Transitioning from being a social media influencer as part of the Hype House, Atlantic Records signee Alex Warren is cementing himself and coming into his craft as an authentic singer-songwriter with his multifaceted talents, through his openness to speak on the grieving of his deceased parents, mental health struggles, and personal challenges from his own losses.

The vulnerability he displays in his songs helps not only himself but listeners to have a connection to the stories and emotions he shares through his music. To further speak on his journey as an artist, he discussed the moments in his career with Variance's, Ethan Ijumba, detailing the changes from being an independent to signing with Atlantic, his composition process, and the plans for himself in terms of music and the potential of returning to releasing videos once more.

Be sure to read the full interview between the two below.

Ethan Ijumba:
Recently you released a couple of singles this past year, “Chasing Shadows” and “Headlights,” under your new deal with Atlantic Records. How has it been for you, though, in terms of going from the social media influencer role to a full-fledged artist role? 

Alex Warren:
It's been boring; it's funny because I started on social media singing. If you scroll down any of my socials, it's me doing covers and always dreaming of doing what I'm doing now; it just never seemed possible. So there's the part where it's like, it doesn't feel real and that I’ve signed a record label deal, and I've played on stages and stuff, but I don't think it really hit me yet, that this might be my job. Whenever someone asks me what I do, many of my friends go; he's a musician, but I just literally go; I don't know what the hell I do; I have no idea. So I think it's really, it's been cool and scary, insane, and surreal.

EI:
Have you had a surreal moment where you’ve seen success as a singer, where it's still hard to believe, and let it settle in that this is your career? 

AW:
Probably when I started hearing people singing and playing my songs, one time I was in Hawaii, and someone was screaming the lyrics of my song “Headlights.” They didn't even know I was there. It's cool that my music traveled to Hawaii, and people enjoyed the song.

EI:
Do you have a certain direction to how you want to go about what audiences can hear next from you? Do you want to continue with the array of singles routes or lead up to an EP? Or is there anything planned that you have specifically? 

AW:
I have a whole project done at this point; right now, it's more the singles route, and hopefully, by the time we're at seven, something new can be released. I only have five songs out, and three of them were posted years ago. I have two songs out with Atlantic, and it's more of; we're going to put a song out every month and see how it goes. 

EI:
How has it been since you were signed to Atlantic Records since previously you were independent and now being signed to a major label?

AW:
Honestly, I thought it would be way different, but it's not. You hear all these stories about labels, and I've been blessed where I picked right. They're amazing, and I have a support group around me as well; I've learned a lot already and got put into rooms I would never have been in without them. Many people don't get lucky, and it's been absolutely amazing; everyone there is so nice and always smiling, and I feel like I have a second family.

EI:
Regarding the music you released through Atlantic, you released two singles, “Headlights” and “Chasing Shadows.” How exactly did both songs come about in terms of the composition process? 

AW:
My composition process is very interesting. With “Headlights,” we went into the studio and made three songs that day. “Headlights” was written right after my mom passed and was like, let's try to make a happy one. We started just playing happy chords, but for the life of me, I can’t write a happy song. We tried making it sound happy, but it's depressing as hell and about anxiety. Then “Chasing Shadows” was inspired by my dog Kota when we were playing with a laser pointer, and she has this disease t where she’ll start chasing anything she can't get. So she would see her shadow coming in from my windows in my backyard, and she would chase her shadow and cry every day for weeks because she wouldn't be able to get her shadow. I looked at that and realized that's everyone; everyone is chasing something they will not get. I'm chasing the approval of my dead parents.  Also, with grief, the biggest thing you don't want to forget is how things smell, how people sound, and what they look like. I think everyone who's lost a parent or loved one forgets some key facts about them after a long time, and no one wants that. Eventually, I’ll get better at telling the story, but it's the first time I'm talking about it, and it's really cool to open up about it. 

EI:
Do you normally have a specific method of how you go about it? Or do you normally take the pen to the paper or just go in the booth and see what happens?

AW:
I have a songbook, so whenever I have these ideas, I write down the general idea, and then I've only had so many sessions where my writing could be a lot better. So it's cool because when I get in a room with writers, they're so talented and have access to things that few people do. Half of my songs have come from me getting help on them, and it's been the coolest experience learning. Inevitably, I've been doing a lot of it on my own now, where I would write down the entire song, bring it to someone, and they're like, okay, let's clean this up a little bit which has been really cool. 

EI:
With that being said, from your documentary, you mentioned the Naked Brothers Band was a major influence on you. Aside from them, who else has inspired you or influenced you musically in terms of your career?

AW:
For the longest time, I didn't like my voice because it was a little deeper than most, and in pop music, you didn't hear that you had artists like Justin Bieber and Shawn Mendez, and Greyson Chance. All these guys sang very high, but singers like James Arthur and Lewis Capaldi made singing with low sounds exciting and popular. I mean, growing up, I had the Naked Brothers Band, and then my dad passed away, so I'd lost interest in everything, and then after that, Justin Bieber blew up on Youtube, and that was something you never heard of that happened. So when that happened, I was like 11, but at the same time, it was something like, Oh my gosh, this could happen to anyone; it was really cool. 

EI:
Do you feel that you're chasing the approval of your dead parents, or is there a different goal or dream that you still truly wanna grasp and experience? 

AW:
No, I think I won't achieve what I'm chasing. The problem is before my mom passed away, she was an alcoholic, and every person with an addiction needs someone to blame it on. So it's been a whole thing going back and forth ever since she passed; I have her in my head, just criticizing everything I do. She never thought this was possible for me, so it's something where I think it's more of a thing in my head where I don't think no matter how successful I get or how much I achieve, I won't necessarily…

EI:
Be satisfied?

AW:
Yeah, I don't know how to navigate it. That's called therapy. 

EI:
That said, your music has therapeutically helped you and others get through your parent's passing and the overall moments you go through. Do you intend to have that be the focal point, or do you ever want to branch out and get into different aspects? 

AW:
Yeah, I don't want to be the dead dad kid; I don't want that to be my niche. I have a lot of songs, and it's something where I started looking at my discography, and I was like, oh my God, guys, we need to fix this. So I have a kind of  fuck you record coming out where it was inspired a lot by P!nk, and again, it has that low baritone entrance to a big belt moment that's like two octaves up, but I have many songs about everything that happened to me before. Then I'll have an era where I write about good things that have happened in my life. But the project I've written tells a story within all these songs, and working on this whole project is a message to my younger self. So I have all these songs showing everyone what I've gone through, but also so many people have gone through a lot of this, and no one ever talks about it. Putting out these songs and getting some success is cool because it can show a lot of people that the situation you're in right now does not mean it's going to be who you are forever.  What's cool is just like, I remember sitting in my room and 16 or 15 being like, why the hell is this happening to me? I won't be able to do what I want or achieve these things. So this entire project is just a message to that person, but it's also to so many people in that situation now. 

EI:
If you could summarize, what would you tell your younger self?

AW:
Literally, I have a song that I just wrote called; “You'll be Alright Kid,” and it's literally all the things I would say to my younger self. I know everyone tries to give some inspirational, dumb, cliche fucking quote here, but the one thing I would say is that it's gonna get better. But yeah, there's no cool Pinterest quote I can tell you right now. That and I’d probably tell my younger self you eventually get diabetes, so lay off the diet coke. 

EI:
Aside from music, everyone in your comments section says we miss your videos; the songs are great, but make a new video. Is that chapter closed completely, or maybe one day down the line, you’d be open to recording again?

AW:
Definitely, one day down the line, my thing is it stopped being fun, and I started focusing on making money and videos by trying to outdo myself every single time by over-exhausting myself to the point where the last seven videos you'll see how I'm just declining in my ability to stay stable there. It was just something that when I started music, it was like a whole fucking door opening. But the next time I'd ever vlog is if I had a kid and it was like my home videos that my dad would film around the house; I would recreate those and make them real because there's always gonna be another person doing crazier stuff than you, I think I would have probably killed myself by somehow doing something stupid trying to get views. Now, I have an amazing fiance, want kids, and am not trying to be an idiot anymore. If I come back, it needs to be for something amazing, and my dream has always been to be a father.