Sweety High had the opportunity to chat with Nashville-based singer-songwriter ALINA ahead of her new EP catching lightning, out today, Dec. 5. At only 19, ALINA has surged as one of our favorite indie-pop darlings.
Her quietly gutting single “I Know, I Know, I Know” has already surpassed 7 million Spotify streams since its March 2025 release, and with more than 800k followers across Instagram and TikTok, she’s fast becoming Gen Z’s favorite source of catharsis wrapped in a hook you can’t shake. Now, she’s back with her latest work, an EP EP featuring the songs “chain reaction,” “bulletproof,” “forever,” “mercilessly” and “nothing i am.”
Born and raised in Las Vegas, ALINA grew up surrounded by performers and started writing songs at age seven, treating her dad’s studio like her personal playground. She later honed her craft by studying songwriting at Belmont University, shaping a sound that refuses to be boxed into one genre—ranging from rock to piano-driven ballads to alt-pop. She cites indie bands like Momma and diaristic pop artists like Phoebe Bridgers and Gracie Abrams as inspirations, but ultimately, her music follows her emotions wherever they go.
You can now listen to the EP HERE, and be sure to keep an eye out for upcoming lyrics videos.
SH: How did growing up in a family of performers help shape the musician you are today? And who were some of your early music influences aside from your family?
ALINA: Growing up in a family where my dad is a musician, my mom is a dancer, my sister was a musician and an actress, it was definitely interesting because I thought growing up, I didn’t realize that doing music was a unique thing. I thought all families did this. My dad liked playing songwriting games with me as a kid. So he would have me and my sister join, and he would start like beatboxing and be like, “Write a song about the couch.” Oh, I’m like 6, by the way, I don’t even know what the word “couch” means yet anyway, but I was always doing that sort of thing growing up. My dad got me a ukulele for Christmas when I was 7, and I was in piano lessons and all that sort of stuff.
And I think that this kind of helped me in a lot of ways because music became my therapy, it became like my journal. So growing up, when I was like 7, I started writing songs just because I was feeling big emotions and didn’t know what to do with them. So I feel like it’s really helped me in a way because I feel like a lot of people who start writing songs later in life have this idea of what songwriting is supposed to be. And I never really had that. It was kind of just fun and whatever I was feeling. So I feel like that really helped me in a lot of ways.
I also think that having a dad who was a songwriter and a sister who was also an incredible songwriter—being able to learn from them and seeing how they structured songs and how they went about that— helped me realize what the options were and also what I could break out of if I wanted to. And then influences other than my family growing up. Actually, honestly, I feel like I didn’t really listen to music as a kid that much because of how musical my family was. Like, we were always like, playing instruments and singing around the house. If I was listening to music, it was 21 Pilots and Kesha. Then also lots of Michael Jackson, lots of Elvis and Lady Gaga.
(Photo credit: Sony Music Entertainment)
SH: If you could co-write a song with any singer-songwriter, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
ALINA: Phoebe Bridgers. In reality, probably Phoebe Bridgers because she’s just a genius, and I feel like she must be one of those people who locks herself in a closet to write a song and doesn’t speak to people for five days, but I still feel like I could sit in the closet with her and just see what’s happening.
SH: How was that opening for the band Camino, and any standout memories from that L.A. show?
ALINA: Oh my god, it was so fun. I was horrified for my life because before going into this tour, I’d only ever played with a band four times. And I’ve never used in-ears before. So when I heard about this tour, obviously I was like, “Yes,” but I was also actually s****ing my pants because I was like, “Oh, I’m about to literally be learning how to perform in front of a bunch of people. This is horrifying.” And we only did like four rehearsals leading up. So it was a little bit of a train wreck. And we also didn’t get a sound check on the first day.
But my band is lovely and wonderful and perfect, and they’re all my friends from Nashville and are so wonderful. Plus, my sister was singing background, my dad was running sound, so it was like a family and friend affair. Which made it a lot less stressful, because I knew that I had them to lean on if anything.
But opening for them was incredible. They’re so inspiring. And almost Monday was also so cool—just to see their stage presence and how they perform, because I follow a lot of indie singer-songwriter girls who will just sit there with a guitar and show it in a different way.
Standout moment from the L.A. show, well, there are a few. I felt the most nervous at the L.A. show because most of my family and my friends were going to be at that one. Not many people that I knew were at the other one. And there were a few guys in the audience who were like so into it for the L.A. shows. And I was like, you know what? You’re probably drunk, but I love it. And they were throwing up heart hands and stuff. And as soon as I took a sip, bro was like, “I was like, You want my spit water? Like, what are we doing?” And then he’s trying to get me to throw it, so I was like, “I’m not throwing that at you.” But then everyone started yelling at me, so I had to throw it. And then I threw it, thinking I was gonna hit someone in the head. I was like, “I’m getting a lawsuit. It’s over. I’m catching a case.” But he caught it.
And then also, the last song on the L.A. show was actually traumatizing. My drummer’s in-ears got turned off, died or unplugged, or something happened to where he could no longer hear anything. And we’re playing with tracks, obviously. We’re starting the last song, which is like so reliant on drums too, and it’s like the one song I’m like, everyone dance yeah, and literally we had to restart it three times because he could not hear anything and was just playing completely all the time trying to follow us and then the traps were playing like in our ears, they were playing like over each other, so it was playing like six times. But eventually I played, and it was all lovely, and everyone was very nice about it.
Apparently, it didn’t seem that horrible to everyone else. It felt like 20 years to me, but you know what? That’s okay, it happened now, we’ve dealt with it, we know how to avoid that in the future. I’m glad that, even though there were a few hiccups, we learned from them. Now, when it comes to a headline show, I’m gonna have to figure my life out.
(Photo credit: Sony Music Entertainment)
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SH: The next question is about one of our favorite tracks of yours, “I Know, I Know, I Know.” It’s seen a lot of success in the past couple months. Did you expect it to resonate the way it has?
ALINA: So I wrote that song. actually quite a while before I ended up even thinking about releasing it. I wrote it in September of last year, and it was because I was talking to this girl and i thought I was in love, but she was fake and evil, and she ruined my life. We were talking for two weeks, by the way, I’m just crazy, but no, it was one of those, “I’m just not looking for anything right now, i need to be alone.” And this is my first time ever experiencing this, so I was like, oh, she needs to be alone, I’m waiting this out. And then she immediately was with someone else, and I was like, oh!
My process was literally just stress and horror. Like, that was the process of writing the song. I wrote that song, and it was so wordy and had like, no chorus. I loved it, but I was like, “I’m probably never going to do anything with this.” I mean, it’s just three minutes of different words. And then posted on TikTok for the first time. I think it got like 20k likes or something, and then I kind of just kept posting, and every time I posted it, it got like a pretty decent response.
And then I started to record it because I was like, you know what? Like, f*** everyone. I want to release it. Like, I love this song. And as soon as I was going to release it, it started to blow up on TikTok, which, like, magical musical timing. That’s like everyone’s dream. So I was like, I’m famous.
I was so excited that that was the one that specifically started to do well, because this is also when I started, for the first time, writing in sessions and stuff. I had never really done that. I was always writing by myself for the longest time. I mean, sometimes with my family, but like, the majority, I loved writing just on my own. When I got to college, I started doing more co-writes and that sort of thing. My song, “Don’t Be a Stranger,” was like one of my first co-writes. I did, and I started to get nervous that, like, maybe I needed to do co-writes to be a good songwriter to a point, because I feel like that’s like how everyone is in the industry. And so for “I Know, I Know, I Know” to be the one that started to do well, and it being 100% me and proving that it could be my own music was super exciting to me and made me feel a lot more confident in myself and my writing.
I wasn’t expecting people to like it as much as they did, but I’m really glad that they did because it made me realize that I could just kind of be vulnerable in my writing, and that can be what carries it. It doesn’t have to be like some pop melody; it can kind of just be whatever I feel.
SH: So you’re putting out your second EP, and why do you think now is the right time to release this project?
ALINA: Well, the first EP should have never happened, by the way, but that’s okay. I feel like for a long time I kind of was just like, I’m just some like little TikTok bi*** releasing music. Like, who cares? But I feel like I finally kind of feel like I’m coming into myself as an artist and like have a direction I want to go in and know who I am, a lot better. For a long time, it was kind of like I would write songs where it’s decent enough to release, might as well, but I feel like now I’ve gotten to a point where I actually love the songs I’m writing and I stand by them 100% which has not really happened before in my life. And especially the songs on this EP, to me, they kind of live in this little world of like such a little time period in my life, and I love it so much, and they all fit so well together. As soon as I finished writing the fifth song, “Catching Lightning,” I was like, yeah, this is gonna be what that is, and we’re just gonna move on from that now. I think it’ll get more than three streams for sure. Please, God!
SH: What message do you hope that listeners take away from this EP?
ALINA: No. 1, everyone thinks life sucks a lot of the time, but that’s okay because we’re all in it together. Being a person is hard, and we need to all have a community in that and be together in it, because I feel like there’s been a lot of times where I felt like a lot of the songs that I wrote, I feel like were especially emotional. I was like, no one’s ever gonna relate to this, it’s just like a me thing, and it’s kind of embarrassing. Specifically, “chain reaction” was one of those where I wrote it, and I was like, this is a little too vulnerable and embarrassing to ever do anything with. And then I posted, and people were like, oh yeah, no, this is like so real. And it just even brought me comfort of being like, oh, people do get me. I feel like it is really easy to feel alone in those emotions, but in that moment, I wasn’t.
So a lot of the songs are also about literally just not caring if people like treat you however, and just letting them do it, because you just love them so much. And that’s not actually how love works. So I feel like that’s also a good message: love yourself more than others sometimes, because you need it. Shout out therapy, real quick.
SH: Do you have a favorite lyric off the new project?
ALINA: “forever.” I love that song a lot. It’s like the repeated first verse that plays in my head constantly. My whole thought process when I was writing that song was, whenever you ask someone, “Do you mind?” And they say yes, but they actually mean no, but I was like, wait, what if you actually meant yes. So, for some reason, that inspired that. Like, if I say, “Do you mind that I’m being annoying right now?” And they’re like, yeah. And they actually mean it. It’s like, what do you mean? So I feel like that, last lyric, I feel like is the one that I will always go back to.
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SH: Could you walk us through a day of writing one of the EP tracks?
ALINA: “bulletproof” is the only song on the EP that was a co-write. I was on tour with Grace Vanderwaal, opening for her, and I was in New York. It was like my third time ever in New York, my first time ever like actually exploring the city. So I felt so cool and indie. And my manager and I went out to dinner at a really cool restaurant, and there was a paper table cover, which I love. I will usually always ask for crayons, but this was not that kind of establishment, I fear. But my phone was dead, I had my digital camera, and for some reason, I just had it in my head: “I didn’t dodge a bullet. I handed you the gun,” and that was just playing. I was just sitting there, and I literally started writing the song on the table. And I literally have a video recording from my digital camera of me singing the melody into the camera so I wouldn’t forget, because my phone was dead. And anyway, so I started writing it then.
The next day, I had a session scheduled with these guys, Grant and Cody, who live in New York, and I had never worked with them before, but had heard wonderful things. So I went in, and Grant is like a golden retriever, and Cody’s like the dad of the group. I played them my idea. And I played just like the whole first verse is what I had written, and then we just went in. Then, by the end of the session, we actually only had the acoustic guitar and my vocals done, and that was it. Then, when I got it sent to me, I was like, I was not expecting this to be what this was like. I did not expect the whole, like, big, rock vibe. Yeah, I didn’t expect that at all, but I loved how it turned out.
SH: When do you find yourself being most creative when it comes to songwriting?
ALINA: Hmm, when I’m depressed. Yeah, whenever anything horrible happens in my life. It’s sad to say, but I guess that is always when it’s going to flow out of me. Whenever I have a thing happen to me, and I’m upset about it, I’m going to sit down with my guitar, and that’s going to be like the first thing I do. That’s how genuinely most of the songs on the EP came out. I had just gone through something and then just sat down, and it literally—I wrote for 30 minutes and then moved on because I just needed to get it out. I feel the most inspired when I’ve just gone through something big, or I’m feeling big emotions that I don’t really know what to do with, because I’m not the best at journaling.
Or when I’ve just seen a concert or a documentary. For example, whenever I watched the Billie Eilish documentary, I was always inspired by that. She’s just such a queen.
SH: Where do you see yourself in five years, and what are some goals over the next year?
ALINA: I’m such a pessimist. It’s kind of bad. I have really high expectations for myself and really big goals in my life. But I also never expected to get as far as I am right now. Like, even playing the tour that I just did, like every time I was on stage, I was like, “I never thought I was gonna get to do this at all.” So I already am like accepting that this could be my peak. I’m like, this could be the peak of my life, and then I’m just going to be talking about this when I was like, oh, when I was 19, for the rest of my life, you know what I mean? I hope that’s not the case, but I’m really bad with that.
I would love, at some point in the next five years, to do a headline tour or not even a tour, just some headline shows. I would love to do a full-length show with a band, because I’ve just never really done that, especially for people who know my music. I don’t care if it’s 10 people. If I can get 10 people who actually care about my music and know who I am into a room, we’re having a concert. So I would love anything of that nature to happen. And then also just releasing all the music that feels right to me, and not letting myself get lost in doing what I think I’m supposed to be doing. I think especially with like TikTok and everything, you can feel like you kind of have to do certain things because that’s what the algorithm wants. But I feel like that takes all of the beauty out of music.
A big thing that I love about Phoebe Bridgers is that number one is not even on social media. And her music has never followed a structure; it doesn’t follow trends of what’s happening. She’s just doing her own f***ing thing. And people just love it. Not that I’m ever going to be Phoebe Bridgers, but in the dream world. But I feel like that’s the roadmap I would want to take— just doing my own thing, sticking to my guns, obviously posting on socials and stuff because a girl got to do what she got to do.
And I just want to put my head down and work. Hopefully, people will hear music in the process, but if not, at least I get to make music because that’s a beautiful thing in itself. And yeah, performing more would be wonderful. So yeah, all that.
SH: Anything else you’d like to add that we haven’t talked about yet, or you want to mention?
ALINA: I’m very excited for people to hear the songs on here, and “nothing i am,” is probably my favorite. So I hope that people will listen to the end of the EP because that’s the last track. I’m evil for doing that, but that’s okay. And yeah, that one’s my favorite, so I hope people really like that one, but I also hope they like all of them. All the producers I worked with were awesome.
For more on our favorite music out today, click HERE to read our interview with Meet Me @ The Altar on their new WORRIED SICK EP.
