Lebanon-based singer-songwriter Alex Stanilla is releasing a new single this month, and he has concerts scheduled this weekend in Lebanon and Lancaster counties to promote it.
The song is called “Let You In” and it was greatly inspired by ’70s Motown and soul artists like Al Green, who Stanilla told LebTown is one of his favorite singers.
“I got really into his music summer of 2020 and had been wanting to write a song similar to his style for the past 3 years or so but nothing was really working out,” he said in an email. “Then one day I came up with the opening riff and felt it had a very similar feel to a lot of his songs and I built the song off of that.”
The song changed its theme significantly when he went into The Kaleidoscope, a studio in Lancaster, to record it, he said.
“The lyrics to the hook were originally ‘I won’t let you in,'” he said, but the recording engineers “both felt the lyrics should be changed to ‘I want to let you in’ to better fit with the Al Green/Motown feel (and) give it a more uplifting message.” Although the song was about 90% done when he went into the studio, Stanilla said that advice gave him a new direction and “I was really able to hone in on what I wanted to say.”
Read More: Lebanon native Alex Stanilla releases ‘Savior,’ his latest retro-pop single
Stanilla has two upcoming shows where he will unveil the new single. The first is Thursday, Feb. 15, at the Lebanon Farmer’s Market, 35 S. 8th St., Lebanon, followed by a show Saturday, Feb. 17, and Little Mutants, a new brewery at 841 N. Prince St., Lancaster.
The Little Mutants show will also feature performances by Matt Tarka, a solo artist from Lititz; The Last Post, a solo artist from Harrisburg, and Warpark, a three-piece experimental punk band from Philadelphia. Stanilla said he will play as a three-piece ensemble, with a guest bassist and drummer.
Tickets for the show are $10 and will be available at the door.
A Lebanon native, Stanilla graduated from Cedar Crest High School, went to the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, then moved to Seattle for two years before returning to Lebanon. He sings and plays guitar and piano.
He also runs his own label, Some Bite Records, which releases compilation albums by local artists. Although he has not yet released a full-length album, he has issued singles including “Overtime” and “Savior.”
He went on tour last fall, and Stanilla said it “went fairly well” although, he admitted that like many rising artists, “some shows I was playing to the other two or three artists also playing that night.”
The trip took him to venues in North and South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia, and Stanilla told LebTown he should have planned his schedule better. Some days, he said, he was in the car for eight hours just getting from one venue to the next. Luckily, you (and he) won’t need to drive nearly that far for the shows this weekend.
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