Alex Day
Following on from the overwhelming success of his previous single ‘Forever Yours’, which reached number 4 in the Christmas charts despite no label support, Alex Day releases his new single, a reinterpretation of Peter & Gordon’s 1966 song ‘Lady Godiva’.
The challenge inherent in taking an older song and making it attractive to listeners today was what drew Alex Day to pick ‘Lady Godiva’ as his follow-up single 'I thought I'd pick an existing really great song and modernise it - I like introducing older music to my audience and this is a really fun way of doing that.'
Alex’s rendition of the song retains a decidedly retro charm, using more old-style technological and instrumental recording techniques. As such, upbeat synths and chimes nestle alongside the song’s lyrics, which carry a slightly more cynical undercurrent.
Once again Alex has self-recorded and is self-releasing his single. ‘Forever Yours’ saw Alex become the first unsigned artist to achieve a Top 4 single, selling 52,000 copies in the UK and 100,000 overall worldwide.
As a result Alex was approached by all the major labels wanting to work with him - 'but I couldn’t see the benefit of signing all the rights to them and getting little in return.'
Instead Alex opted to work with Universal as a third-party distributor just for the physical CD release of ‘Lady Godiva’ and retain full control of every facet of his music and the way it's released.
For now Alex is concentrating solely on releasing his music one single at a time. Doing this ensures that every single has to 'stand up on its own merits' and that 'each song gets its own chance to shine - its own artwork, its own music video, which I really like.'
Alex Day is perhaps best known through his YouTube profile ‘alexday’ which has nearly half a million subscribers. He’s had over seventy million views to his videos. Remaining fiercely independent and fiercely in command, Alex Day is surely one of a kind when it comes to today’s pop scene.
Noting that his approach to his music so far has been 'exactly what record labels would advise against', ‘Lady Godiva’ is another inimitably charming chapter in the nascent career of this idiosyncratically appealing artist.