Chances are, there’s someone in your life who’s either cancelled, rescheduled or modified their wedding plans recently. Philly artist Alexi decided to pay tribute to those couples in his new music video for his song, Mine. Recently featured in the New York Times and Philly Mag, the video features 35 couples who represent four continents, six countries, and 16 states, and is a powerful statement of triumph and joy over the adversity of our current time. For every video submitted, Alexi also agreed to donate to Feeding America—which resulted in feeding 1,000 families. Alexi recently chatted with Positive Publicity to give us more insight on how this entire concept came to be.
You can find more of Alexi on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Spotify.
Welcome Alexi! So to begin, how did people contribute to this video?
The process was pretty straight forward. Once I got the idea to do a virtual wedding compilation video, I just started searching on social media using relevant hashtags (#virtualwedding, #zoomwedding, #covidwedding etc). Also, as an added incentive and as a way to give back during these tough times, I offered to donate to Feeding America for each video submission received. It also helped to tell them that my own wedding was postponed this summer, so I knew how they felt! They started out slow, but after about a week, I had a huge number of submissions, and we ended up with 35 couples all together.
Was this song written prior to the pandemic, or did the pandemic inspire this song?
I wrote the song three years ago when I first began dating my (now) wife. We had met on a dating app and it was literally only a couple days after our first date. I was doing a songwriting challenge at the time—I was trying to write two songs per day—and she had been on my mind so much that she was all I could think to write about! I eventually played it for her and she (thankfully) said she loved it and that it would be my next hit. It just so happened, during this pandemic, to work out really well as a wedding song (with the chorus of the song saying, “I’ma just call you mine, mine, mine”), and I think it fit the video concept well.
Tell us about your songwriting process.
I always try to start with the chorus or the main idea of the song. This usually comes to me at random times (cleaning, taking a shower, driving, etc). Then I record it into my phone so I don’t lose it! After that, the next step is to create the verses, which are there to just support the main idea of the chorus, so I always try to keep the chorus and the central idea of the song in mind. This usually happens when I have some time to sit down and think a bit more, but if it’s an idea I really like, I’ll just continue to record on my voice recorder regardless of what I’m doing (yes, there may or may not be song recordings with me going to the bathroom or brushing my teeth in the background!). That’s pretty much it…I try to keep the whole process pretty quick and not get hung up on anything for too long or else it loses its excitement and energy.
How can people see more of you?
The song and video for “Mine” are a part of my larger project called, “Love Odyssey,” which features Jadakiss, Chrisette Michele, Amina Budafly (from “Love + Hip-Hop”), and more and will be out sometime next year! The best way to keep in touch with all of that is through Instagram (@alexisongs), Spotify (Alexi Paraschos), and signing up for my email list on my website (www.alexisongs.com).
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