NORMAN ALEXANDER: Healing Through Song, The Business of Music, & More!

PHOTOS BY MARC BAPTIST

As an artist who feels deeply and expresses boldly, Norman Alexander is a compelling singer-songwriter who finds healing (and, might we add, helps others heal) through music. Check out his artist's journey, including where he started, the inspiration behind his song "Save Me", the business of music, and more.

MUSICAL ORIGINS

YV MEDIA: Describe your introduction to music. Did you grow up singing and surrounded by it, or did it come later in life? When did you discover you could sing? Looking back, what was that experience like?

NORMAN ALEXANDER: I grew up around the influences of music, but I didn't do it as a child. I didn't sing. I wasn't an altar boy. But music was in every space of every community, as sure as there were shells in the street. I didn't realize it was having a greater effect on me until my teens. As a child, I knew how to mimic well, so I would sing like everyone who came on the radio. That experience was actually very fun. It kind of made me the center of a lot of rooms as a child. When my oldest sister asked me to sing for her friends, I would be shy, but also excited to do so. I don't know if all Black Caribbean homes are the same, but we had a radio in every room in my house, and they would all be on at once. So I definitely grew up around it in that sense.

YVM: Share more about your single “Save Me”. It is truly an interesting piece of art, both the music video and the song itself. Tell us the inspiration behind it.

NORMAN: In that song, I speak about the trauma of someone who did the hurting, which is not often talked about. Usually you hear the trauma of the victim, or the person who's been hurt. But I believe there is a trauma that happens; there's a split that happens in the person who caused it, if they are any human at all, and that's worth looking at. “Save Me”, the song and the video, is me attempting to do that. If I succeeded, that's not up to me. But I did what I was called to do.

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

YVM: That’s profound. You speak a lot about healing through song. Have you always openly expressed emotion? What challenges come with sharing deep truths in your lyrics? Or does sharing musically make it a bit easier?

NORMAN: I actually know I cried a lot as a kid. I had a lot stored up, so much so that I developed this case of chronic migraines. And I knew then that it was because I was feeling things, and sometimes you don't even know what you're feeling. As a result, it led to me becoming a very angry person as a child. I know people say this a lot, but for me, music was the only place I could express myself. I didn't even know it was healing me. That's not what I was doing it for. But it was my way of going inside a closet and screaming at the top of my lungs without doing so. I'm from a big family, the second to last of eight, so your voice has to travel a long way to get to the top. Both working-class parents, so time wasn't given as much to the small voices. And I think in some way that affected my music.

When I first started, it was a lot of screams, a lot of aggression. And as I got more of it out, my voice became softer. Back then, it was like trying to signal to everybody that I have something to say. But now I've gotten to a place where I can just speak. Even though it's my way of expressing, it didn't make it any easier. Sometimes I would think about people taking it the wrong way. I think the only thing I've ever worried about expressing in my music this way was whether people wouldn't accept it coming from somebody who looked like me. But my music is very raw. It's not hidden in any metaphor or any of these things. It's me walking my way through my emotions each time, every time.

YVM: How important is it for men specifically to be in tune with their emotions and be willing to express them in healthy ways? What are some challenges you believe men face that may cause them to withhold? What advice would you give to that person?

NORMAN: I will go as far as to say that you can't trust a man who's not in tune with his emotions. He should express his emotions in healthy ways, just not in ways that take the responsibility off of himself. Being willing to express them is very tricky. Expressing emotions is not always going to be easy. If he can, and if he's there, and he's intelligent enough to do so, he should. But if he can't, and he's not there, he shouldn't be blamed. My advice: prioritize yourself, understand your personal emotional intelligence, and stay out of the way of a woman until then.

YVM: What’s the greatest lesson you have learned about life from life?

NORMAN: It's weird, because sometimes life feels like this thing in and of itself, like its own universe. You have life, but there's life happening, and we know this. It always felt like life would meet you where you're at. And the bigger the challenge in front of you, the bigger the hurdle in front of you, the more life believes in you. There's more that it sees in you. If you get what I'm saying.

THE BUSINESS OF MUSIC

YVM: What’s one of the biggest challenges independent artists face and what are some of the greatest rewards?

NORMAN: Some of the biggest challenges independent artists face is having to do everything; like truly everything. It is also rewarding, but not having that team to support you is one of the biggest challenges. You spend the first four to five years of your career trying to show people that you have something. And if you're successful in doing that, you spend the rest of it trying to keep people away from it. It's always this weird dynamic.

When you first start, you want to work with everybody. When you get to a point, you're careful of who you work with. You become a part of that problem that independent artists face. But in itself, it's rewarding as well, getting to do those things. You get the firsthand experience, and you learn a little bit more about your likes in this life, and your taste. That's how you figure out your taste. If you had people doing things for you every single day and you never had to grind for it, you wouldn't know who you are at the core as an artist.

YVM: What do you hope listeners gain from engaging with your music?

NORMAN: I hope listeners at the least could see themselves, or at least see similarities of what I'm talking about in someone that they know. I hope that it could put people on the path, men and women, of being honest with themselves and whatever it is they need, whether it’s peace, a heartbreak, accountability, whatever it is. It's not saying that you're wrong. But start with you, and then everything else follows. I hope they see someone who accepts themselves as human, and everything that comes with that, regardless of how it feels.

YVM: Share any current or upcoming projects we should look out for. How can everyone stay connected to you?

NORMAN: I've got projects. I'm dropping something in about two weeks. It's a piece that I wrote about internalizing the abuse that happened around me as a kid, but I also learned grace toward all the parties who were abusing each other as well, and what their experience might have been. And that's coming out with a visual. It's going to be pretty awesome. It's just another creative contribution. This is not a drop or a new single. This is just something that I want to be out in the world. I also have some shows coming up. On November 21st, I'm going to be at Pete's Candy Store in Brooklyn. And then after that, I have another official single coming out. You can find all the updates at NormanAlexandermusic.com, and I use my Instagram (@normanalexanderofficial) for almost real-time updates.

EDITORIAL QUESTION

YVM: Why does using your voice matter?

NORMAN: My voice matters because it doesn't cover things up. It stands in front of accountability. It doesn't hide behind handsome and distracting lyrics. There's enough of that going on. It's about helping people move forward with the hard emotions, not distracting them. It's simple. It's your only line of defense. It's your only freedom.

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Be sure to check out Norman Alexander at Pete’s Candy Store in Brooklyn on November 21st. Follow on Instagram @NormanAlexanderOfficial for real-time updates.

Photo Credit: Marc Baptist (Instagram: @MarcBaptistPhoto)