Cover Stories, Music

“It Feels Like The Whole of Manchester Is Backing Me With My Music” The Making of Alex Spencer

22 January

If you talk to Alex long enough, you realise his story doesn’t start with a big plan. It starts with a kid, a guitar, and a lot of courage he didn’t even know he had yet.

Before the sold-out shows, before Radio 1 and Radio X, before his music landed on EA SPORTS FC25, Alex was busking on the streets of Manchester. Standing outside, playing to whoever happened to pass by. Some people stopped and some didn’t. And honestly, that was the lesson.

Busking, the act of performing in public spaces like streets or parks for voluntary donations, was the best thing that ever happened to him. He shares the details of his mindset at the time, “I think I was so young that I had no fear,” To him, that is the reason it worked so well back then, He was young enough not to be scared.

That fearlessness showed up even earlier. In 2019, at just 11 years old, Alex was on a family trip to Thailand when he built up the courage to get on stage at a local jam night. He played a few songs he’d been learning and ended up meeting musicians from all over the world, people who encouraged him, took him under their wing, and made him feel like he belonged in that space. When he came back to Manchester that summer, he went out busking for the first time.

Week after week, even on the coldest days, he kept showing up. Slowly, the confidence grew. So did the crowd connection. And eventually, the online following followed too. “It was raw and real,” he says. Busking taught him how to work with any audience, how to connect in real time, and how to trust himself on stage. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was everything.

At 18, Alex has already lived several versions of the same dream. Street performances turned into venues. Venues turned into headline shows. And only recently did it fully sink in that this wasn’t just something he hoped for, it was actually happening. The moment came quietly. He was on the bus coming home from college when his agent messaged him to say the tour had sold out, especially the big hometown show at Gorilla. “I actually had a tear in my eye,” he says. That realisation that something he’d been carrying in his head for years was finally real.

Manchester is everywhere in Alex’s story, not just as a location, but as a reason, as he’s convinced that if he hadn’t grown up there, he probably wouldn’t be making music at all. His dad grew up in the city through the 80s and 90s, right in the middle of one of the most influential music scenes in the world. Oasis, The Stone Roses, The Smiths, New Order, those bands were playing in the background when Alex first picked up a guitar, and you can hear that influence in his songwriting now.

Alex shares what growing up in Manchester as a teenager felt like, and what it feels like to be there right now. “Manchester is just special, and lately, It feels like the whole of Manchester is behind me with my music.”

There’s another side to Alex that is not as well known, the music star is half Spanish, and has started bringing those roots into his sound. Songs like ‘Nightmares‘ and ‘Where Do We Go From Here‘ feature Spanish lyrics, a natural evolution rather than a forced one. His dream is to take that music to South America and play it where it connects in a completely different way.

That feeling of transition sits at the heart of his third EP, Where Do We Go From Here? It follows two earlier EPs he wrote and released while still in high school, and you can hear the growth immediately. Not just in the production or songwriting, but in the perspective.

The project is about coming of age. About moving from a sheltered, naïve view of the world into something more real, more complicated, and sometimes darker. There’s a lot of nostalgia in it, looking back at simpler times and comparing them to the present, realising how much has changed and how quickly you’ve had to grow up.

The title track wrestles with big questions, life, death, and the uncertainty that hangs over Alex’s generation. He talks openly about how kids his age are constantly thinking about the future, even when they don’t have the answers yet. At the same time, there’s a strong belief running through the EP: live fully. Do everything you want to do. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise.

“I’ve always wanted to be a voice for the younger generation,” he shares with me. And he means it. A lot of his songs are written not just from personal experience, but as anthems capturing the emotions and questions people around him are also feeling. That balance between urgency and vulnerability is what makes his music hit.

With his latest single, “Masks,” Alex goes deeper than ever before. It’s the most personal song he’s written so far, one that steps completely outside his comfort zone. The track talks about identity, emotional masking, and the stigma around speaking up about mental health. “Everyone goes through it, Everyone has bad days. The problem is how often people hide it, even from the ones they love most.”

For Alex, the song is about awareness, and about letting people know it’s okay to talk. He’s seen firsthand how speaking up can save lives, and that truth sits heavy in the song.

Still, momentum doesn’t mean everything feels easy. Songs like ‘Clouded Thinking’ and ‘Pessimistic Nobody’ came from moments of self-doubt — that mental noise that creeps in even when things look good from the outside. Alex is honest about that. “Everyone has lows” he says. His way through it is simple: stop comparing, and remind yourself how far you’ve already come.

That grounding helps when his music starts appearing in places he once only dreamed about. Hearing his songs on BBC Radio 1 and Radio X was huge. Hearing one on EA SPORTS FC25, a popular soccer simulation video game. That was surreal. As a kid, he discovered artists like Declan McKenna, Catfish and the Bottlemen, and Sam Fender through FIFA soundtracks. Now, he’s part of that same world. “The exposure changed my career,” And it’s only made him work harder.

Live shows, though, are where everything really makes sense. Gigging is everything to him. There’s nothing like hearing people sing back songs that started in his bedroom. “I honestly believe my purpose in this life was to perform on stage.”

That belief peaked on April 25, 2025, when he sold out Gorilla in Manchester. Even before he came on, the energy was different. From the dressing room, he could hear the crowd chanting his name. When he stepped on stage, the noise was unreal. The crowd carried the energy for the entire night. “It felt like a mini ‘I made it’ moment,” — one he shared completely with his city.

Supporting artists like The Black Keys, Jake Bugg, Miles Kane, and Corella has only sharpened that instinct. Watching artists at that level up close has taught him about stagecraft, connection, and how to build a set that really moves people.

As he looks ahead to his February 2026 headline tour, Alex feels more confident than ever, but also more focused. He’s going harder in rehearsals, studying other performances, and shaping a set that has real light and shade. He wants each show to feel like a journey. Most of all, he wants people to leave lighter than they arrived. “For an hour, I want people to forget everything else.”

So when Alex asks himself the question Where do we go from here? — the answer isn’t fixed. 2026 is set to be his biggest year yet. More music. More festivals. Growing his fanbase across the UK, then Europe, then America. All while still trying to live his teenage life — friendships, love, heartbreak, and everything that comes with growing up.

Listen to Alex Spencer’s New EP, Where Do We Go From Here?

Get tickets to Alex Spencer’s Feb 2026 Tour