Northern NSW-based singer/songwriter Kita Alexander has released her reflective new EP The One which features the title track co-written with Dan Nigro (Olivia Rodrigo, Conan Gray). The six track EP was made between Los Angeles, London, Sydney and Melbourne with on themes around falling in love, fear, and breaking hearts.
Have a listen as Kita takes us through the background behind each song below:
RUN: I wrote this song in Donnie Sloan’s home studio, which is incredible. It’s up in the hills of Los Angeles and overlooks the whole of Hollywood. It’s the most amazing view. I’m used to being in a little box with no windows, and this studio was the opposite of that and was so inspiring. Donnie works a little different; he gets you to get up with a pair of headphones and puts on the track with a bit of autotune and tells you to sing. Nick Littlemore got up after me to do the same thing, and there was a note he sung that specifically resonated with me, and I just wrote the whole chorus and we expanded it from there.
STORM: This one was written in Dann Hume’s home studio in Melbourne. I had driven down with Owen, as he just wanted to come for a trip. Julia Stone jumped on the piano, and honestly this song came pretty quickly. As soon as the chords were down, the melody came out. I loved this one so much. I finished the song over zoom with Dann, and I would send him voice notes with my ideas, and we would get on a call and he’d be like “I liked your idea, I’ve added this part to it”. We worked together so well. I’d say ‘Storm’ is my favourite track on this EP.
OCEAN BLUE: I was in London and really missing the ocean and nature, which is why I used a lot of nature words and imagery. Bnann Watts jumped on the guitar and did this awesome shredding guitar solo, and it just made it so special. This is probably the cheeky, playful side of me that people haven’t seen. It’s just another example of what I can do and how different songs and sounds fit into my world
MEMORIES OF YOU: I was in Los Angeles at Teddy Geiger’s place in 2015, and originally this was a rock inspired song called “Gravitate”. It was about gravitating towards someone, and how those memories you have of them keep making you want you to come back to them. I wrote the chorus, and she worked on this really rock production, and my day-to-day manager at the time couldn’t get the chorus out of her head, and it really was so catchy. It was on ice for ages and wasn’t finished, and just before Covid I was sitting at my piano and googling chord progressions for The Killers, as I am awful at playing piano, and a lot of words in the pre are inspired by The Killers. And the hook for “Gravitate” just floated into it and in that moment I knew that was where it belongs. I then worked with Dylan Nash on finessing the song, and when we finished it I sent it to Teddy and her team and they loved what we did with it.
THE ONE: I wrote this one in Los Angeles with Dan Nigro in early 2015. I came in with ‘Somebody To Love’ by Queen, and that song is so iconic, meaningful and beautiful. At the time I was really wanting love, and my biggest fear of falling in love is having someone cheat on me. I’ve never had my heartbroken, but I played on that idea in this song as I wanted love so badly, but I was so scared what that could mean and if they didn’t feel the same way and broke my heart.
KILLED A MAN: I was in Sydney with Dann Hume and we had a bit of a change in scenario from the studio and relocated to the foyer to write it on this grand piano. This one is about when I broke somebody’s heart, and I felt like their reaction was that I murdered this person. I’m not sure what star sign he was, but he was devastated. I remember so vividly that in the moment I emotionally just cut him off as I didn’t know how to deal with it, and he was so upset. I truly thought I killed him in that moment. Looking back at it, I knew I needed to rectify the situation. I ended up writing him a letter and apologising for being immature and not handling it in the right way. I think I was just young and not thinking about someone else’s feelings. So this is a song where I come to terms with that.
