Alex Boyd
Oct 8, 2012
Alex Boyd was about 10 years old when he decided to follow his dreams. He'd been singing and performing since the age of 7, and by 13 Alex had chased down opportunities most kids would never even dream of - he danced with Debbie Allen at the Kennedy Center, sang with Patti LaBelle and acted alongside Bruce Willis.In 2008 his instincts finally led him in the right direction: to the classic, groovy, soulful sound he lives and breathes on his Jive Records debut Commit Me due later this year.
The key to unlocking his true creativity was Andy Rose, the producer who's been Boyd's right-hand man since 2008. Rose convinced Boyd to ditch the electro-pop songs he'd been singing which had racked up almost a million hits on his MySpace and follow his always reliable old-soul. "The first records I ever made were old Chet Baker and Sinatra jazz standards," he says (his favorite singers are still Stevie Wonder and Donnie Hathaway). "Even when I was studying opera, I wanted to be Harry Connick Jr."
Love - losing it, finding it, learning to live with and without it - is a recurring theme on Commit Me. "Snap" is about a split Boyd initiated and immediately regretted as the worst mistake of his life. "She had me at the snap of her fingers, and literally I would have dropped everything for her at that time. Nothing else mattered," he says of the uptempo track, which comes with an irresistible horn section. Common, the album's lone guest, throws a rhyme on "Between the Lines," an introspective song about self betrayal and misunderstanding Boyd wrote nearly 8 years ago. "I remember being in tears at the bottom of a wine bottle with a wet piece of paper and a pen, scribbling out lyrics. I was facing intimidating questions about whether or not I was the person I thought I had been raised to be, or if I was even capable of being that person at all," he says.
The album's first single, "Wish I Knew" was produced by Carvin & Ivan of Musiq Soulchild, Jazmine Sullivan, and Jill Scott fame. "Another album highlight is Light Up Tonight," the result of a collaborative effort between Alex and producer Andy Rose.