Alex August is commonly known as the singer-songwriter and one of the co-founders of Alex and the Dukes formed in 2016. An English-Filipino born in London to eventually move to Cyprus at the age of six, Alex’s multicultural influences and travelling background led to upbringing and valuable life experiences around various countries in the Mediterranean, Europe and the Middle East as well as Pakistan and around the USA.
Amidst these global adventures, Alex maintained involving herself in the realm of music and writing by playing piano, singing and creating songs, poetry and stories from a young age. Growing up and living on the divided island of Cyprus inspirited Alex's love of nature and community; this, as well as her cultural background, became a great influence of the themes behind many of her creative works.
While studying cinematography at Met Film School, Alex explored her personal sense of spirituality through practices of meditation and yoga. A continued passion for music led her to collaborating with other musicians in London, allowing her to explore herself musically. After receiving a toy ukulele as a present, a collection of original compositions slowly emerged that she would play at open mic nights.
’’Music makes life magical. It gives my life meaning, feeling and hope. Music shows me that there is indeed truly something miraculous going on all around us.’’
The songs echo fusions of acoustic reggae, indie and folk with spices of inspiring activism and social revolution. The compositions take you on a visual journey as nature becomes our wisest teacher, spreading messages of peace, harmony and unity. The music calls for our human family to look with curiosity, acceptance and love into their own world within to find peace and their inherent inner beauty.
The poetic messages of the lyrics create a space of openness to flow, learn and grow as the listener walks through the never-ending variety and dynamical colours of life. Finding harmony within and with oneself reflects outwards and a peaceful connection with the world and others blossoms.
Following graduating from university, Alex went abroad and upon her return, the contrast of living in the overflowing populous city of London and her travels around Thailand, Cambodia and Bangladesh pushed Alex to leave London. In this time, Alex reflected on her personal journey emotionally, mentally and spiritually through her poetry. She changed her career to begin focusing her energy on writing music and to work with children. Starting in a summer school while busking and playing small gigs, Alex eventually started working with refugees, mainly children, in Greece and Cyprus.
In Bangladesh, we didn’t have a shared language… but I had my ukulele. I would sit somewhere in a tribal village, mainly where the children were, and they would fly in wanting to dance, sing and play. Eventually the elder members of the communities would join in as well. Music became our common tongue and the enthusiasm of the children helped reignite the spirit of life and happiness we all possess at our core. I loved how this connected us and shed away our differences and I realised music’s power in connecting people and touching the centre of our being. Those days changed my life and made me want to become of service to the world to spreading this in my community by working with children and playing music for others.
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After the summer of 2015, Alex started to play small local gigs and busked in Nicosia, Cyprus. One evening, she was playing her songs in a square in the Old City of Nicosia where she met Pasi Sipilä and Denis Prokopenko. They began jamming, playing and busking the original ukulele compositions of Alex August in the old streets of the city centre and the three eventually organised their first gigs, forming Alex and the Dukes.
A vocal cord surgery in October 2017 put Alex on vocal rest for two months and being unable to perform, she took the next year to focus on her own endeavours and personal healing. During this challenging time filled with lessons and changes, Alex August spent her days working as a teaching assistant in a Kindergarten in Nicosia, Cyprus while also working towards releasing the band’s debut album i. and in her personal time, composing new songs and writing while she slowly regained her voice.
This summer 2018 saw Alex August perform again with Denis Prokopenko, sharing her stripped down version of her original compositions that were recorded for Alex and the Dukes’ debut album. Today, Alex looks forward to the next chapter of her musical journey and encouraging confidence, independence , positive thinking and creativity in children through drama workshop approaches.
