Part of what makes art and music so captivating is how entire personas and projects can come together, seemingly overnight if you’re not paying attention. That’s what I felt chatting with Xela Bela, the popstar alter ego of Joseph Alexander. Despite having released music before under their own name, the past year has been spent rediscovering the artist they want to be – and the community where that work can thrive.
Moving to the Triangle in 2018 didn’t immediately unlock the local scene they’d hoped for. It wasn’t until they walked into an open mic on a whim and, as they put it, couldn’t stop. One show led to the next, and eventually to open-call drag nights at Club Era in Durham, where performing “Reckless” for the first time netted a competition win they didn’t know they’d entered.
Now, they’re building toward a proper full-length album to follow the debut single. At its core, the project is rooted in identity: what it means to be queer, first-generation American, and Southern in a political moment that makes all three feel increasingly precarious. And while music aims to be a little escapist, the popstar aesthetic is far from understated.
What’s something you’ve been listening to lately?
Alex: I’m still kind of stuck on Lady Gaga‘s Mayhem. I just try to listen to other stuff and always end up coming back. Everybody around me has to hear it too, because I like to play it on loudspeaker.
Do you have a go-to song off it?
Alex: “Abracadabra”. That song is so aggressive but also really fun. It’s not too serious, and that bassline is disgusting. I was actually surprised it was such a big hit, because it doesn’t seem super radio-friendly. It’s intense.
Who was the first musician or artist you remember discovering on your own and just obsessing over?
Alex: No surprise after what I just said, but it was definitely Lady Gaga. The very first pop star I was into was Hilary Duff back in the day, but I was also like a child. Lady Gaga was in my formative teenage years when Born This Way and ARTPOP came out. Lana Del Rey also happened around the same time, like 2012. That was probably the most impactful period when I figured out what my tastes are.
What is it about Lady Gaga’s work specifically that draws you in? Is it the persona, the theatricality, the production?
Alex: There’s just such attention to detail and musicianship that, without all the glam and glitz, is still really impressive. A lot of her music is heavy, intense, and dark-sounding, but there are always beautiful melodies layered on top. It’s kind of jarring in a really fun way. And every single part of Lady Gaga is thought through; nothing is random or by chance. I’ve taken that approach with releasing music again and with my performances. I try to make them as interesting as possible, which sometimes makes it difficult to find the right places to perform.
What has your musical journey been up until this point? What brought you into making music, and was there a specific experience that made you want to start a new chapter?
Alex: My parents are both professional violinists, so I grew up around music all the time. My dad owns a violin shop in Greenville, North Carolina. I’ve always just had music happening around me and in my head. I started writing songs early on. They weren’t good, but I would sing along to instrumentals and come up with different melodies. Eventually, I learned how to produce. As Joseph Alexander, I was 19 and in college when I released my first EP.
After that, I honed in on the sound I liked, then took a break for a couple of years after releasing an album. I just didn’t do any promotion, didn’t think anything through; I’d been working on it for so long that I just needed to let it go. I recorded with Al Jacob at Warrior Sound in Chapel Hill, and I couldn’t keep texting him to change something again. But after that, the name stopped feeling like it fit me. For a few years, I was doing the real adult stuff like having a job, not really having time to go out and perform and meet people.
Then in September 2024, I was in the hospital for about two weeks with a collapsed lung, which, as a singer, is not great. They were able to repair everything with surgery, and I’ve mostly fully healed. I still have my full breath capacity, which was terrifying because I really thought I wouldn’t be able to sing anymore. That was a big reminder that music is just what I always come back to, and it can be taken away so quickly and randomly.
Shortly after that, Mayhem came out. I was listening to someone who’s a real master at their craft, and it just reminded me why I love pop music so much. That kind of started the whole thing. I started writing “Reckless”, and then one night out at Legends in Raleigh inspired the concept of the song.
On one hand, it’s a fun night-at-the-club kind of song, easy to dance to. But it’s also like, it feels really reckless now as a grown adult to be taking time and putting all my effort and energy into music again, performing and doing so much more with it than I ever did as Joseph Alexander. That feels kind of reckless and crazy, but I’m doing it.
How did you land on the name Xela Bela?
Alex: I was trying to find a shorter, unique name that felt right because Joseph Alexander is kind of generic. I ended up with some random lullabies on my Spotify page; it was kind of a mess. [laughs]
“Xela” is just Alex backward, which I thought was very fitting because it’s a different version of myself. And “Bela” because my parents, before I was born, thought I was going to be a girl and wanted to name me Isabella. As Xela Bela, I like to say I’m “gender dismantled” because I just don’t put a lot of thought into it and do whatever I want. That felt like a name that encompassed all the different parts of me. And no one else is named Xela Bela. It’s easy to remember, catchy, and people always ask how to pronounce it.
How important is having a music video to you, both for this song and your music in general?
Alex: It’s just something that’s so much fun for me to see from other artists. I get these ideas out of nowhere. Like, “I need to chainsaw a mannequin in half in seven-inch heels, and I don’t know why.” I just get these ideas and try to find a way to execute them.
I don’t have a huge budget, so a lot of it is DIY, but I think it’s really important that you can see the visual part of what I hear in the song. A song takes on a different identity once you see the video, so releasing them together sets the tone for what I’m doing. I have a lot of other music in the works, so I’m kind of trying to do some world-building.
What’s the process been like with the other songs? Are you working toward an EP or an album?
Alex: I have an album in mind with a concept and a lot of songs that fit into it. It’s definitely the best stuff I’ve made, which is really exciting. I started taking voice lessons again. I did that a long time ago when I was 16, but doing it again and really working on all the details and making sure I’m actually good at what I’m doing. I’m kind of taking the approach of what you do in musical theater: going through every line, asking what this means and what expression I’m trying to share. It makes things take a lot longer, but we’re getting there.
What are your plans for the rollout?
Alex: As an independent artist, there’s no label, no one waiting on deadlines except me, so it’s been nice to plan the debut of Xela Bela on my own timeline. I originally wanted to release “Reckless” in February and an album in the summer, but that’s not happening. I re-recorded it after doing a full mix because I just didn’t like how I sounded and took a whole new approach.
Ideally, I’d like to release an album next year and probably another single and video this year, but I’ll gauge that based on the response to the single. This will be my first time doing a proper release and marketing rollout in several years, and a lot has changed since then.
Your outreach mentioned writing about your experience as a queer first-gen American in an increasingly hostile sociopolitical climate. How do you see yourself responding to that through your music?
Alex: Definitely an increasingly hostile world, especially in the United States; things took a real drastic turn. But I do think a lot of this has always been this way. It’s just that now people aren’t afraid to openly be an asshole. It definitely informs how I’m approaching the music. My goal with performing and everything is to give queer people and marginalized folks who are reasonably scared of what’s going on just a couple of minutes of entertainment, something to take away from that. It’s a little bit escapist.
The album concept is very much identity-based. The songs cover different facets of that and how it interacts with the world. And “Reckless” is about the craziness of suddenly deciding, yeah, I still want to be a local pop star, so I’m just going to do it. But also, what I’m doing involves a lot of drama, makeup, costumes, and things that an average straight guy might be a little uncomfortable with. That also feels kind of reckless. I’m excited to do it and hopefully be a voice for young people who can look at it and think, okay, you can kind of do whatever you want, and it’s fine. Not everything is overtly political, but there are political undertones in pretty much all of it.
You mentioned your dad’s violin shop in Greenville, and obviously Greenville and the Triangle are very different places in terms of queer acceptance. Has being in Chapel Hill and having community here shaped this next chapter for you?
Alex: Xela Bela didn’t exist until about a year ago. I’ve lived in the Triangle since 2018, but I got so distracted with adult things, and it took me away from music. I moved here specifically because I thought it would be a good place to make music, perform, and find a local scene, but I just didn’t know what I was doing or where to go. Then last year I was just like, “You have to go do one open mic and see what happens.” That one open mic was kind of a gateway drug to a whole bunch of other stuff.
It’s been really interesting being accepted by the queer drag community. A lot of what I do has a drag element in the sense that it’s very theatrical, with costumes and a point of view. I’ve performed in some open-call drag shows, and the first time I performed “Reckless” was at an open-call show last June. I didn’t realize it was a competition, and then I won. I was like, “oh shit, people actually like what I’m doing.” Just having that and knowing people are interested and excited, because before this, I just never really had any community around music.
And then it’s also been interesting to be accepted outside of that world, playing open mics a little more stripped down, just piano or a light synth, and getting good feedback from that world too, which I’ve always been intimidated by. So I feel pretty accepted by all the different areas of music I’ve explored. I don’t know that it’s shaped my identity so much as given me permission to do what I want and take the approach I want. Or what I imagine a pop star should be, with my 400 followers.
Who are some of your favorite local or North Carolina-specific artists, musicians, or drag performers you’d want to shout out?
Alex: I first have to say Naomi Dix, who owns Club Era. What an icon. She offered everyone who competed in last year’s Entertainer of the Year competition to come in, sit with her for an hour, talk about their artistry, and get some advice. I took her up on it immediately and had such a great time.
Since then, she’s let me film a good chunk of the video for “Reckless” at Club Era, because what a cool setting. And the local burlesque performer Jojo Devereaux; we actually went to college together and lived in the same dorm building at UNCG, then kind of lost touch, and then we both ended up performing at Club Era in the same scene in the Triangle. She has always been so supportive, and she still has the physical CD of my first EP in her car’s CD player.
I also met Miss Caleb Stefani Lepore through an open-call show at Club Era, and she is such a superstar and was featured in the video for “Reckless”. Watching her following grow and seeing people all over the underground performance scene be excited about her is amazing and inspiring.
I’ve also seen Sorta Spooky. I caught one of their shows at The Cave, they were super cool, and I’m going to be working with them in June.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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