Words By Zach Collier
Photos By Lexie Wilson and Zack Keel
“It's just what happens when good people get with good people and it just gets bigger. We take everybody with us. We're all coming. All of us.”
“Do you have a favorite Deadly Sin?”
“Oh man, that's hard. It sounds funny to say, but I'm extremely proud of ‘Pride.’ But I am. I'm very excited about this one. It's strange. It's the sin that became the modern sin.”
The rising alt pop artist LEXX dropped her new single “Pride” today. A collaborative project between frontwoman Lexie Wilson and producer Zack Keel, the song is third in a line of singles centered around the Seven Deadly Sins. Each has a distinct sound and aesthetic, and finds Wilson (the face and persona of LEXX) playing out an idea she’s had for ages.
Pride Album Art
“It had been chilling in my mind for a long time,” LEXX says. “The high school I landed on was an all-girls Catholic high school. And I knew nothing about any of that. Like, my parents were always of the mind of like, ‘figure it out yourself!’ I don't mean this in any kind of disrespect, but from an outside perspective, it all felt like incredible storytelling. There were all these characters that I'd see in my head, and these things that I had never connected with.”
The Seven Deadly Sins was one lesson that really stood out to her. She thought: what if there was a personified version of each of these vices? What if those came to life?
“I wanted each song to be that character,” she says. “And that idea just sat there forever. I have notebooks and notebooks of symbols I've drawn and things to try to describe these people, these characters, these alter egos.”
“I just wanted to roll with it so bad. I knew it would be weird. I wanted it to not be disrespectful, but almost reverent to those ideals. You know, we’re all wrestling with our own thing.”
Anyone who follows LEXX will find a visually striking, sonically daring experience with narrative depth tempered by respect for source material and for other people. The stories LEXX tells are stories for humans, and are deeply relatable while being musically challenging. It’s a solid blend of rock, pop, and alternative. The big guitars, heavy drops, electronic elements, and spooky harmonic shifts all come courtesy of a duo that I respect and admire.
I spent a month on tour with LEXX in October of 2023. From Denver, Colorado to Greensboro, North Carolina, we supported the rising alt rock band Citizen Soldier. LEXX was running merch, and I was a touring member of the opening act. Night after night we got to stand at the merch table, greeting possibly the world’s most rabid fanbase.
“The people that I met on tour, they’re just my favorite people in the world,” LEXX says. “They're just really special fans. They're so special. I love them. I genuinely love their fans.”
I share the same sentiments. My time on the road with Citizen Soldier ended after that tour, but since that time LEXX has continued on as a regular crew member, and it’s obvious those deep feelings have only intensified. When we reconnect to catch up, she’s preparing for yet another tour.
“How many Citizen Soldier tours has it been this year?” I ask.
“September is going to be the third,” LEXX says tiredly. “It’s a month long. It’s a long one. It’s crazy, tours just keep happening. We originally had two-and-a-half weeks planned as the max, but this last one ended up a month because half of it is with Theory of a Dead Man. And you can’t turn that down!”
She lets out a laugh. As tired as she is, she’s incredibly grateful for the opportunity. LEXX has been at home in Nashville with her boyfriend and producer Zack Keel for maybe seven or eight days out of the last two months, which is exhausting. But working closely with Citizen Soldier has opened up a lot of opportunities for the couple.
“I mean, being on the road that much is crazy,” LEXX says. “But it's been incredible because the thing that it's done – which is why we keep doing it – is we're able to take less production gigs that we don't want to take because of it. You know, we can be a little bit more selective.”
Both musicians, producers, and sound engineers themselves, Zack and LEXX have a home studio. Zack initially came on with Citizen Soldier as a co-writer and collaborator. They became friends online in 2019, and the partnership was so successful that it’s lasted over five years. Citizen Soldier even started coming out to Nashville for writing sessions.
Once, when Citizen Soldier was in Nashville and frontman Jake Segura mentioned they had a last-minute need for someone to run merch for last fall’s tour, Zack encouraged LEXX to go. “He was just like, ‘We need somebody on merch in like eight days.’ I was just like, ‘I’ll do it. I’ll go.’ And it was amazing. I love them. Everything went great.”
LEXX’s expertise is primarily in songwriting and live sound, but being a musician herself it wasn’t hard to pick up the merch game. “I told them I got it. Don’t worry about it. And it went from there.”
During that first tour, LEXX had been preparing to launch her own solo career. She was writing a ton and experimenting with her production, her aesthetic, and her visuals. She released her debut single, “600,” in February of 2024.
Her friends and fans were impressed – including Citizen Soldier. As the band continued working on material for their next full length, they began working with Zack Keel again.
“Zack has had that song ‘Say Nothing,’” says LEXX. “That’s something he wrote a long time ago for himself. Jake had wanted it for forever. Zack didn't want to do anything with it because it was kind of too personal, you know? So finally, Jake offered up: he was like, ‘Well, hey, what if we do it and we put LEXX on it?’ And so on the next tour, Jake and I finished writing it. The day the tour ended, he came over here, we tracked his parts, and then Zack and I just finished it.”
The result was a heartfelt duet that felt deeply personal – likely because of how involved LEXX and Zack were. “Say Nothing” alternates between stripped back, acoustic-driven sections and Citizen Soldier’s signature, heavy-hitting drops.
“All of the musical stuff was basically Zack building around it, because when Jake came in, we just had acoustics and that was it,” says LEXX.
“We just took his parts and then we worked on it for weeks after that. How are we going to fill out everything? We're going to build this whole thing up. We're both really proud of it.”
I get a visceral feeling when I hear those acoustic sections. I have strong, vivid memories of hearing Citizen Soldier’s acoustic sets night after night and seeing the reactions of people in the crowd. The stacked gang harmonies at the end give me chills. If you’ve never been to a Citizen Soldier show, you’ll get a good feel for the experience on this track. The fans are passionate, and they sing back.
LEXX says knowing exactly who she was singing to influenced the way she approached her performance on the record. “I think being a part of their merch team and everything and being around their fans and hearing their fans’ stories and being a part of the whole environment that they bring, it makes speaking about those things feel personal, like you're talking to those people,” she says. “All these people you've met, this environment they've created. It just becomes so real. And I think looking at it from a perspective of like, ‘OK, we're talking to these people, and it's not just some audience I don't know. It's an audience I know.’ It just made it so easy to get in there and be comfortable and want to make something that resonated even more.”
That’s not to say the song wasn’t scary to put out into the world. Since LEXX had a hand in the songwriting process, there were nerves involved in the release of something personal to a broad audience. “This is like I'm reading my diary to people,” she explains. But then she thinks about all the times these fans have screamed along to Citizen Soldier songs.
“This is my diary. But when people are constantly reading theirs back to you it's like, OK, this is fine.”
LEXX is no stranger to confronting her fears in order to produce good music. She’s been doing that since day one. Originally from New Orleans, her musical journey began when her dad got her a guitar for her birthday – right when Hurricane Katrina hit.
“When Katrina hit, I was nine turning 10. And we were in a house of 26 people and it hit a few days before my birthday,” she recalls. “So it was a nightmare. And my dad took it as the perfect opportunity to give me my first guitar because it would give me something to completely focus on, want to learn, and go mind my little business in a corner because we were in a three bedroom house. There was no space for anything.”
It was a little baby Taylor. LEXX has vivid memories from her childhood of her dad teaching her “the cowboy chords” and taking her four wheeler into the sugarcane fields to go practice. “I started writing lyrics all the time. All my little notebooks were lyrics and poems and stuff like that. But really, it started there in that three bedroom house.”
Those cowboy chords and poems were a great jumping off point, but give “Envy” one listen and you’ll see just how far LEXX’s sonic interests have evolved over time. She and Zack Keel are meticulous in their composition and daring in their execution. “I started writing a bunch of rock stuff that developed into pop, which seems to happen as you learn more about production because you can do more, you know?” LEXX says with a laugh. “And then the core kind of came back and now we're back into this, I don’t even know. Rock R&B pop thing.”
Envy Album Art
LEXX, a painter, is fascinated by the pairing of music and visual art to evoke emotions and create an immersive experience for listeners.
“So before music started making money, I made all my money off of painting,” LEXX explains. “So everything is super visual. My last collection is very much rooted in the same things as this is. And so when we're creating anything, I'm seeing the way it looks, I'm seeing the colors, I'm seeing all of that stuff.”
Angel and Man
Angel
Aphrodite
Anyone trying to make a living from their art knows how incredibly difficult both original visual art and original music ventures are. Hearing she’s successfully done both absolutely floors me. What’s her secret to creating resonant art?
“Let go a little bit. There's just not as many rules as you think,” she says. “I think as soon as I started having fun, that’s when it started working. There are times where it's painful still, but it's ultimately fun because you're creating this thing that you have the freedom to create. I think when the boxes start coming in, when the spaces get smaller, it's the fastest way to lose yourself and lose your idea and lose your vision. But I think someone will always resonate with the authenticity of who you are and the art that you create.”
“When I was trying to be something else, it never worked. It was only when I was like, you know what? I'm weird. Here I am. That's it. That's all I got. Take it. That’s when it started working.”
At the end of the day, though, art for LEXX is all about community. After all, what good is art if there’s no one to share it with?
“Keep relationships real and care for people genuinely, because you attract people,” she says. “It's few and far between to find incredible and long lasting friendships in life in general. And when you can find them with like-minded people, nurture that and care for it. It'll take you everywhere. And not even because you're looking for it. It's just what happens when good people get with good people and it just gets bigger. We take everybody with us. We're all coming. All of us.”
Make sure to follow LEXX and Zack Keel on Instagram. If you loved “Pride” and “Envy,” make sure to check out “Greed” below.
Greed Album Art