Alexander James Rodriguez has been scooping up awards and racking up more than 3.5 million streams since launching his music career in 2020. So far the teenager has received the Hollywood Music in Media Awards ‘Rising Star Award’ for his debut single ‘My Crew,’ the 2021 Los Angeles Live Fest ‘Audience Choice Award’ for his single ‘Cherry Bomb’ and in 2022, his 80’s synth-pop single, ‘Mister Fahrenheit’ exceeded 1 million views in its first month of release and was nominated for ‘Best Music Video’ at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards.

The British-born recording artist consistently releases impactful clean pop tunes, and ‘Euphoria’ is his latest catchy dance pop smash which entered the US Top40 Hot 100 Chart at number 88. 

We got to chat to Alexander about feeling ‘Euphoria’ with his new single, juggling school in Los Angeles and what’s coming up next for the 15-year-old.

Congrats Alexander, your new single ‘Euphoria’, has entered the Top40 Hot 100 Chart at #88 and is climbing, how does it feel knowing your hard work is being noticed?

Thank you so much! When I start making a record I just go with the flow, hope it’s the best version it can be and I don’t expect it to automatically make radio play, but I secretly hope it does, if that makes sense. So far, I have released 18 singles, and although my song ‘Alright’ last year climbed the indie charts, ‘Euphoria’ seems to be taking off next level, so it feels pretty euphoric! 

How did ‘Euphoria’, come about, and what was the vision for it? 

When I first start a new song, the first thing I do is decide on the tempo. With ‘Euphoria’ I always wanted it to be more dance driven so selected a 124bpm. I don’t want to get too technical, but I actually create beats all the time using one of my digital audio workstations like Cakewalk or GarageBand. Not all of them make it into an actual song, but I often pull elements and then develop the idea in Pro Tools with my producer Gemini. With ‘Euphoria’ we kicked off with the baseline, drums and then we started selecting chords, synthesizer sounds. 

Once we have a beat to write on, we just start playing around with melody ideas. There was no clear vision … we just go with the flow of what the beat feels to us. The first written was the “Do Ya’s” in the chorus, which is kind of funny to start there, and it just developed. The last thing we ever write are the verses. Only once we have the pre-chorus and the chorus to we match the verses, and finally the bridge (middle eight). I also wanted vocal chops, and stacked harmonies so those were incorporated towards the very end. 

The whole song was written by myself, my mom (who writes on all of my songs) and Stephen ‘Bud’da’ Anderson. Bud’da has written for Ice Cube, Dr. Dre. Aaliyah and now he composes sound tracks for hit TV shows and movies. He was instrumental in the formulation of the song. 

For this particular record we brought in mega-mixer Ken Lewis. Ken is a genius mixer who has worked on multiple BTS smash hits, Usher, Alicia Keys, and Justin Bieber to name a few, and then the song was stem mastered by AJM Mastering out of Madrid, Spain.

The previous release ‘Circles In My Mind’, was more of a downbeat, chilled track. What made you want to up the tempo for this release? 

I tend to only release upbeat songs, and certainly all the new ones coming through are dance records, but what is interesting about ‘Circles In My Mind’ was that it had been shelved for over a year. The original beat for the song from Abir Mizrahi had been circling since mid-2021 but was never fully written. There was a clear chorus, but I wasn’t ready to record a ballad. It wasn’t until my grandfather passed away in England at the end of May 2022, that the song truly had meaning for me. The whole song was written by my mom, and produced by Gemini and I. 

Although the song was written with my grandad in mind, it was spun as an emotional story of young love that suddenly fades, leaving questions to be answered. There is nothing to suggest anything went wrong, but the seasons changed, and one is left behind pondering and ultimately lost. We closed out 2022 with ‘Circles In My Mind’ and it felt appropriate. It is a very special song for me. 

How are you balancing your school and your music life? 

With great difficulty!! I am in 10th grade at Notre High School in Los Angeles, on the swim team, in choir and an Honors student, so I have a lot of homework, essays, projects – it is regular school and grueling. I am taking AP History this May, it is a year early and I am not excited about it. I have vocal lessons between homework and record songs on the weekends. When I catch a moment of nothingness, I sit and chill out with my keyboard and love to create new songs and beats. 

I am trying hard to keep up with it all. Literally every minute counts in my day. I look forward to school holidays and random days off to catch my breath!

You recently performed at the GRAMMY Teen Concert at famed Avalon in Hollywood, what was it like performing at such a high scale event?

One word… incredible! It has always been a dream to perform at the Avalon in Hollywood and I was finally able to sing two of my songs, Mister Fahrenheit and Euphoria made its debut. The stage was a massive 40ft x 24ft, fully equipped with the best sound system. It was just me up there, no dancers or gimmicks and I loved every second of it! 

We understand you recently performed in New York for the first time, how was that?

Yes! For the first-time ever I performed in New York City. What a rush! I was invited to kick off KidzCon in Brooklyn, and chose ‘Mesmerized’, ‘Mister Fahrenheit’ and ‘Euphoria.’ It was so nice to see fans from the New York area and meet new ones. It was a jampacked day. After my performance, and meet and greet, we had a photoshoot booked in Brooklyn Heights and the Brooklyn Bridge. I have never been to Brooklyn or walked the bridge, so it was really cool to have that opportunity. 

What is next for you now ‘Euphoria’, has been released? 

While ‘Euphoria’ continues to climb the charts, we are releasing the UK House remixes of ‘Euphoria’ by LiMiT3R at the end of March. If you listen to Kiss FM UK at the weekends, you may catch their remix! 

Other than that, I am finishing up a new song called ‘Hold On Me.’ I have a new beat to write on called, for now, ‘Ride or Die’ – that may not be the end title, it’s just an idea. I am also booked to film a new movie called ‘The Skulleton’ with Bruce Dern during the Easter Holidays. Somewhere around June I hope to be back home in London.  

Watch Alexander James Rodriguez perform ‘Euphoria’ here 

Follow his journey on Instagram