Alex Chapman gave up the 9 to 5 shift for life as a singer, abandoning a career as a businessman for the Nottingham gig circuit. Part Italian (notably from the fringe backwards) he grew up in Oxfordshire and did a business degree at Middlesex University, spending time living in Germany and Italy before returning to England.
Living in the Meadows and now in the third year of his ambitious five year plan for global domination, I met up with singer-songwriter prior to his weekly Tuesday slot in Synergy, Hockley. Turning up a nearly fashionable five minutes late with the inspired excuse that he was engaged in a bidding war for a Taylor guitar on E-bay, he is engaging and friendly, with aristocratic cheekbones and a knuckle busting handshake.
Who would you compare your sound to?
"I always find that the hardest question to answer, so I really have to go by what other people tell me. Some people say I sound like James Taylor, but I don't know that comparisons are always useful."
Who inspired you to pick up your guitar and play?
"I suppose playing the guitar and performing has been part of my life. My first gig was at the age of eight at a party, but I properly started gigging at thirteen and fourteen and for a few years I went round with my dad. I was always the one harmonising, I think I've got a natural instinct for harmony.
Anyway, I had really good prospects. I mean, I had a decent degree and everything, but at the end of the day I didn't enjoy life on a campus full of lawyers and accountants, and I always felt that the people doing music were having much more fun. I'd toyed with the idea of dropping everything and trying my luck as a singer - I mean every kid wants to be a rock star - so at the age of 28 I just decided to get out of my the 9-5 shift and see if I could make a career doing something I loved."
How's that working out for you? It must be tight financially.
"It's not too bad. The work isn't always reliable and has it's ups and downs, but life is quite comfortable and I was growing fond of the Meadows until I got mugged not long ago. When I started professionally I drew up a five year plan to success. This is the year that I write my million selling first album."
And how's writing going?
"I'm not a prolific writer to be honest, and I've only really had the courage to play my own material here once. I get quite uncomfortable playing my own material to people in general, so maybe I wasn't born a writer. But I do have many ideas written down at home of things I want to say. It's just a question of stringing something together to make a coherent song. I've recorded an album of covers and as an experiment (indeed his version of Here Comes The Sun is playing in the background) and I've got my own recording studio at home."
What about the Nottingham scene?
"Well that's really the reason I turned up here. I was really impressed by the city every time I came to visit my sister here. However, I do find many people in the local scene quite cliquey and protective, and there's a great deal of fakeness going on there to, and I don't really do sycophancy and feigned smiles and all that. That said, I managed to organise a Christmas get together with some people in my line of work who play clubs and bars, and I've gained quite a few friends through that. It's a bit more of a network now."
Perhaps Alex's greatest asset is his ability to engage with his audience; his Challenge Chapman leaflets, whereby he asks his audience to write down what they would like to hear in future, are strewn across the bar before a performance. Although inevitably inviting silly suggestions (I must confess to requesting a cover of Smack my Bitch Up), Alex arranges thoughtful and original versions of these songs, with a powerful voice and adept guitar playing.
I must confess, given the option of an evening in a club with blistering ear-assaulting anthems or the option of a personable human jukebox, willing to perform the more esoteric material of Simon & Garfunkel upon request, I would invariably choose the latter.
Alex performs every Tuesday night from 10pm at Synergy.
