Information about Alexis Strum

Alexis Strum is an English singer-songwriter, who has released two singles in the UK, as well as co-wroting "Still Standing" on Kylie Minogue's album Body Language and "Nothing Good About This Goodbye" on Rachel Stevens' album Come and Get It. She is currently working in the UK as part of a group, fronted by sockpuppets entitled Bo Pepper.

Career

Pre-contract

Strum was born and brought up in Chingford, Essex; her parents are both half-Polish, with Belgian blood from her father's side and Italian from her mother's. As a child, she worked hard at school to achieve good academic results, but discovered her love for music, and her want to be a performer, after she had attended a school concert, where a covers band where playing Mudhoney and Nirvana tracks. She bought a guitar, and experimented, performing Elastica and L7 tracks, before experimenting with computer-aided production, to emulate the sound of a full live band on her own. She studied English at King's College London, and attended and performed gigs, exaggerating her experience in order performance spots. After four or five years of working odd jobs and performing here and there across London, as well as lending vocals to tracks by Thrillseekers, Lange, and Ed Case, Strum signed her first record contract.

"Addicted"

In 2002, Strum landed a record deal with WEA records, distributed by the Warner Music Group. There she co-wrote and recorded an electronic-pop album, working with producers such as Xenomania. A single release was scheduled entitled "Addicted," with a video added to music television channels, and promo CDs sent ro radio, alongside an album sampler. The single was cancelled due to lack of media support, and Alexis was released from her contract soon after. The album sampler features the tracks: "Addicted", "Coming On Strong", "Rock This Disco", "Still Standing", and "Nothing Good about This Goodbye"; two of the tracks were later recorded by popular artists: "Still Standing" features on Kylie Minogue's 2003 album, Body Language and "Nothing Good about This Goodbye" features on Rachel Stevens' 2005 album, Come and Get It. The album was also set to include tracks entitled "Still", "Keep Up", and "Rodeo"; these, alongside the album sampler, have been leaked illegally to the internet.

Writing in the wilderness

Following the disappointment of being dropped from WEA records, Strum left Britain to travel alone to Antigua on holiday. For two weeks, she sat in a hut with no electricity, covered in mosquito nets and trying to plan what she would do next. Still songwriting, Alexis wrote two songs there – "Cocoon" and "Stay Until Summer" – and when she returned home, self-produced them into finished versions. Re-building confidence in herself, she returned to venues she had played at previously, and went back to performing gigs in London, before sending a sample of her work to the management of Billy Steinberg – writer of Madonna's hit single, "Like a Virgin", Cyndi Lauper's "True Colours", and "I Drove All Night" – requesting a session with him. Together they wrote a track called "It Could Be You". She then called on Magnus Fiennes and Pascal Gabriel, both of whom she had met previously, to add touches to the album she was recording.

"Bad Haircut"

By early 2005, Strum had recorded her second album, semi-acoustic, but with leftfield beats and electro synths ("I don't want to get wrapped up in myself. There's a whole slew of female singer-songwriters going, 'Ooh, I'm so bloody tortured'. 'Oh, I'm in so much pain, la la la'. It's so calculated. Get off the stage", she has said) and signed a deal with Mercury Records. They loved the album, but felt it lacked a "first single", so Strum went back and wrote and produced a track called "Bad Haircut". She also started writing a blog for the popular music web site, Popjustice, as well as launching her own official web site and MySpace profile.

In August 2005, following a spot at the V Festival, it was announced that Strum would release her debut single and album in September 2005. The two were met with critical acclaim, and album reviews were positive, but once again, Strum was spurned by most radio and television outlets, despite the "Bad Haircut" video featuring up-and-coming actor, Tom Ellis. The single was released, but missed the top 40, and plans to release the album, called Cocoon were quickly shelved.

"It Could Be You"

In early 2006, a video to the track she co-wrote with Billy Steinberg, "It Could Be You", was sent to music television, set to a new version of the song to that which had appeared on promotional copies of the Cocoon album in late 2005, remixed by Ash Howes. The song was spurned, yet again, by radio, but television support grew strong, and, although the record company pulled the single release a week before its due date, the video was among the top ten most requested on UK channel The Box for a few weeks. Once again, plans to release Cocoon after the single, were also shelved; however, the single was added to iTunes UK, and the album was also added (by mistake — it was later removed), giving fans the opportunity to legally purchase the songs pre-release.

"Go My Own Way"

In March, shortly after "It Could Be You" had been cancelled, Strum announced via her MySpace blog that she had exciting news, and in April explained that she had scored the theme tune spot to the much-hyped new ITV drama series Vital Signs, starring Tamsin Outhwaite, over more established artists, such as KT Tunstall. The track, entitled "Go My Own Way", is played at the start with vocals, and at the end in instrumental form, and was added in its entirety to iTunes. Strum said that, whilst the track will not be the next single, a new mix of the track will also appear on a revised version of Cocoon.

A new version of Cocoon appeared on iTunes temporarily (alongside other digital retailers in the UK, such as Woolworths.co.uk), in April, featuring both the original and new album versions of "Go My Own Way", the single version of "It Could Be You", and the previously unreleased "The Starting Line". Again, it was shortly removed from sale, after Strum herself was alerted to it, through her MySpace page. At the same time, Strum launched a second MySpace, featuring some new songs she had written to be considered for other artists, having had two songs from her WEA record be taken by A&R men for Kylie Minogue and Rachel Stevens. It was also rumoured, and hinted at in an earlier blog, that she would have a song on the forthcoming All Saints record, although it never came to fruition. The three songs added to her 'writing MySpace' are titled "Me & You This Time", "Nobody Know", and "When We Kiss."

In May 2006, Strum made an announcement that she would be undergoing surgery, and would be unable to return to work until September 2006, when she had recovered. In September 2006, Alexis posted a message on MySpace stating that all was well with her health, and added a note saying that her album will not be released as was planned, announcing a sabbatical; "I have decided after this big lifechange that I need to address my priorities and do something different for a bit - time for a new challenge! Challenge Strum!" In December 2006, a personal Christmas song she recorded for her friends and family was added to her MySpace, and was featured on Perez Hilton's blog, later having a video accompany it. One of the messages regarding the Christmas song said, "I won't be releasing any more Alexis Strum records and am gonna concentrate on other things, namely boys and food. Stay in touch!" In March 2007, Strum revealed on her MySpace that her song, "It Could Be You," had been covered by UK singer, Roxanne, who supported Westlife on tour.

Bo Pepper

In early 2007, it was revealed that Alexis Strum is the voice and songwriter in an as-yet-unsigned UK indie group, entitled Bo Pepper. The group members' identities are concealed, replaced by sockpuppets named Dolly, Will E. Nailor, Nicky T and Jonny Dangerous, created by the boys at Pennymix Films, and the group write together in Strum's bedroom. The first single, self-released in April on 'Peppered Records' scored airplay spots on Radio 1 (Huw Stephens), Radio 2, 6Music, Channel 4 Radio and Virgin Radio/ Virgin Xtreme and came second in an unsigned band competition on Capital Radio. Another track, "Buses," recently featured in an online Coca Cola advertisement, and featured on the "UK:ONE the New Music Collection - Coca-Cola Soundwave" digital album, available to purchase via iTunes.

Discography

Albums

• 2002: Addicted (cancelled)
• 2006: Cocoon (cancelled)
• 2007: Bo Pepper debut album (release date and title as yet unconfirmed)

Singles

• 2005: "Bad Haircut" (available on CD, featuring the video and B-sides "Train off the Track" and "Might Be the One", digital download, and exclusive acoustic version digital download)
• 2006 "It Could Be You" (available on digital download, featuring B-side "We All Fall Down" and two remixes of the album track, "Why Me, Why Now" by Bent and Blu Mar Ten, and exclusive acoustic version digital download). A new version of "Why Me, Why Now" has been included on Blu Mar Ten's latest album "Black Water" (exceptional records)
• 2007 "Blink & You'll Miss It!" EP (as part of Bo Pepper, featuring the songs, "Blink & You'll Miss It!" "Love Or Die!" "Children" and "Good Cop, Bad Cop")

External links

• Official Website
• Official MySpace
• Official BoPepper MySpace