Alex Boyé: Singer, Artist, Youtube Celebrity

Alex Boyé is a powerhouse vocalist, artist, and actor. He started his musical career in London as the lead singer for the European boyband, Awesome. Awesome signed to Universal Records Europe and released three singles from their debut album Rumors, which made the Top Ten on various pop charts throughout Europe. Selling over half a million CDs, they performed shows alongside numerous superstars, including Bryan Adams, The Backstreet Boys, George Michael, Simon and Garfunkel and MC Hammer.

Since moving to the States, he has been a soloist with the prestigious Mormon Tabernacle Choir and appeared on America's Got Talent to rave reviews. Alex is perhaps best known for his Africanized covers of modern pop songs – first appearing with The Piano Guys in their rendition of Coldplay's "Paradise" – and his massively popular music videos have garnered over a billion views on Youtube! In 2015 he won Youtube's "Cover Song of the Year" award for his rendition of Frozen's Let it Go.

Episode Highlights

Prepare to be inspired. This week, we're privileged to host Alex Boyé, a prodigious talent in the music world with an awe-inspiring journey. From dancing in a boy band to gracing the stage as a soloist with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and his transformative stint on America's Got Talent, Boyé's story is one of grit, resilience, and an unyielding belief in his own potential. We delve deeper into his captivating journey, the art of his craft, and the calculated strategies he employs to stay relevant in the fiercely competitive music industry.

Boyé's genius extends beyond his ability to produce stellar music; his acumen to monetize his passion via his YouTube channel is equally fascinating. With a pinpoint precision strategy, he gives an intriguing glimpse into his unique approach of interpreting and creating versions of Billboard Top 10 songs. The trick, as he reveals, lies in playing with algorithms, search engines, and a knack for identifying yet-to-be-charted songs.

In a world where negativity often reigns supreme, Boyer stands as a beacon of positivity and support. His philosophy of fostering a positive attitude online is a refreshing take on how we can use digital platforms to uplift each other. Whether you're a music enthusiast, an aspiring artist, or simply someone in search of inspiration, this conversation with Alex Boyé is a gold mine. It's not just about the music; it's about the power of passion, resilience, and the courage to dream. Join us for this enlightening conversation and experience the world of music through the eyes of a true industry trailblazer.

In this episode, we cover a lot of ground including:

• How being a backup dancer for George Michael at the MTV European Awards influenced the decision to become a singer

• What it was like being in a boy band, and the challenges of practicing your faith as a pop star

• The value of professional songwriters, and the importance of having that Hit Song

• The America’s Got Talent experience, and winging it through the auditions

• How an opportunity with The Piano Guys kickstarted the Africanized pop songs style

• The importance of perseverance and attitude

• The Magic Formula for a successful Youtube channel

• Collaborations with Marie Osmond, future plans for trying Africanized country songs in Nashville, and SO much more!

Listen

Read the Complete Transcript

Shane

Hello, everyone! Welcome to the official Live2cre8 podcast, coming to you from Nashville, Tennessee. I am your host, Shane Almgren, and I am joined today from Salt Lake City, Utah, by singer, artist, and actor, Alex Boye. Born to Nigerian parents in Great Britain, Alex started his musical career in London with the European boy band Awesome. Since moving to the States, he has been a soloist with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and appeared on America's Got Talent to rave reviews. Alex is perhaps best known for his Africanized covers of modern pop songs, and his popular music videos have garnered over 300 million views on YouTube. In 2014, he won YouTube's Cover Song of the Year award for his rendition of Frozen's “Let it Go.”

Alex, thank you so much for joining me today. It's a pleasure to have you on the show.

Alex Boye

Hey, it's good to be around. I really appreciate it.

Shane

What are you working on these days? What are you up to at the moment?

Alex Boye

Well, right now, I'm just finishing up an album of Africanized. Basically, it's just pop music with an African twist. So I take a lot of the top pop songs, and I put, like, an African flavor on them. So it could be a Taylor Swift song. It could be a Jay-Z song. It could be a Justin Bieber song. It could be whatever—you know, whatever is hot right now. And yeah, I've been doing that for a couple of years, and it's just been really—it’s gone down really, really well.

Shane

Is this what you've been doing from the start of your music career, or is this sort of a late development?

Alex Boye

Yeah, oh yeah, this is a late development, you know. I mean, I started off as a dancer in, like, you know, in the ‘90s. I started as a dancer. I love dancing a lot, and then I think around, like, ‘95, ‘96, I got together with—I went down to a nightclub with a whole bunch of my boys. We were just hanging out and everything, and this guy approached us, and he said, “Hey, would you be interested in joining up with our dance agency?” And this was in London—when I was living in London—and I said, “Well, sure,” you know. We didn't take much—we didn’t take it seriously. We got his card in there. Anyway, he called us, and he said, “Hey, I've just got you your first gig in Italy.” We're like, “What?”

Yeah, here was a bunch of teenagers—there were ten of us—sent us off to Italy, and we performed at this nightclub. It's this, like, white building at the top of a mountain. It was the craziest thing. It’s southern Italy—Rimini—and we had a blast. And I remember, you know, we were always broke and, you know, just always trying to find something to do, some kind of hustle. And we were just like, “This is cool. This is cool.” And then things just kind of started going for us, you know, at least for me anyway, in terms of I knew what I wanted to do then.

Shane

You guys went, and you did your first gig in Italy. How did that go?

Alex Boye

It was great. It was great. I mean, you know, everybody was stoned and drunk, and nobody really probably paid any attention to us. But we just had fun, and we had a free trip to another country that we had never been to before, and we got the bug, you know, at least I definitely did. So I had a lot of fun. It was great. It was the first time I realized that you could actually get paid to do something that you love.

Shane

And how long were you dancing before you transitioned to singing? I'm going to make you tell the story about how that actually happened. I enjoyed that quite a bit.

Alex Boye

Yeah. So we did a lot of the dancing, and it was, you know—it was very few and far between. We’d probably get like one gig, like, every six months or something like that every year. But I remember we landed this awesome gig. It was for the MTV European Awards. This was in 1997, and it was in London. I remember it was a surprise. We didn't know who we were dancing for yet, and finally it was announced and everything. And I remember we turned up at the rehearsal, which was actually on the day, and I remember George Michael turned up on stage, and we found out that he was who we were dancing for.

And I remember we had been practicing and rehearsing for, like, 12 hours. George Michael turns up, and I think he did, like, 20 minutes, and then he left. And I remember thinking, “Guys, we're in the wrong business, man. Let's get it. I need to be a singer because he's at the front. He's getting paid way more than we are, and he's doing a lot less hours.” So anyway, I said, ‘”We're going to start a boy band. Yeah, we're going to start a boy band.” And the guys were like, “Okay, that sounds great, but here’s one thing: We can't sing,” and I was like, “Don't worry about it. I'll take care of that.” And so I kind of thought about it, and I was being taught how to sing, not from like a vocal tutor, but just from, like, a friend of mine who was a really amazing singer.

And so, anyway, we started putting some music together in, like, kind of just a little eight-track studio that we stumbled upon. Actually, it was a—I won this contest. It was a radio contest, and the winner got, like, some recording studio time. So I could go in any time and record in this little eight-track—it was just this little, small room, you know, with an eight-track and just, like, a beat-up microphone, but we made the most of it. We ended up kind of just choreographing and orchestrating this thing where we were a boy band now and I was, like, the lead singer.

And then we started traveling all over with this radio station in London. We started hitting all the nightclubs and just doing that whole thing. We weren't making any money, we were always broke, we were always starving and hungry, but we got out there, and we were performing at these radio stations. After a few years of doing this, we started seeing all these—we're performing with all these major acts that were coming in from the US, you know, whether it was Backstreet Boys. We opened up for Jay-Z one time—this was in ‘97 in Germany, you know—Missy Elliott, all these acts, and half of them we didn't really know who they were either, you know. They just barely just kind of started out in Europe or in England.

And so, anyway, we got to the point where we were just like—some guy who always saw us on the radio station every time, all the tours—he finally said, “So what label were you guys with?” We're like, “We’re not signed to a label.” He was like, “What? How the heck did you get on this tour?” We're like, “We don’t know.” [Laughs]. So eventually, he was like, “We got to do something about this.” He hooked us up with a buddy of his.

Two months later, we ended up at Universal Records, signed to Universal Records UK, and it was amazing. And then I remember we were—we put out a couple of singles with Universal. Both of them flopped, didn't do very well, and we got dropped. [Laughs]. But we had a great time, great experience, touring all over the place. We learned a lot.

And then we were kind of really, really depressed, and our then manager called us up, and he said, “Hey, are you sitting down?” We're like, “What?” He said, “You’ve just been offered a deal by a German record label.” We're like, “Really,” you know, because we were into girls and stuff like that. And we're like, “A German record label. Seriously, are we going to be hanging out with girls who are like shot putters and stuff like that?” [Laughs]. We had no idea. We'd never been to Germany before. We're like, “Just see it out, and let’s go to Germany. Let’s go meet with them.” We turned up in Germany, and there was, I kid you not, I think that there must have been about two, three thousand people at the airport waiting for us—girls with, like, little sticks with our heads on it, and they were cute, they were fun. We were like, “Wait a minute,” like, our whole perception of Germany totally just changed in that one exchange—some of the most beautiful girls. We were like, “Oh, my gosh. We can get into this.”

So we were signed to this label for about three, four years—no, actually five, six years. We traveled all over Europe. We had one hit, which was called “Rumors.” It was a cover of an old Timex Social Club song called “Rumors,” and we did like a hip-hop version of it. We milked that song for like four, five, six years, touring all over. You know, we got like hits in—top-10 hits in about 15 European countries, and we just had an incredible time. We had a blast, you know.

But we just couldn't get over—we just couldn't get past that one song. You know, we tried to get more songs, but we just couldn't. And we realized—I look back now, and this is, like, you know, 20-odd years ago, and I realize that one of our biggest mistakes is that we were milking that one song forever because we thought that that song was going to live forever. And then, when the song is out of the charts, it's like you're struggling, and you just, you know—we had all these opportunities. We kept turning them down, and I just realized that it wasn't really about us; it was about the song.

Shane

Were you guys writing everything yourself, or did you have accomplished co-writers?

Alex Boye

Yeah. Yeah. I wrote a whole bunch of stuff myself. We had a couple of songwriters, but we weren't really big into finding the big songwriters who are having hits right now, and we could have because we had great connections. But we were just so—we were so naive and just new to the whole thing. We just thought we could do it ourselves. We got a label. That's all we need, you know, and that was one of the biggest—I look back in hindsight, and one of the things that we should have done is that we should have kept seeking out people who wrote hit songs. I'm talking the big, big, big, big, big songs. That would have kept us around, you know. You live and you learn, but we had a great experience.

Shane

Who were you listening to, or who were your influences at the time, especially growing up?

Alex Boye

Oh, my gosh. Bobby Brown, you know, New Addition. I was listening to a lot of Motown stuff, listening to a lot of like the ‘80s, ‘90s hip-hop—you know what I mean—from Big Daddy Kane and Queen Latifah and, you know, a lot of those bands, and Afrika Bambaataa. We were into, like, electro rock then and electronic music, where everyone was body popping and, you know, wearing their shell suits, as we used to call them. You know the Adidas shell suits that were shiny and everything. And so there I was. I had my big Afro kind of like—that looked like a shoebox. It was like my Afro was so square. In fact, I used to use a shoebox to keep it square. You know what I mean—just patting it down and everything. But yeah, you know, I was just—I was doing everything. I felt like I was a jack-of-all-trades and master of absolutely nothing. So that was what was frustrating for me. We were doing really good things, but I never focused on anything long enough to become a master at anything.

Shane

And then, how did you end up in the States?

Alex Boye

Well, you know, I was doing music out there, and, you know, at that time, I had signed a deal with a record company, and it was just kind of taking me down a road that I didn't want to go. And just everything, everything, every direction—it always just seemed to be about just partying and drugs, partying and drugs, partying and drugs. It was just to a point where, you know, if someone asked you to another party, it was almost like you knew exactly what was going to happen. You knew what time you needed to be there. You knew what time we were going to leave. You knew exactly who you were going to meet—those types of people. It just got so boring—you know what I mean—just so predictable and boring. I was just like, “I’ve got to get out of here. I’ve got to get out of this whole situation.” I wanted to do something different.

So my goal—you know, when I was out touring with the Backstreet Boys a lot, and I remember their manager—or their tour manager—was Justin Timberlake’s mom. [Laughs]. And, you know, she would always say to me, “Alex, you need to go solo. And if you do go solo, come out to Orlando, and we'll get you signed.” And I was just too loyal to my boys. I just didn't want to do that, you know. And so I was just like, “Okay, you know, we'll just—I'll just keep doing what I'm doing.” And so I missed out on so many opportunities because I thought I needed to stick and stay with my boys.

But when I was with my boys, we didn't know what we were doing. We had no idea. We had no structure, nothing. And so, you know, there's a lot of things that sometimes I look back, and I'm like, “Okay, maybe we want to take this direction and this direction.” So, anyway, I just thought, you know, I'm going to try, and I need—I wanted to go solo, but I decided, because I became a Mormon at the age of 16, and it was like—I was living it. I felt like I was living a double life. You know what I mean? I was a Mormon. You don't drink. You don't smoke. You know what I mean? No sex before marriage, and all that kind of stuff. And so I, you know—I was in the band, and I never even had sex. I look back, and I think that was one of the craziest things ever. [Laughs].

Shane

And so you're a good Mormon and a bad rock star.

Alex Boye

That's exactly it. So, but then it was like I was frightening myself. You know what I mean. I was frightened with both sides of who I was, and it didn't mix, and so I was always depressed because, you know, people talk about being true to yourself. I wasn't true to either. I felt like I was just kind of, like, floating and floating in between each of them. So I just made a decision that, if I'm going to do this, I'm just going to just go out and do it. So I moved to Utah, and I lived in Utah for, like, about 16 years. I just decided that I was going to just, you know, be who I wanted to be in my heart and find peace in that, and that's what I did. And I found a lot of peace in that, and I was doing, you know, gospel music for like 15, 16 years. I had a blast. I had a lot of fun, and I still, to this day, don't know how I've actually managed to make a living out of just this small niche market: Mormon Christian gospel music.

Shane

I’m going to name a very tiny band or choir that most people have probably never heard of, and you tell us if you have any affiliation with it: the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Alex Boye

Yeah, so I ended up going from a hip-hop band to singing as a lead soloist in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. With me, I'm the type of person that, if everyone's going one way, I will go the opposite way, and I realized that that's how my life has been. And so, you know, here I was—you know what I mean—and I could have been doing all this hip-hop music and just getting back in, do another album, get another manager, all that stuff. I decided to pack it all up, and I moved to Utah, where I was, at that time—I’d also be, like, the only black person for, like, you know, 10,000 miles in each radius. You know what I mean. [Laughs]. I love it out here. I'm actually still here, and I've gotten married.

Shane

Are you in Salt Lake City or…?

Alex Boye

Yeah, I'm in Salt Lake City, right next to Park City, where they have Sundance every year. I live, like, 25 minutes from there. The scenery is beautiful. The people are awesome. I built, like, a name for myself here in Utah, and I’m just having fun here, you know, and I was happy with just doing that until YouTube started. [Laughs].

Shane

It’s the YouTube revolution.

Alex Boye

Yeah, because the thing is, I was trying to get a deal again, and nobody would sign me. Every now and then, I'd go to LA and just venture out and go see what's going on out there, and I always came back empty-handed, and, you know, no one was interested in what I was doing. So I came back home. I got a phone call from these two guys—one's a classical pianist and one’s a classical cello player. They started up a group called The Piano Guys. What they did is they took classical music, and they took all the pop songs, all the popular pop songs, from Usher to Coldplay to whatever, and they would do classical versions of it. And they became very, very successful, very, very quickly. And they had called me because they live in Utah also. They called me and said, “Hey, would you like to do a collaboration?” I'm like, “Sure.” You know, this is when I was just trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life. I was like, “I’ve got to make some good money,” you know. So anyway, they called me up.

Shane

And that was “Paradise,” right, Coldplay’s “Paradise?”

Alex Boye

Yeah. We did a version of that—Coldplay's “Paradise”—and we called it “Peponi.” They asked me to sing in Swahili, and I'm like, “Oh, I'm the only black dude in Utah, and you expect me to know how to speak Swahili?” You know what I mean. I’m like, “No, I don’t know.” I had to go to the flippin’ library and get Rosetta Stone tapes to try to learn how to speak Swahili. That failed miserably.

So I called up my mom in England, and she speaks Yoruba, which is a West African dialect. So she said to me—I asked her—I said, “Can you give me some translations of Yoruba words and stuff?” So, instead of doing it in Swahili, I did a lot in Yoruba because I figured those guys wouldn't know the difference anyway. [Laughs]. So I went, and I recorded it. I did a bit of Swahili, and Yoruba, and different African languages, and scatting, and stuff like that. I went in the studio, and I started doing this, and what blew me away the most—because I didn't know what was going to happen with this song—but what blew me away the most was the ease and how easy it was for me just to sing any African language. And not only that, but the amazing feeling it was. And I realized that there was something to this, and it was something that was always inside me naturally, but it just came out right in the studio. I could not believe it. In fact, I was pinching myself. I was like, “What? What just happened in there?” It was like I was in a daze.

Three weeks later, I get a call from the guys—The Piano Guys—and they said, “Have you checked out the video on YouTube yet?” I said, “No.” And this was, like, four or five years ago. You know what I mean. When it was like nobody had a hundred million views, you know what I mean. If you got, like, a million views or 2 million views, that's the equivalent of over 100 million views today. So they called me up and said, “Go, go check it out.” I looked at the video. It had 11 million views in the first week, and I was like, “Are you kidding me?” It went nuts. It went wild. They started getting hit up by record companies—the whole thing. And it was like, “This is crazy, man.” It went from, like, nothing to just, like, this huge juggernaut, you know.

So they had me tour with them for a bit and stuff like that, and then I just thought—I was getting all this fan mail from totally different places all over the world, and they all kept saying, “Can you do more of this Africanized stuff?” I remember someone put this email: “Do more of this Africanized stuff.” And I'm like, “You know what? That could be—there could be something in that.” So I gave that a name of what I did. So I started Africanizing everything. Africanizing popular songs, Africanizing rock songs, Africanizing, you know, whatever, you name it—hip-hop songs. So I’ve got a channel of about 60 videos, and I've got over 250 million views right now. I'm getting hit up by record companies again, and you know what's crazy, Shane?

Shane

What's that?

Alex Boye

I’ve been saying, “No,” to every single one of them.

Shane

And you told me, I think, last time we talked that it's because of the song, right? You're still—you're searching for the songs?

Alex Boye

Yeah, yeah, because what I noticed—and this is what I learned from before—if you don't have a hit song, don't deal with a record label, man, because you will lose money. But if you have a hit song, then they will put money into it, and you will be the boss. You know what I mean. They'll put you up there on the pedestal, and you'll be killing it. You know what I mean. And so I thought, in my maturity, you know, and I guess, you know, going through just all the crap and just learning the hard way—in my maturity, in that way, I've just decided—I've said, “No,” to all of them. I've had four different offers in the last six months in all ranges, and I've said, “No, to all of them.

Shane

How diligently are you pursuing those songs?

Alex Boye

Right now, I’ve decided that I'm going to pursue a lot more. I've done a little bit pursuing a lot more than I ever had before. But it's exciting because I think I've found some. So what I'm doing, instead of going to a label and having them do it, I'm doing it myself. So, you know, so taking a little longer and taking, you know, a lot of money that, you know, I could get from the record label, but I’m doing it myself. But it’s exciting. It’s exciting because I know that when it happens, it will be done my way.

Shane

And, in the meantime, watching these covers, I mean, you know, when Frozen came out, everybody and their brother was posting a video of “Let it Go,” and then you did one, and I believe it was the YouTube cover song of the year.

Alex Boye

Yeah, yeah, it was 2014. It was the top cover of the year, and it was amazing, and so that was the other thing that I decided. I got this bug of just doing YouTube videos and seeing where it went, and so, you know, every time something big would happen, maybe there's a big movie coming up or a new song, a brand new song, or something like that, I would do a cover of it. And, you know, I started touring with it and doing concerts, and, you know, it’s just been awesome. The fan base is just worldwide now, and it's just been—it's a blast, and I get to do it, you know, on my own in the way that I want to do it.

Shane

Are you just selecting songs that you like to sing along to or that make you move, or do you take fan requests?

Alex Boye

Yeah, yeah, we've been doing a lot of fan requests, and basically, I just take the top 10 hits of the time and do that because, you know, sometimes it's like if the song is already hot, then you know it basically builds a platform for you. And, you know, I mean, you still got to work at it. I mean, when I did the Frozen one, if you think, there were probably about 15 million versions of Frozen after the original one came out.

Shane

At least. Yeah.

Alex Boye

You know, that was at least, and that was just in America alone. You know what I mean. So, you know, so it's actually my one that came up with the cream and came off on the top, and so, you know, it's been a great formula, and I've been doing a lot of that. It's helped me build a fan base, you know, by doing that.

Shane

When you guys auditioned on America's Got Talent, I know Howie Mandel said that in six years of doing the show, you were his favorite musical act.

Alex Boye

Yeah.

Shane

What did that mean to you to hear that?

Alex Boye

That was mind-blowing. I mean, I don’t know if you saw—the camera went to me, and I was just in tears, and I got down on my knees, and I was just like balling like a little baby. You know what I mean. Because it was just like it was really—you know, I think that what it was was just that I hadn't performed much. I just spent my time doing so much online. That is one of the first times I did something offline. And the reason why it went actually—because a lot of people said, “You already have the name. You already did stuff. Well, why go on America’s Got Talent? It doesn't make sense.” Well, really, why I went on is because I wanted to expand my fan base. That was it. I wanted to expand it to a new market, and that's exactly what happened. I mean, I got eliminated in the second round, but what was caused after, you know, that my—you know, all my social networking just spiked. My views spiked up, and my followers, you know, started to spike up, and everything on everything. And so it was a great opportunity. It was a risk. It was a chance, but it really, really came through for me.

Shane

When you do these cover videos, how much input do you have, or do you have a team around you that's coming up with a concept? How much work goes into producing those videos?

Alex Boye

Well, my team is three people. It's me, an engineer, and a camera guy.

Shane

And you guys just jet around the world to whatever location it needs to happen in?

Alex Boye

Yeah, my thing is—my music—I want it to be really organic, meaning that if there's an electronic song that's really huge, like an EDM song that's really huge, like Avicii or something like that, I will do a version, and I'll make it really organic. I mean, I'm using, like, African instruments. I'm using instruments that you would—that people would make—you know what I mean—out of, you know, stuff you'd find in the forest. And I would do, like, organic versions of it, and I just found a lot of joy and excitement in just doing that, you know. And so, yeah, the process is really, really simple, but I just have so much fun doing it.

Shane

I'm very curious to talk a little bit more about the YouTube route because it's a non-traditional route, or at least 6, 7, 8, 10 years ago it didn't exist, and now you can sort of achieve the success that in the past it would require a record label to do. How much guidance did you have in doing that, and how much of it was just trial and error on your part?

Alex Boye

Yeah, I had absolutely no guidance, just trial and error. Although, you know, I have some real good friends who are killing it right now. Lindsey Sterling. She's a good friend of mine. She has over 7 million subscribers on her YouTube page. She's jet-setting all over the world—GMA, CMA—every initial she's doing right now. And then also The Piano Guys, who are just doing really, really big things, and so, you know, I get some advice from them, and I just look at them. I just look at them as a template as to what I want to build, and then, you know, take my—you know, put my signature on it.

So, yes, we try to narrow it—a heck of a lot of money. But, you know, it's satisfying. When you wake up and you do what you love and you go to bed, you know, with a smile on your face because you did what you love, I think that's what success is for me.

Shane

Have you found a way to monetize the YouTube channel in a way that at least sustains the growth of the channel?

Alex Boye

We're getting there. We're starting to get that, and what's been caused—you know, you get brands that are asking you to do videos for them and stuff like that, and they pay you for that. Stuff like that. So, you know, you get to a certain point, and they start—people start approaching you, and so that's what I'm getting now. We're getting to that point, and it's getting really, really exciting. I got approached by Ford, actually, and asked if I'd be interested in putting together a video, you know, for a commercial.

Shane

What advice would you give somebody who wanted to start a YouTube channel, and they wanted that to be their income or their business?

Alex Boye

Yeah, you know, this is what I would do: I'm going to give—from the experience that I've had—I'm going to give you a formula, which is a dead set, not saying that you'll get viral videos every single time, but you will build a fan base, and this is it right here. Okay, I'm going to tell you right here how it works. Okay, I would download the Billboard app on your phone, okay, and every month, look at it and see what songs are top 10—not top 20, not top 40—top 10. That means those are the ones that are selling right now. Okay, and what you do is: You do a version of it. Now, when I say a version of it, you don't copy it. Whatever is that’s your style. If you do polka-dot music, then do a polka-dot music of that top 10, you know, weekend song, you know what I mean. If you're into, like, trap music, if you're into jazz, do a jazz version of that top great song or that Rihanna song. So you’re still making sure that it's you.

But what the key is—let me give you an example. What we did with “Paradise,” the Coldplay one, was genius, but we didn't even realize it. It took us a while to realize how that worked. So when the Coldplay song was out, I think it had 260 million views. Okay, the original one. So we did an Africanized version of it. Why was it still hot? People were still searching for that version, and sometimes they would accidentally fall upon our one. So we get 20 million views. We’re getting the crumbs off the table of the original, which is 250 million views, but, hey, 20 million views is awesome.

So what is happening is that you're playing with algorithms and search engines, but you're also making sure that you're doing the best version of that song. And then what happens is people accidentally find it, and they're like, “Hey, this is actually pretty decent.” And then they'll start sharing, and they’ll say, “Okay, this is the Coldplay version, but have you heard this guy's Africanized version?” or “Have you heard this guy's Jamaican flute version?” or whatever. You know what I'm saying? So that is the way that you build a fan base, and then eventually—you keep doing it and keep doing it, and eventually, you start coming into your own, and people start to subscribe to you, and they cannot wait for you to put out your version of the hit song that's come out. So many times, like, even when I'm not doing it, I get email that says, “Alex, man, what's going on, man? Are you throwing up?” I’m like, “What?” “Rihanna just put out a new song. Where’s the Africanized version?” You know what I mean. [Laughs].

Shane

In your experience, what is the window? Once a song is in the top 10, do you have a month? Do you have six months? How long before it's off somebody's radar?

Alex Boye

Now? A day. Now if this was like four or five years ago—nowadays, the window’s getting even smaller because what happens is that there's so many people that are doing the same thing. You type in the number one song on the charts right now, okay, and then you type that in on YouTube, and there are already, you know, millions of covers of that.

But I'm going to tell you something else now. I'm going to tell you something else. I can't believe I'm doing this, but I just love—this is another secret. All right, I'm going to tell you people, okay, all your listeners, and I guarantee you, okay, if you follow this, you will start building up a fan base. Okay, this is what you do because this whole formula is getting old now. Everybody's doing it, but this is what you do. You download the iTunes app, and when you look at the iTunes app, you look at the songs that are just about to hit the charts, the songs that have just been released, or, should I say, because it's usually—it'll be like hot artists or ones to look for, or whatever it is. So you want the ones that have been released but haven't charted yet. Does that make sense? Let me give you an example.

Charlie Puth. After that big hit, of course—you know what I mean—that he did with Whiz Khalifa, you know, “See You Again,” and that was huge. Then his follow-up single—one of them was a song called “See You Again.” No, sorry, not “See You Again.” That was the big one. “One Call Away,” okay? So what I did—I didn't do this, but I had a friend of mine that I had him do it. So he went on iTunes, and it hadn't charted yet. It just barely released. So you know it's a dead set that whatever he releases next is going to be huge. Even if it's not going to be as big as, you know, “See You Again,” he's on the map. So you know he's going to get millions and millions of people searching for that next song—his new song.

So you do a version of it. Now you've got three or four days because it's not even charted yet. So you put out a version. You can just do it. You put a camera in the studio with a studio mic. I don't care, you know—real simple—and you put it out ASAP. Then what happens is when his charts, now you've got millions of people looking for his version, and then they accidentally find yours. So you're back in that swing again. So it's always changing. It's always changing. You know what I mean. The formula is always changing. But the key, guys, is to go and hit up the song that's not released yet. I mean, that's not charted yet—that's just barely been released. Do it a version of it. And now, sometimes, it's obvious. You know which one's going to be big if it's from a big artist. You know what I'm saying. If Drake has just barely put his song out, hasn't charted yet, but he put it out, you know, it's probably three days old, two days old. Do a version of it.

Shane

Well, I know this song has been out for a while. It's probably off the charts, but it is my personal request. If you ever get a chance to go cover it and do an Africanized version, I want to hear Alex Boye's version of Rachel Platten's “Fight Song.”

Alex Boye

Yeah. [Laughs]. You know what? I totally should have done that. I had it in my mind that I was going to do it, and I had, like, about 50 other projects going on, but I love that song. That is actually really cool. [Laughs].

Shane

I can see you doing that. How many different African languages do you sing in?

Alex Boye

I like the way that you said, “Sing,” and not “How many different African languages do you speak?” Because I don’t speak any, actually. Yoruba, which is a little bit of Swahili. A little bit of Twi, which is a Ghanaian language. But it's so easy that I've got friends and consultants that help me with songs, so I can sing in any language that's out there, particularly African languages, because, for some reason, I guess, it’s because of, you know—it's in me, and the roots that's in me. I can just pick up any African language and sing it. At least I can take a sentence, or take a verse, or take a whole chorus, and I can sing it with the right accent. So the world is my oyster, really, in that way. So I’ve probably sung in about 20 different languages so far.

Shane

What song’s up next?

Alex Boye

Right now, I'm actually—I just finished doing a version of The Jungle Book. “The Bare Necessities,” and it was a mash-up of that. It was for a charity organization, and that went really well. So right now, I'm actually working on my concerts and on a tour. So I’ve kind of slowed down a little bit, but I just kind of wait until a song really, really hits me really, really, really hard.

And then I'll do it.

Shane

What was the last song to do that to you?

Alex Boye

I think the last song to hit me like that was—I would say—I'm going to go back and look back now. I've got so many here because I've been doing a lot of classical stuff, so they haven't been, like, the hottest stuff out there, but I'm doing a lot of classical stuff and adding African sounds to it. But I'd say probably the last one was that “Shake it Off,” the Taylor Swift one, where I did an Africanized version of that, and that's what I did on America's Got Talent that really went down really, really well.

Shane

Let's talk a little bit about the creative process, especially just as far as daily activities, daily habits. Do you have a daily routine that you dedicate—a set amount of time or certain hour blocks—or are you in a position where you can just wake up whenever you want and do whatever the mood strikes you that day?

Alex Boye

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That's pretty much it. You know, right now, I’ve got a two-day-old baby, and so we’ve kind of slowed down. We’ve slowed down a lot.

Shane

Congratulations!

Alex Boye

Thank you. Thank you. So I’m hanging out the house and just taking care of things and making sure, you know, my wife doesn't carry all the heavy stuff and stuff like that. So we're having fun with our little one. We've got five kids, so this is our fifth one, so I’ve got five kids under six. Can you believe that?

Shane

Yeah, six more, and you’ve got a soccer team.

Alex Boye

Yeah, that's right. That's what we’re working on, man—going to make some money with the team. But anyway, yes, so yeah. So right now, we've kind of slowed up, but I'm just kind of doing a lot more, just the prepping and just getting ready for, you know, summer, because the touring season is coming up, and I'm getting crazy bookings. In fact, I'm going out to Egypt. I got a call to do a concert in Egypt, on the beach in Egypt, and then a corporate concert in Dubai, and Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. So, you know, that's the other thing of this whole [inaudible] thing. I have not stepped foot in that place, but they're telling me that my music, my YouTube music, is big out there.

Shane

And I'm hearing that you're not getting booked anywhere other than the beach. That's got to be rough.

Alex Boye

[Laughs]. Yes, that's right. I'll take it, you know. So yeah, so I'm basically just working and preparing on my shows for the summertime.

Shane

How much rehearsal do those shows take to get ready for?

Alex Boye

You know, what's cool about it is that, like, you know, sometimes for people, it’s like, “What song should I do at my concert?” And what I do is I do the biggest ones, the ones I get the biggest views on. So it's, like, great market research. And then I just find ways to do it. Usually, I'll have, like, a big jumbotron screen, and I'll, you know, show the videos in the background of performing them live, and it's just amazing. It's just taking off. It just goes down so well. I have a lot of African drums, and sometimes I'll bring dancers and, you know, bring a band. So it just really, really depends on the song, but it's just really exciting. The creative process on that is just so much fun because I can make it anything I want, you know, because the songs are already songs that people know and are already popular, and then my version is already—you know, people know as well. So that comes to the concert. So it's just—it's great.

Shane

Are you writing at all these days?

Alex Boye

Yes, I'm actually working on some original material. I've got a few songs I've been working out in New York and working up there. I just did a duet with Peter Gabriel, and it is just amazing, amazing. But the other one I did is—I just did one with Marie Osmond, and her album just went to number eight in the country charts, and I've got a song on there. And what’s crazy is that I'm getting a whole bunch of people asking me if I'll do country songs. [Laughs].

Shane

Dude, come to Nashville. There's a bunch of hit songwriters here.

Alex Boye

Well, listen, I'm not even kidding you. This song, “Then There's You,” did really, really well with Marie, and, you know, it's the black guy doing country. I know, before, you know, we've got Darius Rucker, and what's it—what's that guy’s name? What's that guy’s name? [Inaudible] Rich?

Shane

Oh, I was thinking of Cowboy Troy.

Alex Boye

Yeah, but that's only three compared to how many Caucasians are doing it. So it's, like, okay, there's still room, but I'm really considering putting out an EP of country songs—original country songs with an African kind of twist. So, you know, maybe I should talk to you about it. You got any connections?

Shane

Yes, I have all of the connections here.

Alex Boye

It's opened up so many doors, that song, you know. I’ll have to send you the video to it, but it's just—it went down so, so well. Radio has started to pick it up too. So, you know, it looks like I've got, like, another avenue that I'm going to be chasing.

Shane

So one of the things I was going to ask you is what piece of advice you would give somebody who wanted to do what you're doing, and I think you said it earlier when you talked about how the song is king.

Alex Boye

Yeah, let me tell you. If you're doing YouTube covers, you've got to study. You’ve got to study all the hit songs, and you’ve got to study what makes them big. Sometimes you can find a weave. There's a weave in and out of that, you know. And of course, there are some of them that just come out of the blue. You’re like, “What?” You know what I mean. Like Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know.” You know what I mean. There's no formula for that. But in general, you know, there was a type of formula. I would study. Study those songs. Study the top 10 songs and the top 5 songs in the charts, and see what they're doing. See how they do it. See how the music is. How they transition, and all that kind of stuff. And the style, and just put your unique twist into it and see what you come out with. It's exciting, man, you know.

Shane

And when you study it, are you breaking down chord structures, chord patterns, or the message of the music?

Alex Boye

It could be anything. Yeah, I mean, you know, generally. I remember—did you see this YouTube video where it was, like, this guy sang, like, I think, 200 hits?

Shane

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a comedy duo in Australia, I think.

Alex Boye

You know what? It was a joke. But that's really, really genius, and that's very true. If you take out the jokes and you just listen to the music and listen, then it was very true. They had the same chord progression.

Shane

One, four, five, minor six. That's what it was.

Alex Boye

It was crazy. Dang it. Write a song over it, man. If it ain't broke . . .

Shane

Don't break it.

Alex Boye

[Laughs]. Exactly. Put your flavor on it. You know what I mean. Put your flavor on it. You don't have to copy everything. You know what I mean. You can grab the chord progressions, but put your own flavor to it, you know.

Shane

What's been the most discouraging part of this whole journey for you?

Alex Boye

Ah, that's interesting because, you know, what's funny, Shane, is that I used to see it all as very discouraging. [Laughs]. And one thing I’ve realized is that once I changed my attitude on it, it's starting to become exciting again. I can't really explain it, but it's like this thing where, for so long, I was like, “Oh, I'm too old. They say I'm too old. I'm in my 40s. Nobody wants to sign a 40-year-old, or, you know, I'm too this or too that, or nobody wants to listen to Africanized music. It’s too specialized.” But, you know, 250 million views later, right? You know what I mean.

So it's like—I think for me, it was really not even focusing on it at all, like ever, just focusing on what I could do and focusing on the good stuff about it and not necessarily what's not working and what people aren't doing anymore, because one thing I’ve noticed is that there's so many people that say, “Oh, well, don't do this style of music anymore. It's old. It's done. It’s out.” But then, you know, three months later, that very style of music Drake has done or whatever—he's done a cover. You know, there's a sampling of that very thing that you're not supposed to do in his song that's number one. You know what I mean. So it's, like, you know, to me, it's like, if your attitude’s right, the facts don't count. You know what I mean.

It's like saying—you know, you go to an area, and they say, “Hey, man, you know, this area—nobody's signing anyone in this label anymore.” You know what I mean. But yet, you come out, you're standing at that door, and there's like five people that just walked out, and they just got signed. You know what I mean. Somebody's got to get signed. That's what you want to do. You know what I mean. Somebody's got to have a hit song. You know what I mean. Somebody's got to put out another track that's, you know, killing it on the charts. Somebody's got to put out another huge hit on the dance floor. You know, I just look at it that way instead of looking at what can't be done. You know what I mean. Because all the times when they say, “It can’t be done,” people are flipping doing it.

Shane

It’s the email signature that I've got at the bottom of my Gmail account. It says, “The man who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the man doing it.”

Alex Boye

Brother, hallelujah. That’s exactly—and you know what? Oh, my gosh, Shane, that's a killer. Can I steal that because that's what everyone's doing right now? You know, it's like all the people that are saying it can't be done; they're the ones that are just ripping on the people who are doing it, basically.

When I went on America’s Got Talent, I wanted to put a band together, but I wanted to put the biggest bands that they had never had before on stage. So I managed to call up people from Juilliard and convince them to come on stage with me on that audition. So we had, like, eight horn players. I got two backup vocalists and two tuba players, and all I had that I brought with me were my friends—there were four of us from Utah, and the rest of them were all from Juilliard and from just around the studios around there. And we'd never rehearsed before. The first time we rehearsed was downstairs in the basement of the venue where we were filming. That was our only rehearsal. We went up, and we got there on stage, and Howie Mandel said, in his six years, that's the best act he's ever seen.

Shane

So that was the first performance. Coming up from the basement, you guys are walking.

Alex Boye

Yes, that was the other reason why I was in tears because I did not think this was going to work for a while, and I was like, “I gotta believe. I gotta believe that I'm here for a reason.” And that was what was mind-blowing, because people were about to cancel. The guys were asking for more money. The guys from Juilliard were saying, “We can't stay unless you pay us more.” And so I spent so much money. It was all out of my own money. I’m talking about union fees and all that type of stuff, and so I just paid them all. And, you know, now I've got something to prove. I’ve got something that I can use to get more gigs—bigger gigs. You know, just that one video alone, you know, gets me a whole bunch of gigs.

Shane

Who in that band was part of your crew?

Alex Boye

None of them. I just put them—the other band, my band—I’d just been working with them for, like, two months, three months.

Shane

If everything goes the way you'd prefer, what are you going to be doing in five years?

Alex Boye

Yeah, I'll be one of the biggest entertainers on the planet.

Shane

That's bold. I love it.

Alex Boye

Yeah, I will be.

Shane

Go bold, or go home.

Alex Boye

Yeah. [Laughs]. That's right.

Shane

Well, I've got a list of final parting questions. Is there anything else that you would like to leave us with?

Alex Boye

You know, with me, I think it has so much more to do with our attitudes. I’ve noticed that those people who are successful have better attitudes—not attitudes in general, but better attitudes about their music. Those people who have doubts about their music will never, ever make it. Those people who just have this feeling inside, even if they force it, that says, “You know what? I deserve a place here,” wherever it is that they want to be. They seem to be the ones that get it, and so I would say sometimes it has more to do with the attitude than the talent, and that's what I'm learning. This is something that I'm learning. It's not like, “Oh, yeah. Look, check, check me out.” But this is what I'm learning, and I'm seeing the times when I've had pockets of times when it really, really works. There've been times when I've had that type of attitude. So it's like I always say: If the attitude’s right, the facts don't count. You will kill it in whatever it is that you’re doing. There's a way. There's a place. There really, really is.

Shane

I'll trade you that quote for my quote.

Alex Boye

All right. Yep, done.

Shane

Perfect. All right, cool, all right. Here we come to the end. If your job only paid the bills and not a penny more, would you still continue to do it?

Alex Boye

No.

Shane

That's very honest.

Alex Boye

If it only pays the bills, it’s not worth doing. But what I mean is that I'm talking about a job that I'm just doing just for the money. You know what I mean. I'd rather just not do it and just do what I love, even if I'm not making as much money.

Shane

Gotcha. Okay. What talent or skill do you not have that you wish you did?

Alex Boye

Read people's minds. I'd make way better business decisions.

Shane

Fill in the blank. I'm a success if I _____.

Alex Boye

If I never would doubt myself.

Shane

And what about this fill-in-the-blank? I’m a failure if I _____.

Alex Boye

I'm a failure if I don't acknowledge that I'm an island, meaning if I don't acknowledge that I got here because of other people. I can't do it on my own, basically.

Shane

What is the single best piece of advice that you followed to get where you are today?

Alex Boye

If you don't get back up, you'll never win the race.

Shane

And what is a piece of well-intentioned advice that you're glad you ignored to get where you are today?

Alex Boye

Oh, be realistic. I cannot stand when people tell me to be realistic because every successful person got there because they weren't.

Shane

Yeah, that reminds me of that old ad from Apple that says it's the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world that are the ones who do.

Alex Boye

Yes, sir. Yeah.

Shane

What character trait do you like best about yourself?

Alex Boye

I'm always on the lookout for opportunities outside my comfort zone.

Shane

And what about the character trait you like the least about yourself?

Alex Boye

I sometimes care too much—way too much—about what others think about me.

Shane

Fill in the blank. I believe every child should have the opportunity to _____.

Alex Boye

Fail without being criticized.

Shane

If you could suggest one piece of self-improvement that everyone on earth would adopt, what would it be?

Alex Boye

Think more, do less.

Shane

If you could have any superpower—comic book superpower—what would it be?

Alex Boye

Oh, read people's minds.

Shane

So you're going, “Superpower’s also a talent or skill.” [Laughs]. All right. If you could have dinner with anyone, alive or dead, who would it be?

Alex Boye

Martin Luther King.

Shane

A hospitable nearby planet has been discovered, and you've been recruited to help colonize it. All your needs will be taken care of there, and you can take any three luxury or personal items with you that you wish. What are they?

Alex Boye

A bag of seeds, a woman, and Wi-Fi.

Shane

[Laughs]. Love it. All right. Last one, Alex. You've just won a lifetime achievement award, and we want your acceptance speech. There won't be any music to cue you or rush you off the stage, so you can get to all of the “thank yous” that you need or any of the personal causes you want to champion. This is your soapbox, so let her rip.

Alex Boye

All right. Well, first of all, these are all amazing questions, by the way. Yeah, but my soapbox would be: We need to stop bashing, bullying, and hating each other online. We need to start loving, and praising, and supporting each other online, helping other people chase their dreams, even if they’re different from their own. That's a really powerful one for me because I've seen so many of my friends have given up music because they got bashed for one of their songs, and it just burst their self-esteem, and so I think we need to do a lot more supporting online than bashing and hating online. It would make the world a totally different place.

Shane

All right, I dig it. You hear that, guys? Quit bashing each other.

Alex Boye

Yeah.

Shane

The YouTube comments section is one of the biggest cesspools in the world.

Alex Boye

Yes, sir.

Shane

All right. Well, Alex, you have been wonderful. I want to thank you one more time for joining us all today. I think everybody here has learned a lot and certainly been entertained, so thanks for stopping in.

Alex Boye

[Laughs]. All right, man. Well, thanks so much, Shane. Appreciate it, man.

Shane

Once again, that was singer, artist, and actor Alex Boye. For more information, current projects, and booking, please visit alexboye.com. I'd like to thank everyone for joining me today. You are listening to the Live2cre8 podcast, and this is Shane Almgren reminding you to dream big, be inspired, and live creatively.