In 2020 then London-based Anglo-Greco-Persian artist Lexytron released a debut album titled, ‘Something Blue’, not in reference to the genre but rather her concept of it as ‘an alternative girl’s guide to love, loss and lust’. Five years on the now Auckland-based artist has released a follow up album, ’Something New’ (see what she did there?), a synthy, bouncy, tour-de-force of Euro pop through the decades since disco ruled the charts. Michaela Tempany talked with her.

“When I was younger I wanted to be a bit of a rock star,” Lexy tells me early in our Zoom interview. Like the music on her sophomore album, she has a light, friendly demeanour, and I am struck by her broad musical awareness. The Beatles, Ramones, The Clash, Brit-pop and garage rock, ‘60s rock ‘n’ roll… she speaks interchangeably about these influences within the space of a sentence.

“I used to listen to a weekly radio show,” she explains. “It played two hours of just ‘60s music, and people find that funny, that I know a lot about what might be obscure for people of our age.”

While Lexytron is her own artist name, it is alternately used as indie pop-rock duo Lexytron, a Tāmaki-based husband and wife outfit who have just released the vibrant album titled ‘Something New’.

It’s been five years since the release of the debut Lexytron album, and a lot has changed for the couple in that time. Moving halfway across the world, they swapped their London flat for an Auckland one, and have become parents for the first time. ‘Something New’ has evolved with them; it is rockier, poppier, and exudes a mature confidence.

The more we talk the clearer it is that, as well as having an extraordinary knowledge of popular music, Lexy has her own interesting and diverse musical history. I want to know more about her background and range of musical interests.

“My mum’s Iranian,” she says. “My dad’s Greek. And I was born in England, so I’ve got influences from some of my mum’s music, and my dad’s music as a child.

“When I grew up the pop stars I saw on TV were the likes of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. It was hard to find somebody who is, you know, the daughter of immigrants and doesn’t fit the mold.”

Someone she did look up to as a female influence was Regina Spektor.

“I’ve seen her a few times live, and I can say that she looked like me!”

And like Spektor, she grew up playing the piano.

“Piano is my first instrument and then I played violin. I also play a little guitar. It’s my fun instrument that I bounce around chords on, because Mike’s the guitarist.”

Credited on the new album for playing guitar, bass, synth, keyboard, percussion and production, her husband Mike Grice, is the other half of Lexytron. They met at a gig (a serendipitous backdrop for what would become the international pop-rock duo), and quite soon fell into writing songs together.

“I wrote all the songs,” she says of the first album ‘Something Blue’, which became the start of their shared musical journey. “I mean, I would have taken the acoustic outline of the songs to Mike. So you know, it was chords and melody and words, they were all there. And then he added a kind of chunky riff here, or like a bit of percussion there. I’d sort of define him as a producer more on that album.

“At some point I was like, ‘Oh, I’d like to kind of do something with these songs if you think they’re good?’ Then he taught himself Logic and we recorded the first album from our flat in London.”

It was while the mixing and mastering was being done by London-based musician/engineer Marco Meloni that they decided to move to Aotearoa, finishing the release just as Covid-19 hit. Not long after relocating, they made a start on its follow up, ‘Something New’, which has eventually been released in early September 2025.

“We recorded the new album from our flat here in Auckland. But Marco still worked on it remotely, mixing and mastering it, and some of the parts were recorded by musicians remotely.”

The album is adventurous in variety, pop-centred but often rocky, and theatrical in a stage musical kind of way. Lexy says that a lot of inspiration for her songs comes from cinema and films.

“I like the mismatch between the music and the old movies, in the sense that it sort of reminds me of Baz Luhrmann and how he’ll take this anachronistic approach where he’ll put rap music over, you know, something Shakespearean or something. So, I quite like putting those two things together.”

Cue the music video for Elevator, a ‘fizzy coming of age synth-pop bop’ and the third single released from ‘Something New’. The video uses footage from The Bell Boy directed by Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle, and starring Buster Keaton. The instantly hooky, off-beat track is superimposed over the 1918 silent comedy sketch footage, where an old elevator features in the background. Lexy says the song was likely inspired by a Swedish apartment she once lived in that had one of those old elevators.

“Though on reflection, Elevator is really just a fun pop song. And it’s open to interpretation. I quite like other people to see if they can find a deeper meaning.”

Disco Jenny, which came earlier introduces itself as a funky slice of disco pop, while the first single and synth-based album opener Kiss Me Quick begins with a faltering dream pop vibe and lyrical vulnerability, before revealing its punch.

Lexy wonders out loud if Your Love, which is “very sentimental and dripping in strings,” might not be to everyone’s taste, but thinks it’s akin to a power ballad, reminding her of the divas of the ‘60s, or something right out of Eurovision.

With that she puts her finger on the album’s overall impression – it’s a roll call of the type of theatrical pop that you might expect to find in a Eurovision Song Contest, songs with space for empassioned hook-riddled vocals, rock out bridges and grand finales. It’s personal and grand, highly energetic and could as well come from any recent decade.

‘Something New’ doesn’t just acknowledge the fact of a new album, or their relocation to Auckland, but it is a nod to the arrival of their daughter.

“It did impact the timeline of the album because we had some delays with the initial production. And by the time that was done I was just about to give birth, and I was kind of under this impression that, well, ‘I’ll just sort it out while I’m on maternity leave’. But I didn’t manage to do that! And it kind of felt right to put it out now, and in a way it’s nice because I’m a little bit distant from the writing of the songs, so I can look back at it with a different lens. I’m probably a little bit more objective about it now. I can see its flaws, but I can also see what’s kind of cool about it as well.”

I ask what it’s like, to be so closely entwined with her bandmate/producer, as musicians, romantic partners and co-parents. She reflects that while they have common influences, their tastes are different.

“He’s always bringing something new because the palette that he draws from is different to mine. There’s a song on this record called Every Little Thing that he wrote. So I felt like it wasn’t really a solo project this time. And I wanted to credit him for his involvement in how the sound of the record has emerged.”

They’ve not recorded anything since the album, for now the home studio that was used to occupy their spare bedroom has been packed away to make room for their daughter. But Lexy secretively admits to having a project that’s in its infancy, and perhaps there’s a hint in her comment that she currently does a lot more singing than ever before, for their daughter who loves music.

“You won’t be waiting as long for something new!” she smiles.