A Waterloo country music artist who has risen to national attention in recent years is set to release her debut album, a record that she described as her most personal work to date.

Known by her stage name Alexandra Kay, Lexi Krekorian grew up in Waterloo, originally attending Catholic school but later entering the Waterloo School District.

Kay said she’s not exactly from a musical family. Indeed, it kind of came as a surprise that she was so artistically inclined.

She grew up participating in choir at church as well as school plays, but her interest in art really blossomed when she began participating in young authors contests.

“It wasn’t until I was in third grade that they started to have the young authors contests, and I started to win these contests with my short stories,” Kay said. “I think everybody started to realize I had more creativity than normal.”

Though Kay continued to follow in her sisters’ footsteps to some extent, spending much of her time participating in softball, she notably diverged as she found herself writing songs at age 13.

Those songs – which she said came from her earlier journaling and poetry – centered around all the emotions she faced as a teenager, from moving to public schools to having her first boyfriend and subsequent heartbreak.

She further found ways to flex her artistic side through acting, getting an agent as she pursued commercials and voice acting roles.

Kay found herself stretched rather thin from her many interests in high school, and would later find herself standing firm in her artistic endeavors by focusing on a music career right after graduation.

She did attend college, later finding a place in the R&B and hip hop space in St. Louis, which she described as the first platform she found to see how far she could make it as a small-town girl.

Kay reached out to a number of artists, offering to sing with them for free – this was where she met a number of her current friends in the music industry.

In 2013, Kay signed her first R&B record deal, producing a couple of singles before realizing she wanted to devote herself to country music.

Kay also noted she had come to something of an impasse with her label at the time, feeling rather stagnant and desiring to garner her own following.

“We were kind of at a tipping point because I was feeling like I wasn’t being utilized enough, I was kind of in a ‘sit and wait’ part of my career,” Kay said. “I started to see Facebook videos go viral, and I was like ‘I wonder if I got on and started singing on Facebook what would happen,’ and my label didn’t want me to do that.”

Upon leaving her label and pursuing that Facebook following, Kay saw a sudden boom in popularity by around 2015.

The years that followed were more than a little busy for Kay. She found herself auditioning for “The Voice,” joined a cover band – also sprinkling in a few original songs – participated in the Netflix reality show “Westside” and moved to Los Angeles for a time before coming home.

Out of the Netflix show, she produced her first independent single titled “Dive Bar Dreamer” in 2019, which was released to noteworthy acclaim.

Kay’s subsequent singles, including “I Kinda Don’t,” debuted with even greater response on the iTunes country music charts.

She also put together her In Real Life tour, which sold 10,000 tickets amid the COVID-19 pandemic. After that, it was opening shows for legend Tim McGraw and even performing at the Grand Ole Opry.

Kay spoke about her career path, which she noted has been rather unique for a country artist as she has strictly pushed for independence these past few years.

“Country music is still very much driven by country radio, and it is almost impossible to get a song on country radio as an independent artist, which is what’s causing a lot of these artists to sign deals before they are ready to get the deal they deserve,” Kay said. “I think that the way that we’ve been able to build this to such a substantial level as an independent is very unique.”

Kay further described one of her biggest reasons for wanting to stay independent. She recalled how she envied many of her peers who managed to score record deals several years ago, only to never make it onto the radio and be unable to grow thanks to their labels.

She was able to avoid these unfortunate circumstances and grow on her own.

“I was being shopped before I was ready, and so the deals I was receiving were horrible deals,” Kay said. “I would have never made any money, and that’s what a majority of these artists are signing into at this point. I am so happy that I decided not to do that because now I’m at a point where I have the leverage, and so I will take the record deal that is right for me when I’m ready.”

In general, Kay spoke quite positively about where she currently stands as a musical artist.

She expressed great affinity for her fans, crediting them with her success and noting how powerful it’s been to see people listen to her music and resonate with all the personal emotions she puts into her art.

Kay is also, of course, quite pleased she’s managed to make a decent living while doing what she loves.

“That fact that I am making a wonderful living and that I’m able to support myself, support my band, I’m able to take myself on tour, I’m able to release what I want to release, do what I want to do… That is ‘making it’ to me,” Kay said.

Kay’s first album, “All I’ve Ever Known,” is set to release Oct. 26. She offered some insight into how the recording came together.

Kay spoke about how she’d wanted to put together an album for the last five years, only to find herself in a very transitional stage with her sound – her beginning traditional country singles and later pop country interests not mixing together like she wanted for any album.

An even more important contributor to the album was Kay’s personal relationship experience.

For a time after her participation in “Westside,” Kay was keeping even busier than she is now, with a weekly schedule that saw her spending Monday through Thursday writing and recording music in Nashville, Tenn., coming home to perform Friday and Saturday and enjoying Sunday with her longtime partner.

She described this intense schedule, noting how dedicated she was to her then-boyfriend.

Around a year ago, that relationship came to an end, and Kay recalled how it felt as though the rug had been pulled out from under her.

She said her past songs have largely been sharing someone else’s story, but this album comes straight from her own heartbreaking experience.

“I was living at my manager’s house, and I just said I’ve got to start writing it,” Kay said. “I don’t know how else I’m supposed to get through this. And so I started writing, and it just kind of every single right there was this running theme of heartache and a loss of identity and rediscovering who I am and who I was, dealing with who I was and finding out who I wanted to be. With every single written, we just had a song that fit perfectly within this record. You can definitely hear my healing through the album.”

Kay noted the difference in sound between the album and her previous music, saying that “All I’ve Ever Known” is much more mature – both in sound and music.

The extremely personal nature of the songs caused no small amount of internal conflict for Kay as she questioned whether or not she really wanted to share so much of her relationship story, opening herself up to the judgment and scrutiny of her listeners.

“I really feel like my purpose on this earth is to speak for people who don’t have the words,” Kay said. “I came to a crossroads when I was listening back to this music where I just got too afraid, and I wanted so badly to just duck out of the whole thing and not release these songs.”

Ultimately, of course, she decided that any scrutiny would be worth the benefit of having helped someone else work through the same sort of feelings she has dealt with.

Looking to the future, Kay is set for a big tour of 34 cities kicking off Nov. 1, tickets for which she said are already half gone.

She said the tour should feature a greater sense of theatre, with an on-stage setup which should help bring the audience into Kay’s own living room.

The tour will also see plenty of her previous songs featured – though the main focus will center on her debut album.

Beyond the tour, Kay said she’ll be keeping busy after just a few weeks off as she pushes toward her next record.

Kay summarized her musical aspirations, hoping her listeners take whatever they need from the emotions she puts into her songs.

“I’ve been saying, if there’s anything that anybody can take away from this, I just want them to take whatever they need. I want you to completely pull apart this music, and I want you to take whatever you need and then leave the rest for somebody else or come back and get it when you need it,” Kay said. “I wrote it for me, and now I’m just handing it over to everybody.”

For more on Alexandra Kay, visit alexandrakayofficial.com.