Did you ever wonder how it feels to grow up on a tiny island in Finland, surrounded by 800 residents? One thing the alt-pop rising artist Lxandra can guarantee is that an upbringing slightly removed from the mainstream is truly the most fructifying one when it comes to creativity. Following up on their debut full-length album, released in 2021, Lxandra prepares now to present their forthcoming immersive, raw EP to the world, “Might Not Wanna Wake Up,” teasing fans with a new single, “Sublime,” on October 13.

According to them, the project is “a story of longing and letting go. A return to the ruins of my past and a last goodbye to the one I used to be.” Over six songs that glide between darkness and light, the musician opens up about their experiences with pain and hardship–and what it means to make it to the other side of these challenging moments. Lxandra continues, “Struggling with grief in many different ways made me want to put this EP together. I wanted to dive deep into it and create a fairytale world appreciating all the different stages.”

Here, we caught up with the Finnish artist to get more insights on the new EP and single, understand more about their earlier influences and musical upbringing, as well as their next career steps.

Watch the video for “Sublime”…

Read the full interview…

How are you feeling about the upcoming release of “Sublime”?
I feel nervous and a little scared but super excited. I also feel a little rebellious, since it’s a 4 mins 20 seconds long single with like five verses ha!

Can you tell us a bit about the inspiration behind this track?
I wrote this song in 2021 in the middle of the night alone at the piano drinking red wine. Cliché, I know ha. But it was one of those songs that just had to come out. It’s a reflection on the aftermath of an abusive relationship I was in some years prior, a feeling I hadn’t really been able to put in words or melody before. It was a very cathartic experience. I was finally ready to get it out of my system and it sparked a whole new journey of truly letting go and getting to know myself again. The production, by Minna Koivisto, represents the new, bubbly and magical world ahead. The excitement and energy growing under the surface, the moment right before bursting into bloom. Sublime represents bargaining and depression.Two of the five stages of grief on the EP.

Congratulations on your new EP! Can you tell us a bit about the tracks and the story behind it?
Thank you! This EP travels through the five stages of grief. From denial, to anger, to bargaining and depression and finally, to acceptance. It’s a story about longing and letting go. Rebirth. A return to the ruins of my past and a last goodbye to people I’ve lost and the one I used to be. It consists of six songs, representing the five stages of grief, and four parts. The order of the songs is pretty much in the order as they were created. Most of the songs were written in a very intimate environment; at home on the piano, like Sublime, or in a little cottage on the countryside in Finland, like FU4EVER. I wanted this EP to be raw and honest. And it to sound beautifully messy, just like grief. It’s never linear. I also wrote and directed a short film for it to support the story visually. It was such a challenging but rewarding and healing experience. It’s been a dream to work with such amazing and loving people on this special project.

How did you first get into music, and who were your earliest influences? //
My dad and big brother are both musicians and my mom used to be a radio DJ, so music has played a big part in my life since birth. But I didn’t start writing songs until my teens. I had been playing piano and singing in a choir, in addition to other creative hobbies and tried different ways to express myself, but when I discovered songwriting and my own voice it just made so much sense. Writing songs and singing them felt like the purest and most natural form of expression to me. It has become part of me, something I could not live without and I try to remind myself every day how lucky I am that I get to do this. I used to listen to the “big cd’s” (=vinyls) with my dad as a kid. There was for example Joni Mitchell, Prince, Aretha Franklin, Carole King and Whitney Huston to name a few. Then in my early teens I got into film scores and metal. I’m Finnish, so metal was unavoidable. Later I started to listen to the likes of Bon Iver, Frank Ocean, Regina Spector and Lana Del Rey. I guess what connects all these, is strong emotion. That’s what I’ve always felt drawn to and something I’m sure has influenced my work heavily.

How do you approach the creative process when writing and producing your music? //
It really depends. Sometimes it just comes out and sometimes it grows from an idea that has been brewing for a while. I used to come up chords and melodies first and then lyrics, but prefer having it the other way around these days. To know exactly what is being said and then build the melodies and sonic world around it after. I love working together with people, both on writing and producing. Creating music is usually pretty intense and personal, so you kind of get to know people from the inside out, which I find very fascinating. I’m not a very advanced producer technically, so I’m very grateful I get to work with such talented and inspiring creatives on that. Same goes for lyrics, I write loads alone but love brainstorming with other great writers, you get to really refine your message that way. Writing alone then again lets the songs come out in their most unfiltered and honest form, which can be very scary cos those songs usually turn out to be the most personal the most imperfect. Like Sublime. Every song has it’s own, unique origin story.

Can you share a pivotal moment in your career that you think helped shape who you are as an artist today?
My career and inner world are so intertwined that it’s hard to take them apart… But I’d say probably overcoming the struggles I’ve had with my mental health. Choosing to really live and to live with joy has led me on a completely new path also career wise. There was a time some years ago when I was so lost I didn’t really know why I was here. That time has kind of split my life into two parts, the before and the after. And I’m so happy I made it to the other side. The struggles I endured are something I hope I’ll never have to experience again, but despite that I’m still incredibly grateful for it, cos it made me who I am today. My whole life used to be shadowed by so much darkness and now there are all these big, beautiful cracks where the light shines in.

How would you define your artistic essence today?
I don’t know about my artistic essence, but I hope my music to be a fairytale world where it’s safe to be vulnerable and fully yourself. With mistakes and all. A healing escape. That’s what music has always been to me. I try to communicate that also trough all the other creative channels, like the visuals.

“Might Not Wanna Wake Up” explores themes of vulnerability and strength. What inspired you to delve into this profound subject matter for your music?
It’s a story about grief and rebirth. Struggling with grief in different ways made me want to put this EP together. I wanted to dive deep into it, like always, and create that fairytale world appreciating all the different stages of grief. I always like to have a concept for every project and this one just kind of revealed itself. I had a few songs and started to see a pattern. They were all written in different stages of my life and represented different emotions. We then wrote a few more songs and the EP came together. It’s maybe the most cohesive body of work I’ve created and I feel like it’s more current now than ever.

Could you share some insights into the emotions and narratives you aimed to convey through your music?
I wanted to tap into the complexity of being human. How we can feel so many emotions all at once. How we can love someone even if they’ve hurt us. How we can be angry at someone for leaving even if they had to. How it feels like we always love too much or never enough. How we keep asking questions that have no answers. And no matter how hard we try to seize a moment it will always slip away.

“Blonde” was written five years ago — how do you see your evolution as a musician since then and what about this track makes it so relatable still?
Yes, it’s crazy. It’s one of those songs that was waiting for its moment and now it arrived. It’s like night and day, I remember how insecure I still was back then and didn’t really know who I was as an artist or person. I kept telling myself I’m fine and I know where I’m going, but was actually just a lost little kid stumbling in the dark. I feel like it’s a timeless song and it was the perfect first track on the EP, representing denial, since it embodies that moment in time. It’s like those feelings I had back then, when living in total denial of so many things, are captured inside this little song. I’ll probably say the same about myself five years from now, that I had no idea what I was doing, but that’s the beauty of life. We get to endlessly grow and learn.

Looking ahead, what are your aspirations and goals as a musician?
I hope to go on tour next year, make music and visuals I love forever and ever with lovely humans, get better at my craft, learn new things and write and perform a Bond song, hehee!

Finally, what’s next for you in your musical journey, and what are you most looking forward to in the future?
Continuing to make new music and hopefully release something quite soon after this EP. Currently I’m working on my new live show and I hope to take it on the road very soon and connect with my listeners irl <3