about townsppl
townsppl is Alex Stanton’s performing and recording music project. Alex is a folk pop singer and multi-instrumentalist with imaginative lyrics and song concepts. Alex works with crap parlor guitars, 60’s 2 knob tube amplifiers, chinese and american ukuleli (ukulelen?), his grandmother’s upright bass, an open piano that he describes as “intune-ish”, found percussion implements (he’s particularly interested in those that go “kssh” or “doonnmm”) and plenty of layered voices.
An entrepreneur and lifelong inventor, Alex builds his songs like little contraptions, tinkering to find the right balances of wood and wires, and of polish and scuff. While the dressings vary from the ornate to the austere, Alex’s north star is melody, especially those that are simple, relatable, memorable. The words are at once earnest and wry with subjects include stargazing existential ponderings, out-of-body vignettes and microscopic love songs to Alex’s sweet one.
Come show time Alex performs with 0-10 other people including backup singers and some tangly and dynamic vocal arrangements. townsppl has performed at the Three Rivers Arts Festival, South Park Amphitheater and a number of other official and DIY spaces in Alex’s hometown of Pittsburgh. 2013’s care and feeding was acclaimed for it’s state of the art hand assembled packaging, which could be cut and folded into a 14” venus fly trap sculpture (if you’re willing to cut the CD in half). Alex’s second full length twigs was awarded the local album of the year by Pittsburgh music station WYEP.
Alex is also the owner and founder of Sunburst School of Music, which since 2011 has helped thousands of kids and adults in the Pittsburgh area discover their passion for music.
social media
Press
twigs review from independent clauses
twigs review from pittsburgh post gazette
twigs single review from east of 8th
twigs video review from groundsounds