Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexander Young
Hi Alexander, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
TLDR;
I’m Slothan, AKA Alex Young. Music’s always been around me, but it wasn’t something I took seriously until high school. I went from playing guitar for fun to making beats in FL Studio, switching my college major to music production, and eventually finding the confidence to use my own voice. After years of experimenting and figuring things out, I’ve finally started performing live and plan to drop a bunch of new tracks this year, including my debut vocal track, “2010.”
Now here is the long one:
Hi there, I’m Slothan, AKA Alex Young. Music has always been a part of my life, though I didn’t really see it as my path at first. A lot of my extended family were pretty musical—a pair of cousins were a DJ duo called Blaus, another cousin played guitar for the metal band Rusty Eye, and plenty of others just played for fun. I wasn’t exactly a prodigy or anything. My first guitar was a Walmart acoustic I got as a Christmas gift when I was around six. I still have it, actually.
I played on and off through middle and high school, but things didn’t really click until I made a new friend whose punk band had a bit of a local following. I’d hang out while they jammed and sometimes jump in on guitar. Watching them perform and getting caught up in the whole scene made me want to take music more seriously. I started writing my own instrumental songs, just messing around on my acoustic and electric guitars.
Around that same time, my dad was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). It was rough, and music became the one way I could really process everything. I poured a lot of emotion into my guitar, but I never recorded or released any of it. After he passed, I drifted away from music for a while.
Then, in 2017, out of nowhere, I decided to download FL Studio. I’d been listening to a lot of lofi beats—Nujabes and in love with a ghost, in particular, had me inspired—so I figured I’d try making my own. A few hours and several YouTube tutorials later, I had my first beat. Honestly, it was just an eight-bar loop with minor changes, but I was so hyped that I uploaded it to SoundCloud right away. It got 100 plays, and that was it for me—I was hooked.
I kept making beats and posting them, though none really hit like that first one. Eventually, college took over, and music became more of a side hobby again. I was studying mechanical engineering, but I’d already started realizing it wasn’t for me—especially since I kept bombing my math classes. One day, while showing some friends my beats, they mentioned that our school had a music production and recording tech major. That was all I needed to hear. I switched majors and never looked back.
That’s where I met my friend Mark (AKA Kramex). He introduced me to dubstep and other electronic genres, and that’s when I really fell in love with music. For the first time, school didn’t feel like a chore. I kept producing electronic tracks until I graduated in 2020, right in the middle of COVID. The pandemic hit hard, and my creative drive took a nosedive. I barely made anything for a couple of years.
Then, in 2023, the inspiration finally came back. I started experimenting with different genres and, for the first time, thought about adding my own vocals. I’d always been too self-conscious to try, thanks to getting teased about my singing when I was younger. But in June 2024, I finally recorded my first vocal track, “To You,” which should be dropping later this year. Since then, I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable with my voice and have been pushing myself to keep evolving.
I just played my first live show at Pop Fusion Studios in Fullerton through Manifest Booking, and it was a huge success. That performance really reminded me why I love making music. Right now, I’m focused on releasing a bunch of new tracks throughout the year, leading up to my debut album by the end of 2025. It feels like everything’s finally coming together, and I’m excited to see where it goes from here.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. I always wanted to stick with music, but my attention was constantly pulled in a million different directions. Still, music was the one thing that kept showing up, no matter what.
Things got especially tough toward the end of middle school when my dad was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). My mom, sister, and I took care of him every day until he passed in 2015. It was a lot for a kid to handle, and it’s something that still affects me to this day.
2020 was another rough patch. COVID hit, and any inspiration I had to create just disappeared. I found myself stuck in a rut that lasted for years. It felt like I was running on empty, creatively and otherwise.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I currently handle everything myself—producing, songwriting, writing lyrics, crafting my aesthetic, and running all my own marketing. Pretty much the whole shebang, like a lot of independent artists are doing these days.
My style’s a mix of rap, pop, electronic music, and emo/scenecore, with influences that aren’t too far off from the indie sleaze movement of the 2010s and the hardcore electronic and dubstep scene from the late 2000s. What really sets me apart, though, is how I approach production and vocals. I’m always trying to blend different inspirations and genres into something that feels cohesive, and it’s cool to see people really starting to connect with it.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
Anyone—and I mean anyone—can hit me up or stay updated on new releases here:
📸 Instagram: @_slothan
🎵 TikTok: @slothan_
✉️ Email: [email protected]
Every new follower helps—get in on my artist lore early, so you can say you were there before the blow-up.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_slothan/
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/slothan
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@slothan_
