Catching Up With: Alex Napping
It's been a little over a week since the NYC/Austin-based band Alex Napping released their sophomore album, Mise En Place, full of honest narratives driven by grooving melodic riffs and lead singer Alex Cohen's ethereal vocals. Since the May 5th release, the quartet have been on the road in support of the new songs, playing album release shows in both of their base cities, NYC and Austin, as well as a handful of new cities. Prior to the tour kickoff, the leading lady of Alex Napping caught up with ANCHR to chat about the process behind the album, from her songwriting to recording, as well as some of her influences and favorite artists. Before the tour hits Chicago's Subterranean this Saturday night, check out these 5 things we learned while catching up with Alex Cohen.
Photo by HELMUT Studio
Alex Napping is: Alex Cohen, Adrian Sebastian Haynes, Tomás Garcia-olano, and Andrew Stevens.
The Album Was Recorded More Than A Year Before The Release
While chatting with Cohen the day before Mise En Place's release, Cohen describes her excitement to finally release the album, saying, "We’ve had this record finished since March of 2016. So it’s been a while coming. I’m very happy to finally be putting it out into the world."
Cohen also reveals the group divided the recording into several different blocks, the first session going all the way back to 2015. Telling the tale of their recording process, Cohen begins, "We recorded at a studio in Austin called Cacophony Recorders, with Erik Wofford, who is the owner of the studio. He produced the record. We did a couple of one-off singles about a year before going in to make this record, just to see if he was someone we wanted to make a whole record with. We made these two songs, “Trembles Part I” and “Trembles Part II,” and just loved working with him and loved his space. [We] decided that when we were ready to do our full length, we’d do it with him." As far as the span of different recording sessions, she says, "We recorded the record in three chunks. There were four days in November 2015, two days in December, and then four more days in January of 2016, where we tracked the record. And we just kind of broke it up based on like who needed to be there." Cohen continues on to say that "Wife and Kidz" and "Heart Swells 2.0" have minimal bass and drums, so they were able to knock those out in the two days in December 2015.
There's a New Sense of Maturity In The New Album
Discussing the difference from debut album to the sophomore record, Cohen muses, "I like to think that the themes have matured as I’ve grown older, and kind of have a different perspective on conflict." She continues to confess she actually went back to listen to their first record shortly before Mise En Place's release, revealing, "It was really weird. It wasn’t painful. I was like 'I think this still holds up'...But it definitely sounds like a young record, and a lot of the feelings that I had that felt so important and grand definitely have a naivety to [them]."
Because of how personal Cohen gets with her songwriting, she says her age definitely plays a factor in the song themes. Elaborating, Cohen says, "I was 21 when I wrote those songs [on the first album], versus being 23, 24 when I wrote this record. I feel like those first few years out of college, being a real adult are pretty big. A lot of stuff happens. A lot of this record is kind of like dealing with being an adult and figuring out how to realistically handle situations. Where things that felt like the end of the world when I was like 20, you’re just like 'this is part of life'. Just kind of figuring out how it all fits into life, like balance and security. Like what do those even mean?"
Cohen says the themes of her songs aren't the only difference this time around, revealing that her and the band built up the arrangements while they were in the studio this time. "It was kind of fun because we’ve never really gotten to do that as a band before. 'Wife and Kidz' had the melody and that kind of delayed bass part, but other than that we just came up with a bunch of stuff in the studio. It's kind of like the most fun part about the studio....When you have a structure for a song, but figuring out how you want to fill in the spaces. I enjoy working on the fly like that. I think that a lot of really cool, creative things happen when you’re locking yourself in a studio setting for like 10 hours a day," she continued.
“A lot of this record is kind of like dealing with being an adult and figuring out how to realistically handle situations. Where things that felt like the end of the world when I was like 20, you’re just like ‘this is part of life.’ ”
Land Of Talk and Chairlift Acted As Influences
Being able to freely create and collaborate in the studio also meant that Cohen and her bandmates were able to soak up influence from other bands during the recording and writing process. "When I was writing I was going through a really big Land Of Talk phase. They’re the best. It’s really cool because they hadn’t put a record out since 2012, and they have a record coming out in June for the first time in years. But I was listening to a lot of their music, and I think that that definitely comes through in my songwriting...and even guitar chords and voicing, Cohen says. Continuing, she reveals, "Actually what’s funny is in 'Temperamental Bed', I play in an alternate guitar tuning, and that tuning I learned from looking up tabs from a Land Of Talk song. It’s one of my favorite tuning styles, but I wouldn’t have found it if I hadn’t been like 'How do I play this song that I love so much?'"
Cohen credits another band for inspiring her during their time in the studio, saying, "Right as I was going into the studio, I started listening to a lot of Chairlift. I don’t think [they] musically influenced this record, but I do just really love the way that Caroline Polachek from Chairlift sings and how she uses her voice. How she can be really playful with it. I think aspects of that, I was interested in incorporating into some of the vocal performances on the record. I think that will be way more apparent on the next one."
Each Song Acts as a Snapshot of a Moment
The songs on Mise En Place were recorded a while before the release, but Cohen still find them to be accurate portrayals of herself. Talking more about the relevance of these songs as they age, Cohen says, "I think they’re still relevant in that they’re accurate portrayals of how I felt in specific moments in the year that I wrote those songs. That’s what a lot of them are. I wrote them as certain things were happening..These cool little snapshots of exactly how I was feeling when something happened."
On the contrary to that point, Cohen continues, "At the same time I feel really far removed from that time in my life. It’s weird because it’s like 'Oh, I remember feeling that way, but it feels like a lifetime ago.' Even by the time we were in the studio, I had written a lot of the songs six months to a year prior to going into the studio. I was starting to feel quite distanced from the subject matter."
Although Cohen feels distance from the song subjects, she's still really excited to play them all on tour. She talks more about the live show, revealing which new song she's most excited to play live. "We’ve actually just worked out how to play 'Wife and Kidz' live and we’ll be unveiling that for the first time live, and I’m actually really excited about that, cause I’m just gonna sing on it. I’m not gonna play guitar or any instrument, which I love doing 'cause it’s just nice to have moments where I just get to focus on only doing one thing. I think that we’ve worked up a pretty cool version of it, all things considered and our gear on stage."
As far as the cities they're most excited to hit up? "I’m always excited about New York shows. I actually live in New York now. it’s kind of like a second hometown. We’re playing some places in the northeast like Providence, RI and Bloomfield, CT. I’ve never really been to some of those small town northeaster states before. Our midwest shows in Chicago and Minneapolis because those are just really cool cities. I have friends there that I’m excited to see, and both of those shows have really awesome line ups," Cohen says.
Other Artists That Alex Is Into Include...
It's always great to find out who your favorite new bands are listening to, which keeps your music library from getting stale, so naturally we asked Alex what some of her current favorites are. Besides Chairlift and Land Of Talk, Cohen mentions a couple other badass female artists that have been in frequent rotation on her playlist. "I'm really in love with the Tei Shi album that came out a month ago. She’s so good and so cool, and I just think that that’s one of the best like, kind of weird pop records of the year," she says.
"Half Waif put out a record this year, which I love. I saw them play live for the first time during South By [South West], which was incredible. Nandi, who fronts that project, is amazing. She also plays with Pinegrove, but I really love the record that she put out this year," Cohen added.