Lately, I find myself on a search off the beaten path to find the incredible music I know is out there. It isn’t easy these days as there’s just so much to choose from. However, persistence can pay off. One of the artists I stumbled into recently, Reckless Eden, made that search so well worth the effort. Hours into first discovering them, I had a review up on the site.
Since that time, I found Alex Belew, front man and driving force behind Reckless Eden, and we sat down for a quick chat.
One of the first things about the band I found was the “adult” sound that focuses on clean sound, meaningful lyrics and just a rhythm you can take in as the song progresses. My immediate thought was a Daughtry influence, and to me, that is an incredible influence to have.
Direct influence? Maybe not so much. Belew said while Daughtry is in the style he likes, he put it this way.
“I’m a child of the 80s and 90s so I get a lot of inspiration from the bands of the late 90s and early 2000s”.
However, singing for Belew started so much sooner in his life.
“I’ve been making music and singing since I was 7.” Belew started. “I joined my first band when I was 19. I was offered vocal scholarships to college, but I never wanted to go that direction with music, so I opted out of that and joined a blues/rock band. Music was always the first love.”
The college bands were a mixture of blues and rock and simple jam bands of the time.
“We did a lot of covers back then” Belew said smiling. “We would play 4 hour sets at a few local bars around Nashville. I was the singer in those bands as well. I was also in a band from 2008-2010 called Twelve South. We actually won the 102.9 The Buzz battle of the bands and were on our way to getting a deal….and then band things happen as they happen.”
“Happen” in this case was more or less the life decisions, decisions we all have to make, that took band members in separate directions.
Getting back to his latest release, I asked Belew about his song writing style and how he goes from start to finish during the process.
“I definitely write backwards compared to most songwriters” he explained “I sit down and write all the lyrics for a song in about 20-45 minutes. The hard part then becomes finding the tone and vibe for the song and putting that to music.
“It can be a challenge to do it this way but that’s just the way I write. I need to fully put my thoughts into words and not just search for lines that may rhyme during the studio process.”
Always curious, I had to wonder how many songs are left behind in the process, or how many Belew may have to choose from at any given time.
“Just since last July I’ve written about 75 songs. I’d say the majority of them are fully finished lyrically but they aren’t good enough to get off my notes app.”
As for the start to finish times of writing a song?
“Once I get started writing I usually have a 95% finished song within an hour. Sometimes things get tweaked in the studio due to timing of the song or a word or sentence doesn’t work. But the words come pretty quick and naturally.” Belew explained.
The song that pulled me into Reckless Eden was Grenades. So many quotes I can pull and apply to my own life, it’s one of those all too easy to relate to on about every personal level.
Will I burn my past just to let it go
Will I learn to love and be the man you know.
While we all find ways to relate to a song through our own experiences, this is one I had to know the story behind.
“I was in a lot of really bad relationships in college. I didn’t really know who I was, and I had adopted this idea of who I should be. I guess I was really trying to be something that I’m not at all.” Belew quietly explained.
“This song was written about my wife when we first started dating. We got serious really quick, and it scared the hell out of me. So, I broke up with her twice out of fear of being trapped. I just kept throwing grenades at our relationship, self-sabotaging at every turn.”
Another song that stood out to me because of the subtle use of words chosen in the song is Embers.
“Embers was written about one of those college relationships that ended terribly and put me in a really dark place mentally.” he explained.
“I was actually working out at the gym and whatever song I was listening to said that word in it. I went home and that word just kept hitting me. So, I sat down and wrote it out. Oddly enough, I didn’t even know what I was writing about until after the song was done. After I read it, I was like, oh crap this is about that girl!!”
While doing my homework on Reckless Eden, it wasn’t until I was done with my initial review that I saw that Alex is the Season 21 Winner of Hells Kitchen.
To back up a bit to Chef Alex, he’s been a professional chef since 2006 and has never *not* been a Chef.
“I didn’t make any music at all from 2018-2023. It was a long break. And I hated it. But I owned a restaurant and then covid happened which truly changed the course of my life.”
It was during this time Hells Kitchen came in and he emerged as the winner of Season 21.
When asked how the other chefs (show and in life) view his musical ambitions, Belew stopped to think for a bit.
“Honestly, I think most of my “chef” friends think it’s weird what I’m doing. A lot of times the people you know from one walk of life tend to pigeonhole you and they have a hard time grasping you doing something out of the box they think you live in.”
Given the amount of time a professional chefs puts into their career, finding the time to express the musical side isn’t easy.
“It’s a balancing act like anything else. I write every week and get ideas constantly. My phone is full of notes and voice memos with anything from a 10 second musical idea to fully fleshed out songs. I constantly send voice notes to the guys. We set up dates for me to go to phoenix and record. We don’t necessarily have a budget for this. It’s just the 3 of us.
“The 11 songs we’ve put out were the result of 11 twelve-hour days in Ryans studio. We show up with a plan and know that we have to maximize the time we are in there. We don’t have the luxury of having 6 weeks to make a record. We get in and get to work.”
Now, falling in love with the music is one thing, but how about seeing it performed live? Belew explained this would be far more of a challenge.
“Our band is a strange dynamic” Belew started. It’s almost impossible for us to play live.
“Sanjay and Ryan live in Phoenix and I live outside of Nashville in Murfreesboro Tn. Sanjay was out tour with Shinedown for 7 years and is now with Three Days Grace as their videographer. Ryan is a full time producer and he also tours with bands throughout the year. I’m a full-time chef, I’m 43, I’ve got 2 kids and a wife and mortgage.”
Its times like this the realities of the music scene and our own changes in life as we move through it hit me as Belew gave a perspective of what it would take.
“For us right now, renting a passenger van and gigging out at local bars for $50 a night just doesn’t make sense. We want nothing more that to play live but the logistics and financials have to make sense.”
Belew continued with “If we were 20, we’d be on the road, but we all have families and careers. It’s a strange situation but who knows. We’ll just keep cranking out music and maybe something hits.
“I don’t believe age is a factor in “breaking out” anymore. Let’s call it the Jelly Roll effect.”
Winding down my time with Alex, I had to ask – what else do we need to know about you?
“I’m just trying to squeeze every ounce out of life that I can get. Life’s too short to wind up saying “I wish I had tried.” And I’ve learned that you don’t have to make money doing the thing that you love to do. Sure, it helps, but the joy is in the creating and the doing.
“I don’t have any clue where Reckless Eden will go, but I’m proud of the music we are making, and it gives me a true sense of purpose and fills my soul. That’s a pretty solid payday. There’s no price on quality of life. I want to wake up and say, “I get to do this, not I have to do this.”
And to wrap it up – I had to ask – chef, or rock star?
Belew laughed. “I’ll never not be a chef. I’ve been doing this professionally since 2006. But I won’t lie, I’ll hang up that apron and knife in an instant to make music full time.”
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