Alex’s answers to the questions we all have!

Hey,

I hope you’re doing great! Happy April Fool’s Day, April pranks day, if this is still a thing! I really hope it is, since performing pranks and creating laughter should be an essential thing regarding our relationships, as these things have the power to create solid bonds. And what’s better than a serious laugh?! You might not know Alex on this front as much as I do, but let me tell you, there’s no one on this planet that likes to prank people more than Alex!

I should really dedicate a complete month where I could share weekly pranks he’s been doing for the past decades! It’s a countless amount, as he really is passionate about it! So, if April 1st isn’t a thing anymore, let’s seriously bring this back and make it at least not only a yearly thing, but a lifestyle! The entire band arrived at Alex’s home in Virginia last week and today, as you’re reading this, no one is getting out of their room, patiently waiting for April 2nd to arrive so we can “safely” navigate back to our occupations and lives! 

This reminds me of the early Your Favorite Enemies days when we all had different apartments, all in the same neighborhood, and pranks were almost a daily thing. And when someone, most of the time Alex, pranked someone, then it simply escalated in grand fashion, always reaching the “let’s not do this ever again” kind of level! This is still, to this day, one of the few things that never changed!

You should see the huge smile on my face as I remember all those funny and disastrous things we did on this precise day – Alex’s favorite with Halloween!

But today, as we’re just getting started celebrating the A Nightfall Ritual journey, I thought there was no better way than to send Alex a few questions some of you sent me regarding the project!

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Q&A with Alex About A Nightfall Ritual

“A Nightfall Ritual" sounds like the kind of title that belongs to both a dream and a confession. What were you seeking to capture with that name? Is it more of a farewell, a beginning, or something in between?

I think every human is looking for a sense of purpose, to belong somehow. It takes all sorts of forms; as we grow, as we come and go… The foundational constitution of our most profound needs remains the same, no matter how much we would like to think that they don't. They might take different shapes, corresponding to other sensations, but they’re rarely off their initial mark. I see it as our tidal emotional constitution. And because our body is composed of 60-70% water, our heart’s desires (call it soul, psyche, or whatever fits) are probably defined by a wider percentage of the same longing elements connecting each other.

That being said, I have always been fascinated by the rituals we go through to fulfill those needs; could be religious, could be spiritual, could be mundane, self-centered, or self-abnegated, but we all have one or some, simple or complex, public or private. We all do. And that was the base upon which I started to meditate, not only about the album’s title precisely, but about the broad significance that communing has for me, for us all. That was the reflective inception that eventually inspired the image of “A Nightfall Ritual”. 

You know more than anyone that I don’t see a concert as an entertaining type of gathering; it’s a sacred affair for me, a moment of pure grace where people from all spheres of life, disparate backgrounds, and extensive unicity decide to break the mold of their comfort zone for an instant in order to enter a place that will be defined by the measure of willingness everyone has to contribute, to give and receive, as they are assembled with a few friends amongst a larger group of diversified strangers aspiring to experience something – probably all different from one another, but nonetheless the same deep down inside. What we receive, what we give… At the end of the night, nobody truly remembers, no one truly cares, even. It all goes back to what we became through our abandonment into the moment we were part of. Whether we have let go deeply “inside” or stood peripherally around, if what we – everyone in that room – experienced together was real and honest, we’ll all have a distinctive “glow” shining from within somehow. That’s how I see it.

And like our intimate devotional ritual fulfills our personal longing desires, it incarnates intangible sensations with invisible ramifications. That’s what I wanted to illustrate by the album title… Because that’s exactly what I went through that night myself.


Could you share a specific ritual or practice that became significant during its creation?

I found a focused comfort in the practice of humming. It’s part of my pre-concert warm-up preparation. It’s a moment when I let go of as much of what I am as I can to reflect on what I felt or experienced from the second I started my day, leading to that very instant. It’s a way to visualize what I want to touch. But more importantly, it’s a suspended me-time where I dispose my heart and spirit to discern the outlines of the invisible I’m longing to commune with others later that night.

Your music often feels like a dialogue between memories and the present moment. Was there a particular memory that insisted on being part of this album?

The concert, as a whole, is composed of truly fond memories of mine, all defined by people and moments that shaped my collective journey. That night bloomed out of those still evolving wonders, just like the stream of life it is for me. And when I saw so many of my beloved ones who gathered for what was a significant celebration of “us”, I knew it would keep flourishing long after the lights would be turned off.


Live performances have always been central to your artistic expression. How did the energy from your past shows, particularly during the previous summer festivals of the Ascending in Bright Lights tour, influence the sound and storytelling of this album?

It doesn’t influence it: it’s actually “it”. It’s the purest of all the incarnations of that communal energy. That’s why the sound and storytelling you are referring to are the expression of the invisible synergy that transcends the tangible elements we tend to wish to hold on to as long as possible afterwards. But it’s all meant to be lived and lived again, not to be remembered. However beautiful and necessary nostalgia might be, a transcending moment keeps evolving and keeps transforming itself through our willingness to be defined and redefined by its ongoing motion, always… And that’s why I believe that a live communion is the most significant expression there is…

The album artwork and visual elements are striking. It’s the first time you immortalize yourself in such a contemplative motion and moment. How did the visual aesthetic for 'A Nightfall Ritual' come together, and how does it reflect the music’s emotional landscape?

As much as I never liked to be the visual focal point of a record designed to be shared, communed, and redefined, I was standing behind a clothing veil on the “Windows in the Sky” album cover and was submerged by shadows and luminosities on the “Standing Under Bright Lights” one. For “A Nightfall Ritual”, I was looking to express the emotional surrender, uplift, and jubilation that the night has been for me. So when I saw that picture of myself, even if I didn’t like the perspective of being at the forefront of it, I knew that the photo had not only captured the soulful essence of the concert but that it was the perfect embodiment of it. Even if I tried to use another picture I really, really liked as well. But that’s for another Q&A… Maybe!

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Please enjoy and of course, always feel free to send me more questions! 

Let’s be great to one another! 

Your Chief Operator and Friend, 
Jeff