“I am still at home in Dallas because I am finishing high school,” Alex McArtor told American Songwriter, “but I plan to move to Los Angeles or Nashville next year.”
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While most American high school students are busy learning the ins and outs of Zoom and figuring out how to do their math homework, McArtor is busy working on her craft (in addition to doing math homework, presumably). Her craft? Songwriting.
Releasing two EPs to date and racking up hundreds of thousands of streams, McArtor’s jump-started career is on an exciting trajectory. Recently signing with Vector Management, McArtor has just released a new single entitled “Biggest Fan.”
While McArtor’s songcraft is inspired by a wide pool of artists ranging from Chris Isaak to The Jesus and Mary Chain, “Biggest Fan” is most reminiscent of an intersection between Music Row and ‘Lana Del Rey-core.’ The acoustics, organ and slide guitar solo create an undeniably American backdrop for McArtor to emote over. The result is a tonality that’s akin to Del Rey’s — a longing sound, almost like a hypothetically nostalgic echo from a past that never was.
“‘Biggest Fan’ was one of the first songs that I ever wrote,” McArtor said. “I wrote it back when I was 15 years old and very much at the age when you’re riding the wave of naivety… basically the eclipse of the age of innocence. I grew up going to music festivals and concerts. We looked at the people on stage as if they were immortal, totally entranced by their music and persona, as if they were singing just for us. I wanted to write a song that expressed the idea that sometimes people or things are better left untouched for the sake of not killing the magic.”
Listen to Alex McArtor’s new single “Biggest Fan” below:
