Alexa Cooper

Recording Connection Grad Alexa Cooper Talks Landing a Top Management Job, Touring, Her Music, and the Secret to Her Success 

OH manager for A$AP Rocky, Brandon Blackwell, RC grad Alexa Cooper, and Hector Delgado, A$AP Rocky’s music producer & DJ

Recording Connection graduate Alexa Cooper (Vancouver, BC) has never been one to shy from a challenge or hard work. Over the past two years since she completed her externship it’s paid off for her in spades. From going on tour with A$AP Rocky, to working with artists like Lauryn Hill, Common, Alicia Keys, Emeli Sandé, Nicki Minaj, Jay-Z and Beyoncé, Alexa is proof-positive that a having a great work ethic and attitude can get you far, fast.

Having heard that Alexa had some more exciting stuff on the horizon, we reached out to her to get the full scoop. Turns out she’s got a lot going on!

So you’re still with VER, now we hear you landed a new job as a production manager with Promosa Management. Could you tell us more about that?

It’s been really incredible. I’ve been setting up a lot of really big profile shows. We do FVDED In The Park in Vancouver, we do Bumbershoot, Center of Gravity, basically all the major festivals all over Canada, and then a few in the States, like Sasquatch! Music Festival.

How’d the production manager job come about?

I was living down in San Diego and commuting to L.A. almost every day, and got to go on tour with A$AP Rocky and it led to the other opportunities I had with Dillon Francis and then Beyoncé, and I just kind of felt this calling to come back up to Vancouver. When I got here I was almost immediately hired full time as a production manager for one of the local companies up here. I was fortunate enough to be picked specifically. They even had a meeting about me before it happened and then reached out to me to ask me if I wanted to take the position.

Live sound can be a pretty male dominated field, how has it been working in this world as a woman?

Pretty much all the girls that I have met that are in the industry are freaking rock stars and super good at what they do. The girl who helped me fix my rig in New Jersey was on Gwen Stefani. Gwen walked in and was like, ‘Oh you’re on tour, Girl Power!’ and was freaking out over her. As a girl, you definitely stand out a bit more and you do have that advantage. There’s a lot of heavy lifting in this and guys like to stand in and help you. Sometimes it’s really nice and sometimes it’s frustrating like, ‘Back off, I’m doing this.’ I haven’t run into any problems. I actually feel it to be a pretty good advantage most of the time, because you stand out more.

And how was touring with A$AP, specifically? 

It’s so much fun in general, but especially with A$AP since we’re a small crew. It’s like a family, because it’s just us everywhere we go. I think it’s a lot of fun. Everybody’s super awesome. I think a lot of us know how fortunate we are to be where we are. When I tell people what I do, I’ve had girls scream in my face like, ‘You work with A$AP!’ I’m like, ‘Yeah.’ It’s a really fun world and everybody, even Rocky himself, is really nice. He’s a super chill guy. Pretty much everyone I’ve met is awesome, minus the like, random sour people here and there, but that’s in every industry really.

Regarding your upcoming album, what’s the inspiration behind it? And, how much of it are you recording and mixing yourself?

It’s intended to inspire a sense of freedom, joy, and expansion. I want to create a space where people can feel okay with being who they truly are and step into the highest version of themselves. Whether that’s through feeling an emotion that needs to be felt, letting loose and dancing, getting down with the not so pretty nitty gritty of life, or through appreciating the moment. I want to move people. Since I do have the training from school to be able to do a lot of stuff myself, I’m doing what I can at my little home studio. I have a rolodex of insanely talented people, and I want to get them involved as well. 

Great. So could you tell us about this song and the music video we’ve been hearing about? 

Work sent me to Burning Man last year, and I got to do my first lighting design job. And actually Skrillex showed up and I got to operate lights for Skrillex, which was wild. I had gotten back from Burning Man and felt really raw and inspired, and had a new renewed faith in myself and in humanity, and this song started to come out. So it’s my first song and video that I’m doing that is more emotional and has more feeling to it.

You said you’ve worked with stars like Beyoncé and other major talent. Has seeing them in action changed or informed what you do as an artist?

I’d say absolutely, on multiple different levels. One big thing is seeing the drive and how much work behind the scenes they’re actually doing, because they see this big stage performance and it was like, they come on, it’s magic, and there was so much work that went behind that. And we kind of know that. It’s different when you see it, though. So just seeing Beyoncé in complete rehearsal mode where she’s barely talking to anybody, she’s just fully concentrated on what she’s doing to make sure she’s getting everything right, it was an incredible moment. Same with everybody else who came out, and also as far as for me, my goal is I want to be a performer and tour myself. So seeing the behind the scenes and actually seeing what lighting fixtures they’re using, what audio systems they’re using, and all of those details that actually make the show has been massively beneficial.

Do you have any advice for DIY artists including those who’ve graduated Recording Connection and know how to engineer and produce their own tracks, what can they do to take things to the next level?

“I know for me it’s been a journey of kind of working through my own self-worth and feeling like I deserve it. It’s just a matter of actually doing it, because we always have these big ideas in our heads of the things that we want, and then we can get so convoluted and clouded with our self-doubt and self-worth when it’s like, action is what creates results. Thoughts absolutely matter and they’re going to absolutely help, and it’s also important to back up those thoughts and dreams with effective action, because those two combined can become an unstoppable force. It’s just a matter of first getting clear on what you actually want, which can be the biggest challenge for everybody. At the end of the day, what do you find the most joy in doing?

And if you had to pick one secret to your success, what would it be? 

In live events, for every 15 people that come in, there’s one that’s proactive. The other 14 are not really that good at what they do, and not trying to get better. So even if you put a small amount of effort forward in that, you’re going to stand out like crazy.