Kita Alexander: Going at her own pace

The 21-year-old Port Macquarie local is riding the wave of success with her latest single ‘Hotel’. But she’s letting things run their natural course.

If you’ve tuned into commercial radio over the past four weeks, there is no doubt you would have heard the haunting yet ethereal tones of Kita Alexander.

Her latest track ‘Hotel’ first entered the TMN Hot 100 chart in late October, coming in at #52 – an incredible achievement for anyone, nevermind a young Australian artist with only a handful of cuts to their catalogue.

As of Friday last week (November 17), the single has reached Gold status, and continues to garner more airplay and more attention. Championed by triple j earlier in her career, Alexander has now achieved the elusive crossover into stations on both the Hit and Nova networks.

“To have my songs on the radio is huge for me. It’s kind of bigger for me than Spotify or social media, because I grew up listening to the radio,” she tells TMN.

“I just have a lot of respect for the radio; I definitely think that’s where a lot of new listeners come from.”

But make no mistake, Alexander has already experienced the breadth of the music industry, coming out the other side with one major observation: “It’s really quick”.

“People have kind of shorter attention spans these days. You’ve got to be up and doing stuff, and kind of have listeners… but then again my situation might be unique. I haven’t been as present as I could be. My songs have still gathered the listeners and gathered followers.”

Alexander’s laidback approach to life shines through when you speak to her, and it’s also reflected in the way she does business. While she’s quick to admit that she feels the pressure to keep up with the fast-paced industry, she holds strong in her position of going at her own pace.

“I’m not going to try and rush… to jump to an album, or jump to releasing because the demand’s there.

“My music is what it is, my song career is what it is, and I need to respect that. I don’t need to get too ahead of where my career is.”

The slower pace has paid off too. ‘Hotel’ is a departure from what her other tracks sound like, and taught Alexander a valuable lesson in making music.

“It has a life of it’s own this song, and I had to respect that where it went. I couldn’t push anywhere else.

“It felt really freeing to just give that to the song, and not try and push it in any other direction. What we created, we stayed true to.”

Working with Dan Hume almost two years ago, the original song was written just on acoustic guitar – the demo of which was also included on the EP for juxtaposition.

But this slower approach to music saw the demo being put on the backburner for a year – despite everyone on Alexander’s team falling in love with the song.

“We really had time to just appreciate the melody, the lyrics, the simple guitar chords. And then we got back into the studio a year later and I had a couple of ideas and Dan had a few ideas, and we just rolled with it.

“I suppose because we had a year of just marinating on the bones of the song itself, something about the time we had it just grew.”

But once again, the track provided Alexander with an opportunity to be patient and let the process take its natural course. A year later, she was back in the studio with Hume, exchanging ideas.

“In the studio, everything just felt right. But if we did push it one way, we were like ‘no, that’s wrong’. We just knew for some reason, and I think it’s just because we knew the bones of the song so well.

“Working with Americans and Englishmen, everything is like factory line – ‘just get it out, write a song, [now] quick, produce it!’ Whereas Australians are more laid back – they’re like ‘Nope, if that’s the song, then roll with it…’”

While she’s opting to let her new single slowly gather momentum – rather than pushing to do promo and tour – working with TaP Management’s Tim Manton has opened Alexander’s eye to the possibilities that music can bring.

“It a big world, it’s not just Australia. I think in Australia you can become a big fish in a little pond, and you can kind of be ignorant of the fact that there is the whole world that you could swim into.”