Alex Day
Alex Richard George Day is an English musician, vlogger and writer. Day has released seven studio albums, two EPs, and had three UK Top 40 hits. Day amassed more than 1,000,000 subscribers and over 130 million views on his YouTube channel before sexual misconduct allegations arose in 2014 that resulted in the end of his YouTube success.
Personal life
He worked in the Regent Street Apple Store during 2009. In August 2010, Day visited Zambia whilst taking part in the World Vision Vlogger charity event. He filmed and shared his experiences on YouTube. Until 2013, Day lived with friend, collaborator and bandmate Charlotte McDonnell.Day announced on 14 February 2014 that he had been dating fellow YouTuber Carrie Hope Fletcher since October 2013. However, Fletcher announced their break-up via Twitter on 14 March 2014.
Day has identified as an atheist, and as a mindful Vegan began to follow Buddhist teachings after visiting the Plum Village Monastery in mid 2014. Day also identifies as a minimalist.
Sexual misconduct allegations
In March 2014, Day admitted to having engaged in "manipulative relationships" with some women and having "created situations that put people under enormous pressure". He made further admission, saying, "the model of consent that I followed... was that only, 'no' meant, 'no'. That is not what consent is". He also announced via his blog that he had taken down his merchandise and artist pages from his label's website.A former friend and coworker, Charlotte McDonnell stated, "I just don't feel able to call Alex a friend of mine any more." Day alleges that he subsequently attempted to reach out to McDonnell and that they could not agree upon a method of communication.
On 5 October 2014, after a seven-month hiatus, Day released a statement regarding the allegations, claiming that he "didn't realise at the time that felt pressured", and apologising. In the half-hour video he also referenced what he saw as "militant" reactions posted on the social networking site, Tumblr, labelling them as "an angry torrent of abuse" and "people just being absolutely horrible to anyone who doesn't agree with them". His response was criticised by several YouTube contributors such as Laci Green, Jack Howard and TomSka.
Music career
Musical debut: 2008–2010
Day first became interested in music in 2005 when he bought an electric guitar at the age of 15. He started his YouTube account one year later on 4 August 2006. In 2008, Day founded Chameleon Circuit, a Trock band that wrote music inspired by the British TV show Doctor Who. In June 2009, the band released its first self-titled album by YouTube musicians' record label DFTBA Records and a second album Still Got Legs in July 2011. Wired noted that Chameleon Circuit "puts out titles that could pass for chart-toppers – if they weren't excessively nerdy in the subject matter department."Day released his debut album Parrot Stories in April 2009 through DFTBA Records, which was produced by fellow musician and friend Tom Milsom. This was then followed by an EP, 117% Complete, in March 2010 which contained songs referencing various video games such as Pokémon. His second album, The World Is Mine , was released in June 2010 contained a more electronic-dance sound than his previous folk album. To ensure he did not alienate his fans of his debut album, Day released an EP of acoustic songs, Soup Sessions: Acoustic, in November 2010 which contained newly recorded acoustic versions of half the songs on the album.
Day was a featured artist on the BBC Two reality show Chartjackers in 2009. The programme challenged four YouTube video producers to write, record and release a pop song in 10 weeks, using YouTube as a tool to get lyrics and singers, with the proceeds going to the BBC Children in Need charity.
The completed single, entitled "I've Got Nothing", was sung by vocalists Miranda Chartrand and Adam Nichols, and was released worldwide through the iTunes Store on 9 November 2009. It was reviewed with varying degrees of approval by various media outlets, including The Times, Yahoo! Music's James Masterton, BBC Radio 1's Chart Blog and Popjustice. The song peaked at No. 36 on the UK Singles Chart and raised almost £10,000 for Children in Need.
Day also appeared with the Chartjackers at the Hammersmith Apollo for the BBC Switch Live 2009 show, along with artists such as Black Eyed Peas, N-Dubz, and Pixie Lott. Day was also a member of Youstage, an ad hoc group of YouTube vloggers who competed successfully on the BBC Three talent show Upstaged during March 2008.
''Epigrams & Interludes'': 2011–2013
For Christmas 2011, Day released his single "Forever Yours", which reached No. 4 in the UK Singles chart after selling over 50,000 copies in one week. Day released the single without support from a record label or TV coverage, and outsold songs from multi-platinum artists such as Coldplay, Rihanna, and Katy Perry. The Official Charts Company lauded Day's success, stating "'Forever Yours' is certainly one of the most successful self-released tracks we have ever seen, the Official Charts are based on sales, and sales alone, so Alex's achievements this week are a genuine reflection of the passion of his army of fans, and of course, the power of social media." Day also released 11 alternate versions of "Forever Yours", confirming that all sales revenue made from the alternate versions would be going to charity, chiefly to World Vision.On 1 April 2012, Day released his second single, "Lady Godiva", a cover of the 1966 Peter and Gordon song. The single was Day's first to get a physical release in UK record stores following a one-single distribution arrangement with HMV and other stores. Within its first week of release, the song charted at No. 15, making it Day's second UK Top 20 hit. The song also charted in 15 other countries including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States, Sweden, Norway, and Spain as well as reaching No. 1 in Slovenia. In May 2012, Day released three singles—"Good Morning Sunshine", "She Walks Right Through Me", and "This Kiss"—on a single day, selling nearly 150,000 copies. This "disruptive" model largely ignored the conventional method of releasing one single every few months, and its success was profiled in MTV and Billboard.
Day has received millions of plays for his music by releasing music videos on YouTube, with his most popular being the 2011 single "Forever Yours", whose music video reached 1.5 million views in its first week of release. The video has since been removed from the website by Charlotte McDonnell.
On 16 December 2012, he attempted to break the world record for most songs sold in 1 hour with his song "Stupid Stupid". The song later peaked on UK charts at No. 25. In order to promote the single, Day held a one-day tour entitled Stupidfest, which was free for entry.
Day released his third album, Epigrams and Interludes, on 17 March 2013. It contains all his previously released singles since "Forever Yours". He also released a music video for 'I've Got What It Takes' starring Tom Ridgewell, Carrie Hope Fletcher and Khyan Mansley. The album debuted at No. 2 on the UK iTunes charts.
Day partnered with the file sharing service BitTorrent for an exclusive bundle with the release of Epigrams and Interludes. The package was downloaded over 1 million times in the first week of release.
Hiatus, return and further releases: 2014–present
In March 2014, Day removed his artist pages, merchandise and information from his record label, DFTBA Records. His official website, alexdaymusic.com, was also taken down.On 5 October 2014, Day uploaded a video on his YouTube channel, his first video since February 2014. It was titled "The Past". In the video, Day talks about his side of the allegations accused of him, as well as his thoughts and opinion on the matter. Day also mentioned that he planned on creating and uploading more videos talking about the situation.
On 10 January 2015, Day uploaded his new single, "Scared Like Me", to YouTube and thus announced his musical return. It was his first new song in two years. Day also announced that he would be releasing a new album on 4 October 2015 and throughout the year he would release three more singles from this album. It was later announced that this album would be called 'Nowhere Left To Hide'.
On 3 April 2015, Day uploaded a new track to his channel, which was a cover of Chumbawamba's "Ugh! Your Ugly Houses!". It was intended as a protest single, to be released on the week of the 2015 UK General Election, focusing on the lack of representativeness of the UK government and electoral system. Day aimed for the single to chart at number 1 in the UK on the track's week of release; however, it failed to chart. It was later released as part of his 2021 album Relax! Nothing Is Under Control!.
On 17 May 2015, Day released a new single available to download on his website, entitled 'Keep Me Up'. His fourth and final single, titled 'Beyond You' was released on 26 July 2015. On 3 October, Day announced he would release the album a day early for all of those who signed on for the newsletter. He also announced that rather than a physical CD edition, Nowhere Left To Hide would be released as a physical USB with the album on. On the album, Day stated 'This was a hard album to make. In a lot of ways, it was an album I needed to make. It's quite raw and makes me feel a bit exposed. But I love it and I'm very proud to have it and to share it. I think parts of it are my best work and overall it's probably the most cohesive release I’ve ever put out'.
In December 2015, Day announced he had recorded five new songs for an untitled studio release in the future. On 28 January 2016 he confirmed the album would be called Split Infinities and would be the first of his solo albums to feature a backing band. He released it on 30 September 2016. Day released his sixth album Sunset on streaming platforms in October 2019 and then his seventh album Relax! Nothing Is Under Control in August 2021.