The Fire (demo 23.02.22).WAV

More You (demo 23.02.22).WAV

Taking It Slow (demo 23.02.22).WAV

Headed Back In (demo 23.02.22).WAV

At the age of 21 I wrote and recorded this song with some friends from Uni. I still think it's a groovy track all these years later.

Volume One

Boy Crazy Girl

A hermit crab spends its life going from one shell to another. Perhaps we are similar, going from one phase of life into the next. Sometimes, though, I feel like I've mixed up those phases ... or those shells.

Changing Shells

I have mixed up my shells
I am still striving where I should be letting go
I am still questioning where I should have
Settled on an answer long ago

I am still restless where I should be
Sleeping soundly
I am still listening to voices
I should have silenced long ago

So call me the Grande Dame if you want to
I like the way that sounds
But I am more like a hermit crab
Changing shells in the shifting sand

I am still searching where I should see
I made my bed to lie in
I am still digging where I should have
Reached rock bottom long ago.

NOV2017

Changing Shells (acoustic version)

For my second album, Shine, I teamed up with a stellar jazz trio in Berlin. Their steady rhythms and mellow tones underpin the entire album, whether the tracks are stipped down in minimalistic arragments or expand with other instruments adding to the texture to the songs.

It is an album about change and transformation. The songs explore juxtapositions between youth and aging, children and parents, robots and humans. Do insects feel like they're dying when they metamorphose from one state to another? Will there come a time when choosing to stay fully human will be a subversive act? What remains of a relationship when you burn it down to its essence?

Part feel-good jazz, part sophisticated folk with a tiny chunk of rock and a springling of pop, this album stretches its arms around diverse genres and brings them together around a kitchen table where everyone is welcome.

Alex Spencer - 12. Francis Bacon

Alex Spencer - 11. Stay Human

Alex Spencer - 10. Moments

Alex Spencer - 9. Memory Of Water

When life slaps you in the face, then punches you in the stomach and then kicks your legs out from under you, you can lie there feeling sorry for yourself or you can use your time in the gravel to look up at the stars and find the meaning in it all.

"LOOK UP, it's your SUPERMOON!"

Supermoon

Sometimes life batters you about so badly, all you want to do is retreat into your shell and lick your wounds. If you do that you end up depriving the world of all your gifts and talents. I wrote this originally for a friend whom I saw doing this ... until I realised that I hadn't just written the song about her, I'd written it about me too.

Screw You

What happened to you, my friend?
Which part of you broke and never mended?
Or did you forget how to fill in the cracks
With the gold leaf you use so well
Til it became like your shining shell?

Now the cracks are getting wider every year
And it's not about angst now, it's all about fear
All that self-loathing which in your youth served you well
Fueled the fires of rebellion, creation
And you emerged with a shining shell

Where did she go, that girl I knew?
The more it hurt, the more you withdrew
I wanna blame the others who screwed you over
Now you're withholding everything you can give the world
And I think, no, screw you

In our youth we knew 100%
We were artists and our ideas were heaven-sent
So how could you lose touch with that spark inside yourself?
How could you not go out and find your tribe?
You stayed inside your shining shell

Ages is merciless, it always has its say
Look at us now, we're all going grey
And your sweetness is going bitter like this tea
It's time to find your happiness
It's time to give yourself what you need

Where did she go, that girl I knew?
The more it hurt, the more you withdrew
I wanna blame the others who screwed you over
Now you're withholding everything you can give the world
And I think, no, screw you.

Screw You

Mellow and crystalline, thoughtful and reflective. Well-brewed and seasoned songwriting drawing melodically from Jazz and lyrically from Folk.

AlexSpencer

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