Adam Alpert (stage name, Lex Williams) is a first year CC student who creates and produces his own music. You can find his first album, Not a Word, on his Bandcamp here, and he has plans to publish more EPs soon. The first part of this interview is taken from a larger conversation and will cover his music: both creatively and technically. 

Bwog: Okay, Adam, where exactly are you from? Because it says on your profile, your Bandcamp, that you’re from Detroit so—?

Adam: Yeah, I’m not actually from Detroit. I’m from Farmington Hills, Michigan. But, you know, the whole NSOP thing got me in the vibe of saying I’m from Detroit because nobody knows where Farmington Hills is. I didn’t actually go to high school in Farmington Hills, I went to a private school in Birmingham, Michigan.

B: Really? Why was that?

A: It was a school my parents chose for me when I was three years old, and I’ve been going ever since. It was predominately white, has a lower school, an elementary, and a high school, so I was just at the same school the entire time.

B: So you’ve known the same people throughout school?

A: Yeah, there were 42 kids in my graduating class and I knew them all; some more than I wanted to.

B: The fact that you grew up in Farmington Hills but you were at a private school, did that affect the creation of your album? Because I know at some points in your album, specifically in “Amerikkka,” the music is a little more political. How did your experience going to a predominately white school outside Detroit really affect your music?

A: The school setting that I came from, through no fault of their own—they’re mostly upper middle class who don’t go to Detroit often. They hear what’s on the news and some base their perceptions off that. Some won’t go down to the city because of what they see on the news, but really Detroit is an amazing place. It was interesting coming from a person from my perspective and seeing the number of people who weren’t educated about the city and just how real it is that you can’t understand the black experience without being black. I thought that had a big influence on my music and I wanted to reflect, at least in “Amerikkka,” part of the black thought process, or part of the black experience. And to try to present it in a way that’s understandable or more accessible to people who wouldn’t otherwise understand the black experience.

B: On top of the fact that you went to a predominately white school, how did coming from a mixed race background [Alpert is half African American and half Caucasian] change how you wanted to get your message across, if there even is a message in Not a Word?

A: It’s interesting because I was trying to do a specific narrative with my album and so that might not relay the ultimate message I have, but, you know, I don’t even know if I have a message.

B: Well, if you even have a message in the album, taking into account that album is named Not a Word, what would that message be, in your own words?

A: Actually, in crafting this sort of narrative story—I call it on my Bandcamp an abstract concept album, and that’s sort of what I was striving for. And that’s what I was trying to do: tell a story that conveys a message that people can insert themselves in. So that’s why I called it an abstract concept album. I didn’t want it to be too alienating, I wanted people to be able to see themselves in this story that I’m telling. The overall message is that life is about exploring and that the choices that you make now may not always be as consequential as they may seem. And so the message is to try and go out and experience as many things as possible.

As for the name of the album, it’s a double entendre for two reasons: the narrative story that I’m trying to tell, there’s not a word to describe the full experience, and also it can be “not a word” because some of the things you’re doing may not be right, or may not be viewed in the public eye as good, so it’s sort of a “Not a word, shh, don’t say anything” message.

B: That makes a lot of sense, because at multiple points in the album there’s references to different girls in your life. Where do these interactions with differing women fit into your overall narrative?

A: I compiled some of my experiences—it’s a high school sort of album in that respect. All I had experienced when I made the album was high school. So I based some of the story off my experiences. I was just trying to be as transparent as possible when talking about everything, because I was tracking this character, going throughout the story, and I wanted it to feel as real as possible.

B: In the mindset of talking about the things in your life—and you have a very specific view of life you’re trying to convey—where in that mindset are these other people that are featured on your album?

A: The featured artists are on two of the songs that, if I thought there would be singles, those might be the singles. I wanted to feature the people who have been influential in my life. ZeroG [on “Low-Key”] is my friend Jake, and I’ve been working and have been friends with him for a really long time. We used to do dumb rap songs, the first song I released was a song with him. I made it in tenth grade and it was to the tune of some 2 Chainz song. And Chris Lee [on “Ball”] is my friend Armani. I know he raps and he just has really cool musical tastes. I decided he would be somebody cool to work with, he’s my friend so why not.

B: Then how do you come up with lyrics? You said you write them on your phone, but what exactly is the process?

A: It always starts with the music. And, actually, I was trying to do something specific with the album—I really wanted to create a concept album, like I said. So what I did with the music is crafted this narrative, this story, and I wanted the songs to fit the mood of the story that was happening. So I really based all the production of music, lyrics, everything, around this narrative story. In terms of writing the lyrics themselves, I find the beat that I start writing to and randomly throughout the day—I usually start with a bar or two and I just write them down in my phone, like, I just think of it or something. I’ll take that idea and put it to a beat and then put that bar or two to that beat and then build from there. After I have those first couple bars, I’ll just sit down at a certain point and just write through most of the song.

B: You said that your high school was incredibly small, that you pretty much grew up with the same people. And as you were in a position to observe them while they changed, do you think that watching people change gave you an insight for your music?

A: It definitely gave me perspective. Like, how different experiences change peoples’ lives and how different people become from just living. Maybe I wasn’t thinking about this during my album, but that’s just something that I’ve noticed and probably it’s reflected in the music.

B: In making your album, do you have any regrets?

A: Oh, absolutely. I designed the project for my senior project, so I had a year to do it, and I had a lot of the beats in the album around before that year. But I had a year to do it, and my plan was to do everything myself—you know, the recording, the mixing, mastering, everything—and my biggest regret was, first of all, giving myself a deadline. Second of all, doing the mixing and mastering myself. That was so hard. I gained such an appreciation for mixers and masterers because, to make a song sound radio quality, is just insane. That’s just my biggest regret.

B: But now you make your own music?

A: Yeah, the entire album was my music.

B: So you had to learn how to make music in a year? Or when did you start learning?

A: I used Propellorhead Reason, and my brother taught me how to use that. I’ve been using it since, maybe, 2010. It was on and off for a little bit, and going back to my old beats is really funny because they all suck. It’s really been a thing growing over time—and I played piano for a really long time, and I play drums, so I just really had an ear for music. It’s just a long process of learning how to use the program. The majority of those songs were made within that year, but some were used from older years.

B: There’s a couple of times where you sort of break the fourth wall of the song, how do those function in relation to your album’s message?

A: A lot of those moments, like the laugh [on “Ball”] and just being emotive, I think that’s part of the naturalness that I wanted. They relate to the narrative I’m trying to tell, most of the time they fit with the narrative of the song and they’re sort of how I wanted to tell the story, to create a narrative which people could see themselves in.

(To be continued…)

Parts of this interview have been edited for length and clarity

Cover Art used with permission of Adam Alpert