“Alex Hulme is a fine songwriter with great potential, he has a great sense of POP and can always churn out a really catchy melody with very emotive lyrics” Eddie Lundon: China Crisis & Music Lecturer.

During the past two years Alex Hulme has been gathering fans by the bucketload all over his native North West. Still only 19, he has impressed audiences, signed to Cityscape and begun his degree inmusic at Sir Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA) beating 6000 applicants to win one of fewer than 40 places.

Originally from Garstang in Lancashire but now living in Liverpool, Alex took up the guitar at the age of seven, started performing live at 13 before really upping the ante in the past two years. The younger of two brothers, Alex has grown up with music. His grandfather was an opera singer, his older brother Laurie is in Manchester band Beat the Radar (signed to Akoustik Anarkhy) and his cousin Ed is in fellow Manchester band Working for a Nuclear Free City (signed to Melodic).

Alex’s first EP, The Wood, showcases his organic, earthy pop characterised by an unusual, intricate picking style on the guitar with many odd tunings and a powerful vocal. Much of Alex’s music features multilayered live looping of both his guitar and vocal to create a unique sound rich in harmony.

When asked about the songs on The Wood, Alex described the lead track as, “A song of defiance against people trying to knock me down, the ups and downs of life and how you never forget the view from the top.” Keep Chasing is, “About following dreams. The inspiration came from a friend who had given up on hers because it was too hard but you can only make your dreams a reality if you keep chasing.”

“The third track, Drifting, is about my grandma who passed away last year due to dementia and about how we watched her forget everything she had known in the years before she died.”

Musical influences abound in Alex’s individual mix of indie-pop and underground acoustic folk with Foy Vance, Fionn Regan and Nick Drake all cited. Produced by Merchandise/Cityscape’s Brad B Wood, The Wood features a number of subtle electronic additions and strange percussion accompaniments which bring out Alex’s vision of modern, earthy pop.

Alex’s prolific live outings have recently seen him perform at Liverpool Sound City, Sound Control in Manchester and The Octagon Theatre in Bolton with gigs booked at Tommyfest (Blackpool), Silverdale Concert for Haiti and Garstang Summer Acoustic Festival among an ever growing list which will see Alex soon stretch his legs outside the North West.

Alex’s journey is just beginning, join him and Cityscape for the ride and let’s see where we get to.