CMU Approved

Approved: Alex Winston

By | Published on Monday 24 January 2011

Alex Winston

Detroit-based multi-instrumentalist Alex Winston is a trained opera singer. The cynic in me always nudges my ribs at this stage and warns me that I shouldn’t take any interest in this sort of fact. I don’t now how far she got with her training, maybe she only went to one lesson. But the cynic in me can piss off, because I love the idea of people with any sort of classical training – especially opera – going into quirky pop music. Okay, at 21 it’s unlikely she’d carved out any sort of career in opera, but that doesn’t stop me imagining her breaking off in the middle of an aria and screaming, “No! I may have trained my whole life for this, but have another calling!”

Now, I’m absolutely sure that’s not what happened, and right now I’m trying to block out my memory of Charlotte Church’s career, but it’s a nice thought nonetheless. And I’m sure opera has had some influence on Winston’s unusual voice. Perhaps not noticeably, though. In fact, there are a huge number of far more blatant influences that I’m sure we could all write down on a piece of paper while listening to her MySpace page. Still, her debut single, ‘Choice Notes’, which was released last year, and new mini-album, ‘Sister Wife’, out on 7 Feb, show much promise. You can also catch her supporting Egyptian Hip Hop at Bush Hall in London on Thursday.

www.myspace.com/alexwinston



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