Catching Lightning: ALINA on writing her sophomore EP and making her Nashville debut at the Exit/In

Alina for the catching lightning photoshoot, photo by Lucy Bates.

Nearly a year after leaving Belmont University and signing a record deal with Columbia Records, Alina announced her first-ever official Nashville show at the Exit/In, promoting her latest EP, catching lightning. A couple hours prior to the show, I had the chance to chat with her over the phone.

Right off the bat, I felt like I’d known the singer for years. Last year, I developed a deep attachment to her song “I Know, I Know, I Know”. It’s her most popular song for a reason – the stream of consciousness structure perfectly emulates a mental breakdown. It feels strikingly human despite breaking conventional songwriting structure, as does the way she picks up the phone. She’s a professional, but she’s an artist. She’s eloquent, but sprinkles in vulgar language. She is just like me: a creative person who never shuts up.

Regarding the upcoming show, she describes how she’s feeling: “Horrified, shitting myself, pooping my pants… no, I’m so so so excited.” Despite having recently opened for higher pressure shows while touring with Grace Vanderwaal and the Band Camino, the nerve-wracking facet of tonight’s show is that friends are attending. Plus, some fans who drove or flew down from other states to watch her perform. None of this is entirely new to her – she’s garnered nearly 700 thousand TikTok followers (including many devoted fans) over the last three years of posting her music, but she still faces uncertainty, “I've always had this fear that… [having a following] doesn't actually equate to having people who would show up and care about my music.”

Nonetheless, this keeps her grounded and makes fan interactions all the more wholesome. For instance, at the Chicago show of the Grace Vanderwaal tour, a group of girls flew in from around the country and booked hotel rooms. They met up with Alina at a park. At the show, they were screaming so loud the singer could barely hear herself. “That is definitely, like, top 10 moments of my life. Top one moment of my life, actually,” Alina reminisces.

Connection is key no matter where you sit as an artist, and she’s learned how to foster that feeling by observing headliners while in opening slots. She talks about singing with a full band, “I get the freedom to put the guitar down and run around stage and get on my knees and be dramatic Tori Vega with it.” The best moment of interaction with the audience at her show later that night occurs before she’s even started performing. While setting up onstage, she motions toward her fake fur coat, layered over a handmade dress, as screaming fans watch. She signals “On or off?” at the coat, and they yell “On”!

Alina performing at the Exit/In, photo by Louise Ella. 

This show seems like emotional whiplash, in a sense. Imagine starting college, getting signed to a major record label, leaving college, going on two tours, and then performing for people from that college at a reputable Nashville venue. When I ask Alina what advice she’d give herself a year ago, she speaks generally, “Don't give a fuck about what anyone thinks about you. Just be consistent and do your shit.”

Such a motto could not be more evident, based on her TikTok. In her first pinned video, she describes her favorite songs as gut-wrenching ones that make you think, “Ho, did you just rip a page out of my diary?” She cites “Chain Reaction” (my personal favorite) as the one that has elicited this reaction the most among those on the catching lightning EP. Some songs she finds gut-wrenching by other artists include, “Dig Myself Out” by Annika Bennett (an all-time favorite), “Legs” by Annie DiRusso, and “Melt” by Hannah Cole.

The catching lightning cover art, photo by Lucy Bates, design by Alina Adams.

This diary notion is exactly how Alina approached writing the EP. One track, “Nothing I Am”, was inspired by a conversation with a family member in which they were both disagreeing on whether the singer was taking the right paths in life. “There was no solution, and it was a big feeling,” so her alternative solution was to write about it. She was most influenced, when writing this EP, by the bands Momma and Mercury, both of which she was exposed to upon moving to Nashville in 2024.

What’s next for Alina? It’s intriguing to many a music student what an artist who leaves school upon getting signed is doing now. Leaving school often means music school is doing its job right. Alina describes her day-to-day life as a “give-and-take with how busy I am”. This past month, she’s spent a lot of time working on music and designs. The singer does all her own cover artwork, lyric videos, and merch. After this show, she’s going to LA for a couple weeks to write and record music. She describes her current sense of drive, “[I’m trying] to make the most of the opportunities that I have in front of me that I'm so lucky to have… and make this into something that can last me a long time.”

At her concert, Alina gives fans a sneak peek into what’s coming next, performing unreleased tracks “How to Get to Me” and “Forget Me”.

You can stream catching lightning on all platforms now and keep up with Alina at @alinaadamsxo on Instagram and @alinatries2sing on TikTok.