Irish- American singer-songwriter Alexandra King told David Hennessy about her new music and the horrible accident that left her fearing she would never walk let alone perform again.
Alexandra King recently released her single, Freckles (In An Old Pub).
The Irish-American songwriter’s latest release is a warm, wry nod to the kind of night you only find in Ireland.
It’s a return to form for King, whose own return to music was far from guaranteed.
Only a few years ago, she lay in a hospital bed after a serious spinal cord injury, told she might never walk again, let alone perform.
Before the accident, she had split her time between law school and the pubs of New York and Ireland, always with a mic in hand.
During recovery, it was music that kept her moving, both literally and figuratively.
Against the odds, she regained the use of her once-paralysed right side and eventually left New York, a barred attorney, for a new chapter in Nashville.
Alexandra grew up visiting her Irish family and spent time studying in Galway and it is these experiences and her love of the Irish pubs and sessions that inspired Freckles (In An Old Pub).
Alexandra King told The Irish World: “I’ve come over to Ireland every single year to visit family since I was little and when I was of drinking age, I definitely enjoyed my pints over there.
“I love the pub culture and going out with family and friends and stuff.
“I’ve had many good nights there and I feel like I just enjoy the nights most when you don’t expect things to happen and you don’t expect to meet somebody and you just have a bit of the craic.
“That was the kind of the vibe I wanted to put across in Freckles: Just of many nights over in Ireland and hungover mornings afterwards, then going back into the pubs and just trying to make the most of it and just seeing where the day leads you and who you meet.”
You grew up in New York but were always going back for visits, is that right?
“I grew up in about an hour north of New York City in Hudson Valley, New York and I would come over to Ireland just to see our family there.
“My grandmother’s from County Leitrim originally and then my aunt ended up falling in love with my uncle, who’s in Westmeath so she moved there when she was in her 20s so all my first cousins would be there.
“We would just come over and spend time with everybody and I went to college there for a little bit when I got older as well.”
Really, where did you study?
“I went to NUIG, the best.
“I love Galway.
“Some of my best memories are over there so I definitely like try to put that across in what I’m what I’m saying in my music.”
What was it like to go from New York to Leitrim or Westmeath?
“It definitely was a bit of a culture shock the first few years.
“My cousins and I would always joke.
“It was such different cultures but when we got together, it just kind of felt like we had more in common than we thought.
“My mom wouldn’t come over all the time but we were working on my uncle’s farm and we were dosing the sheep for maggots and stuff. I was calling my mom one of the days after and she heard what I was doing and she’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, put your father on the phone. This is crazy’.
“But it’s just the norm but a shock for her.”
Do you think your musicality comes from your Irish heritage?
“I think that is what it is because I live in Nashville now and I’m around country music all the time and great storytelling as well here.
“I keep going back to the Irish sound and the trad music and growing up on Christy Moore and all that.
“We would do sessions every summer and just sit in pubs and listen to amazing musicians over in Ireland and that just kept with me.
“People ask, ‘Who’s your biggest influence?’
“And it’s honestly just people that I’ve heard play over there and like my dad who’s a big voice and would sing over there every, every time.
“I think that definitely is my biggest influence in the music that I’m that I like to listen to and like to put out.”
Spending time in pubs in Ireland, did you like the sessions, I imagine you wouldn’t get so much of them in New York..
“Yeah, that’s a big difference.
“In my hometown we would sing and stuff but no one really would want to come forward and do something or give their party piece.
“The pressure was on to have that party piece in the best way, for everybody to contribute over in Ireland when in America and in New York especially, that wasn’t the way so that was kind of a fun thing I loved.
“I love that everybody gets to participate and do something whether it’s a story, a joke or song or whatever it is.”
Tell us about this accident that you had that really sounds quite scary..
“Yeah, it was quite a situation.
“It was in 2020 which was a fun year for everybody.
“It was in the summer of 2020 and I took a dive into a shallow body of water. I misjudged it and hit my head and I was immediately paralysed on my right side and had immediate surgery.
“I had two rods and 10 screws in my neck but they said to me, ‘Look, you’re alive. You’re not a quadriplegic but we don’t think you’ll be able to walk again or use your right hand really in full capacity again but feel lucky you’re alive’.
“And that terrified me in a lot of ways so I just kind of kept doing it day by day and was really determined to try and get as much as I could back and work with the doctors and the physical therapist, occupational therapist.
“It was two months in hospital and some rehab there and then outpatient rehab but they were very shocked by my recovery.
“I had a really bad prognosis, but luckily I was able to get 90% of the right side back.
“I felt like Rocky Balboa in there.
“I was really working to get that right side moving again.
“I am luckily pretty recovered now and I still feel certain things on the right side but I’m able to have a second chance and be independent and do something that I didn’t think I was going to be able to do so I’m definitely trying to make the most of the second chance.”
There must have been times when you thought you would never hold a guitar, let alone play it..
“I was barely holding even a fork in my hand and I tried to hold a pick or a plectrum.
“I remember in the rehab centre, I had my dad bring the guitar in and I tried to hold it and it was the most frustrating thing.
“The left hand was good but I couldn’t hold the pick or strum so it was just like, ‘Wow, is this what it’s going to be like? I didn’t even get a chance to put a song out yet’.
“I was in law school at the time so I was trying to just get that done.
“I didn’t even get to do what I wanted to do yet so I felt so frustrated and scared that that wouldn’t be an option.
“I’m a little crazy, determined sometimes which worked in my favour here.”
And I bet it was an ordinary day until you had your unfortunate accident..
“Things can change in an instant.
“It’s so scary and definitely put things in perspective and gave me that extra fire to make the most of the second chance because it really could have been very different.”
I noticed one of your press shots shows you standing. I’m guessing that’s not by accident as, again, there was a time when you didn’t know if you would do that again..
“I love that you noticed that.
“It was kind of like, ‘Look at my ability to move and to do these different things’.
“And it’s defying the odds.
“I sent that photo to my physical therapist actually.
“I was like, ‘Look at this. We did it’.
“I do have one crazy thing from it all.
“I can’t feel hot or cold on my left side, or pain.
“It’s a little bit of a party trick when I go a cold plunge because I don’t feel the pain or the hot or cold of the water on the left side.
“But that’s my only little superpower kind of thing that I got out of it.”
You were 23 when the accident happened, it must have been hard..
“And then the COVID of it all, the visitation was so limited and I was alone in the hospital at night.
“But I definitely had a lot of time to reflect in there and think, ‘What do I want out of this next chapter and what can I do yet to make the most of it?’
“So it was the most transformative time in my life for sure.”
Did you turn to music in your recovery?
“Yeah, especially by myself after visitation hours ended, it was music that really would get me through it.
“I played piano a bit as well and that’s very hard now with the right hand being as it is but I would listen to piano soundtracks and a lot of Adele actually.
“I was listening to her music and my fingers would kind of start playing the songs even without me noticing just like that music therapy hits a different part of the brain.
“I felt like that even triggered some of the nerves and got my hands moving a bit better.
“It was really, really helpful.”
Having recovered you seem to have wasted no time coming out with music such as your previous singles, Chasing Rainbows, I’d be Lying an The Arsonist..
“Yeah, exactly.
“I moved down to Nashville kind of right after I finished law school and was like, ‘Alright, that’s done. Let’s jump into this and give it my all’.
“But Freckles is just like this great new chapter.”
You have just returned from Ireland, did you get to play a show there?
“I played a show in Galway, in Monroe’s.
“It was awesome.
“It was such a full circle moment too after going to university in Galway and always going in Monroe’s to watch the shows.
“It was awesome.”
The I’d Be Lying video shows you drinking Guinness unless it’s another dark beer. Is that video shot in Ireland or America?
“It was done in Nashville actually.
“I love this local pub.
“They actually have really good Guinness.
“I wanted to emulate the feeling of Ireland as much as I could, even in Nashville.
“The second verse of I’d be Lying is about taking the guy that I sing the song about over to Ireland and our experience there, so I wanted to give that ode in the video.”
I was wondering about the song The Arsonist and if there was specific inspiration for it..
“What makes you ask that?” Alexandra laughs.
“Yeah, that’s a fiery song.
“Dating is not for the weak sometimes.
“I started dating this guy that was very narcissistic.
“I almost got caught in this trap of this narcissistic relationship.
“I just had a bit of anger when I was writing that song about some people that are victims of that kind of a relationship so just wanted to write a motivating song to just say, ‘Get out before you get burned’.”
What’s the reaction to that one when you get to play it live?
“I naively thought maybe mostly girls would resonate with it but honestly after I play, guys and girls come up and they’re like, ‘Thank you. This is such a powerful song’ and, ‘I had a bad experience with a really narcissistic person’.
“People like it and they’re definitely the most passionate about that one after a set.”
Who are your biggest inspirations when you write and record?
“I really like Kacey Musgraves.
“I like her storytelling style.
“I love Ed Sheeran.”
Freckles reminds me of Ed Sheeran’s Galway Girl..
“Oh, that’s a massive compliment.
“That’s amazing.
“Those two are really big influences.
“And then, like I said, just people that I’ve heard play over in Ireland, just sitting in pubs. People that are not putting out music but are just the most fabulous musicians and have such a story to tell and such a passion when they sing.
“That’s also a big influence in my songs and the way I sing.”
You mentioned Christy Moore before, who are the other influences from the Irish side?
“Christy Moore would be great.
“I also would love listening to Mary Black.
“We grew up listening to her, the Dubliners, the Coronas as well, The Cranberries.”
I was reading in material about you that now that you have thankfully recovered after going through so much you are also really finding your stride, is that how it feels?
“That’s exactly it.
“It’s like with this song Freckles that came out, I really feel like I’m hitting my stride.
“The EP that’s coming out, I’m ready to share that and hopefully have that connect with people but I’m feeling good.
“I’m feeling ready and like off to the races hopefully.”
Your forthcoming EP includes Freckles and your takes on well known Irish songs Galway Girl (Steve Earle) and Willie McBride, what is the other track on there?
“The 4th Track is Lose me to Dublin – which is sort of a love song to Dublin, but mainly, to Ireland as a whole.
“Even when I’m in a romantic relationship here, I feel the love I have for moving over to Ireland in the future and what the country means to me.
“So much so, that in my last relationship with a guy who said they would never move there, I came to the heartbreaking realisation that my love for him did not compare to my love for what I want my future to be in a place I love so well.”
Freckles (In An Old Pub) is out now.
Alexandra’s EP Across the Pond is out 3 October.
For more information, click here.
