Alexis Strum
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Alexis Strum |
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| Alexis Strum | ||
|---|---|---|
| Background information | ||
| Birth name | Alexis Rebecca Strum | |
| Born | July 5, 1976 | |
| Origin |  Chingford, Essex |
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| Genre(s) | Pop | |
| Years active | 2002–present | |
| Label(s) | Warner
Music Group (2002–2003) Mercury Records (2005–2006) |
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| Website | Official website | |
Alexis Strum is an English singer-songwriter.
She co-wrote "Still Standing" on Kylie Minogue's album
Contents
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Strum was born and brought up in Chingford, Essex; her parents
are both half-Polish, with Belgian blood from her father's side and
Italian from her mother's. As a child, she worked hard at school to
achieve good academic results, but discovered her love for music, and
her want to be a performer, after she had attended a school concert,
where a covers band where playing Mudhoney
and Nirvana
tracks. She bought a guitar, and experimented, performing Elastica
and L7
tracks, before experimenting with computer-aided production, to emulate
the sound of a full live band on her own. She studied English at
In 2002, Strum landed a record deal with WEA records, distributed by the Warner Music Group. There she co-wrote and recorded an electronic-pop album, working with producers such as Xenomania. A single release was scheduled entitled "Addicted," with a video added to music television channels, and promo CDs sent ro radio, alongside an album sampler. The single was cancelled due to lack of media support, and Alexis was released from her contract soon after. The album sampler features the tracks: "Addicted", "Coming On Strong", "Rock This Disco", "Still Standing", and "Nothing Good about This Goodbye"; two of the tracks were later recorded by popular artists: "Still Standing" features on Kylie Minogue's 2003 album, Body Language and "Nothing Good about This Goodbye" features on Rachel Stevens' 2005 album, Come and Get It. The album was also set to include tracks entitled "Still", "Keep Up", and "Rodeo"; these, alongside the album sampler, have been leaked illegally to the internet. Three other songs with Strum's distinct voice that have leaked are assumed to be from the WEA demos due to their more electro-pop sound. The songs are titled "Me & You This Time", "Nobody Know", and "When We Kiss".
Following the disappointment of being dropped from WEA
records, Strum left Britain to travel alone to Antigua on
holiday. For two weeks, she sat in a hut with no electricity, covered
in mosquito nets and trying to plan what she would do next. Still
songwriting, Alexis wrote two songs there – "Cocoon" and "Stay Until
Summer" – and when she returned home, self-produced them into finished
versions. Re-building confidence in herself, she returned to venues she
had played at previously, and went back to performing gigs in London,
before sending a sample of her work to the management of Billy
Steinberg – writer of Madonna's hit single, "
By early 2005, Strum had recorded her second album, semi-acoustic, but with leftfield beats and electro synths ("I don't want to get wrapped up in myself. There's a whole slew of female singer-songwriters going, 'Ooh, I'm so bloody tortured'. 'Oh, I'm in so much pain, la la la'. It's so calculated. Get off the stage", she has said) and signed a deal with Mercury Records. They loved the album, but felt it lacked a "first single", so Strum went back and wrote and produced a track called "Bad Haircut". She also started writing a blog for the popular music web site, Popjustice, as well as launching her own official web site and MySpace profile.
In August 2005, following a spot at the V Festival, it was announced that Strum would release her debut single and album in September 2005. The two were met with critical acclaim, and album reviews were positive, but once again, Strum was spurned by most radio and television outlets, despite the "Bad Haircut" video featuring up-and-coming actor, Tom Ellis. The single was released, but missed the top 40, and plans to release the album, called Cocoon were quickly shelved.
In early 2006, a video to the track she co-wrote with Billy Steinberg, "It Could Be You", was sent to music television, set to a new version of the song to that which had appeared on promotional copies of the Cocoon album in late 2005, remixed by Ash Howes. The song was spurned, yet again, by radio, but television support grew strong, and, although the record company pulled the single release a week before its due date, the video was among the top ten most requested on UK channel The Box for a few weeks. Once again, plans to release "Cocoon" after the single, were also shelved; however, the single was added to iTunes UK, and the album was also added (by mistake — it was later removed), giving fans the opportunity to legally purchase the songs pre-release.
In March, shortly after "It Could Be You" had been cancelled, Strum announced via her MySpace blog that she had exciting news, and in April explained that she had scored the theme tune spot to the much-hyped new ITV drama series Vital Signs, starring Tamsin Outhwaite, over more established artists, such as KT Tunstall. The track, entitled "Go My Own Way", is played at the start with vocals, and at the end in instrumental form, and was added in its entirety to iTunes. Strum said that, whilst the track will not be the next single, a new mix of the track will also appear on a revised version of Cocoon.
The album received an official release of sorts in May 2006, when it was released on iTunes. Fans could legally download the album. The digital version featured both the original and album versions of "Go My Own Way", the single version of "It Could Be You", and the previously unreleased "The Starting Line".
In May 2006, Strum made an announcement that she would be undergoing surgery, and would be unable to return to work until September 2006, when she had recovered. In September 2006 Alexis posted a message on MySpace stating that all was well with her health. She also added a note saying that her album will not be released as was planned and that she is taking herself out of the music scene. "I have decided after this big lifechange that I need to address my priorities and do sthg different for a bit- time for a new challenge! Challenge Strum!"
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