Check Out Alexandra Skora’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexandra Skora

Hi Alexandra, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I started my musical journey young! When I was growing up, my dad constantly played guitar around our house and I was always drawn to it. At around four, I began singing and coming up with melodies as he played, which awakened my love for songwriting. I decided I wanted to take up an instrument of my own and started to take piano lessons, focusing on classical music. I continued playing classical piano throughout my childhood while always singing and jamming at home with my dad. When the time came to apply to high schools, I decided to apply to LaGuardia and got in for classical piano. This was a big turning point in my musical trajectory, because I ultimately realized that I wanted to learn how to create my own songs rather than play existing pieces. I turned down the offer and when I got to high school, I started taking Ableton lessons to learn how to produce and record my own work, making electronic and rap beats initially as those were the genres I was most interested in at the time. Throughout the next few years I continued learning how to produce and began combining my love for songwriting with my newfound producing skills to record more singer-songwriter leaning demos.
After this period, I spent my freshman year of college at Tulane University where I discovered recording studios next door at Loyola University – it was here that I gained my first experience recording my voice in a studio and I felt a level of connectivity with making music that I hadn’t previously felt. The sessions opened my eyes to the idea of being an artist and what it could look like, and I knew that was the path I wanted to take. The following year, I transferred to New York University where I worked on developing my sound while studying music business and sustainability at Gallatin. Initially I made anything that came to me with no genre specificity, but when I studied abroad in Florence my junior year, I wrote a song that was purely guitar-based and realized I was the most drawn to the acoustic sound that was reminiscent of my childhood jamming with my dad. My senior year I moved out to LA to enroll in the NYU Los Angeles program because of its specialization in music and began embarking on my journey as an indie-folk artist. I have been making music here ever since and am currently in the tailend of finishing my debut EP!

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has been a process with a lot of trial and error! There is a lot that goes into making a song from start to finish that people don’t realize – after writing the song, you still have to produce it, find the right engineer to record your voice with the right mic, mix the song, and master it. One of the bigger challenges I’ve realized is that there is a delicate balance between relying on people to bring your vision to life and working self-sufficiently. Being an artist is a unique endeavor because you have to figure out which roles to play and which roles to find other people for. I think it’s important to not get too frustrated if the process is different than you anticipated – you have to trust that everything is happening the way it’s meant to!

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
While I am an artist, I consider myself to be more of a songwriter. Fundamentally what fuels me is sitting by an instrument, freestyling to it and seeing where my voice and lyrics take me. Something that I’m proud of is how hands-on I am with my music – I co-produce all of my songs, comp all of the instrumental and vocal parts on my own, and do the premix prep while adding audio effects, automations and panning. I think another thing that sets me apart is my constant hunt for music I’m unfamiliar with and desire to explore it in my music. There are so many great genres and subgenres that can be incorporated into an artist’s sound in a way that still fits their identity – a change can contribute to a positive shift in your music and shouldn’t be shied away from! Each project is a way to bring something new to the table.

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I think there’s a balance with risk taking – sometimes it is beneficial to trust your impulses and go for something you believe in, but other times it’s good to listen to those around you and be guided by thought and strategy. For example, people always say to plan far in advance for your releases to pre-market it. However, I think that if you have something you’re proud of and you’re independent, it’s worth considering putting it out there and marketing it after the fact – you never know who’s going to find it once it’s out! There are always ways to mitigate some of the risk taking by finding unconventional strategies – for example, when I decided to send out one of my songs to distribution the same week I planned to release it, I reached out to playlist curators on SubmitHub where they can decide to playlist your song on the spot.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.alexandraskora.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexandra__skora/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexandraskora
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/askora8
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@alexandra___skora