blue Elan Records.
HMS: Wow! I am so glad I asked you that question, because even though I’ve heard several Blue Elan stories, I did not know that your story is THE story, the origin story of the label. That’s incredible.
CA: It is pretty incredible, and the way that it has evolved, with the artists who are now part of the story, is amazing. They’ve built up a wonderful environment for the artists and also for the people who work there. Kirk Pasich is a dream-maker. He truly is.
HMS: What do you think was the tipping point that made Kirk decide to start the label right then rather than at an earlier or later time?
CA: I think that it was something that he had in the back of his mind, since he loves the music business, but let’s get Kirk involved to see what he has to say about that.
Kirk Pasich: I had met Cindy several years before forming our label. I liked her and her music—a lot. Flash forward a few years. I was talking with her about the next album she wanted to do. I offered to help. She said, “I wish you had a record label.” It seemed like a good idea—to do something where the music and the artist came first. So, I said, “Why don’t we?” Connor, one of my sons, and I formed Blue Élan. The album Cindy and I talked about became Curve, our first release. Without Cindy, there’d be no Blue Élan.
HMS: Thank you, Kirk. Cindy, I notice that your previous album, Nowhere to Hide, took a very specific approach when it came to recording. Ordinarily, I would ask if the label thought that recording live was a strange idea, but I know from previous artists that Kirk sometimes suggests doing things in one take, or doing things acoustically, to try different approaches.
CA: Yes, that was his brainchild. It was completely live, acoustic, and done in one take. I was so afraid to make that record, but I’m so glad that he pushed me to do it, because it inspired some of the approaches on this record. We were all in the studio at the same time until the pandemic hit, so on eight out of eleven tracks on the album, the instrumental tracks were all of us in the studio at the same time. I sang a rough vocal as a guide at the same time as the band played to influence how the band played.
The only reason that I didn’t finish my vocals in the studio was time and money because I had these A-list players and I wanted to make use of their time. I got all the overdubs I needed from them then, and I knew that I could concentrate on my vocals at home. That live feel was inspired by the experience with Kirk. Every record, I would hope that I’ve grown and expanded, and taken some chances. And we took some chances on this one.
It was a little bit of a tough love experience, though, because I probably wrote 30 songs for it! The label was strict with song choice and we have to have mutual agreement, so I had to fight for some of these songs, but at the end of the day, I think that the songs that are on the record, and in Kirk’s sequencing, tell a beautiful story and are pertinent to these times. Albums are always a snapshot of my life, and this one truly is.
HMS: Are there any songs that turned out radically different from what you had expected when first writing them?
CA: Yes. It was Kirk’s idea to do an acoustic version of “Try, Try, Try”. I thought he was crazy. He wanted us to try it acoustic, live in the studio, and with one take. I was laughing right before doing it, but we did it, and I liked that version better! It gives more weight to the lyric, which I think flies by in the up-tempo version. I think people will get it more on the ballad version. Originally, we were going to bookend the album with the two versions of “Try, Try, Try”, but then I wrote “Walking Constellation” as the last song for the record, and I wanted something to tie things up. I wanted a song to say, “Yes, it’s been a tough time, but it’s okay, and I am better for it.” And when Kirk was doing the sequencing, he felt like that belonged as the closer.
HMS: That makes sense. It really creates an emotional arc for the album to end with that one. In both versions of “Try, Try, Try”, I could really hear the Roots music aspects. So it’s pretty cool to hear it broken out into a more Americana version. But there’s something that works so well in a song where there’s a conversation between two people, even in monolog, that’s paired with a lot of strings.
CA: Yes. I went to school for theater, and I was acting before I was a singer/songwriter. Part of the reason that I became a singer/songwriter is that I was better at being myself and writing my own show. I always have that in the back of my mind when I’m writing or performing a song, that it is a monolog, or a dialog where you may not hear the other person. There’s always a story in my head. All the details are there. All the training that I had as an actor is what I bring to the table as an artist.
HMS: I know that you’re known for having very detailed lyrics that often pull from real life. I think if you can capture moments in time in songs, you can really get through to audiences in an interesting way. I really appreciate the fact that you do that.
CA: I am very persnickety about lyrics and I have very few co-writers. I always say things the way that I say them. There’s a lyric in the song “Relentlessly” for Deep Waters that’s about a sharpie. I remember Colin [Devlin] say, “You can’t have a song about a sharpie!” I said, “Yes, I can!” Though we wrote most of the record together, we each had one song, so I wrote that one.
HMS: Well, no one else can write a song exactly like another person. Why not use your perspective and the way that you sound and think? Why not use that opportunity?
CA: Exactly. I want to go even further now and take even more chances. I think that’s my goal for the next record that I make. I want to continue with the idea that it doesn’t matter if someone doesn’t get it. For the person who does get it, they were the ones who were meant to hear it. I don’t make music for the music industry. I make it for my fans and for myself because I have to. Because these are things inside of me that I have to get out. It’s allowing myself to say what I have to say.
