COOL KIDS
#8: ALEXA DARK
★★★★★★★
Fate, I respect a lot. I never regret anything.
– Anita Pallenberg
When I show up late
Make the same mistakes
Swear that I won’t, I will again
When I’m out all night
Tell another lie
Please believe that I’ll be alright again
Pull the ashtray closer
I’m begging for the closure
I’m begging for a light
Though I quit last night again
– Alexa Dark “Ungrateful”
I’ve been loving everyone’s 2016 throwback pics online. I wish I were cute enough then to post some of my own now. But no one wants to see that. Lol. Though 2016 was a rad year for me. The year I got bangs! I traveled a lot. I went to Cabo (with my best friends, and the trip happened to be during my 16th birthday; lived our teenage summer, girls gone wild dreams), London (saw Coldplay at Wembley and the One Direction wax figures in the flesh), Paris, Florence, Pisa, Rome, Venice, Lake Como (my favorite place in the world where I will live in my castle one day), Mt. Ida, Arkansas (where I went to Christian summer camp for seven years but I swear it was so lit; I’m not a bible beater), Austin (for ACL; I saw Schoolboy Q, Drake, and Kendrick Lamar back-to-back at the same stage … that’s 2016 live music realness; and I got my first kiss during Flume’s set lmao), and … NYC! 10 years ago, I decided I would be a music journalist. I had been obsessed with music since I was 6, and I was on my high school’s yearbook staff and loved journalism. That beautiful, sweet 16 summer, I went on a journalism trip to the city that Seventeen magazine offered. I remember a girl from Arkansas who was an intern at the magazine, wearing a lil denim dress, showing us around, and I thought, If that Southern girl is here, I can be too. As I was standing in the office, overlooking the city through the floor-to-ceiling windows, it all clicked. I’ll never forget that view and moment. As soon as I left the office, I picked up the latest issue of Rolling Stone with Jared Leto on the cover (I still have it). It all felt right. Manifestation works, folks. Cheers to 2016 – 2026 better be just as good xx
Newest release: Our Fate Was Always Fatal, EP, September 19, 2025
★★★★★★★
Alexa Dark: I’m leaving for London tomorrow night for a few weeks.
Marisa Whitaker: Do you have a band in London?
AD: I know a lot of musicians in London, but I don’t have a set band. The goal is to do more music work in Europe and the UK this year. Though I started playing music in London when I was a teenager.
MW: You’ve lived in a lot of different places.
AD: I was born in New York. My family’s from all over. We’re part Spanish. I moved back to Europe really young. I lived in a few places, but my formative years were in London. Then I spent time in Paris, Spain, and all over, and then came back here.
MW: Were your parents often traveling for work?
AD: Yeah. My dad had a job that let him move, and my mom, being Spanish, wanted to be close to family.
MW: I love that. I used to travel a lot growing up. My parents took us all over Europe. I miss it.
AD: It’s such a good education.
MW: I’m forever grateful for it. What are you going to do in London during this trip?
AD: I’m planning to work on music and record a bit. I always feel creatively inspired there. January’s a slow time over there, which makes it nice for recording.
MW: And you’ll play with your musician friends there?
AD: Yeah. I have a few really good friends I play with. Same in New York, I change between session players who are also friends. With playing so many shows, you meet so many people.
★★★★★★★
MW: Your newest release is the EP Our Fate Was Always Fatal.
AD: Yeah. It’s three songs.
MW: I love the songs. Are you working toward an album?
AD: Thank you. That’s the idea. I don’t know if it’ll manifest in smaller releases first. But I love putting things in chapters. We live in such a single economy, but I’m such an album girly.
MW: I interviewed the band Chalk last year. They released a trilogy of EPs over a few years, but it’s a cohesive project as a whole. I thought it was a cool way to do it. Each one captured a different period of time.
AD: That’s kind of the goal. What I just released captures one moment in time, and it’s a genesis of what’s to come. I want them all to be connected.
MW: Let’s talk about the songs. I saw on Instagram what you wrote about “Heavy Metal” and it being about your time in LA. Were you living there?
AD: I was going back and forth, from here to LA. These three songs were born in that phase. I was post-breakup and indulging in life in LA. There’s such a dark side to old Hollywood. It really spoke to me. A combination of late nights and early mornings, all of that.
★★★★★★★
MW: There’s a stark contrast with you. You’re so polished and put together, but the music is moody and dark. It’s literally in your name.
AD: I’ve always loved contrast. I never like something that’s just one thing. I’ve always appreciated a shadow underneath.
MW: Your style influences are the original “it” girls, the likes of Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin, and they, too, were rock ‘n’ rollers.
AD: Totally. I was raised on rock ‘n’ roll, ’60s rock, and French rock. That’s me at my core. Having spent my formative years in London, playing rock shows at such a young age, I grew up on that stage. That’s always going to seep into my performances.
MW: I also read you were hugely influenced by riot grrrl growing up.
AD: Oh yeah. I’ve always loved an unconventional, rock ‘n’ roll woman, and pushing the boundaries. While the sound isn’t hugely heard in my own music, that vibe is the crux of my femininity. It bleeds into who I am as an artist.
MW: Who were your earliest musical influences?
AD: I’ve always loved the oldies. From such a young age, it was The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, a lot of that classic British rock. And those French influences, like Françoise Hardy and Serge Gainsbourg, opened my eyes to so much more. I love jazz, hard rock, all kinds of music.
MW: I’m right there with you about the oldies. Growing up, I had it in my head that I needed to understand what came before us, knowing I wanted to work in music one day. From when I was six throughout early college, I was really only listening to older music. It’s crazy to me that now that I’m in my twenties, I’ve come to discover that lots of kids my age now don’t know a lot of or about older music. Sure, lots do, I’m generalizing, but for the most part, it isn’t as much as I’d thought it’d be. So, I so appreciate your appreciation for the throwbacks.
AD: I always thought I was one of those kids; I was born in the wrong generation. [Laughs] When I was growing up and finding records, like one of Françoise Hardy’s, and seeing a beautiful girl on the cover, and listening to her amazing voice and sound, it really spoke to me in a way that turning on the radio now doesn’t. I do love artists like Amy Winehouse, who’ve taken the old and made it new. I’m always trying to find deep cuts, and I don’t think as many people try to seek those or the history of music out as much as they should.
MW: I also often try to find my favorite artist’s favorite artist.
AD: I always do that.
MW: What do you think is important about knowing music’s history?
AD: It’s everything. I’ve always been fascinated with it, too. Like who came before and influenced The Sex Pistols? How did it come to be? There’s something so cultural and political in it. It’s so important not just as an artist, and understanding your roots, but also understanding the world. It’s so important to the music itself. And I’m just a nerd about it.
★★★★★★★
MW: How much do you think about presentation and branding? Do you finely craft a detailed vision ahead of executing a project? Or do you think less about things beforehand and run with ideas as you go?
AD: It depends. At the end of the day, yes, I do think deeply about aesthetics and how I want to put something out, like the visuals, look, outfit, etc. For the music, there’s a lot of thinking involved, but if I let myself think too much, I get carried away. You have to trust that you’re coming across. Sometimes, as you said, less thinking is better. It’s more instinctual. We live in a cool era that’s somewhat genreless. There are influences of jazz in electronic music. And that’s what’s cool about DJing, you’re tying everything together. But whatever I gravitate towards, there’s a string there, even if it’s two things that are completely different. As an artist, I can sing and create and take inspiration from so many things, but I am the through line. I love that question.
★★★★★★★
MW: Is DJing a new thing for you?
AD: Yeah. Honestly, I got drunk one night, and my friend was telling me she was booking an event and needed a DJ, and I said I could DJ. [Laughs] Then I woke up the next day and was like, I have to learn how to DJ in a week. As a musician, learning the mechanics wasn’t impossible. It started as a hobby, one of discovering music not meant for me to perform. And I’m finding ways to mix in my own music.
MW: You DJ so many cool events.
AD: It’s great for when I can’t perform, but can still contribute musically to an event or party.
MW: Do you ever DJ vinyl?
AD: Not yet. I love vinyl, but it’s a whole different thing to DJ with it. It’s rock ‘n’ roll.
MW: DJing is today’s rock ‘n’ roll. [Laughs] I bet BB would’ve been a DJ today.
★★★★★★★
MW: We got sidetracked. Were you writing the EP during the breakup?
AD: I was going through a lot. I was wrapping my mind around what I was feeling and the time I was in. It became metaphorical, in a way. While my feelings were very raw, I was trying to find myself in a new light. I was writing the songs in the midst of the breakup, and then I sat on them for a minute. They evolved to mean something different.
MW: How do you look back on those songs and that time now?
AD: It’s nostalgic. I look back at it fondly. While it was raw and emotional, I was having fun. I miss those days now, but I wouldn’t have said that then. I love capturing moments in time.
★★★★★★★
MW: What ideas do you have going into writing your next body of work?
AD: I have the idea wheels turning. I’m in the process of being inspired and writing a lot. It’s coming to fruition as it’s happening.
MW: What’s your writing process?
AD: When I write alone, I usually start on piano or guitar. It helps facilitate the emotions. Sometimes I start with a melody or have an idea of where I want to go with the production. Other times, I have a line that won’t go away and sticks with me. I don’t have a clean-cut process. It’s a rock ‘n’ roll mess.
MW: It sounds like you’re pretty hands-on in the studio, too, with post-production.
AD: Yes. I’m not a producer, but I love working with trusted producers and collaborators. They can help make the project evolve in such a different way.
MW: How do the people around you influence and inform your work?
AD: I’m always inspired by experiences and what’s going on at the time, depending on where I am and who’s around me. I write most of my songs in private, so it’s mainly my lived experiences that bleed into lyrics. And things I’m dealing with or fantasizing about.
★★★★★★★
MW: If an alien came to Earth, what music would you play them? What film would you show them?
AD: I’d want to blow their mind and put on a Serge Gainsbourg or Scott Walker album. I’m a big French New Wave girl, so maybe something like Breathless. Or Casablanca, the basis of everything.
MW: Do you think people back then appreciated how cool their time was? I’d like to think that when we look back one day on this era, we’re going to think it’s a lot cooler than how we feel now, while living it.
AD: This makes me think of Midnight in Paris. I love that movie. He goes, I want to live here forever. And she says, No, I want to go back. That’s what I romanticize.
MW: What do you think they had that we don’t today? Why do we romanticize the past so much?
AD: We’re always enamored with the past. While we have technology, which has opened us up to do so much, it’s also so unstylish. Not to be negative about it. Back then, they had limitations, and limitations are so good for creativity. They were more present. What do you think?
MW: They held what was immediately around them so much more near and dear to their hearts, perhaps. They didn’t have this access to the world at their fingertips. They were the pioneers of rock music, making all those sounds for the first time.
AD: Is a DJ the new rock star? They also had parties in a way we don’t have. Without phones. It was so much more present. So many drugs. [Laughs] So much fun.
MW: If we want to get anything close to that, it’s going to be here, in the city. Or in, like, Berlin.
AD: For sure. Berlin might even be beyond my level. There’s something born out of going out and having fun that I think we’ve lost a bit of as a generation.
MW: I love going out. I love my stamina. I love sitting at home with my cat, but my roommates think I’m crazy for going out five nights a week. I do it not only because it’s my job, but because I love meeting people. Making opportunities. And having fun along the way. We live here, of all places, so you might as well get out of the house and enjoy what the city has to offer. See what’s out there. There’s something to do at any time on any day of the week.
AD: 100%. That’s what’s great about the city. It’s unlike any other.
MW: As you’ve said, you’ve lived in so many places. Is this the only city you feel this way about?
AD: I love to run away. But this is the one place I always come back to. There are so many different cultures here, things to do, opportunities. This is the place that feels closest to home.
MW: Where else do you run away to?
AD: I love Paris. There’s an energy there that I really relate to. I love writing there. It’s my main runaway spot. It resets me.
MW: Why do you run away?
AD: I don’t know. Because I’m being avoidant. [Laughs] As an artist, you have to skip town sometimes. And as someone who grew up traveling, it’s always been in my comfort zone.
★★★★★★★
MW: What are your plans this year?
AD: I have a lot of travel plans. London, Paris, then back here. I’m recording and releasing, and wanting to get out the projects I was talking about before. Do as many performances as I can.
MW: Do you have an artistic itch you have yet to scratch?
AD: I love the idea of combining my love for cinema with music. I’d love to make a movie for a project.
MW: You have a video that was inspired by your favorite Jean-Luc Godard film. It’s so sick. Do you want to do something like that, but maybe elevated?
AD: Yeah, definitely connected to that. And pull inspiration from the cinema I love. I want to experiment with more sounds, too, in my music.
★★★★★★★
MW: We haven’t even touched on fashion. You’re always dressed to the nines. What’s your style mantra?
AD: Timelessness. Since I was young, it was always, What would Jane Birkin do? Less is more – but more is more. Fashion is supposed to be fun.
MW: I love having a fur coat, a nice bag, and a great perfume.
AD: If the outerwear is done right, you can pretty much do whatever you want. With a good bag and a great coat, you’re solid.
MW: It’s a layer of confidence. It’s a layer of who you are. Especially here, I love being able to wear whatever the fuck I want.
AD: It shows how you feel about yourself. It’s about being comfortable. I’ll wear some crazy heels, but I feel very much so me. I know if my bangs are fine, everything else will be fine. [Laughs]
MW: What are your closet essentials?
AD: Animal prints. A cheetah print coat or fur. Good jeans. Pointy cowboy boots. Lots of jewelry.
★★★★★★★
MW: You wrote about the EP in your Instagram caption: What if what feels fateful is actually fatal?
AD: I’ve always kept close, What is meant to be will be. And fate. I met this person, or this thing happened, and, wait, it didn’t go well, so it’s not fate. Or was it fate? It’s this play on words of, what path do you pave, and what path is already paved. This was a big theme of this project: religion and faith. Faith in something. Whether that’s a person, God, or the universe. I don’t have any answers.
MW: I was going to say, did you figure it out?
AD: No. [Laughs] I still ride with, what will be, will be, but you have agency in that. What do you think?
MW: I think hindsight’s 20/20, at least most of the time. I’ve learned something from every experience, good and bad. I got my cat from a dark time. And she’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.
AD: I have the same feeling. When something goes wrong in the moment, I question why. And as an artist, I’m like, Great, I have something to write about. [Laughs] Music has always been a great way to make something out of what’s going on. It’s an understanding mechanism for me. Oftentimes, until I review what I’ve written, I think, This is all the stuff I didn’t know how to say. It speaks to something I’m thinking on a deeper level.
★★★★★★★