Are you a journalist? Plain Alex wants to make it easy for you to take your own angle on what he does.

Photos below are free for you to use in contexts that relate to Plain Alex (though your crediting of the photographer is appreciated when doing so). Feel free to crop them as you need.

Alex is also easy to contact for interviews or more info, on info@plainalex.com or by sms/phone on +46-73-9471195. If you’d be interested to hear recordings pre-release, for reviews or other journalistic purposes, let him know.

Plain Alex is alias Alexander Kristofersson, based in Stockholm and Gotland, Sweden.

Photos: Jytte Lindberg

Photos: Jytte Lindberg

Background Q&A

So, how would you briefly sum up what Plain Alex is all about?
On its most superficial level, it’s just straightforward pop/rock. My roots are Nordic and I tend to lean into some gloom and minor keys accordingly, you know what we are like up here. But you’ll get quite some dynamic power and driving riffs with the mix, too. I ice the cake with a bit of contrasting humour – not least when I talk between songs when live, or promote what I do in photos. 

What are your songs about?
Lyrics-wise, I try to get nuggets in for everybody. You want to hum along without thinking too much? Let’s get to a catchy, repetitive chorus. Want to get deep? Lose yourself in the printed lyrics, they’re all on plainalex.com. Just don’t expect simple answers. I will not be telling you what to think. 

They can be about this or that, but I must confess I get very fascinated by people’s struggle to make their sense of meaning, identity and commitment in this day and age, including myself. You know boomers say “if you remember the sixties you weren’t there”. I say if you can make sense of the twenties you weren’t here. In that respect, I am afraid the source of inspiration could be never-emptying. 

Your persona is quite nerdy …
No kidding? Yeah, maybe a bit over-the-top, and I am observing that some people get puzzled about the contrast to much of the music. When I first took up the project, years ago, I guess I had a bit of a complex over approaching the supposedly still cool rock scene while actually being a pretty plain guy. So, it was a way to pre-empt scepticism, I guess. But go to a real-world rock gig and who’s the audience? You’ll probably average like 60-year-old blokes having come straight from their decent-paid office jobs. So I want to enable for people to meet in a space where we don’t necessarily have to wear that thin coolness gloss, tattoos or not. I feel like there’s been a line of hipster singer-songwriters who dress up like they imagine early-1900s farmers or poor workers, just with nicer-groomed beards. And many are terrific artists, don’t get me wrong. But with 75 percent of the West’s working people working in services, largely in front of laptop screens, I see some room for moving on. Admittedly, this eighties-or-so Plain Alex style might seem like an odd way of trying to “get real” over it. Maybe more like surreal … as in more than real.