Alexandra Kay is so grateful for the life and career she has now. Kay opens up about the highs and lows in her life, both personally and professionally, which led to her monumental Second Wind, album.
“I was on a Netflix show that didn’t work out, and then got dropped from my second label,” Kay recalls on the Artist Friendly with Joel Madden podcast. “And then I ended up going back. And so I remember, right when I had gotten back in Illinois, I was loading my dishwasher and talking to my mom on the phone. I was driving four and a half hours back and forth to Nashville, writing songs at this time, but I couldn’t afford to put myself up in a hotel or anything. So I would just couch surf, and then go home if I didn’t have anywhere to stay.”
Most people would have by then given up. Fortunately, Kay isn’t most people. The determined singer-songwriter decided to try one more time, a decision that changed everything for her.
“I had just come back, and I wrote four songs I really loved,” Kay says. “I was telling my mom on the phone, I said, ‘I just wrote these four songs, and I really like them, and I’m just going to put them out independently. And if this doesn’t work out, I’ll probably just see what else God has in store for me. I just don’t know that I can take another letdown, having just lost my second deal, and a show that was supposed to change my life that flopped. [I’m] broke, and I have nothing.’ And I [had] that guilt from going back to my hometown, after you had just moved to LA and did this whole Netflix thing. It just kind of felt like a failure.”
The Song That Changed Everything For Alexandra Kay
The first song Kay released was “I Kinda Don’t,” becoming the song that kicked off her soaring career. Second Wind is her sophomore album, and her first on BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville.
“That was my first viral song, my first to go straight to the top of the iTunes charts,” Kay says. “And then the second song did the exact same thing. And then before I knew it, all the labels were in my inbox, and I haven’t slowed down since. I tell this story on stage every night, because that’s what I think about when I think about Second Wind. It was all the times that I thought I was done, that the fans were like, ‘You are not even close to being done.’ And they were my second wind. So that’s why I named the record Second Wind.”
How Alexandra Kay’s Romance Inspired ‘Second Wind’
Kay drew inspiration from her fans for Second Wind. But she also drew inspiration from her band member turned boyfriend, Rocko Beall, whom she began dating following a devastating divorce.
“He’s great. Right place, right time kind of thing, to where I was looking, seeing him in a different light,” Kay says. “And then when we got together, the really cool thing was that, if you really unpack my last record, a lot of it was me feeling in my relationship like every little bit of love and affection was like pulling it out. And honestly feeling like I was high-maintenance when it came to love. I remember my ex used to tell me things like, ‘You need to stop watching Instagram reels,’ and ‘Real relationships aren’t like that.’
“When Rocko and I got together, he just proved to me in such a short time, and still does a year later, that I wasn’t asking too much,” she adds. “I was just asking the wrong person. … I am happier than I’ve ever been.”
“Straight For The Heart,” Kay’s debut single from Second Wind, is at radio now.
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Photo Credit: CMA / Erika Goldring