With her latest EP, Cordially Invited, the Bristol-born, Brighton-based singer-songwriter Alina opens the door to listeners, both old and new, to step into her world where indie pop melodies, pop-rock rhythms and soulful introspection are brought together in beautiful synergy. Her songwriting, which has been honed over years of quietly perfecting her craft and performing her creations on stage, seems completely enmeshed with Alina‘s life experience. Across these five EP tracks, her colourful, complicated and occasionally chaotic perspective comes into full view. She gallantly explores themes of self-worth, toxic behaviour, forbidden love and the uncertainties of long-distance relationships, all with her honest and sometimes tongue-in-cheek lyricism. Songs like title-track ‘Cordially Invited’, became fan favourites in the live show circuit with Alina‘s audiences in Bristol, Brighton and Amsterdam and now she’s giving us all a chance to connect with her cathartic storytelling. For On The Record, we caught up with the brilliant songwriter to ask about taking the Cordially Invited EP from the stage to the studio, the stories behind her songs and what comes next as she turns her attention to her debut album.
Welcome to Unrecorded! For those who aren’t already familiar with Alina, can you introduce yourself?
Hello! I’m Alina, an artist from Bristol and now living in Brighton. I grew up around musical theatre and female pop music, and that’s hugely influenced the songwriter I’ve become in the last 10 years. I write songs about the colourful and sometimes devastating, sometimes funny experiences of my life so far. I try to write with honesty and playfulness, letting my evergreen personality seep through each lyric.
Congratulations on the release of your EP! How would you describe Cordially Invited in three words?
Thank you so much! I would describe ‘Cordially Invited’ as honest, cheeky and eclectic.
You’ve been performing these songs for years, so what made this feel like the right time to finally release them?
I felt that these songs had been received by audiences so well across the UK and The Netherlands that I needed to shake off any anxieties about repercussions of song topics and just get them out there. I’ve done a lot of letting go this year, and these 5 tracks sort of felt like the last things I had to let go of.
How did the songs evolve by their time on stage? And did they also change through the recording process?
These songs evolved quite a lot throughout their time since they were initially written, but most of these changes happened in the first few open mics that got to hear them. I’m lucky enough to surround myself with very talented people, so often someone will jump on. Bass guitar or a cajon at an open mic and that helps to give me an idea of the direction in which a song should go. Once a song has been performed a few times, I get a good idea of anything that needs changing, and it’s easier to build other instrumentation around it once I’m familiar with it inside and out. The tracks were always going to have a pop-rock feel to them, and were always going to have pretty raw vocals to accompany that.
Leading tracks ‘Cordially Invited’ and ‘(I’m) Good Enough For Me’ stand up to other’s toxic behaviour and draw clear barriers around your own peace. Has songwriting been an essential tool in your self-worth journey?
It’s been absolutely essential. Sometimes it feels impossible to deal with not only a situation but also the emotion that situation confronts in myself, and the only way I can get it out is by free writing absolute garbage until it becomes poetic and eventually evolves into a song. Nobody is more self-critical than a songwriter, but using the songs themselves to tackle that is always a fun and interesting experiment – I’m lucky it’s so often paid off.
Your audiences really seem to resonate with ‘Cordially Invited’ who shout closing lyric “shut the fuck up” along with you. What’s it like to hear people joining in with you?
It’s the best feeling in the whole world, truly. Having an audience that already knows your lyrics is the biggest compliment ever, but teaching a new audience a part and having them trust you enough that they actually join in at the end – magic.
A hidden element of your tracks is different geographical locations, whether that’s Amsterdam in ‘Bad Decisions’ or Wales in ‘I Think…’, so how important is place in your songwriting?
The songs on the EP were written in a few different places, mostly Amsterdam as I lived there for my early twenties. Place is a funny thing, sometimes it feels unimportant where a song was written but sometimes it’s hugely relevant to the story. For example, I Think…’ was written in Amsterdam from the empty house in which I waited for my lover to return, but it was recorded in Wales, somewhere that had no sentimentality to that relationship. I feel this allowed me to express my emotions in a much bigger way when recording because I was further from the reality of the song, and therefore I could breathe the pain in a different way. ‘Bad Decisions’ I’d thought about writing in Bristol, but couldn’t get the words out until I’d moved countries.
Why did you choose the acoustic anthem ‘Horribly Right’ as the EP’s closer?
I’m not sure if ‘acoustic’ would be how I’d describe it but it’s certainly less pop-rock than the start of the record. I feel ‘Horribly Right’ is a perfect closer! I’ve played it at gigs before and it’s always in the last few songs when I want the crowd on their feet, dancing and singing along. The energy of the song has a dip in the bridge but I didn’t want to discredit the lyricism and the theme by keeping it upbeat the whole time, and it makes the final chorus stand out far more in my opinion. The track has a levity that follows perfectly after the stripped back ‘I Think…’ and ends on such a great crescendo.
What else do you hope listeners will take away from Cordially Invited?
I hope that people take away, firstly, how much fun it can be to spill your own secrets! And secondly, how important it is to stand by yourself in every situation. I think the over-arching theme of the record is the fact that I have experienced a myriad of nightmares in my life (only a few displayed on the EP) and the consistency through them all has been being there for myself. Whether it’s blind optimism from ‘Horribly Right’ or rising above from ‘(I’m) Good Enough For Me’, I hope that listeners put themselves first more, no matter what’s thrown at them.
Following the release of this EP, what’s next on the horizon for you?
I recently got back from a trip to America where I recorded a lot of new music in LA and played some shows in Seattle, Nashville and New York! Truthfully, I’m working on a debut album at the moment! That might mean I take a bit of time off from releasing, but by doing this it means I’ll be able to fully focus creatively, honing in on what Alina means to a project this size. I’m super excited to play Cordially Invited at gigs, interspersing new songs, and can’t wait to see what writing this project brings out.
You can also find title-track ‘Cordially Invited’ in our Shades of Pop playlist.
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