Alexis Alexander is more than your average Canadian man.
A husband and father, he’s also the author and rapper of a popular children’s book series called “Friendly Fables.” He grew up in Ajax, Ontario and discovered his passion for reading and writing when he was a child. “When I was growing up, I loved writing stories,” says Alexander. “And when I was a little boy, I remember one of my teachers telling me I was going to be a writer.”
The teacher was correct, and Alexander would write much more than just stories. Alexander attended McMaster University in Hamilton and wrote songs and poetry throughout his school years. After graduation, he started writing screenplays and science fiction novels, but was never confident enough to do anything with them. Instead, he started a small website- building digital marketing agency called Iconic Group.
“We ran the business for 12 years, and we built websites for wealth advisors at Scotia Wealth Management and RBC Dominion Securities, so my life was nothing like it is now,” says Alexander. “I was in Corporate Canada, and I was doing things like project management and building sites.”
Around this time, Alexander and his wife welcomed their first child Ella into the world. “I started reading bedtime stories to my daughter, and one of the things that engaged me is that a lot of them rhymed,” he says. “I found I gravitated more towards the books that rhymed, and so did my daughter.”
A few years later, Alexander and his wife had a baby boy. A month after their son was born, they discovered he had a hole in the roof of his mouth, which made it difficult for him to feed, and ultimately required surgery to fix. “They gave us a special bottle so he could gain his birth weight back,” says Alexander. “It was a scary time for my wife and I; we were at SickKids [Hospital] every other week trying to figure out what was going on, so I went to my business partners, and I made the tough decision to leave Iconic Group.”
The summer after his son’s surgery, Alexander began writing stories for his kids. He would make his kids the protagonists of the stories, and write about trips to the zoo and the cottage. At the end of the summer, he began sharing the stories with his family.
“My sister is a good writer, and my wife is talented at advertising,” says Alexander. “They both enjoyed my stories, and told me I should do something about it, so I decided not to go back to my job at Corporate Canada.” Alexander hired an illustrator from Brazil and self-published 12 books. He would read and sell his books to children at elementary schools, festivals, and markets.
One day while visiting Lakeside Public School, he read his book called How To Bake a Monster Cake to a group of Kindergarteners. “The Monster Cake book is a story about my wife and son making a cake for a monster, and it has disgusting ingredients,” says Alexander. “When I read it, the librarian told me it sounded like a rap song and asked me to rap it for the class, and I thought that was cool because I’m a big fan of Nineties hip hop.”
When Alexander rapped the Monster Cake song for the class, he loved every second of it. He then realized that many of his stories were rooted in hip hop. So, he decided to become a children’s rap along artist, and created a YouTube channel. His most viewed video? The “Fart Song” with 130,000 views! The channel also features songs about dinosaurs, cars, rainbows, unicorns, and much more.
“I would create these books and turn them into rap songs with beats, and then I would make the books into animated videos because I wanted the kids to read,” says Alexander. “At the same time, I have to meet them on their mediums, so you could watch the dinosaur rap on YouTube, and follow along with the book at home.”
With the help of his producer, Alexander went on to produce an album called “Friendly Fables Rap-A-Long Volume One.” The day after it launched, it hit number one on iTunes for children’s music in Canada. Ever since that day, Alexander has continued to visit more schools and make more music videos, and he has even started doing shows.
“Our first show went well . . . because I visited a lot of schools, and I was out in the community reading and putting out flyers and ads,” he says. “The first show was a big hit, but it was only me, and it wasn’t until the second show that I started to incorporate more of my team members: DJ Dino, Lady Unicorn and Rainbow Rain.”
Since then, Alexander’s passion for performing has only grown stronger. “One thing that excites me is when I go to the schools, and the gymnasium fills up with 300 kids,” says Alexander. “It’s a good feeling to have 300 kids dancing and singing to my songs. Trying to teach them the movements and to follow along to the song is a cool challenge.”
Because of COVID-19, all Friendly Fables 2020 events are canceled until further notice. Never one for sitting still, Alexander has been putting more focus into creating content for YouTube during the quarantine. “What I want to do right now is really pivot to digital and YouTube, and to try to spread the word about Friendly Fables through the content that we’re producing,” he says. “Hopefully, I can gain subscribers and followers and families who are using this content now to entertain their kids in a positive way – an educational song or a fun song to get them moving while they’re stuck indoors.”
In May, Alexander and his producer even created an hour-long movie called “A Magical Concert for Kids Stuck At Home”, which is available for free on YouTube. It’s a movie about social distancing and trying to find adventure in a concert during quarantine. The film contains footage of a concert Alexander and his team members held back in March before the virus outbreak.
Going forward, Alexander hopes to resume touring Ontario and visiting schools as soon as it is safe to do so. Until that day, he will continue to work on growing and promoting the Friendly Fables universe. “When all of this is over, hopefully by then we’ve created great content on YouTube,” says Alexander. “We’ll then be able to fill up the crowds with kids that are interested in seeing Friendly Fables and getting more involved in it!”
For more information on Friendly Fable, visit their website or follow Alexander on Instagram.
© Tamara von Estorff, SesayArts Magazine, 2020
