Life & Work with Alex Alicia of South Yorkshire, England, UK

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alex Alicia

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Sure! I’m Alex. I was born and raised in South Yorkshire, England UK. I started like I’m sure many creatives in this industry do – obsessed and in love with music—specifically rock and roll, but also country and pop. My passion for music has led me to where I am today, working as an independent Music Journalist, interviewing bands and artists from all over the world including Nashville, and presenting my show ‘The New Rock Show with Alex Alicia’ on Saturday nights from 10 pm GMT on a radio station called TotalRock.

When I was around 12 years old, I watched a journalist named Kylie, microphone in hand, interview bands on the red carpet at the Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards on TV and I knew then that I wanted to do that too!

So, I studied media in college and Music Journalism at University. I started up a YouTube channel called Alex Alicia Media, interviewing emerging musicians. With that, I began connecting with some lovely people in PR and management. Then one day, I was approached by a radio station called Feedback Radio (which sadly no longer exists) about joining them as a radio presenter with a new show focused on the YouTube work that I’d been doing with emerging artists. I’d never done radio before, I didn’t even have a mic or a professional set-up, but I went for it and gave it a go right after I got what I needed equipment-wise and fell in love with it. I adore getting to showcase new music, support emerging bands and artists from all over the world and help listeners find their new favourites. Since March 2021, my show ‘The New Rock Show’ found a new home on TotalRock radio and here I am…

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I’ve had some recent health challenges that I never really speak about publicly but in all honesty, just from a personal perspective, they’ve been tough on my involvement within the music industry. Especially when the one thing I love to do is talk about music! I was diagnosed with Graves Disease and Hyperthyroidism which attacks my immune system in December 2021 and it came totally out of the blue. It has affected so much of my life, including my body, mental health and confidence in recent years. It’s taken a lot of time, patience, medication, therapy and working with doctors and specialists to find a balance where I am finally starting to feel more like myself and healthy again.

Looking back now, this seems so silly. However, at the time when I was first going through it all and still trying to maintain my interviewing workload and radio show responsibilities, I felt like I had to hide my health struggle because I was so aware of it and the way that it affected me that I didn’t want anyone else to notice – especially when a lot of what I do is filmed or recorded. Some days, I remember I’d be in physical discomfort and in crying hysterics experiencing full panic attacks just moments before travelling to a festival to present interviews that same day. I didn’t know of anyone else dealing with a situation similar to mine that I could relate to in the music journalism or radio space, so I felt a little alone in that respect.

I figured that now is maybe a good time to mention a little bit about my experience with Graves Disease and Hyperthyroidism in the hopes that if there’s anyone else out there dealing with the same or similar issues to me, maybe this could help them to see that it’s still possible to go out there and do what you love. I realised just last year that you’ll never regret getting up and doing that one thing that felt impossible to do earlier that day, and things will get better – just be kind to yourself in the meantime.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Something I’m super grateful for is that, thanks to technology like Zoom and being a part of a radio station that broadcasts worldwide, there’s no limit to where I can support new music. Unlike some stations where you can only support music from where you’re broadcasting, on TotalRock, I get to feature tracks from anywhere and everywhere and that’s so freeing and exciting! This has been massive in shaping my show and allowing me to support musicians from all over the planet.

I’m based in the UK, but this journey has kindly and virtually connected me to many amazing places and enabled me to work with, support and champion bands and artists from Nashville to Los Angeles, Australia to Europe and everywhere in between.

My show is entirely self-created which is cool because it allows me to wear a few different hats and experience all sorts of different avenues creatively. I curate the playlists, and present, produce, record, and promote the show. I also present, edit and produce my YouTube videos and research and digitally market my media channels independently.

I’m proud of the fact that I can use my voice and my platform, however big or small, to champion new music and help support our future headliners all whilst introducing others to a new band that maybe they’d never have known if it wasn’t for hearing them on my radio show or seeing them in a new interview video on my YouTube channel.

My goal is to be able to support with radio airplay and shout about as many new, emerging and underground bands as I possibly can and to connect people through music. I’m so passionate! I also hope this journey allows me to visit America one day soon, that’d be awesome. I feel like I’m a proud cheerleader for all the amazing emerging talent in the rock and metal music community ha and I won’t stop until I can shout about as many amazing bands as possible in as many ways as possible! 

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Growing up, some of my favourite artists were Guns N’ Roses, Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Ronnie James Dio, Miley Cyrus, Luke Bryan and Meat Loaf – quite a mixed bag of musical interests. But I had a pretty large love of rock bands from the seventies and eighties thanks to my Mum and Dad. I’ve also always been an avid reader. I love to lose myself in a book! And I remember being obsessed with autobiographies in my younger years. I found getting an insight into the journey and life of an artist I loved fascinating. In High School, one of my favourite classes was Drama. I enjoyed performing arts and was always singing and dancing. I did a short course of electric guitar lessons and enjoyed playing the keyboard for fun at home but that was as far as my musical capabilities went. I was involved in school shows and musicals like Little Shop of Horrors – I’m a spooky kid at heart and even at 28 years young, I still love anything to do with Tim Burton. I was lucky and blessed that I grew up surrounded by music and art, with parents who took me to see live music and encouraged me to aim high and as cheesy as it sounds, to go after my dreams.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/alexaliciamedia
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexaliciamedia/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alexaliciamedia
• Twitter: https://x.com/alexaliciamedia
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AlexAliciaMedia
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@alexaliciamedia