The Sweet Life with (Sandy) Alex G

Interview by Maya Eslami

Alex Giannascoli, known professionally as (Sandy) Alex G, doesn’t like interviews.

He tells me as much within the first five minutes of our phone call. ‘I’m not practised enough,’ he says, ‘but I’m getting used to it.’ Alex has been making music almost all of his life, but only recently, with the dawning of the internet age, has he achieved enough acclaim to be anxious about the interviews that accompany a successful music career. ‘I’ve been doing all these interviews and I think about it all the time, like, “what am I doing?” I don’t have anything to say, you know what I mean?’ And while he truly believes this, (Sandy) Alex G has lots to say, especially about his ninth album, House of Sugar. His third full-length on Domino Records, House of Sugar is no mean feat for Alex, largely because he never expected to have a career as a professional musician. ‘I thought maybe I’d be a teacher or something,’ he says. Lucky for us.

Tell me about playing music when you were growing up.

Music was the main outlet for me as a teenager; that was what me and friends did for fun. We’d just play shows on the weekends or go to shows on the weekends; that was all we did. It was my fun thing, like, when other kids were skateboarding or playing video games, you know what I mean?

And then you started recording on your own, doing it DIY, self-releasing albums on Bandcamp…

I guess that was what got me so interested in it. We had a Mac computer and I would just monopolize it all the time because I’d be on GarageBand making songs and stuff. So I would burn ‘em on CDs, give them to kids I knew, and sometimes we’d play them at shows.

How old were you when you?

Fourteen, fifteen. Around that age.

Did you ever expect to one day have a label backing you?

No, definitely not. I always thought about it as my way to have fun. And then I figured I’d just have a job doing something else. I was at Temple University for a couple years studying English, so I thought maybe I’d be a teacher or something. But then I guess the word spread and we were playing lots of shows, and I never stopped. Eventually, labels got interested enough.

How does it feel to be signed now?

It feels pretty cool. My life’s pretty much the same except now I don’t have to work a day job. I just go on tour for half the year, and then when I’m home I can spend most of my time writing. It’s pretty easy [laughs].

You’ve been making music almost all of your life. Is there anything that still scares you?

Not really… I guess what scares me is not so much about losing this career, because that’s probably going to happen, that’s just the way it goes in the music business. But I guess what scares me is being the focus of so much attention. It’s a little nerve-wracking. I’ve been doing all these interviews and I think about it all the time, like, what am I doing? I don’t have anything to say, you know what I mean? So, I just babble and then I hope nobody reads it [laughing].

Equally nerve-wracking interviewing someone.

I can imagine.

So, in typical music interview fashion, tell me about your songwriting process?

I usually just sit down with the acoustic guitar and fiddle around and eventually something kinda sticks. It’s very simple but it’s also hard to explain because it’s more about a feeling. Stuff starts to feel right, and then I keep doing something that feels right until I have a song. There’s not really a calculated method or anything. I don’t really have a steady method that I use.

You’re just letting it naturally happen.

Yeah, I guess so. I’ll just keep playing different stuff until I get some kind of dopamine burst in my brain and then I stick with that.

On your new album, House of Sugar, you wrote in your press release that this one was more of a laboured effort. Can you explain that at all, in terms of writing the songs?

It was pretty much the same as it’s always been. I guess the thing that maybe was laboured over more was that I was using a new microphone this time.

Why the new microphone?

I kinda got bored with the old one. I’d been using this other one since I started making recordings, like, my aunt got it for me when I was fifteen and I’ve always used it. And it started to feel kinda stale.

I’ve heard the single ‘Gretel,’ and it’s so much more complex than what I’m used to hearing from you. Was that intentional?

That was definitely something I was aware of, that it was maybe too poppy, but I figured, fuck it. And I just kept working on it. The complexity probably also comes from the microphone, from being able to capture a lot of different sounds, and put them all on the same song.

Tell me about the name, House of Sugar.

It doesn’t really mean anything. I like the way it sounds, and I read this short story called The House Made of Sugar a couple years ago and the album was starting to sound poppier than my other albums, so I kind of associated it with sugar. And also there’s this casino near where I live called Sugar House; I wrote a song about that. So, all those things mixed together, and then I remembered that story and was like, ‘Oh, House of Sugar. That sounds cool.’

‘Sugar House’ is the first time you’ve ever released a live song on an album. Why that choice?

I’m glad I got to put the band that I tour with on the album because I have a ton of respect for them. They’re my closest friends. I’m glad to have this as a way of showcasing them. And also it was a nice experiment: putting a live track on an album. I was experimenting to see if it could do well.

The songs have a duality to them. What were you inspired by when you were writing?

I mean, going off duality, I saw this movie called Annihilation, did you see it?

I don’t think so…

It came out near the beginning of the process, and after seeing that I really liked how beautiful it was and how horrifying it was at the same time. That really stuck with me. Like all the rainbow colours but they’re all getting eaten alive and shit. I like the imagery a lot and I wanted to capture something like that on the album.

You record at home by yourself, for the most part. Why do you prefer that process?

I prefer it that way because I usually know what I want. I’m not looking for anyone else’s input.

Do you consider yourself a perfectionist?

In music, yes. In every other aspect of my life, no.

It’s good to have just one thing you’re crazy about, right?

Yeah for sure.

House Of Sugar is out September 13th via Domino Records.