Alexander 23's Gentle Musings On The Aftershock Of Love

By Alex Gonzalez


In the three years he’s spent networking with in back of the scenes, the artist Alexander 23 has built an astounding resume. As one of the music industry’s go-to songwriters and producers, he’s collaborated with Olivia Rodrigo, Selena Gomez, and Chelsea Cutler, among others, coining a sound that strikes a chord between sharp lyricism and instrumental melodies.


It all began in Deerfield, Illinois, where Alexander 23, place on Earth Alexander Glantz, was raised. He became enamored with music “immediately as I gained consciousness,” he says, which he estimates was in “like, the fifth grade.” Around that time, he played on his elementary school’s basketball team, and he enjoyed listening to albums from rock bands like Kansas and Supertramp from starting to end throughout the long drives to games. His father helped cultivate that passion, consistently playing the guitar around the house.


Glantz briefly attended the University of Pennsylvania to study engineering however withdrew right after each year give attention to music. At 19, he moved to New York and joined an indie musical group called The Heydaze, teaching himself to play bass, piano, drums, and guitar while doing so. The categorize was short-lived and disbanded in 2017. That’s if he moved to Los Angeles with only the earnest objective of writing for other artists — and notably, without a vehicle. He remembers the solo cross-country move as being a strenuous process. “You cannot walk around L.A., Which I learned the hard way early on,” Glantz says. “A few expensive Ubers later, I paid for a shitty little car.”


While he entertained the idea of being a soloist, Glantz initially figured that working in back of the scenes would let for more financial stability. Having become well-versed in production software like Ableton, he landed himself production credits on tracks for pop musicians like AJ Mitchell and Sam Setton. About “five or six months” immediately after moving to California, he determined to take a chance and record songs of his own while continuing to team up with other artists.


Since then, he’s released two nine-track EPs, including 2019’s I’m Sorry I Love You and Oh No, Not Again! in 2021. His ability to combine live instrumentation with contemporary electronic elements, and also his knack for describing mannerisms for which people often don’t have the words, has made him one of the industry’s most sought-after collaborators. On Aftershock, his genuine full-length debut, he specifics the method of a harrowing breakup, from the initial inklings of doubt to finally closing the chapter, over the course of 11 poignant tracks.


“I like to think of it as an one-year-plus-or-minus radius away from a breakup,” Glantz says. “It’s about the events leading up to it, the breakup, then getting over it; meeting new people, thinking you’re willing to meet new people, and you're not actually ready. You miss her, nevertheless you don't miss who you were with each other. It's certainly a breakup album, which certainly I'm not the initial person to do, nevertheless I attempted to really pull from my specific experience and really get into the nitty gritty and all of the nuances that I was feeling.”


Aftershock opens with “Hate Me if It Helps,” which sees Glantz unfazed in the midst of his ex’s bitterness. On it, he permits his former partner to blame him for the dissolution of their relationship, even if her accounts are false. Co-written by Olivia Rodrigo, for whom he co-produced “Good 4 U,” the track features Glantz questioning the truth of what his ex is telling her companions and family member before distributing saccharine apologies on the bridge. “I’m sorry I stayed up with you every night / For making laugh once you wanted to cry / I’m sorry I purchased your SSRIs,” he sings.


Many fans have noticed the line to be playfully tongue-in-cheek, however others have taken to social media to mention the lyric further stigmatizes mental health issues. “You know, what's funny about that line is I never intended for it to be a huge mental health conversation starter,” Glantz says. “I have plenty of songs about that, as well, nevertheless I wanted a line in there that felt like something you would regrettably mention in the heat of feeling a certain way about someone or a certain situation.”


On the excruciatingly self-aware “Crash,” Glantz recounts the painful early stages of the split: changing his ex’s name on his phone, dreading Valentine’s Day chocolates (which he says right now “taste like charcoal”), and recalling texts he typed up yet never sent. As soon as he still has love and respect for his ex, he is aware that the two of these are no longer meant to be with each other. He sings, “I miss you, although I don’t miss us / ‘Cause apart we’re excellent, however with each other we suck.”


Glantz admits that he’s learned the hard way that two people, even with the perfect intentions, can bring out the worst in every other. “The sum of the parts isn't habitually greater,” Glantz notes. “That's something I think people need to learn, especially in more intimate and romantic relationships. It sucks. And I think the fact that it sucks makes you aspire to fight for it more, when then, only makes it worse.”


Glantz’s music is undoubtedly relatable. His ability to put universal feelings, like the train of thoughts and the behavioral patterns that follow heartbreak, into words has set him apart as a mindful young musician in an era of quick, hook-heavy TikTok grabs. Take the punchy, percussion-filled track called “Cosplay,” wherein he describes the moment of realizing that he and his ex were never good for each other. He surmises that they were simply imitating the behaviors and beauty of “each other’s exes” from previous relationships.


maybe the most powerful track on the collection doesn’t pertain to a breakup at all. On the ballad “The Hardest Part,” driven by gentle piano keys plus a melancholy guitar riff, Glantz reflects on the loss of a friend. The song’s chorus — “the hardest segment of getting old, is that some people that you don’t love don’t” — evokes a grand feeling of sadness while pointing to the small, intimate moments that make a friendship special. He describes noticing whenever the “trees turn red” and realizing that he’ll never again visualize the “three dots” that appear as someone is replying to a text message.


While Glantz paints a vivid picture of his friend, “The Hardest Part” also speaks to the grief and loss every one of us has faced in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. “This has been the initial time where I've had companions begin to pass away,” Glantz says. “It's incredibly outlandish to reconcile. And even as soon as it's not someone who you converse with day-to-day, even if it’s losing someone whom you only speak to a number of times per year yet have a shared childhood and history with, it’s really peculiar to deal with. It hits you on birthdays or coming house for Thanksgiving. Learning about how to deal with that emotionally has been a journey.”


Over the years, Glantz has opened concerts for a couple of major artists, including Mxmtoon, Omar Apollo, and John Mayer. During a show in Boston, Mayer joined Glantz on stage to perform a cover of Tears for Fears’s “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” Glantz will tour this fall in support of Aftershock, which he says is the “cherry” on top of making music. As a songwriter and producer, he is routinely satisfied any time whenever he can take another artist’s song to the next level, nevertheless as he prepares to perform his own body of work, he admits to feeling a perfectionist’s sense of concern. He is aware fans will colleague these songs with him forever.


“I remember that, any time I'm making music for me, I'm gonna have to survive with these songs, both as a representation of me along with my life,” he says. “I'm certainly a little more particular any time making music for myself, which, in turn, makes producing for other people a little easier. Yet making music for others versus myself is just different, more so than easier or harder.”