Photos by Michael Salisbury @ South Facing Windows

As champions of Chicago’s local music community, one thing we perhaps don’t make mention of enough is the talent that is brought to the city through its higher education institutions. Such is the case with 21-year-old singer Alex Banin, who made her way from Manhattan to attend Northwestern University. With college behind her & what we imagine to be amazing career ahead of her, we caught up with Alex to talk her path to this point, self-love & her new single “Hawthorne.”

Hey Alex - thanks for joining us. How are things / how are you currently spending your time?

Hi These Days- thanks so much for having me! I’m pretty good! Been a kinda crazy few months obviously, but it's really forced me to realize what my priorities are. Creatively, I'm just making a lot of music & trying new things - like I literally made a song over FaceTime the other day? And it's pretty good I think?

Through your first releases, you’ve provided us with some of our favorite songs of the year. Could you share a little bit about each track & what sparked its creation?

“Hollywood (No This Isn’t)”

I had asked Arrington Porter for a session because he is an insane musician and producer (and also visual artist in general) & we linked up at Major Studios with Kenneth “Disrupt” Clair who I met that night. I hadn’t written anything in advance, and there were no expectations - none of us really knew each other that well. Arrington started playing a guitar progression I liked, Kenneth was making a drum pattern, and I was writing in the corner- it came together really nicely. I’m glad it was the first song I put out- I’d been really nervous to release songs, but the team at Loop Theory helped me finish and release it.

“Nightmare”

This was the first time I’d ever worked with vlush. He was someone I’d been wanting to work with & we just linked at his crib studio to see what would happen. It felt really natural & it flowed really well- we had most of it finished by the time I’d left that first day.

“About April”

I was texting memos to vlush all quarantine & dannytvswim was in town one weekend, so I went over to have them produce it out & finish it. Part of that original voice note memo is in the song, which is probably one of my favorite parts. The first verse and hook had pretty much been written, but I remember going back and forth on the second verse for a while with vlush for just one or two words - we were just bouncing ideas for an hour trying to figure out these exact words.

“Hawthorne”

This song I wrote fully in early quarantine on my guitar - I posted a snippet on Instagram at 4 am and woke up to it getting a positive response - including Kota reposting it & that’s when he asked me to be on his album. A few months later, I went to Minneapolis to work with vlush (he had just moved) & finish it production-wise; it was a voice memo I was really excited to work on & I think that was the night we stayed up until 5 or 6 am to finish because we had such good momentum. I put the original voice memo at the end of my music video to honor that process.

How did music making enter your life?

The deeper I go, the more I realize that it’s always been there. I used to write lyrics all through grade school and come up with melodies for them- I played a little piano growing up, but the only way I would willingly sit down at a piano was to write songs. Song is maybe a strong word, but I definitely tried.

I was also obsessed with GarageBand - like I’d come to fourth or fifth grade homeroom early so I could mess around with it on the class computer. I thought it was pretty normal to use every opportunity I got on a computer for GarageBand. It's not a flex, like the songs were absolutely horrible, but I guess I’m just trying to say that I’m now honing in on something that I’ve always loved even if I didn’t realize it at the time.

Talk to us a bit about how your path led to Chicago. Do you think you’ll be sticking around for a while?

I was recruited to fence at Northwestern, which brought me to Evanston - it wasn’t until my senior year really that I started going into Chicago frequently to make music & experience this scene here. I absolutely love it here though- I feel like it’s my creative home, since I really started making music here. The support is crazy & there’s so much talent - I’m definitely in Chicago for the foreseeable future.

When we got together for the photoshoot, we spoke a bit about the transition from high-level athletics to becoming a musician. How has your background informed your approach to music?

Yeah, so I mentioned I came here to fence at Northwestern, which is how I ended up by Chicago in the first place - so grateful for that & how my life lined up with music here.

The transition happened pretty naturally over time, but my mindset as an athlete has helped me be a better musician & artist. It’s so similar - there’s this unknown space that athletes & artists live in - it’s a lot of work that is (for the most part) 100% internally motivated, and doesn’t really have immediate rewards - sometimes I’m like “wtf am I doing?”, which is nothing new & I just have to keep going.

There’s definitely more freedom as an artist, which I’m learning to appreciate & that’s really the aspect that I have to get used to. It’s so fun and rewarding, and I feel like I’m getting to know myself better.

Outside of your solo releases, you made an appearance on Kota the Friend’s “Long Beach” - how’d that come together?

It was so fun & unexpected! I’m a huge fan honestly, and I’ve actually always wanted to work with him. I met him on tour in Chicago before I had any music out, but I stayed in touch with him & his team pretty loosely - he then hit me up for some backing vocals during quarantine - I’m the female voice on Summerhouse too. I wish I could tell you more but when I asked him he was just like “your voice is dope” or something like that. He’s really talented and hardworking; the project is amazing, and I was honored to be a part of it.

We’ve caught, and quite enjoyed, a couple of your late-night IG live acoustic sets, are those something we can count on being a recurring thing?

Lmao I didn’t realize anyone noticed, but I enjoy doing them! I used to write with my guitar tons, which I’m coming back to as I link less with collaborators & people in general. It’s nice to get ideas out there in an informal way, connect with people & get some feedback.

You recently shared a pretty awesome list of self-love centric advice during an interview - do you have a regular practice of bringing those front of mind for yourself?

Shoutout Swidlife for that interview- I definitely treat myself with love & kindness & try to treat others the same way. I don’t put a lot of pressure on myself - obviously I do feel pressure, and I get things done (in my own time), but I’m really just trying to enjoy everything about music & life in general. I have so much to learn, so just being kind & forgiving with myself as I grow into what I want to become. That’s my main form of self-love, if that made any sense.

“I have so much to learn, so just being kind & forgiving with myself as I grow into what I want to become. That’s my main form of self-love [...]”

You’re very hands-on in your art direction. Do you have a similar affinity for visual arts that you do to music?

I obviously love to make music, but I feel like the sound is just one dimension of the whole emotion- there’s so much more that can be articulated through a visual. Honestly, I follow tons of artists and creatives on Instagram and will save anything and everything I like; my saved posts are an entire moodboard I can refer to when I’m thinking about how I want the song to look.

Like for Hawthorne, I picked our location based on an Instagram post I saw a while ago - I follow this photographer Brendan Carroll on IG & he did a shoot at Northwestern’s Main Library literally almost two years ago. They were absolutely stunning, and ever since I saw those, I’ve been wanting to shoot there.

Are there any visual artists that serve as inspirational mainstays?

I’ve gone through periods of being really into specific visual artists- like I’ll study everything about them and get to know their work really well. My first artistic obsession was with Dale Chihuly- I asked my mom for his book when I was 5- he’s an absolute visionary.

What’s next for Alex Banin?

I just put out a song & visual- Hawthorne, which I think is my favorite - appreciate everyone who’s given that a listen or share. I’m tryna release more & I’m starting to think about how I want a project to look like. I also have some collaborations coming out that I’m excited for!