Alex Calder

Alexander Calder (January 23, 1989 – March 4, 2026), known professionally as Alex Calder, was a Canadian singer-songwriter and musician. He first came to prominence in the late 2000s as the drummer for the indie rock project Makeout Videotape, which he formed with Mac DeMarco in Vancouver. After the project wound down, Calder pursued a solo career writing lo-fi, psychedelic pop songs. Captured Tracks released his debut EP, Time, and his first full-length album, Strange Dreams (2015).

Early life Alexander Calder was born on January 23, 1989, in Edmonton, Alberta. He grew up with parents he described as "hippies" who filled the house with records by The Beatles and other 1960s acts. His mother ran an Edmonton thrift store called Red Pony, where Calder worked for four years and frequently sourced his clothing.

Calder started writing and recording his own material around 2005, initially experimenting with electronic music and audio manipulation before moving toward rock instrumentation. During high school, he met fellow Edmonton native Mac DeMarco, and the two formed a jokey "bar-rock" band called The Meat Cleavers that mostly wrote songs about their hometown.

Career

2008–2010: Makeout Videotape Calder relocated to Vancouver in 2008 and formed Makeout Videotape with DeMarco. The project signed to Unfamiliar Records in late 2009, with DeMarco having already recorded the Heat Wave! EP in his Vancouver garage; Calder joined as drummer for live shows under the alias "Alex Van Flip." As the project's drummer, Calder contributed to its DIY aesthetic, which involved recording a series of CD-R EPs and the full-length album Ying Yang (2010). He also starred as the female lead in the music video for the song "Only You." In a 2010 interview, DeMarco joked that he wrote many of his songs about Calder, who was "having a rough time in his life right now," while Calder smiled and shook his head. The band toured locally, with Calder taking odd jobs such as washing dishes and working retail at American Apparel (where he admitted to spending his shifts playing the video game SimAnt) to support himself financially. Calder later stated he was unbothered by frequent comparisons to DeMarco during his solo career, praising his former bandmate's songwriting.

2012–2016: Solo career After parting ways with DeMarco, Calder returned to Edmonton and began working on solo material. He initially uploaded his music to Bandcamp under the pseudonym "Mold Boy," and used the alias "Collage Party" when submitting early tracks to music blogs. Although "Mold Boy" was intended to be an instrumental side-project for longer experimental songs, Calder eventually integrated these experimental styles into his main catalog. Calder explained in a 2014 interview that he started Mold Boy partly as a "legal thing" to release music freely while keeping his identity secret, but admitted he "got a little greedy" and the projects eventually coexisted.

His solo work reached the Brooklyn-based indie label Captured Tracks after DeMarco shared some of Calder's anonymous Collage Party demos with the label's founder, Mike Sniper. Sniper offered Calder a record deal, prompting him to drop the pseudonyms and release his official debut, the Time EP, under his own name in March 2013. He recorded the project in his living room. The EP received positive reviews from critics, who highlighted the track "Suki and Me" as an example of his 1960s-inspired psychedelic pop sound. A reviewer at AllMusic noted the EP's "very catchy pop songs" and its resemblance to fellow Captured Tracks artists like Beach Fossils and DeMarco, singling out "Suki and Me" as the standout track. Pitchfork, in an earlier track review of "Suki and Me," described Calder's voice as "just on the other side of exhausted" and noted the song's drums "thumping at a half-lope." Calder stated the track was a nostalgic nod to his youth, named after his childhood pet cat.

Prior to the official release of his debut full-length album, Strange Dreams, Calder temporarily released the project for free. Due to scheduling delays at his label, he uploaded an unmastered version of the album to Bandcamp in May 2014, explaining that the songs felt "really old" to him. Once Captured Tracks secured a formal schedule to distribute the album physically on vinyl, CD, and cassette, Calder removed the online version. He spent the intervening time reworking tracks for its official 2015 release. In November 2014, Calder shared the single "Lola," a haunting track in which he repeats only the title over subtle tonal shifts. Reviewers noted the final album possessed a darker, more melancholic tone compared to his peers, with critics comparing Calder's vocal delivery and hazy garage psychedelia to that of Bradford Cox (Deerhunter, Atlas Sound). AllMusic's Tim Sendra described the record as "a much murkier, far more mysterious affair" than the Time EP, praising tracks like "No Device" for their "gooey soft rock appeal" while noting Calder's "courage to subvert his skill set in an interesting way." NOW Magazine highlighted the "jangly, acid-tinged tracks" and Calder's "precise ear for pop ingenuity," naming "Strange Dreams" the top track. Northern Transmissions praised the album's "remarkable songwriting worthy of being taken on its own, out of DeMarco's shadow," while other critics similarly commended the record's "smoggy atmosphere and understated charm."

Calder promoted the album with a record release show at the Cameo Gallery in Brooklyn alongside Beach Fossils frontman Dustin Payseur's side project, Laced. In July 2016, Calder released a 15-track collection of home recordings titled Bend. Initially released as a temporary Bandcamp exclusive, it was later given a physical release as a limited-edition cassette by Captured Tracks. Exclaim! praised tracks like "Dealing With The Sun," "Fade," and "Shaking My Years Away" as "fully realized efforts," while noting that "consistency is the missing ingredient" on the cassette. Slug Magazine similarly noted the record's "effortless" dream-pop quality. Calder also released a self-issued covers EP in early 2016, featuring renditions of songs by Björk, The Breeders, and Stereolab. That same year, he collaborated with Peter Sagar's project Homeshake for a charity split single. The record featured Calder's "Stuck Inside" on one side and Homeshake's "Nankhatai" on the other, with all proceeds benefiting the International Refugee Assistance Project.

2017–2020: Self-titled album, allegation, and hiatus On August 3, 2017, Captured Tracks announced the release of Calder's self-titled sophomore album, which was scheduled to be released on October 20, 2017. To promote the record, Calder released the lead single "Morning Ritual", featuring guest vocals from Caroline Levasseur. The album marked a departure from Calder's isolated bedroom-pop approach, as he recorded much of the project at the studio of his friend Garrett Johnson, who featured on the track "Half an Hour." Levasseur also contributed to a second track, "Another Day." Calder described the record as "sad clown music," drawing sonic inspiration from the films of Paul Thomas Anderson, artists such as Stereolab and Kate Bush, and the video game soundtracks of EarthBound and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Billboard and BuzzFeed News both reported that the Canadian musician had been dropped from the label amid the allegation, with Captured Tracks posting a statement that they were "no longer working with Alex moving forward." The label canceled the album's release, halted the distribution of his back catalog, and canceled his upcoming release show at Sunnyvale in Brooklyn. BrooklynVegan reported that Calder put his "music career and 'all creative pursuits'" on hold following the statement.

2021–2026: Final years Calder maintained a dedicated presence on his Instagram and YouTube pages where he posted comedic content and interacted with fans. Following a multi-year absence from music, Calder republished his full discography on digital streaming platforms in late 2021 and self-released archival material and independent music online via Bandcamp. This included the compilation albums Collage Party (2020) and Pleated (2022), which consisted of early unreleased demos, alongside standalone singles such as "Slide / Big Day" and "I Am Glue." During this period, the shelved self-titled album also surfaced on streaming services, with one retrospective review noting the record's "darker and harder to pin down" character compared to his earlier work. He resided in Montreal, Quebec, with his girlfriend, Lindsay, and his pet cat, Jason.

Calder generally structured his songs while recording them, rather than composing them in advance. He would lay down a guitar riff first, leaving the lyric-writing process for last. Beyond the studio, Calder openly discussed experiencing severe stage anxiety during live performances. While his early concerts featured heavily improvised comedy and inside jokes—such as intentionally alienating crowds by playing the theme song to King of the Hill ten times in a row—he eventually decreased the humor to focus more seriously on his musicianship. For the release of his debut EP, he directed a retro-style video for the track "Light Leave Your Eyes," which established his visual tone. He carried this aesthetic into the promotional cycle for Strange Dreams, enlisting his friend Cole Kushner to direct a music video for the melancholy track "Lola" that was deliberately designed to be as "stupid" and jarring as possible.

Discography

Studio albums Strange Dreams (2015) Alex Calder (2017; canceled)

Extended plays Time (2013)

Compilations Mold Boy (2015) Bend (2016) Collage Party (2020) Pleated (2022)