Alexis Fox is a genre-busting songwriter and singer. She draws on many sources of music, some going back to the 1930’s, to create cutting edge songs with clever, developed lyrics that speak to the joys, confusions, sorrows and sexuality of young women today. She lives in New York City, where she performs at downtown clubs. She is about to launch her first release. Early Life Alexis was raised surrounded by music and writing. She was born in Miami to a Cuban mother and a Colombian father. Her father was a foreign correspondent for The New York Times in Buenos Aires at the time and her mother was an independent filmmaker. Her mother went to Miami to be close to her own family, all refugees from Havana, for the birth. Alexis’s father was later transferred to Madrid, where Alexis, fully bilingual in English and Spanish, entered primary school and began her many years of studying piano. Her mother, meanwhile, with two Spanish partners started the celebrated indie label, Grabaciones Accidentales. It morphed into DRO and was an international leader of the emerging Rock en Español movement. Warner Music acquired DRO, and the family moved to New York when Alexis was 11. Her father joined The Wall Street Journal, where he was founding editor of its Latin American editions. Her mother joined Warner as head of artist development and marketing for Latin America and the US Hispanic market. As an adolescent and teenager, Alexis previewed demos and albums with her mother, tagged along for concerts, attended festivals and hung out backstage, absorbing what there was to learn from the musicians. After graduating from the demanding Brearley School in New York, she went to Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. A year later, 18 years old and restless, she dropped out, however, and moved on her own back to Spain. After a year of working there, she enrolled in the London School of Economic and graduated three years later with a degree in philosophy. Career Alexis effectively began her career during that drop out year in Spain. She managed a rock band, Pop Sonic, in the gritty industrial seaport of Bilbao. Sharing a walk-up with three of the Colombian-born band members, she booked gigs around town, got them on local radio and lugged their instruments. Unsuccessful, the group broke up nearly six months later and Alexis landed a temporary job at the Rock in Rio music festival in Brazil. It was there that she decided that she could write her own songs and that she had things she wanted to say. She returned to Madrid, where she lived by herself in a women’s residencia and worked as an office assistant at Warner Music, plotting her career. She applied to study in London because of the music scene there. Before moving, she spent the summer in Switzerland working at the Montreaux Jazz Festival, giving her direct exposure to some of the greatest jazz, electronic, hip hop, pop and world music musicians. Alexis was a mixed student at the LSE, Mick Jagger’s alma mater. She shined in courses that inspired her, squeaked by in those she was indifferent about. But all the while she was writing songs and going to local clubs to listen to other musicians and share ideas. Alexis primarily considered herself a songwriter until one summer back in New York, a family friend, Andrés Levin, head of the tropical funk group Yerba Buena and producer of musicians such as Miguel Bose, Arto Lindsey and Carlihnos Brown, liked her lyrics and offered to record a couple of demos. The singing bug bit. Family helped nurture her musical knowledge, but Alexis was determined to find her voice on her own. She stayed in London after graduation and worked as a researcher for a writer of popular celebrity biographies. She kept her relationship to her mother secret. Through BMI, she met Richard Nile, producer of Ray Charles, Paul McCartney, Tina Turner among many. Impressed with her lyrics and melodies, he recorded an experimental album of her songs with her. At the end of their collaboration and after having spent five years in London, Alexis decided it was time to return to New York. Keeping her relationship to her mother secret, she met producer and arranger Gary Schreiner through bass player Mike Visceglia. The two immediately understood each other musically and formed a partnership, with Alexis writing the lyrics and melodies and Gary arranging and producing the music. Her mother became her manager, but only Gary knew the two were related. Gary put together a band and they began playing downtown clubs. Russ Titelman, producer of Eric Clapton, Cindi Lauper, James Taylor, George Harrison and others, attended their second show at the Rockwood. He fell for the songs and for the charismatic artist-in-making on the stage. Russ signed Alexis to a production deal. As executive producer, he worked with Alexis and Gary and helped enlist top New York musicians like the Pizzarelli Trio. The album “To Have and Want More” was born. Alexis sings with a full and confident voice that sounds like no one else. She is sassy in some places, sultry in others, and weary, introspective or defiant in still more. Her lyrics are evocative and compelling. They are filled with strongly etched character and mini-stories laced with irony, humor or wrenching honesty. Her music is informed by genres ranging from hip hop to blues to jazz to country to urban double-dutch rhythms, all seamlessly integrated with Russ and Gary into a cutting edge pop sensibility that is interesting and fun. “To Have and Want More” takes pop into a new frontier. Alexis is currently working on the launch of the album. She is recording new material with Gary.