Behind the Scenes of "TENSION HIGH" by Alexa Name

TENSION HIGH was one of the four original songs that I was going to make with Lavend3r that were for my capstone project at Berklee. My capstone project was an EP and the four songs were going to be GODDAMN BABY!, UNAWARE, TENSION HIGH, and another one I won’t say right now because I have not released it yet (it’s coming soon). But, yeah, TENSION HIGH was one of the four originals. The thing is we started recording those, and they were so good, in our opinion they were great, so we just kept recording more and more and more things. We ended up tossing the EP in a way and just made a ton of songs that will eventually be an album. 

 

TENSION HIGH was the third or fourth song that I made with Lavend3r, and that I had ever recorded in a studio. So I was way more comfortable at that point. I remember the first song I made with Lavend3r I was still kind of unsure of like where to put ad-libs or was unsure where to speak up about what I want and what I don’t want and the whole thing. I was still learning, and TENSION HIGH definitely felt more comfortable. A big thing, for example, that I remember that I felt super comfortable with was in the second verse and in the chorus you can hear some breaths that are off beat in the background. I felt that those were really cool and my friend John didn’t want them, but I fought for them. And I’m so glad that I did because I really love them. And you can really hear them more on the live track where my lead vocals are not there. But it’s really cool. I played the live track the other day for my friends and they were like “Oh my god! They’re so cool!” and I was so proud. 

The song is about that situationship I talk about in UNAWARE and GODDAMN BABY! as well. I was in a class at Berklee, a songwriting class that I had to write a song for every week. And it could be about anything. At that point while I was taking the class I had that situationship so that was my inspiration at the time. My songs were basically my diary and I would write a song every week about what was happening. And TENSION HIGH at that point, every time I saw my situationship I felt the vibes…you know, the vibes. I felt them and felt that they wanted to say something and they didn’t and it was the same with me, right? It was more like, we’re in the same friend group, we don’t want to ruin anything. At the same time there’s something there and I would think about that person every time I wasn’t with them, and that’s why the chorus says “I’ll be thinking about you in the middle of the night”. The cool part about the song, in my opinion, is that it goes from my perspective to their perspective. That’s why the second chorus instead of saying I it says you…like "you’ll be thinking about me in the middle of the night” because the tension was there with the both of us. 
 

It was really fun to record the song. I made the song with Lavend3r and Zani, who is an exceptional musician. They helped me build the song into what it is. Every song I made with Lavend3r, except for one we haven’t released yet, I always came in with the chords, the lyrics, the melody, everything and then John, Nicco and Zani would help me build them up. TENSION HIGH was a really really fun one. I wanted it to be rhythmic and bass heavy, which is why it starts with the bass. It starts simple instrumentally and it builds up over time and it’s really cool. 

The photoshoot was really fun. I did the photoshoot with my manager Patricio Luna who’s also an amazing photographer. He does concert photography and he’s incredible. We kind of put a projector saying “tension high” everywhere and he added some eyes that were really sexy and cool. The vibe was like all red and it was really really cool. I also had a couple more friends there during the photoshoot who were in charge of lighting and audio. So they would basically play any song that they felt would inspire me to be sexy for the shoot which was so funny. And they pointed at me with red lights the whole time which were quite intense, I’m not going to lie, but it was fun. 
 

Releasing the song has been really really fun. I love it. I think it’s a very summer vibe song and I really hope you love it too. I hope you love it as much as I do. And if you’re going through the same thing as I did at the time I hope you connect with the song and it’s a release and you know you’re not alone and it’s a human experience. And yeah I hope you just dance to it, vibe to it, let you use the song to help you get through it. You know what I mean. I hope you love the song as much as I do.

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I want to thank Alexa for taking the time to share this story with us. 

Be sure to follow Alexa on Instagram, and Spotify. And, be sure to listen to "TENSION HIGH" wherever you usually find your music.

Thanks again Alexa!