For an artist who always sounds like she’s smiling when she’s singing, Alex Winston doesn’t sound too happy when she talks about the long and frustrating road to the release of her full-length debut, King Con, which was released last week.
“I can’t tell you how hard it was,” Winston said. “I just felt like a weight was lifted off my chest because I wrote all these songs a year ago, and a lot has happened in my life. By now I would’ve at least liked to release another EP or started working on my second album, and now I’m just beginning that process.”
But Winston’s much-delayed album release, which she blames on her ex-label’s “bullshit politics,” has also brought about a three-stop mini-tour, which she’s thrilled about. Winston will bring her unique brand of indie pop to the U Street Music Hall tonight, where she will take the stage with at least six other musicians.
Bringing along a full band is “expensive as hell,” according to Winston. “But we have to try to figure out this way of making things work because it is important to me to have live instruments – as many as I can. If I had it my way I would have 12 people on stage.”
Winston’s music is loaded with instrumentation, from organs to accordions to horns. The 12 songs on King Con are nearly all massive, jubilant anthems with Winston’s high-pitched falsetto rising atop a layered wall of sound.
Standout track “Host” is a jolting burst of energy with loopy synthesizers and ringing bells. “Velvet Elvis” grows from its cocktail lounge-y intro with muddled keyboards and jazzy trumpets into a huge chorus with shades of Arcade Fire. The drums pound along as the horns transform from cheesy jazz into an epic anchor for the chanted battle cry “They’re coming, they’re coming – oh, oh!”
But Winston’s music is not quite as positive and uplifting as it seems.
“Lyrically, they aren’t happy songs. I don’t think a single one on the record is about joyful times,” Winston said. “It’s about people taking advantage of other people and con artists and sort of off-kilter American cultures.”
Winston said her live show captures the raw element of her songs, as she sometimes lowers her voice to turn down the cuteness and turn up the intensity.
“It’s different than the recordings because I think it’s way more energetic. A lot of the vocals on the record are sort of airy, in that really high register and really sweet. But I wouldn’t say the live show is that sweet, I think it’s more full-on,” she said. “If I’m like standing on a drum, or in the audience, then it’s hard to be really delicate when there’s that energy.”
While she tours with a big band, Winston is a true solo artist who likes to take creative control of her own music. She played most of the instruments heard on the record herself.
“I always like playing on my own record,” she said. “I want it to be as much of me as possible. But I did have a little help.”
Winston’s independence as an artist extends to her relationship with her label. She remains a part of Universal but has switched to a branch that focuses on independent artists.
“In the future, I’m just gonna release things when I want to release them,” she said. “I think being an artist it can be really creatively stifling when you have stuff waiting around.”
Winston also seeks to distinguish herself from the many comparisons heaped onto her by music writers. While she is flattered by many of them, Winston said she has sometimes been associated with completely unrelated artists.
“A lot of times people just clump females together,” she said. “They’ll call me an electro artist and compare me to other female electro artists and it’s like – did you listen to the record? I’m playing an accordion! I’m playing a 50-year-old organ here!”
Alex Winston will be at the U Street Music Hall tonight. Tickets are $7 in advance and $10 at the door. Doors open at 7 p.m.
diversions@umdbk.com
