Christian Alexander

“There was a lot of jumping around the room when I found out Brockhampton liked my stuff.”

Channelling Joey wearing all of Chandler’s clothes realness.

Your favourite band’s new favourite artist, Christian Alexander is ready to take his lo-fi charm worldwide. Words: Elly Watson.

There are a few accolades that can signify that an artist’s on the right path. Having Brockhampton’s de-facto leader Kevin Abstract openly claim that you’re his “favourite artist in the world,” however, has got to be one of the coolest. “There was definitely a lot of jumping around the room when I found out that they liked my stuff,” Christian Alexander grins today of the game-changing moment.

Not quite the Stateside star you might’ve expected, instead Christian hails from somewhere a little less versed in producing future superstars: Lancashire. But though a literal and metaphorical ocean might separate them, the two artists soon struck up a bond. And while it may have been Brockhampton’s spotlight that pushed him more into the mainstream (Christian would go on to feature on the collective’s last album ‘ROADRUNNER: NEW LIGHT, NEW MACHINE’ before being handpicked to support the group on their fated European tour), his knack for detailing poignant feelings in lo-fi leaning bedroom-pop gems was bound to eventually do the same. to share his debut album proper, ‘I Don’t Like You’. Starting work on the record back in the summer of 2020, he explains that he was in a creative lull before a nap soundtracked by Nirvana’s ‘Bleach’ shook him out of it. “I woke up feeling really inspired and went back to my guitar and focused on the melodies,” he recalls. “It all happened really quickly after that.”

Likening the record’s creation to a bit of a “bloody annoying puzzle,” ‘I Don’t Like You’ saw Christian flying back and forth between studio sessions in America with the Brockhampton boys and his UK home. “When they reached out to me I didn’t really want to work with anyone, I had such a closed mind, but my main exception was someone from Brockhampton,” he smiles. “It was amazing that it happened.”

Giving “absolutely everything” to the album’s creation, Christian highlights this new collaboration - alongside going back to basics and concentrating on songwriting and structure - as what makes ‘I Don’t Like You’ stand out from his previous releases. “I was just really interested in the idea of how, if a certain melody is done, it can be like crack to the ear, basically; just how people can keep going back to a track and why they can't get enough of it,” he explains. “I don’t know if that’s gonna happen to any of the songs on this album, but if people enjoy listening to it, then I’m happy!” DIY

DIRTY PRETTY THINGS

KennyHoopla has returned with his first new material since the release of last year’s ‘SURVIVORS GUILT:

THE MIXTAPE’. New track

‘DIRTY WHITE VANS//’ has once again seen him team up with Travis Barker and Dwilly: “Travis and I were just in the studio, and I wanted to make some rap shit to kind of show a different side of me,” he explains. “Dwilly and Travis made the beat. I caught a vibe and wrote to it… I’ve had that hook on my phone for years now; I’ve just been waiting for the right beat to put it on. This one fit really well, so I recorded it and it was dope.” The new track lands ahead of his return to the UK and Europe this summer, where he’ll play a slew of headline shows (including three nights at London’s Underworld in June), as well as both legs of Slam Dunk.

BUZZ FEED BUZZ FEED

SHINE BRIGHT LIKE A DIAMOND

THE MAIN OBJECTIVE

All the buzziest

Ahead of their stint supporting new music Everything Everything in Leeds happenings in and London next month, Leeds one place. quartet L’objectif have announced details of their new EP ‘We Aren’t Getting Out But Tonight We Might’. The five-track release is due for release on 3rd June via Chess Club, and includes latest offering ‘Get Close’; “It’s a love song probably or at least a song about intimacy,” frontman Saul Kane says. “I kind of liked the idea of writing about having a borderline existential crisis but then thinking ‘forget that’ and just focusing on wanting to be with someone. I mean the title ‘Get Close’ is what it’s about really, wanting to get close to someone and the rest can wait.”

London trio deep tan have announced news of second EP ‘diamond horsetail’, which will be released digitally on 6th May before receiving a physical release on 22nd July. The record follows last year’s debut EP ‘creeping speedwells’ and includes new single ‘rudy ya ya ya’ which the band describe as “the rudy giuliani diss track you never asked for”. Listen to ‘rudy ya ya ya’ on diymag.com now.

THE PLAYLIST

Every week on Spotify, we update DIY’s Neu Discoveries playlist with the buzziest, freshest faces. Here’s our pick of the best new tracks:

FAKE TURINS PARCEL DUCHAMP

North London 11-piece (!) Fake Turins specialise in soupy disco-psych resonances, and latest offering ‘Parcel Duchamp’ is no exception. Hinged upon a slaloming bass-line, the groove slips in and out focus, whimsically seduced by any tall tangent or rhythmic excursion that might take its lip-licking fancy. It’s as if LCD Soundsystem were swallowed by a fragmented time-vortex, slopped en masse, then reformulated in a parallel universe of boogie-centric reckoning. And within that confusion, this vignette of funk, setting hips in motion, was thankfully born.

ETHEL CAIN GIBSON GIRL

Ethel Cain’s new song ‘Gibson Girl’, the first teaser of debut album ‘Preacher’s Daughter’, is inspired by Evelyn Nesbit, the world’s first supermodel who was also known as the Gibson Girl. “Whenever I start to lose myself and forget what I’m capable of, I just turn to her and she’s the greatest reminder,” Ethel says, and the song - a near-six-minute odyssey full off shuddering synths and Cain’s whispery, inviting voice - is a reminder to realise your own strength.

KYNSY NEW YEAR

After returning with the synthy ‘Mr Nice Guy’, her first new music since the release of debut EP ‘Things That Don’t Exist’ early last year, Dublin’s Kynsy has shared new track ‘New Year’. Written on - you guessed it - New Year, the track, we’re told, is inspired by pop legend Roísín Murphy, resulting in a squelchy alt-pop dance number about searching for meaning as a new year rolls in.

MIDLIGHT HOME

“I need a place to grow old, believe me, believe me.” George Ireland pipes on ‘Home’. The London-via-Brighton fourpiece appear to tap into profound emotions far beyond their age would have you believe, deftly conjuring formidable sorrow in the unity between each instrument. ‘Home’ is a wary balance between glistening cymbal crashes and surging guitar swells, effortlessly pairing the candour of Fontaines DC with the lucid breathiness of Massive Attack.

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