Alexa Benoit

Alexa Benoit was born on a farm in a small village of rural France. That was no "simple life". She found refuge in writing songs. Anger, sarcasm and the absurdity of life were common themes of her early recordings. In her late teens, she began travelling throughout Europe, The Middle East, Africa, North and South America, ceaselessly looking for her own light. While living in Paris, she formed a trio and sang her songs in coffee houses. Alexa now lives in New York. Her songs deal with hope, her past, her search for truth, love and companionship. She plays guitar and keyboard. Her new CD is called The Brighter Side."French singer-songwriter Alexa Benoit has been around. She was born in the South of France and has traveled most of the world. All of this is made abundantly clear in the melodic globe-pop that is The Brighter Side, a richly woven cloth shot through with a veritable dreamcoat of emotion and held together with Benoit’s warm and offbeat vocals.The Brighter Side is at once homey and world-wise. Like Carole King with a French lilt, Benoit can do earnest-and-in-love piano pop with layered vocals (”In Your Eyes”) but seems to have fun with the bouncing and Beatlesque “Exile,” a fetching song that explores the positive experiences to be found in moving far away from what is familiar. Though Benoit wrote all of the songs and played some keyboards, her co-producers Doug Davis and Anand Gan filled in with backing vocals and the remaining instruments. The production on the record is polished and understated allowing the songs, none of which seem to share the same influence or sound, to give the record its shine.Like the city she calls her current home (New York City), Benoit seems to have spent a good deal of time being knocked down, brushing off the dust and getting back on her feet. But she doesn’t come back swinging, exactly. Surprisingly, she doesn’t sound bitter or cynical – her voice reveals only the desire to grow and learn, to move forward rather than to grow angry and stagnant. To wit, from The Brighter Side: “When you wonder where to find me on a rainy day / From here to the endless sea and by a landslide / I have the innate tendency to choose the brighter side.” Like her melodies, her optimism is infectious." -Kirsten Klym - CD Reviews.