Alixandra Macmillan-Fiedel

If you’re prone to look for what’s next in music, chances are you’re going to want to keep your eye on Alixandra Macmillan-Fiedel. The L.A.-born, S.B.-bred, Sarah Lawrence-trained singer/songwriter recently shed her band/alter ego Alixandra and the Tailor Sea and is currently midway through the recording process with her as-yet-unnamed new project.

“The Tailor Sea was kind of this group of ever-changing people. It was never really a band,” Macmillan-Fiedel recalls. Nowadays, though, the focus is on the group, which Macmillan-Fiedel stresses will be the biggest difference between the new material and the old.

“I had these 20 [new] songs, and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do,” she explains. “I was looking to start a band just because I had gotten really sick of the solo singer/songwriter chick thing – not that it’s a bad thing – but it just wasn’t working for me anymore.”

So into the studio she went, with friends Scott O’Gara (Golden Veins) and Natalie Mirsky at her side. Together in O’Gara’s Iowa City home-cum-studio, the trio laid down the skeletons (drums, guitars, organs, and lead vocals) for what will be Macmillan-Fiedel’s next offering, tentatively slated for release in early 2011. And with a semi-finished lineup in place and an album in the final stages, this new project seems poised for greatness. While she describes the songs as a little “more electric” and “more experimental” than the Tailor Sea’s folk meanderings, the record’s rough mixes hint at even more. (Think powerful group harmonies, dirge-like song structures and deliveries, and a commanding lead voice that calls to mind Thao Nguyen at points, Neko Case at others.) Needless to say, if this is just the beginning, we can’t wait to hear what’s next. Visit myspace.com/alixandratailorsea.