Alisa Xayalith has played the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection a lot over the years, including shows headlining the stages of The Trocadero and Union Transfer. However, this Friday, May 9th, she will be returning to the 215 to play her most intimate area show ever at Johnny Brenda’s when she opens for deservedly buzzy dream pop trio Sunday (1994). Xayalith, co-founder and one-half of New Zealand electro-indie rockers The Naked and Famous, is currently touring behind her debut solo LP, Slow Crush, which dropped last month and follows up 2022 EP Superpowers. I recently got a chance to chat with Alisa about this new beginning of sorts.
Izzy Cihak: Since this is a Philadelphia publication, I have to ask your thoughts on the city, as you’ve played here a lot over the years. I know I’ve seen you at TLA, The Trocadero, and a free outdoor show, and maybe more… Any favorite memories or thoughts on the city in general?
Alisa Xayalith: It has been years since I’ve visited or played in Philadelphia, and any memories I recall blur as if they were from a former life, so I’m excited to come back and make new ones.
Izzy: You recently released Slow Crush, your first solo full-length. How do you feel like this music compares to your EP, Superpowers?
Alisa: Slow Crush is a graduation from my first EP in every way. Before I found my home with Nettwerk Music and sent a link to my now A&R, they said this album was a step up in every way from the EP. I had been working on rebuilding myself and refining my songs over the last couple of years; it means the world to me that listeners can hear and recognise this with the current collection of songs. Each song feels like a love letter attached to memories and life as I was living it.
Izzy: Have you had any favorite reactions to the new music so far?
Alisa: I worked so hard on this project, so I’m just happy for my music to be out in the world and be on tour with one of my favourite bands. At this point, everything else feels like a cherry on top.
Izzy: I know that your recent video for “Alone With You” was inspired by Wong Kar Wai’s Fallen Angels, which was one of my favorite movies as a teen (I’d probably still love it, but I haven’t seen it since like 2000-ish.) I’m a total cinephile nerd, so I’m super anxious to hear about some of your biggest cinematic influences, or even just cinematic loves.
Alisa: Slow Crush is a collection of songs about love and romance; the aesthetic world of Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love, Chungking Express, and Fallen Angels visually spoke to me and was on all my moodboards. Throughout the season of writing songs for this album (which is generally the time I tend to consume a lot of visual media) I found myself re-watching films I love such as Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, Baz Luhrman’s Romeo + Juliet, Bladerunner, and Studio Ghibli films. The whimsical soundtrack inspired some synth sounds on “Chaotic” and the hopelessness in Lost in Translation was playing on the screen when my producer Harry and I were working on “Romance Is Dead.”
Izzy: Since this is your first solo LP, I’m curious if you have any favorite debut solo LPs in your own music library? I feel like the ones that come to my mind the fastest are Iggy Pop’s The Idiot, Morrissey’s Viva Hate, and Björk’s Debut, but I feel like they might be obnoxiously obvious answers [laughs].
Alisa: I mean, those are all undeniably amazing records! Ones that come to mind that I love and have spent a lot time with – Fever Ray 2009 self-titled album and Feist – Let It Die in my 20s to Caroline Polachek – Pang and Adrianne Lenker – Hours were the birds in my present.
Izzy: You’re touring with Sunday (1994), who are also totally amazing. What are your thoughts on them and their music? Their EP was one of my favorite releases of last year.
Alisa: I was a big fan of Sunday (1994) before touring with them was an idea. I think the world of them and their music. I was gushing to Lee about his guitar tones and chord progressions. Their music is made up of all my favourite things—tender melancholy with lyrical richness with metaphor and imagery. Paige is a captivating frontwoman; her voice soars above the music effortlessly, and they’ve been blowing the rooftops every night in these intimate venues.
Izzy: What can be expected of your live show on these dates? I’m super excited to see this new chapter of your career in a live setting, but kind of don’t have any idea of what to expect.
Alisa: What I will say is, even though I’ve been in this music industry professionally for a hot minute, with this project, I am beginning from the ground up. After wrapping my head around how costly touring is as an independent artist, I realize my set-up has to be small but mighty with one bandmate, Emily Moore, on bass and guitar. I’m fortunate to have friends who work in the live touring space; I don’t think playing live shows would have been possible without their help. I feel so lucky to be gifted their time and effort to help me figure out this part of my career. I’m excited to begin this live touring operation opening for one of my favourite bands. Who knows where things may go from here, but I’m looking forward to finding out.
Izzy: The venue you’re playing here, Johnny Brenda’s (my favorite venue in the city), is a 250-capacity bar room, which I feel like is smaller than anywhere The Naked and Famous would’ve played for quite a few years. How do you like playing these super intimate, sweaty spaces in particular?
Alisa: You are right about that, it’s not lost on me how special intimate shows are; The Naked and Famous seemed to have bypassed playing a lot of small venues in the US, we were busy cutting our teeth playing tiny venues in our home country of New Zealand. So, by the time we got to the US everything was scarier and bigger.
Izzy: Considering that it seems like it’s been a little while since you’ve done a lot of touring, what are some of your favorite things about touring in addition to performing itself?
Alisa: When there’s time, it’s nice to walk around in the small towns and cities, meeting people after shows and connecting over their stories with how they discovered my music or about how long they’ve been following my career. Connecting with actual people in real life versus behind my iPhone is refreshing.
Izzy: Finally, what’s next for you, after this batch of dates? How are you hoping and planning to spend the rest of 2025?
Alisa: 2024 was a hectic year for me, finishing this record and shooting visual content for various music videos and visualizers. Somewhere in there, I also got married and moved into a new house. I hope to keep growing in 2025; I dream of more songwriting and a full band lineup to play live shows.
*Get your tickets here.
