We have a tour and a 10-year anniversary edition of the debut that put Alex Lahey on the map coming our way.
Ten years ago, Alex Lahey did a triple j interview with Ryan Schreiber, the founder of Pitchfork, where he reviewed one of her songs live on air.
A daunting situation for any artist, let alone a brand new one, but luckily, that song was You Don’t Think You Like People Like Me, and Ryan, just as everyone else soon would learn, determined it was great.
That moment directly led to Pitchfork naming the tune as Best New Track, and Lahey winning triple j Unearthed with a slot at Splendour in the Grass, where she would meet Tegan & Sara and be invited to tour with them in the UK.
B-Grade University now has over 20 million streams, led to an ARIA Emerging Artist nomination and the APRA Josh Pyke Partnership Award. The ten-year career that has since followed sees Lahey still going strong, and in a position to reflect on the music that kicked off her impressive run.
Alex Lahey B-grade university reunion tour
- Thu 20 Aug – The Triffid, Brisbane
- Fri 21 Aug – Corner Hotel, Melbourne
- Sat 22 Aug – Manning Bar, Sydney
- Fri 28 Aug – The Rosemount Hotel, Perth
- Sat 29 Aug – Jive, Adelaide
- Tickets here
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“I feel like the biggest success to come from 10 years of doing this is being up for another 10,” mentions Lahey as we think back over everything she has achieved.
“Spending 10 years of really devoting your life and relying on the arts to keep you afloat is, I’ve learned, no mean feat. It comes with a lot of gifts and a lot of stories and a lot of experiences and fun. But it’s also really hard, and I love it.
“One of the biggest things I’ve learned in reaching this milestone is you kind of have to be a little bit crazy. And you also have to have a kind of an inherent appetite for risk.
“But the payoff can be enormous and in ways that you never anticipate.”
To celebrate a decade of hard work, Lahey is re-releasing B-Grade University with the Reunion Edition, which includes new re-recordings of songs, including You Don’t Think You Like People Like Me, which this time features Tegan & Sara.
“Never meet your heroes, unless they’re Tegan & Sara,” exclaims Lahey.
“They’ve become not just mentors, but also role models, in the way they go about their career, but also how they go about their lives and their relationships and their families. I think about 14-year-old me listening to The Con on the tram, and now I get on the tram, and I have a group message with Tegan & Sara, and it’s crazy.”
“There’s so much beauty in just not knowing stuff; sometimes knowing too much can be a real roadblock,”
Lahey mentions when reflecting on the process of revisiting the art of her younger self.
“Sometimes I think that knowing too much can actually make the editor louder. If I reflect on all of the songs on this record, pretty much five of five kind of just appeared and I just let it happen.
“Paul Kelly once told me the moment he finishes a song, he thinks that could be it. That’s the fear that you have at the end of making something. You sort of look at it, and you’re like, wow, I made this thing out of nothing, but then the next thought is like, fuck, what if that’s it?”
Luckily for Lahey, that wasn’t it, as three albums and another EP would follow her debut, and she enjoys a career that is still very much in growth mode.
It also now includes a podcast with former AFLW player and sports broadcaster Kate McCarthy, called Al, Kate & All Their Mates.
“I remember there’s a Buddhist quote that says something about success is more destabilising than failure, which I think is true. I’m proud that I’m still here and I’m more up for it than ever, but there’s the survival thing, that’s a whole other thing. You’re either up for it, or you’re not.”
Alex Lahey will be touring to support the 10-year anniversary EP re-release and will play The Corner on August 21st. Tickets are available now.
For more information, head here.
This article was made in partnership with Handshake Management.
