ABOUT ALEX 

When Alex The Astronaut began writing again after the release of their second album, 2022's ARIA-nominated How To Grow A Sunflower Underwater, two things became apparent. The first: They had a lot to unpack. Between a fresh break-up, an ongoing reckoning with a late Autism diagnosis, a journey with gender and becoming what they describe as “a sad, cranky mess”, Alex had to let the floodgates open in order to create her third EP, Rage and All Its Friends. That leads us, crucially, to the second thing: Alex couldn't do this on their own.

In a career first for the normally solo singer-songwriter, Alex turned to co-writing on Rage... to help navigate the stories they wanted to tell with this new music. This included collaborations with people like her childhood hero Paul Kelly, her old friend Lisa Mitchell and English troubadour Benjamin Francis Leftwich. “I was a bit bored of myself,” says Alex when explaining the reasoning behind Rage's collaborative nature. “I wanted to see how other people worked. This EP felt like starting again, but in a way that's a lot more relaxed than making a new album. It just gets to be its own little thing, and paint a different picture of who I am.”

The EP's lead single and opening number, 'Cold Pizza', was the result of Alex's writing session with Kelly. It grew from only a couple of chords and a solitary line from their notebook about eating pizza on the floor – and, as we all know, from little things big things grow. “I'd been floating the idea of writing with Paul since COVID lockdowns, and then it finally came together about two years later when I was in Melbourne,” they say. “We wrote a bunch, but I think we knew this was going to be the first one to come out. It was the first time I've made something that's fully 50/50 in terms of the writing.”

The relationship between the pair began early in Alex's career, when they noticed one of their songs unintentionally followed the exact same chord progression as Kelly's classic 'To Her Door'. When Kelly eventually found out about it, he offered this pearl of wisdom to the budding songwriter: “I don't own G, D and C. Take them!” Through their co-writing, Alex found themselves inspired by Kelly's contrast between the light and dark of his lyrical content. “You don't think of the guy who writes about women drowning and men in prison as a funny writer,” says Alex, “but his songs do have this quality to them where there's a levity. My friends would always say I'm really earnest in my songs but unhinged in real life, and I always thought about that. I've learned to go back into these more serious songs I write and make them a little closer to how I talk.”

In another intriguing first, another cut from the EP was forged out of a songwriting camp at last year's World Pride – lead by none other than pop megastar Troye Sivan. At first, Alex was unsure how their musical style would fit in among the more electronic, hip-hop and pop-oriented songwriters taking part. A chance pairing with producer Mona Khoshoi, however, lead to the creation of one of Alex's most stirring ballads to date, 'If You Have To Go'. “I didn't know a whole heap about Troye before that camp,” said Alex.

“I loved his songs, but we'd never been in the same circles. I was kind of starstruck by him at first – just seeing him there, I was like, 'Holy moly!' It was really beautiful to see someone that successful still be so interested in songwriting, and so kind to musicians and songwriters that are up and coming in the same way he once was. It was a real rollercoaster for me, and I think it put a really different lens on how I write songs.” As for the camp's reaction to 'If You Have To Go'? “It’s either a really good thing or a really bad thing if you make a whole room of people cry,” says Alex.. “By the end of the three minutes of 'If You Have To Go', Troye and my campmates had all welled up – so I guessed we were onto something.”

For a collection of only six songs, Rage and All Its Friends takes quite the journey as an EP. Alex finds themselves behind the wheel of a large automobile in 'Road Rage', reckoning with being flipped off by a fellow driver, while 'Numb' sees them living it up on Sydney's infamous Oxford Street. 'Change' bemoans the lack thereof within modern society for anyone that isn't a cis heterosexual white man, before the bittersweet closer 'Actually The End' picks up where 'Cold Pizza' left off and ruminates on the close of a relationship.

“Some of these songs are pretty rogue for me,” says Alex, “but they were also really fun to make. Sometimes I can honestly forget that this whole thing is meant to be fun. I've learned to embrace the less serious through stuff like doing funny scenes while studying at NIDA, or trying out stand-up comedy with Matt Okine. I've been writing angsty, depressing and reflective songs since I was 15 – and I still think I'm pretty good at them – but I feel like I'm at a point now where I can really go about it in different ways.”

So, in spite of their vastly different subject matters, collaborators and musical stylings, what brings the half-dozen tracks of Rage together under the same banner? For Alex, it's their idiosyncratic version of the seven stages of grief. “There's a lot of big emotions out there that haven't been properly processed,” they say. “This EP is about that. It's about not wanting to put them in the corner. It's everything I have to say on the matter right now, because I'm still going through it myself. I want people to hear these songs and laugh at themselves, or cry with their friends, or do what they need to do to process what's happened to them. It's life! Be in it!