Rising Star Alex Freeman On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Music Industry

An Interview With Edward Sylvan

Work on your craft every day. Pick an instrument and stick with it. Learn from everyone around you. Help and support others! Believe in yourself and never let anybody stop you.

As a part of our series about rising music stars, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Alex Freeman.

Alex is a singer, songwriter, actress, and entrepreneur. Alex is a truly unique talent, singing and speaking to crowds of well over 20,000 in attendance. Her followers are inspired by her work as an inspirational speaker. Alex has been performing in front of major audiences for years. She speaks and performs at schools teaching how to live with greatness and dream big! Alex is excited to lend her voice as an advocate for suicide prevention and anti-bullying, she created a very personal song named Somebody. After losing her mentor to suicide, she knew that she had to be involved with a cause so dear to her heart.

She has been interviewed and highlighted by all major media outlets such as CBS, ABC, NBC, iHeart Radio, and Galaxy communications. Her songs are available on Spotify, Pandora, and all major music outlets.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?

I grew up in Syracuse, NY. My parents owned a Health club called “Well-Rounded Health and Fitness.” We would be there from 4 am to 10 pm every day. They worked to create the best environment, and help people at all hours of the day.

There was always music playing all day long so it inspired me because listening to so much music and hearing many genres instills musical diversity in you. (Or at least it did for me!)

I am a singer, songwriter, model, and actress. I mainly focus on singing and songwriting. I work on creating new music every day. Music is my creative outlet, and thankfully people relate to the music I write and sing. ❤

Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?

Honestly, I can not even remember when I first started singing. It feels like forever, but I professionally started singing when I was 5!

I was in plays, dance performances, and bands all at a super young age.

One thing that I realized doing all of that is -that I loved to be on stage and be front and center.

Ever since then I’ve been songwriting, performing and singing as often as I possibly can… honestly like every single second of the day.

Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

I had a performance back a few years ago, and I was told that I was going to have a HUGE stage.

I was told that the stage would be great for photos and perfect for choreography. When I got there and saw the stage I was astonished the stage was literally 2x2 amount of space. I had full choreography, It was hilarious looking back at the videos doing full choreo… on the smallest stage, I have ever seen in my life!

From that experience, I learned that you never know what you're walking into. So I try to always make the best of every situation, no matter what.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

When I was younger and would do performances, I would always have full choreography for every single second of a song.

Sometimes I would completely forget the choreography, or forget to keep singing because I was so focused on not messing up.

I had a very strict choreographer, who is amazing but if I messed up he would be very upset with me. So as I got older I realized that I need to only do choreography on certain parts of the song versus the whole entire song, and focus on my singing more.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

Honestly to me, all songwriting projects are equally interesting.

I get so excited to be able to create new music because it’s one of the things I love to do most.

Over quarantine, I was able to write about 50 songs and record about 34 of them. Hopefully, most of them will be released sometime in the future…😉

We are very interested in diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers about why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?

I don’t know if I have three answers but I think it’s so important for younger audiences to see diversity in all elements of life.

For young POCS to be able to embrace their natural beauty and how amazing they are in their own skin.

As a person with a Hispanic background, I feel it’s very important to know our worth and look and feel confident in every situation and everything we do.

To keep true to ourselves because we are beautiful no matter what and I think having people who look similar to what you see in the mirror in television or music is so important. I know that representation matters, and we can change the culture. Entertainment has such a huge impact on culture and how people see the world.

All nationalities, races, religions, and all skin tones and sexualities need to be represented and treated equally in entertainment and every outlet.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.

1.) Work on your craft every day.

Learning your craft as much as you can is so important as an artist, and grows your skillset and confidence.

2.) Pick an instrument and stick with it.

I’ll play several instruments, but I wish I would’ve focused on mainly the piano. I wish I would have tried to master that as well as I can. To be super good at it before I change to any other instrument. Now I feel as if I only know small bits of each instrument, which makes me feel not as confident in my skill… So I wish I would’ve focused down on mainly piano before I did anything else.

3.) Learn from everyone around you.

Take bits and pieces of information from everyone you meet in the industry the more you know the better, look for opportunities to grow. I have had the great opportunity to work with some amazing producers and songwriters and I have learned from each one some lifelong nuggets.

4.) Help and support others!

Supporting other artists like you it’s so important. We are all connected and need to realize we are not in competition with each other. We are parts of the same tree we need to uplift and support our like-minded creatives no matter what!

5.) Believe in yourself and never let anybody stop you.

I have been bullied for everything. How I dress, how I sing, my music. If I listened to everyone who had an opinion of what I should be doing, I would not be talking with you today. Unfortunately, everyone seems to have an option of others, imagine if they put that much energy into a skill set? I want your readers to know, other people's opinions of you have NOTHING to do with you, it only speaks to who they are. It doesn’t define you, it defines them.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

I feel it’s quite simple. MAKE MUSIC YOU LOVE!!! When you love what you create, and can’t wait to continually create more you won’t burn out. No matter what anyone says it won’t stop you because you are completely happy and fulfilled what you have created.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I have already been a face for suicide prevention anti-bullying and I would just want to amplify the effect that I can help create an anti-bullying and suicide prevention movement.

To help uplift people up and know that every single person has someone that they can trust and that supports them no matter what.

None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

There are so many people that I am thankful for. People that have helped me work towards creating the music I love. People that have helped grow my skill set, and have taught me to be a better singer, musician, writer, and producer.

Such as my parents who support and help every step of the way. Eddie Wenrick helped connect me with many amazing writers and producers. Marci and Allie at “Lasting Legacy PR” who are amazing help me book performances and interviews. Cole and Bardo from the “pwrhaus” writing group and the band “Beauty School Dropouts” who are my Co-writers and Producers who I have worked with on several songs and hopefully many more in the future.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

Probably the quote by Dr. Wayne Dyer. “When you change the way you look at things the things you look at change.” It is a quote that is my father’s absolute favorite. He says it all the time. It is a quote that talks about how your view on things change when you change your perception. It has really helped me to realize that perception is how I see it, based on my experience, how you see things is always going to be different because your experience is different.

Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

I would lose my mind to talk about music, and learn about vocal technique with Christina Aguilera- She has been one of my biggest vocal influences since I could even speak. She is such a fantastic singer and writer and my dream would be to work with her.

How can our readers follow you online?

insta- Alexfreemanrocks

Tiktok- AlexfreemanofficialTriller- Alexfreemanofficial YouTube- @missalexfreeman

Website- alexfreemanrocks.com

This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!

Thank you so much!!🏻