Music is embodied within his bloodline and now comes the turn to continue the family legacy as Haile gears up for his debut project.
The Midas touch is set in stone for the Alexander’s and after already reaching pinnacles through songwriting and collective WSTRN, Haile is ready to introduce himself as a solo artist.
Spare Room pays homage to nostalgic experiences of being in a Caribbean household. Themes of Lovers Rock and Reggae sit at the forefront and showcase as a blueprint towards where his successes have derived from.
Keeping within the family ties, his brother PRGRSHN compiles the sounds for a body of work which will have Haile making an impressive first impression in the solo world.
Ahead of the release, we caught up with the all-round talent to discuss the project, Grammy wins, music origins and much more.
Your new EP Spare Room is out November 12th. What can your listeners expect from the project?
“Just good vibes, energy and nostalgia with a fresh approach. I want the E.P to take you to a place where you remember being in a Caribbean household and to give that feeling back. I wanted to create something that felt like home and a safe space. This is an origin to my story.”
From the opening track, you pay homage to Lovers Rock. Was there an importance to show respect to the genre on the EP?
“The first thing I do as a solo act has to be something that is true to myself. Something I can resonate with and comfortably speak to my audience in the most organic way about. Lovers Rock and Reggae are genres I grew up listening to in my household. They mirror my life too. It was only right to make that the entry point.”
Your brother PRGRSHN produces the project? How was it working on a whole body of work together and was there an importance of your first project being embedded in the family?
“Working with my brother, it wasn’t alien to me. Since WSTRN, he’s been doing 90% of the music. The familiarity of it was good. The new approach was it being a full Haile song opposed to a chorus or verse. It gave me the freedom to express and experiment and the same going him as well. It was a fun process for sure.”
The project is seven tracks, how long was the process to complete?
“I feel like for a while, I’ve been thinking about how I’m going to enter the game as a solo artist. The foundation and impression are important. For like a year I’ve been figuring it out and when I started with Lovers Rock, it felt pure to me. My first record was Pure Blue and that then evolved into a project.”
What’s your current go-to from the project?
“It changes all the time! Right now, it’s Robin Hood.”
Music is embedded in your family. Can you recall your first memory of music?
“Probably being in secondary school. Everyone was a Grime artist in that time! My brother always had a studio set up and I would look around and look at how to use his equipment. I would take that knowledge and after school, my friends would come over, and I would record songs with them. It was a fun process and more free because I was just having fun! I started off making beats and eventually that turned into writing and becoming an artist.”
When did you make the transition from producing to then being in the booth yourself?
“I was just recording in school, getting Grime beats from LimeWire. When I started going to college, I started making beats. It was a passion and the more I started practicing, I started learning how to record vocals and how to engineer. All the abilities that I’ve learned over the time in my career, I now use in them in my own career. I’m heavily involved in the direction of production.”
Being in a group and working solo, what is the biggest difference when it comes to making a track?
“One of the biggest differences is when you’re in a group, you have to consider your actions being aligned with everyone else in the collective. It has to be cohesive with everyone who is a part of the record. With my individual stuff, I’m the narrator and I have more freedom to take it somewhere. Being in a group gives you challenges that help you evolve. It makes you adapt to other people’s styles. Everything has happened the way it’s happened for a reason. WSTRN are my brothers, but everyone right now is doing their own thing. They’ll definitely be some more music in the near future.”
You also write songs for others. What would you say is the biggest difference when it comes to the process of making a song, knowing it’s for another artist?
“That’s quite a new career for myself. I was always used to writing for myself and never really had experience writing for other people. When you’re writing for another artist, you’re not thinking of a standpoint for yourself, you’re writing for another person. The approach is always different. It’s a fun approach because you get to play a character that is not yourself but you are practicing your pen. It’s a dope experience for sure.”
What’s been a personal career highlight so far?
“That’s a hard question! There are so many things that have taught me lessons that I celebrate. One of my recent achievements is winning a Grammy. I wrote Nightmares which is on Chris Brown’s 11:11 album. That’s something I grew up watching and to now be a part of that conversation is a dream. It’s a story of my own and how it happened in such a short space of time was crazy.”
What are three goals you have before the year closes?
“I want to get into more live performances and people seeing the records for what they are. That will be happening soon. I want to just move on to the next chapter. Spare Room and the Lovers Rock chapter is definitely a true part of myself, but I’ve also experienced other things which will come out in different styles of music.”
Who are three artists currently at the top of your playlist?
“It really depends what mood I’m in! I’d say Cleo Soul, Vybz Kartel and Alex Isley.”
Finally, can you give advice for those looking to succeed in music?
“As cliché as it sounds, trust your gut. Whatever you do, just be consistent at it and I feel like nothing happens before it’s time so be fully focused on your career. Tunnel vision. You shouldn’t watch a next man’s lane because we don’t know what it took for them to get there. Just keep doing you, be your truth, unapologetically!”