The Commonwealth Podcast features artists, entrepreneurs and athletes that are leading disruptive change. Host Nick Castner provided this episode recap to Silicon Prairie News. Listen on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, or Buzzsprout.
This week, Lex Allen, an up-and-coming non-binary Soul Pop singer/songwriter from Milwaukee, sat down with The Commonwealth to discuss the approach they take to cultivating a grassroots following.
Having grown up singing in church, Allen started releasing music in 2010. Since then, they’ve opened for Lizzo at Indy Pride Festival, sang the National Anthem for President Barack Obama and developed a grassroots following throughout the Midwest.
When asked how they cultivated their audience, Allen replied, “Just being present. Like anything, you just have to show up.”
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“It’s really about making every experience, big or small. Every interaction matters. I don’t give a damn if there are ten people in a room and they are listening. Those ten people, maybe five out of those ten, seven out of those ten, are going to talk about you to their friends. They’ll be like ‘I’m going to follow this person on Instagram.’ There’s this cycle that occurs that’s been working for me for the past three years that I’ve been able to build this really great following on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.”
Allen went on to relate this experience-driven approach to monetization, “You can have a million plays on Spotify, but no one is coming to your shows. I feel like that’s a telltale sign of authenticity. You don’t want people to just like a song. They should like you as a person.”
This authenticity has allowed Allen to garner a broad fanbase. “I have people on all sides (as fans). Democrats, Republicans, Gays, straight, black, white, older. My demographic is people 18-to-65 years old. It’s expansive. It’s because people see me. They don’t see anything else.”
Lex Allen recently released a music video for their song Let Go and has an upcoming album release in February.
