Meet Alexx Calise of Bearkat Collective in Van Nuys

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexx Calise.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Alexx. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I’m a singer, guitarist and songwriter.

I was lucky to have grown up in a very musical household–my parents played us everything from Mozart and Stravinsky to Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix.

My father is a guitar player, and he’d always play for my brother and I when we were growing up. I always wanted to be like my dad, so naturally, I picked up the guitar at age 11. I was always a writer as well, so I started putting music and melodies to my poems and such. Before I knew it, I was writing full-fledged songs. After that, I was unstoppable, playing as many local bars and talent competitions as I possibly could. After playing for years as a solo artist and a few bands in my hometown of South Florida, I decided to pick up and move to the big city of LA–with only $200 to my name.

Once there, I worked just about every job I could–shot girl, temp employee, newspaper hawker, princess party entertainer, you name it. After a while, I started to find my footing, and eventually landed a few TV placements with my music: One Tree Hill, a few MTV shows, etc.

My biggest break came however in late 2011 with a new Lifetime show called Dance Moms. I had an otherwise all electronic rock record come out in 2010 called “In Avanti”. I was pushing a pretty hard rock single of mine, “Break Me”. It gained some traction, but not what I’d hoped. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, I started getting tons of hits on my sole ballad, “Cry” from that record, and kids started covering it and doing tributes to it on YouTube. After some investigation, I found out that one of my licensing agencies had placed it in “Dance Moms”, and that a little girl named Maddie Ziegler danced to it.

After watching a clip of her dancing to it, my wheels started turning, and I knew I had to put out an accompanying video to the song since it was getting so popular. My dad suggested I have Maddie herself dance in the video. A friend of a friend had the dance teacher, Abby Lee Miller’s info, so I cold called her and asked if Maddie could dance in the video. She said sure, and then, 2 weeks later, I flew Maddie out to LA and had her dance in the video. Fast forward a few years later, and the song has gotten hundreds of thousands of downloads, it has 20 million combined hits, and it even charted at #64 on the iTunes rock charts–out of nowhere! Now, Maddie is super famous and Sia’s main muse. I’m so proud of her journey. She’s hugely talented and extremely deserving of her fame.

Ever since that placement, my life has changed in a big way. I’ve performed live on Dance Moms and one of its spinoff shows, “Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition”, I’ve appeared in Wall Street Journal, and I’ve continued to produce a ton of new music that is continuously placed in top TV shows and even some films.

I also have another music project, Batfarm, with my longtime collaborator and best friend, Dennis Morehouse, and we’re working on our second record.

It just goes to show that you can’t give up. If music is truly what’s in your heart, you need to follow it. It’s taken me to some of the darkest, but also some of the most amazing places. I truly don’t know what else I’d do. Everything in my life is a means of facilitating my music.

Has it been a smooth road?
I don’t think anything that’s worth anything is easy. I’ve struggled so much, and still, continue to struggle with music. Every year it seems to get harder just because streaming revenue is so small, touring is so expensive, and not as many people are buying music or going out to shows. However, you cannot look at everything as a big struggle. You have to look at the big picture. Sure, I could be making a hell of a lot of money doing something else, but I sure as hell wouldn’t be happy. Even if I have $50 total in my bank account, at least I’m living some semblance of my dream. I’m not a slave to some job I’m not happy in, and I’m unencumbered. Maybe I’m not living a “traditional” or “normal” life, but what is normal anyway?

We’d love to hear more about your business.
I’m a professional musician and songwriter. I specialize in music production, live performance and songwriting for film and TV. What sets me apart is my unique approach to songwriting. I am a stickler for lyrics and melody, and am known for my “lyrical compression” or rapid-fire lyrics. I write to the song, I don’t like to overplay. Oftentimes, I feel like less is more, and that hooks and melodic lines are what’s missing from a lot of contemporary music. A lot of musicians forget that the most important ingredient is the song. If you don’t have that, you don’t have anything. Image, likes and follows…all secondary. A great song is hard to come by. If you have that, then everything else will fall into place.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Yes. LA is a great place for the business side of music. Since LA is the Mecca for entertainment, it’s a lot easier to take a meeting with someone since a lot of entertainment professionals are based out here. You also have the potential of being seen a lot more than if you’re in a smaller city.

However, I feel like LA is really pricing everyone out. It’s getting more and more expensive to live here, and the wages aren’t getting any higher. One thing that really grinds my gears is being asked to do things for “exposure”. I could build a mansion made of exposure. “Exposure” and “Trade for print” are all well and good if you’re just starting out, but it gets a little old when you actually have credits and have more than paid your dues.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.alexxcalise.net
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: instagram.com/alexxcalise
• Facebook: facebook.com/alexxcalisemusic
• Twitter: twitter.com/alexxcalise
• Other: batfarmband.com

Image Credit:
Alec C. Hunter
Chad Michael Ward
Chris Widick

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