Mature melodies from teenage singer-songwriter Lexie Rose.
PART 1
I met – not Lexie Rose – but her mom at the Peppermint Club in July. I got my hands on a promotional card with a code to hear Lexie’s newest single (at the time), “Wrong“, and was hooked.
Shortly thereafter I met Lexie Rose herself at Lemonade in Glendale. Over lunch we chatted about growing up in the Valley and handling school and music.
NATALIE DURKIN (TribeLA Magazine): So, you’re from Studio City, right?
LEXIE ROSE: I moved to Studio City about six years ago but I’ve been in West Hollywood so I’ve been in LA my whole life.
ND: Do you have a preference between Studio City and West Hollywood?
LR: I definitely like the Valley better. Traffic-wise it’s way better and everything’s so much closer and easier. Everything I was doing was in the Valley so it made sense.
ND: You went to School of Rock, right?
LR: Yeah. They used to have the location in West Hollywood and then they moved to Toluca Lake.
ND: How long did you do that for?
LR: About seven/eight years. I started it when I was eight.
ND: And what did you start with at School of Rock?
LR: I started with vocals. My brother was already going there for like a year and I saw one of his shows and I was like, ‘Ooh, I need to do this.’ So, I started out with vocals but while I was there I did piano lessons, I did drum lessons, bass, guitar; I kind of tried to do a little bit of everything, so I kind of know how to play a little bit of everything. But, yeah, mainly vocals and then mainly piano.
ND: At a Lexie Rose show are you – obviously you’re doing vocals, – but are you playing piano or guitar…
LR: I switch back and forth.
ND: Your dad’s a musician and your brother has a band, too.
LR: Yeah, my brother has his band Night Talks and they just released their first album In Dreams. So, I play keyboards…and he plays bass guitar for me right now.
ND: So, you obviously grew up with music in your house constantly.
LR: Constantly. Non-stop. So, I’ve never really known life without music and performing music. There are plenty of pictures of me when I’m like five with my dad trying to teach me guitar or what not.
ND: How did that go?
LR: Well, when I was little I was like, ‘I can’t do this. My fingers don’t work. I’m gonna give up.’ I took very classical piano lessons when I was [around] seven and I was like, ‘This is not for me. I don’t wanna play these really boring rudimentary scales all the time. This doesn’t feel right.’ So, then I did School of Rock and I did vocals and I was like, ‘Oh, wait. Playing piano and guitar here is way more fun in this setting and playing…songs.’ A lot of classic rock stuff, of course, but it made it more fun. And having the lessons were way more fun than just sitting with a little book trying to read the music. I eventually got back into piano and guitar later.
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