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Alex Nelson, the most successful Indie artist of 2013 is putting his Brogues on and hitting his first world tour called The Future Is The Past, after releasing his second album called Thank you Pepper. Alex has had two albums released including his new highly successful release and his first album which was surprisingly not as good as the audience expected; From Home. We met up wi th Alex to discuss his new tour and the reasons behind his unsuccessful album and why he believes his recent release has been so large. Soo Alex when does your tour start and what lovely city are you heading off to first? Alright dude, well Im staying in my home country England to kick it off, including the cities Manchester, home of my inspirers Oasis [said with a louder tone] then to Birmingham and London, with a few others after that. Then Im finally off abroad! Ill be flying to many cities all over Eu rope; including Paris, Barcelona, Rome and a few others on that. Ill also be attending my first venues across North America, Sout h America, Asia and Australia [putting on an Australian accent]. It is going to be so f**cking good. Anyway the first gig will be at st Manchester on June the 1 and the other UK gigs are every other day after that. You can check my blog for other dates though, so yeah. Sounds great, where did the name The Future Is The Past for your tour come from? Well, [laughs] its a bit silly and emotional really. But basically my mum past away last summer and she used to always bug me when I was a mid-teen about how I will decide my future. It basically was meaning what I was to do then would affect what I did now. So I decided it was my mum that got me to be the successful artist I am today by encouraging me to take Music and English Literature A-Levels during my teens and forced me to participate in poetry classes [laughs]. From this I thought I could dedicate the tour to her, thanking her for the support and kicking my ass to college every morning. Thats cool man, what happened to your first album? Why wasnt it as successful as your recent release Thank you Pepper? Arghhh, I knew this question would be coming! [laughs] Basically I was originally signed to a small record label called AS Studios in Camden, London. Camden is a small, rough town which is where I grew up, until I moved to a more wealthy area. But, anyway I really appreciated the support and advice that I received from M ick at AS Studios, dont get me wrong. But the company just didnt have the finance and promotion power to distribute my album in top branded stores or have it played on wide audience radio stations such as Radio 1 or XFM, so I wont lie that will have been the reason it wasnt as successful. When I left Camden, I managed to get some try out sessions at a more well-known record label in the centre of London Atlantic Records UK who had much more finance able to distribute my EPs after my album, further into the industry and now my 2013 success album Thank you Pepper. Thats great, what do you think is next after your world tour? This will surprise you! I would be fascinated to actually start a band or join a band, but thats only an idea. [laughs] Like, I used to hang around with the lads from The 1975; Matt, Ross, Adam and George and it was always good fun playing with them at small venues but unfortunately their record dealer didnt see my potential. I will for sure be taking a break after this world tour though; as it is going to be mental but a lot of hard work, dont worry though, whatever happens Ill be back in the studio producing some more records and albums for my fans. Nice, is there any artist you have seen recently and thought about approaching to record a single with? As it happens I have recently approached Lorde, the solo artist who recently gained Song of the Year & Best Pop Solo Performance Grammys this year for her record Royals. I think she is a highly talented girl who writes some very powerful and successful songs. It would be an absolute pleasure to work alongside her and I feel we could produce some impressive records. But at the moment thats all I can let you know about, but there may be more on the way, youll just have to wait and see. [laughs] Im sure that will be brilliant, what artists have you currently been listening to? Again I will be unpredictable for you as it is a completely different genre of music to my own, but I am currently been tuned in to the Hip-Hop duo Paradox which is a couple of youths named Khira & Drizzy J who are signed to the London records. Theyre still an upcoming group who have some amazing talent; their tunes include some heavy bass lines and incredible raps. Their headlining single is Reloaded which is an EP, which expresses the story of a young black child who gets shot while walking home from school. Its a seriously touching tune which honestly brings out the emotional side of me [laughs], so yeah give them a listen. Okay Alex, I hope your tour goes well, Im certain well be speaking to you again soon. Alright then Megan, cheers. Writter: Jack Green, Photographer: Chloe Rhodes