American singer Alex Warren has spoken openly about his traumatic past, family loss, and new music following the release of his album Wildchild in an interview with broadcaster CBS.
The musician explained that rather than seeing a therapist, he uses songwriting as a personal outlet to process his life experiences and emotions.
Warren, an American singer-songwriter and social media personality, rose to global prominence with emotional pop tracks exploring grief and personal relationships. CBS is a major commercial television and radio network in the United States.
Creation of Hit Songs
Warren discussed the success of his breakthrough single Ordinary, stating that having a track reach such a massive scale relieved the pressure to manufacture hits. He explained that he now focuses exclusively on writing quality songs that authentically describe a feeling.
He revealed that he has worked alongside the exact same musical team for five years and has no intention of changing them. Their creative process involves gathering in the studio, where Warren shares ongoing events from his life while team members play piano or guitar in the background and sing back their conversations to build new tracks. That collaborative approach led to the creation of hit songs including Ordinary and Carry You Home.
Childhood Loss and First Song
The singer explained that he has viewed his songs as the soundtrack to his life since the age of 14, when he first attempted to write music. His father had died five years earlier, when Warren was nine years old, an event he did not fully comprehend at the time.
Reality struck Warren at age 13 or 14 when he watched his younger sister attend a father-daughter dance without their dad. Seeing her go alone made him realize how vastly different his life was compared to his schoolmates, while also confronting the reality of having an absent mother who suffered from alcoholism.
Driven by a desperate desire to say one more I love you to his late father, Warren wrote his very first song at age 15, titled One More I Love You. While his family had held home music competitions during his father's lifetime, his mother banned all music in the household after his father died. Writing that initial track provided Warren with the confidence needed to pursue a career in music.
Father's Legacy and Letters
Warren stated that he does not believe he will ever stop grieving his parents, noting that a unique connection exists between love and loss. He added that music has helped him find the words to express his grief, admitting that he still searches for his parents in the audience at every concert despite knowing they will not appear.
Reflecting on future fatherhood, Warren shared that holding his own child in the future will break his heart, as he will finally understand what his father felt holding him while aware that his illness was terminal. His father recorded numerous home videos during Warren's early childhood, starting with enthusiastic recordings that visibly faded around 2005 as his illness progressed. Warren remarked that he sometimes feels his father was speaking directly to his future self through those tapes.
Before his death, Warren's father left individual letters for Alex, his brother, and his two sisters. Warren revealed that he only summoned the courage to open his letter a few months ago. He described his father's passing as both the worst and best event of his life, calling it the worst because of the profound pain, but the best because it compels him to act with kindness and compassion while honoring his father's teachings.
Relationship With His Mother
Addressing his mother's struggle with alcoholism and the subsequent abuse suffered by her children, Warren explained that he wrote the song First Time On Earth to process their relationship. He stated that he came to understand it was also her first time living on Earth.
He noted that his mother was forced to raise four children alone while watching the love of her life die, leading him to conclude that he cannot judge her. Though he acknowledged holding lingering resentment, Warren stated that he recognizes she was ill and unable to cope with life without his father.
