Pop music is ready for Nashville's Brooke Alexx: 'Big Mouth' is a smile-inducing debut

Brooke Alexx has received a lot of hate comments about her mouth over the years. But on her debut album, "Big Mouth," the Nashville pop artist is owning it.

She's proud of her sizable smiling, singing and secret-sharing kisser.

The 29-year-old singer-songwriter — born Brooke Greenberg — is best known for her 2022 hit "All My Exes' Moms," which skyrocketed her to social media vitality . Two years later, Alexx's first headline tour and her debut album are here.

"Big Mouth," an 11-track collection that includes "All My Exes' Moms," was released on Oct. 4. The record sees Alexx navigating the fallout from a breakup amid a burgeoning career, all captured in catchy, poppy licks that stick in your head for days on end.

The album shows listeners what Alexx is all about: She's the clever, older sister who you want to gossip with, curled up on the couch. The more mature Olivia Rodrigo, the more relatable Hannah Montana — and she's just getting started.

How Brooke Alexx navigates her career takeoff as an independent artist

The Tennessean sat down with Alexx at her Nashville apartment as she prepared for her album launch. Open boxes of merch and tour gear were strewn across the apartment floor.

"It's very stressful, I would say, to take on this big of a project, especially as an independent artist — which is what I wanted," she said. "Right now it's a lot of running around."

On the day of the interview, Alexx had to distribute her merchandise into album-announcement PR mailers and get ready for her tour.

"I want to have full control over everything I do, but then I'm just adding so much to my plate. But I'm very grateful for it at the same time."

Alexx has worked long and hard to see this success come to light.

The half-Japanese New Jersey native used to go into New York City as a kid to audition for all kinds of musicals, commercials and entertainment work. After discovering Taylor Swift at age 13, Alexx decided to shift from show tunes to writing pop songs.

She attended college at North Carolina's Elon University, studying music production. After school, Alexx and an a cappella group friend, fellow pop artist Rosemary Joaquin , moved to Nashville and became roommates.

Alexx has been in town for about seven years, working as a video editor for Big Machine Records and Warner Music Nashville. When TikTok got big, she combined her love of video and music creation, growing her fanbase as she released music videos on the platform.

Alexx credits much of her career boom to social media, like when a reaction video of Joaquin first listening to "All My Ex's Moms" took off. The lyrics are stunners: "All my exes' moms listen to my songs, yeah / They can't get enough, still keep in touch since I moved on / All my exes' moms only wish me well / Bet they hate their sons all ended up with someone else."

Impressively, Alexx directed and edited a music video for the song that has garnered over a million views.

Alexx went on tours opening for Lostboycrow, Arrows in Action and Nicotine Dolls, became an "accidental influencer" after accepting brand deals, and started seeing funds from streaming.

Last year, she quit her video editing job to focus on music full-time, something she was really nervous about.

"But I wouldn't have been able to create everything I've created this year without doing that," she said.

She dived headfirst into music and decided the time was right for her debut album. "Doesn't matter that I'm not signed. I can do it myself," she remembers thinking.

Album releases and tours are expensive for an indie artist, but Alexx has been able to "piecemeal it together." Mastercard and Ones to Watch are sponsoring the tour, which has been a huge help, she said.

Alexx combined her skills yet again, crafting a 30-minute biopic about creating "Big Mouth" ahead of her first headlining tour, which kicks off on Saturday in Minnesota.

On Oct. 29, Alexx will bring the Big Mouth tour to Nashville .

The chronologically ordered 'Big Mouth' brings all-consuming power-pop

Alexx's girlfriends first threw out the name "Big Mouth," nodding to one of her prominent features. "I've gotten a lot of hate comments about my mouth ... the idea of 'Big Mouth' is that we're owning that," she said.

"A big mouth is synonymous with spilling tea, sharing secrets, gossiping, and that's exactly what songwriting is," Alexx said, dissecting the double meaning.

And in her chronological album, she does just that through her expressive and smooth, yet vivid voice.

"Big Mouth" is Alexx's gutsy goodbye letter to her 20s: insecure and confident, petty and practical, ruminating and accepting.

With Alanis Morissette-level angst, the first track, "Super Famous," is Alexx's response to her college boyfriend breaking up with her. "I come up in conversations / My song shows up on your playlist ...Your new girl, she’ll know what my name is / Almost like I’m super famous," she sings.

"That was a pivotal relationship for me, and when that ended, it catapulted me into this career," Alexx said. "I credit that breakup for my success a lot."

Even though it hurt her, it gave her the space to push herself harder.

In "Move to LA (I Don't Wanna)," Alexx critiques the unwarranted advice folks give her about her music career as she continues to work.

"Nashville is known for songwriting and lyricism and storytelling, and that is something that I hold dear to me," she said. "And so that's why I'm so adamant about creating pop music in Nashville. I think it's slightly different than the kind of pop music that comes out of L.A."

So no, Alexx will not be moving to Los Angeles.

"Girlfriend" and "Break Up on Vacation" see Alexx waxing poetic about the frustrations of dating. Tracks like "Never Liked Your Name" — a dig at her ex's name — and "All My Exes' Moms" get real about post-relationship dynamics.

Those two tracks were crafted in L.A. at an Asian American and Pacific Islander songwriting camp with ASCAP where she worked with writers and producers of Asian descent. For one track, Alexx even brought on an Asian mixer and mastering engineer, and her single's artwork was taken by an Asian photographer.

Earlier this year, Alexx was named one of the Recording Academy's 10 emerging AAPI artists to watch .

"I was insecure about being Asian growing up, especially since I knew I wanted to be a pop singer ... and I didn't really see a lot of representation of that." Besides Olivia Rodrigo (who is half-Filipina) and K-pop, Alexx said there still aren't many top pop artists that are Asian.

"I have not written with any Asian people in Nashville," she added. "I'd love to see more of that, so that other people feel like they can do it as well."

Listen to Alexx's 2022 song "I'm Sorry, Tokyo," where she sings about the need for this kind of representation.

Toward the end of the new album, "Stepping Stone" sees Alexx learning that her college ex is engaged to a girl he dated after her.

And in her final song, "First Time," "we wrap up the album on a positive, hopeful note," Alexx said. "Where it's like, I did love that guy. That means love exists, and I can find it again with someone else.

"I feel like I'm wrapping up my 20s in a bow with this album and now I can move on. It's the best closure ever," she said.

"It's all contained. And now it's time to move on to the next project, who I am in life, my 30s."

You can catch Brooke Alexx's Oct. 29 show along with opener Rosemary Joaquin at The End.

Audrey Gibbs is a music journalist at The Tennessean. You can reach her at agibbs@tennessean.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Pop music is ready for Nashville's Brooke Alexx: 'Big Mouth' is a smile-inducing debut