Here at AU, I have a habit of cycling through the same lunches and dinners every day. For lunch, chicken tenders and fries from True Burger; for dinner, a six-inch All American Club Sub from Subway. Hating the very idea of moving an inch out of my comfort zone, I go through the same loop of True Burger and Subway, gradually getting more and more bored of the food I’m eating, while simultaneously becoming increasingly more obedient to my habits. Likewise, I get the same thing for breakfast every day—nothing. But why is this? Is it really true that I’m just too uncomfortable to change my eating habits? Is it really that scary? But nevertheless, a fact remains: I feel unfathomably hungry. I suppose it’s true that I, as a human being, should be eating three meals a day. Is the source of my hunger my neglect of breakfast? My refusal to change my routine? Perhaps it is both…
Okay, I’ve made up my mind. I won’t only embrace change—I’ll pursue it! I should explore the options around me! I’ll get something from Cravetown; I’ll try out the pizza in the TDR; I’ll get a meatball sub from Subway! And you know what? There’s no better start than the start of the day. It’s time to get some breakfast.
Alex Alavi, founding member of Alex Alavi and the Funky Breakfast, known in Albany as the crazy elephant-masked man dancing with a bootleg Raggedy Ann doll, is a local artist whose band has produced superb works, ranging from 60s and Beatles-inspired pop-rock, to indie-folk, to indie-rock. What follows is my account and interview with Alex Alavi for his upcoming album-release show.
Strolling through Adams Morgan on September 13, a day I had not realized at the time to be very aptly named “Adams Morgan Day,” I walked past bustling crowd after crowd. In front of me, I saw bars filled to the brim, playing billboard-hits from ten years ago; a family of five walking on the sidewalk, their youngest child perched on the shoulders of their dad, enjoying the view of a giant; cafes bellowing with discussion and laughter among the seemingly futile endeavors of the minority of people reading and studying. Lining the streets were vendors selling clothes, jewelry, produce, and one vendor that particularly caught my eye selling extremely good-smelling fried chicken. But peeling my eyes off that vendor, reminding myself that I am not only beyond broke, but I also have a job to do, I walked further inward through Adams Morgan until I entered an Armenian cafe called Yerevan Cafe. Shortly thereafter, as I skimmed my poorly-organized notes on my phone, my attention shot to a man who had walked into the cafe—a man who I, a week prior, met putting up a poster for his band in The Tiny Vinyl Shop. After greeting him at the cafe, I bought a pomegranate lemonade (destroying my bank account even further) and he bought a pear-flavored lemonade, which he’d later describe as, “very… high fructose.” After he ordered some food (remember this), we sat down to talk some more.
WVAU: So, where are you from?
ALEX: I grew up in Bethesda, and then I went to college in New York. Now I live here—I live in DC, in Park View—near the children’s hospital if you’ve ever been there.
WVAU: Are there any hot-spots to check out in Park View?
ALEX: Yeah. If you like Ethiopian food, it’s really good. Heat Da Spot is really close to my house […] and then Wonderland is also very close by—Wonderland ballroom.
To those who may not know who Alex is, a simple “where are you from” is hard to paint a picture of his identity. His Facebook bio reads “Funny, Serious, Melancholy, Whimsical, Usually a Guitar Involved Somewhere.” What piqued my interest was his relationship with the guitar—a very important component to not only his music, but his life.
WVAU: From my perspective, researching you a bit, a really big part of your image is the guitar, and I want to ask—what’s the story behind that?
ALEX: So, I don’t come from a very musical family. I didn’t have any interest in music before I was like maybe twelve or eleven. And I got into it really because I got really obsessed with The Beatles at that age, and I just thought their music was so fun and interesting, and I listen to it all the time, and it really got me into rock in general. My first recollection of it […] I heard the song “Ticket to Ride” and there’s this high ostinato on the guitar, and I wanted to learn to play that. And so, I asked my mom […] for a guitar and she said, “yes you can take guitar lessons.” They got me an acoustic guitar—it was a Yamaha—and I just played it obsessively. A year later they got me an electric guitar and I’ve just been accruing guitars since then.
But the key to his music, perhaps the most integral part of his music, rests in another passion—comics, cartoons. In fact, my first impression of him was his work as a cartoonist, when he gave me a poster depicting a band of cartoon animals: a rat playing the trumpet, a chicken playing the banjo, a worm playing the harmonica, and a rooster chasing a runaway tambourine.
WVAU: You do all the illustrations for the posters yourself?
ALEX: I do, yeah.
WVAU: Illustration—that’s interesting—what got you into illustration?
ALEX: Well, y’know, it was really the comics that I loved […] when I was a kid. I read mostly, like, newspaper strips like Calvin and Hobbes, stuff like that. When I was younger, I liked Garfield a lot, and then when I became like a teenager—I don’t know if you’ve ever read Bloom County—it’s like a strip from the 80s—it’s kind of like Doonesbury. […] So, I got really into that kinda stuff, and I just wanted to be a cartoonist. And then by the time I went to college, it was a dying industry—newspaper comics anyway. […] So after that I was like, “well, y’know, I have my whole life to do cartoons but let me try doing music since it’s also something that I love.”
WVAU: How does the infusion of illustrations with music affect your music?
ALEX: I think it probably makes my writing a lot more cartoony than it would be otherwise. On the album that’s coming out, the first song is called “Breakfast for Dinner,” and I don’t know if you’ve ever seen Doug—in that show they have a fictional band called the Beets who were very popular—and they sing about eating tofu and vegetables and things like that, hence the name the Beets. So, in my head it was just like, “the Beets are singing this song,” and it’s just about eating breakfast for dinner.
WVAU: For “Breakfast for Dinner,” for example, how did [the writing] process go?
ALEX: Well, the band that I play with is called the Funky Breakfast, and that’s a really random name, but one of the guys in the band who’s like, y’, “why don’t we have a song called ‘Breakfast for Dinner,’” and I was just like, “that’s such a good idea why didn’t I think about that.” And so, I wrote it because of that—that was the inspiration. It was the bass player—his name is Kevin—basically coming up with the idea. […] It kinda evolved from there. What it looks like at first is like you just kinda have like maybe a couple lines and you just kind of sing them over some chords, and if the melody seems okay then you kind of just try to think, “let me iron-in the lyrics now.” And it’s some kind of like, y’know, witchery. It seems like it’s very hard to put into words how it happens, but it just kind of does.
Finally, the last piece of background information I inquired about was of Alex’s counterpart—the Funky Breakfast.
ALEX: The band formed, probably in 2022, and what happened was I was in another band, and we had a couple shows lined up […] and then the band broke up right before the shows. I didn’t want to not play the shows—I had booked them and I put a lot of work into it—so I was just like, “well I’m just gonna form a band and we’re just gonna play the shows as this band.” So, I did, and it was Alex and the Funky Breakfast because it was me and whoever else I could get to play with me for that show—for whatever show. And eventually over time it kind of coalesced into a consistent line up. […] We’ve developed a chemistry now where it would feel weird not have these guys in the band.
With all this talk about breakfast, there was an atmosphere of hunger around the Yerevan Cafe. It was immediately after his above answer that a waitress brought to our table a plate of lahmajun, which Alex had ordered around 15 minutes prior. With Alex generously offering me a slice, we briefly paused the interview to channel our inner Bobby Flay and provide a very qualified food review.
WVAU: It tastes like ravioli, a little bit, or a little bit like noodles.
ALEX: It’s a little noodly. It’s not what I thought it would taste like. […] I think it’s pretty good. I would have it again. But next time I come here I’d probably try something different first. It’s not good enough to where it’s the only thing I’ll order ever, y’know what I mean?
WVAU: Have you squeezed the lemon on it?
ALEX: No, but maybe that’s what I’m missing.
Squeezing the lemon on the lahmajun, he takes a bite, savors the taste, and conjures up his final review, having experienced it in its full, lemony potential.
ALEX: It’s got a nice little tang. It’s better with the lemon—it’s better with the lemon for sure. But still, I mean, it was good before but now it’s even better.
Well, there you have it. The official Alex Alavi review of the Yerevan Cafe’s esteemed lahmajun. But perhaps we’ve gone a little off topic. While the lahmajun was gradually reduced to crumbs, I asked Alex about the most exciting topic at hand: his new album.
WVAU: Your new album—can I ask what its name is?
ALEX: It’s called “The Good, the Bad, and the Breakfast.”
WVAU: Is there a specific theme to this album?
ALEX: Other than “Breakfast for Dinner” which kinda is the track the albums named after, I’d say not really […] If there is a theme, it’s probably whatever my neuroticism is, or the way I process emotions.
WVAU: You’re previous EP—“Satisfactory Man”—that was folksy music. And these last two singles this year, “I’m an Elephant” and “Copacetic” are indie-rock. I’m interested in if you’re staying in this path of indie rock for your album release?
ALEX: Yeah. The EP was a little bit of a diversion, I guess, from that.
WVAU: Like a side project?
ALEX: As much as I could have a side project for myself, yeah. ‘Cause what it was, was I just had some songs that were good, I thought, but I wanted to get them out quickly, and I wanted to see what it would be like to see how many songs I could make—could I be a proper songwriter? I had written a lot of songs but didn’t have a lot released, and I was like, “well why don’t I have very many released?” […] and I knew this guy, Potter, who plays fiddle—Potter Clark— and he’s an incredible fiddle player and violin player and plays on every track on that album. And I do love folk music and Bob Dylan and old country music. I like Waylon Jennings, that kind of stuff. Johnny Cash, […] Pete Seeger I like a lot, or, like, Woody Guthrie. So, I guess, like, folk before the 70s—but I still like the other stuff—but it seemed like an avenue I could pursue.
WVAU: What made you choose to go into the indie rock path?
ALEX: Well, it’s kind of what I’ve always wanted to do before [“Satisfactory Man”]. So, yeah, I grew up listening to a lot of rock music or some early punk music. I really like The Ramones, I really like The Clash. I really liked the Sonics who were like a garage band in the 60s, but they’re kinda like proto-punk. And so, y’know, loving that kinda music but also living in DC with that history of discord.
WVAU: These all inspired you to go on this path?
ALEX: Yeah, I guess so, and also you’re inspired by the people that you see. Like everyone I go to see shows with, there might be people doing something and I’m like, “oh I should be doing something like that, that’s a good idea.”
When asked about his favorite local DC groups and artists that he likes and inspires his music, he listed Venray, KINDA EVIL, Cherub Tree, Miss Moon, and Keegan Del Rio—the last two will be playing at Songbyrd Music House on Saturday the 19th, as well.
With the interview nearly done, I had one final question to ask—the most important one, with the most important answer.
WVAU: To all the music lovers at American University—do you have anything to say to them?
ALEX: Yeah—go to the shows. You’d be so surprised, most of the shows these days are like all-ages, you know? All the musicians in DC, we want people at the show, we want people to take an interest. They’re not that expensive, think about compared to going to a club, you’d spend probably less money at the show—at least for people making art in your neighborhood—people you could actually talk to. You can’t meet Taylor Swift, really […] But any band that you go see will love to meet you, any band in the DC area that you go see and you’re a fan of, they’ll love to meet you and talk to you, and they’ll just be grateful that you’re there. Because we need people like that, or else the scene dies. So, take an interest, go to the shows, check out your local venue, see who’s playing. If you like that genre, […] go to that shit and check it out. Maybe you’ll come away with a new favorite band or just some new friends.
For some reason or another, there seems to be the idea that good things are hard to come by—or, in this instance, good artists are hard to come by. I’m writing to say that couldn’t be more wrong. In an age where it’s so easy to become shackled to your Spotify playlists, where the algorithm feeds you your favorite songs every single day, it’s very easy to become trapped in a loop of comfort, listening to the same music day after day, too scared to try out new artists or maybe just too unsure of how to find new artists. As Alex said, there are people in your neighborhood making music right now, and all you have to do is step out of your comfort zone and reach out. I met Alex because I had a very strong impulse to buy a Walkman and was searching through music on the cassette shelf to buy when he walked into the store. But you don’t need to buy anything to introduce yourself to new music and new artists in DC; you just need to have the curiosity to check out different venues, take pictures of event posters in record shops, talk to artists you’re interested in, or simply have the courage to extend your arm into a realm of whole new possibilities. In other words, you should just go get some breakfast.
Alex Alavi and The Funky Breakfast will have their “The Good, the Bad, and the Breakfast” album release show at Songbyrd Music House on Saturday, September 19, at 7:00 P.M. Tickets are available here. If you like music and you like DC, come out and support the Funky Breakfast!