Ears Wide Open: Alexa Villa

Kevin Bronson on November 30th, 2022

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San Diego-bred, L.A.-based Alexa Villa calls herself a “bubble rockstress” — code, we suppose, for good ol’ pop-punk. It’s a genre she embraces with no small amount of moxie, deftly juggling memorable melodies, bombastic guitars and swaggering vocals.

Having gotten her start with her brother Ryan in the rock band Oversoul, Villa began releasing solo music in 2014 and unveiled her first solo album in 2017. Her growth as a songwriter, singer, player and producer was evident on her sophomore full-length, the cheekily titled “Good Girl,” released this spring.

Her new single “Bored” is a collaboration with Colie Hutzler of Beauty School Dropout, and like much of her album it harks to days when riff-roaring alt-rock and stadium-sized choruses moved bodies. The tune was co-produced with Ian Walsh (Upsahl, Phem) and will soon get a Spanish-language version, like “Good Girl’s” lead single “Call Me Crazy” did with “Llámame Loca.”

“Bored” is a breakup song, but not of the romantic kind. “What about the best-friend breakup?” Villa says. “Sometimes those hurt worse. Recently, I lost a group of friends that I considered sisters. We decorated our apartment together, planned holiday parties, wrote each other’s Bumble profiles and even binged six hours of ‘Love Island’ once. I really can’t speak as to why the friendships ended, but for a moment there, I was in a confused and lonely headspace over it, while still truly believing everything would work itself out and we’d return to our backyard bonfires.

“After spending countless hours trying to figure out what went wrong and multiple attempts to reconnect, I came to the realization that some people have nothing better to do than hate on happy people. ‘Bored’ is me expressing what I took away from this experience … if they spent more time working on themselves and choosing positivity, there would be no time to waste talking about me.”

As she sings in the chorus: “Don’t hate me ’cause you’re bored / Misery’s a chore.”

||| Stream: “Bored” (feat. Colie Hutzler of Beauty School Dropout)