It’s now six years later and that guitar is bandaged in sellotape and covered with nicks and dents – and Alex, now 22, has released two full-length albums and two EPs on the independent label DFTBA Records, selling over ten thousand copies of his music physically and digitally. Alex has attracted over thirty million views to his YouTube page ‘nerimon’, gaining over two hundred and forty thousand individual subscribers who are updated every time he puts out something new. “Holding On”, the debut single from his first album “Parrot Stories”, gained over 250,000 views in its first week online, as well as earning a feature on the worldwide homepage of YouTube. From his EP “117% Complete”, Alex released a video for “Pokémon What Happened To You”, which is his most successful video to date with 1.1 million views worldwide. The three songs on the video-game-inspired EP sold 5,000 copies in its first month on iTunes. Alex has harnessed his online fanbase as a force for good; in September 2009, he embarked on a ten-week project to crowdsource a song using the online community and enter it into the charts, giving all the proceeds to Children In Need. Alex also directed the music video for the finished release – “I’ve Got Nothing” – which was played on MTV. The song peaked at #36 in the UK Singles Chart and landed straight at #1 on the UK Indie Chart, with no radio airplay, physical distribution or label support of any kind. The BBC aired a documentary on BBC2 chronicling the project, which was titled “Chartjackers”. Alex has also worked with other YouTube musicians; with Charlie McDonnell he formed Chameleon Circuit, a band focused on songs about the TV show Doctor Who, whose self-titled debut album sold a thousand copies in its first week. Charlie and Alex also joined forces with Tom Milsom and Eddplant to form Sons Of Admirals, who’s first single “Here Comes My Baby” will be released under a licensing deal with Universal Records on October 25th. Alex cites Green Day, Lady Gaga and The Beatles as his influences. He continues to write music while promoting his existing releases on YouTube. |
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