Alex Warren: From Sleeping in a Car to the Grammys
Before The Moment with Nile Rodgers
In this episode of 'Before The Moment,' Nile Rodgers sits down with rising pop star Alex Warren to explore the journey that led him from hom
Key takeaways
- Alex Warren's success stems from deep personal vulnerability and authenticity, turning hardship into powerful art.
Main topics
- Alex Warren's journey from homelessness to stardom
- The role of vulnerability and authenticity in music
Notable quotes
"I lost my father very young and in the wake of his passing, my world crumbled."
"You had to be living under a rock to not have heard 'Ordinary,' which spent 10 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100."
Conclusion
Alex Warren's story exemplifies how raw honesty and relentless creativity
Transcript preview
Speaker 2 (0:00) This is an iHeart Podcast. Speaker 1 (0:02) Guaranteed human. A Speaker 2 (0:12) lifetime spent making music is a lifetime made up of individual moments. And no moment is more important than the one before the big change. Speaker 2 (0:25) That turning point where a hobby becomes a profession, when struggle becomes success, when pretty good becomes legendary. I'm Nile Rodgers, co-founder of the band Chic and producer of pop hits with some of the industry's top artists. I'm driving around the country in my Lincoln Navigator SUV, talking to some of the coolest, most interesting people in music to discuss their journey Before the moment. Today, I'm in Los Angeles to meet up with rising star Alex Warren. This young man's ascent to stardom has been nothing short of meteoric. You had to be living under a rock to not have heard the smash hit Ordinary, which spent 10 weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. I know hits, and that's a hit. He toured arenas, earned a Grammy nomination, and collaborated with artists like Jelly Roll, Rose, and even an up-and-comer named Nile Rodgers. I can't wait to talk to him. Speaker 2 (1:45) Our first guest today is Alex Warren. What's up? And I know his before-the-moment story is unbelievable, and it's something that I know I'm going to relate to because I've already read a lot about you, and I've listened to the album. The only way I could say it is I listened to the album hippie style, right? Yeah. Except without the weed. Speaker 1 (2:11) We should try it with the weed and see what it's like. I've never listened to my album live. That would be so interesting. No, I'm going to Speaker 2 (2:17) have 32 years sober in a couple of days. Congratulations, dude. My goodness Speaker 1 (2:22) gracious. Speaker 2 (2:23) Yeah, unreal, right? Wow. Your next album is probably one of the most consistent pieces of music. that I've heard in years. Speaker 1 (2:35) Thanks, man. It Speaker 2 (2:36) is Speaker 1 (2:36) so good, man. It means a lot coming from you. Holy shit. No, I heard your part. It was the coolest day of my life. I was on tour. I don't even remember where I was. I was just running around going, no fucking way. It was the coolest thing ever. I loved it. So that's it. Thank you. It took us a few months to even get the track list down because we were battling with it. I could tell. Dude, thank you. That Speaker 2 (2:57) means Speaker 1 (2:57) the world. Seriously, I feel like a lot of times, especially in today's day of music, when we make an album, you're kind of just like, everyone's like, oh, well, people don't pay attention to that. And I was like, no, we got to, this is important. This tells a story. You know, when you go to listen to an album from top to bottom, it's not just the feeling you get from each song, but it's how do they play into each other. Speaker 2 (3:16) You Speaker 1 (3:16) know, when my favorite album came out, I'd hop in the car with my wife and we'd drive around my neighborhood in a full circle for 45 minutes to hear the full album. And that, to me, you get the story. Bravo, bro. Dude. Speaker 2 (3:28) I think there's a moment in an artist's trajectory where music stops being a curiosity and becomes something bigger. Whoa. Yeah. We're storytellers. Yeah. We want to sort of know what's behind the closed door. Right. Do you need answers to your questions? Always. Speaker 1 (3:48) I'm like a kid when I play music and I make music and I'm constantly asking questions. Whether it's an instrument I haven't played or it's a melody that seems foreign, I get excited about it. If you've ever been in the booth or you had someone else in the booth and they're getting frustrated because they can't get that melody right and they keep going flat or sharp or they're hitting the wrong note. And most of the times I've seen people and they're just angry. They need to take breaks. And I find it amusing and fun because... I feel like it's now my brain going towards something that's never gone before, Speaker 2 (4:18) which Speaker 1 (4:18) kind of brings that six-year-old kid who got that Fender guitar when he went for Christmas and all of a sudden he wanted to do talent shows half naked because he was in love with the Naked Brothers band at six years old. And to me, it's just fun because now I feel like... You know this. Every night you play a show, and it's the same set, but it's not the same show. And at a certain point, your brain kind of goes on autopilot. And when I'm in the studio or if I'm making music, that's where that curiosity kind of comes back. I haven't lost it yet, but I'm also on my sophomore album. And you obviously are the expert here. I came up in the 60s. Speaker 2 (4:57) And so that decade going into the decade of me. Speaker 2 (5:03) breaking, I think was probably very different than the decade before you broke. Speaker 1 (5:10) Yeah, Speaker 2 (5:11) for Speaker 1 (5:12) sure. What would you think would be the major difference? I don't even know. I think for me, especially in this generation right now, you have, it's so accessible. It feels like Speaker 2 (5:23) it's really accessible. I Speaker 1 (5:24) feel like growing up in my decade, at least. Music seems like it wasn't something that anyone could do. You could always make music. You could always go to your local talent show. But when it came to playing on TV or the radio, it seemed like it was almost impossible. You had to either sell, not your soul, but you had to give everything to a label. Or you had to hop on one of those TV shows where you try out and they give you a record label deal and a cash prize. And all of a sudden, you've made it. And that seemed like the only two ways growing up. And then all of a sudden you had Justin Bieber and all these people on a YouTube video. Speaker 2 (6:00) And Speaker 1 (6:00) everyone's like, what the hell is a YouTube video? Speaker 2 (6:02) And Speaker 1 (6:02) where did this person come from? And they're a global pop star. And all of a sudden I think a lot of kids, including myself, who dreamt of being a musician, it seemed like almost it could have been a possibility. And then you had Shawn Mendes. And then you had Ed Sheeran going from pubs to then selling records in a store to then. being one of the biggest streaming artists ever, it's pretty crazy how quickly it's changed in the last 10 to 15 years. So I think that especially now, even the last five compared to the last 15 compared to the last 40, I think it's just more and more accessible to every single person who, you could be a six-year-old kid, you get a guitar for Christmas, and your mom posts a video of you singing on TikTok, and all of a sudden you have a shot. Do you Speaker 2 (6:45) think that we now have, Speaker 2 (6:49) greater bandwidth for music? Like, in other words, we could listen and accept and internalize more music. Now that we have the capacity, look at what's happening in film. Like, box office records are setting when films are coming out. For the last few years, they've been telling us that it's going the other way. Right. How could that be? How could it be going the other way? And now, every Speaker 1 (7:12) other week, it's the biggest. I think about this all the time. I'm not even kidding. Like every single day I think about this. I think Adele does it perfectly. She comes back whenever she has something to say and people are anticipating her message. But how does an artist who's breaking now create longevity? There's album artists, there's singles artists, there's artists who put out an album and it does really well and then it kind of disappears. And like what makes the longevity but also are people listening to the full album? And I think right now people are starting to get back into... I want substance. I want to listen. I want to be told a story where I think during COVID and right after that, it was very much the singles game. Like people drop a single all year, every single month. for charts and now I think everyone's being like they want analog they want albums they want to feel something they want to feel the story people are like people want to have that experience of I'm a fan and I want a piece of you in some way whether it's a vinyl or a CD or it's going to a show and getting a ticket and like people are asking for the ticket stuff so you don't need a ticket stuff anymore And so it's just so cool to me where I feel like it's starting to become a thing where it's like it's a fun thing to go do with your family and your friends. People make these – my wife makes these boxes after she goes to a concert. She went to Taylor Swift and she got this box and she framed her tickets and her bracelets and the picture of us together. And it's like a whole memory thing. I feel like three or four years ago that wasn't a thing. So I think the album is coming back and I think a lot of things are coming back. Speaker 2 (8:37) You know, it's cool that you said that. I feel like – the ultimate fanboy because at home I still have my one