If you’re a rock or metal fan in the UK, chances are you’ve already come across the rockstar DJ that is Alyx Holcombe. As the voice behind BBC Radio 1’s Introducing Rock, Alyx has become a vital champion for new and emerging talent, spotlighting the next generation of rock, indie and alternative artists. Beyond the airwaves, she’s the driving force behind MANTRA, an alt club night that celebrates inclusivity and community, giving emerging acts a stage and fans a space to connect in a safe, welcoming environment. But Alyx’s impact is much more important than the impressive career she’s had already. She represents a new wave of women reshaping the music industry from within. As a woman of colour in a space still dominated by white, male voices, her journey highlights both the passion and persistence it takes to carve out space for yourself, and for others, in an industry that too often overlooks them. In our conversation, Alyx opens up about why it’s so important to her to give new artists a helping hand, building inclusive platforms, and navigating the challenges that come with breaking barriers in music.

How did your journey into music get started?

That's a really good question. I've always been really musical.I remember singing Over The Rainbow when I was three in my nursery, and then I was always into music and would always be in the rehearsal rooms at secondary school. I'd get to secondary school really early and book out the music rooms, and be that kid with no friends that used to just sit and pretend I was in a band all lunchtime, and it just kind of went from there. I was then a musical theatre student for like two years. It wasn’t really my vibe, but then I joined a band, and now I'm here. So I've always loved singing and dancing and like doing shows for like my family, and that's like never left me.

Could you tell us a bit more about the band that you were in?

I was a bassist in a punk band called Petty Phase. Very like ‘fuck society, fuck everyone, the world's corrupt.’ Scream, scream, scream. Does what it says on the tin. We were just really pissed off at everyone.

How old were you when you were doing that?

Early twenties. I was in there for a few years, and then I left to do Alyx Plays Punk, which was my radio show. I was getting so annoyed when I was in the band. I was just like, where are we on the radio? Where's that progression from like new band to the next step instead of paying all this money for these radio pluggers to try and just get you an in. I went down to Argos, got a mic, got my iPad and my dodgy, dodgy computer, laptop. It was not a MacBook. It was just like an old Dell that I had to always plug in, and yeah, I just taught myself to do a radio show about bands like us. It's kind of expanded from like punk into metal, rock, all the sub genres. I did that for like five years.

And from there that you went to Kerrang! Radio?

Yeah, I met Alex Baker from Kerrang! I think it was at a BBC introducing live convention type event, and all the bands were obviously queuing up to talk to him. I was like, “I'm not in a band, I want to talk to you about my radio show, and I think that you're going to get it.” I said to him, “I can do what you can do” and he started telling me what I needed to do to start, but I was like, “no, you don't understand, here's my demo. Here's my USB stick. Please listen to it and just send it to as many people as you can.” He was probably thinking who the hell is this girl, she's a psycho, haha. But he listened to it, and he emailed me when I was working at a call center a few weeks later. He said it was actually really good, so again I was like, “yeah, I told you so. Please send it to people.” And he did! I then started covering on Kerrang! literally a few months after that.

What was the show you were doing on Kerrang!?

Six till nine was the main slot I was covering, and then eventually that's the show that they offered me. That was just like a normal playlisted kind of rock music show, and then about six months after that, Radio 1 do a Christmas presenter search situation where they give up-and-coming talent a chance to cover the shows. I applied to that for like three years in a row and the third year I got it. Radio X asked me to demo for them a few times and I actually used the Radio X demo to get into Radio 1. I didn’t know whether they’d like it or not but I wasn’t going to be using my Argos mic in my bedroom, you know? So I just used that demo. Then I covered Dan on the rock show, which was amazing, but then for an hour of that show, I did this hour of brand new underground bands. So basically it was ‘Alyx Plays Punk’ for that hour and it was great and went really well. I can't believe it went so well, because I had no idea what I was doing. They told me that you need to know how to have a basic kind of knowledge of equipment and radio studios. I was like “yeah, yeah, of course.” I had never stepped foot into a radio studio in my life. Apart from like my bedroom, but even then, when I was doing Kerrang!, it was COVID times. So I was recording in my bedroom still!

So I rocked up acting like I know what I'm doing, you know, it's fine… Cool. Wicked. But then I got there and I had not slept for like three days, and I just thought this is going to go really badly. I don't know what I'm doing… But it kind of worked out.

Who were your main musical inspirations growing up?

That is such a good question. I don't know if I really had like inspirational artists or anything like that. I think I was obsessed with artists. So, okay, it's going to be really embarrassing, but I love McFly. McFly were like insane. Loves of my life. I had about 37 posters of Dougie over my wall, and then that kind of moved onto like Busted, not as much as McFly though. Then that kind of moved into Fall Out Boy. Pete Wentz was the favourite. I've got a thing for bassists, clearly, but also alongside that, I had a massive JLS obsession. I don't really know how this happened or where it come from. It was really far removed. So okay, I was a kid, right, say 13, 14. I had my big emo fringe, my eyeliner with a JLS hoodie on. And I had like all of these pictures cut out of magazines of JLS on one side of my room and the other side was like McFly and Fall Out Boy.

A contrast to say the least.

Really odd. But I was so obsessed with JLS that I remember at one point there was like a charity basketball match event that they did, and I was so obsessed with them at the time. I remember being like 13, going up to the security guard and being like, “oh, I'm with the band.” And they look at me and they're like, no, you're fucking not haha. I was that obsessed.

Have you had the chance to work with any of these artists over the years? McFly or others?

I've interviewed McFly. Three times, I think?

How was that?

It was so great. It was so good, Danny said to me “oh, here's a pick by the way.” And I was like, “don’t worry, I’ve already got it. Still got your orange pick that you used on stage like 15 years ago.” And he was like, okay, probably thinking I was a bit weird. The guy that I was interviewing with really threw me under the bus with it too. He said “you do know that Alyx was like a major McFly fan?” I was just thinking, please don't do this. Please don't do this… haha. But yeah, they were really funny. My teenage self was BUZZING.

You’ve had quite the career that has enabled you to work with or interview a lot of artists that you admired when you were younger which must be really exciting, but also probably quite surreal?

Yeah. I feel like I'm kind of living in an old school Kerrang magazine. I literally feel like that, and it's so cool. You know, I go into work and talk about bands and chat to people, and I literally just feel like my child self, reading a Kerrang magazine… It really is the coolest thing ever.

Something very exciting that you’ve done in the last year was opening for Papa Roach at the beginning of the year on a couple of their UK shows. How was that for you?

It was really surreal. It was really wild. I tried not to think about it too much because if I overthought it, I know I'd freak out, and it was Wembley Arena. I remember turning up in my Juicy Couture tracksuit. I was like, I'm literally a meme. It was so funny. It was really fun. It's a really interesting one to do because Papa Roach have got massive resurgence over TikTok at the minute. So I didn't really know whether to expect, kind of older blokes or young TikTok fans, but it was a proper mix. So I didn't want to plan a set or anything like that. I just wanted to see what people reacted to. Which is always a risky, risky game to play, and it makes it a lot more intense when you're DJing an arena. How to mix the songs together when you don't know what you're doing. But it was really, really fun. I like to kind of feel like I'm kept on my toes with that kind of stuff. But yeah, it was a great experience. But my God, it was, yeah, on my toes all the time. And it was like an hour and 45 minutes, the set. It was a really long set. I did Wembley and then Nottingham the next day. Which is amazing. On the train home I was like, I just supported Papa Roach. That's fucking nuts, isn't it? But then arriving back home like, cool, just in my flat with my dog, chilling out. Like, you know, Wembley Arena to being back here, it's very different. I'm just like posting on Instagram like, “oh, here I am, this is me at Wembley Arena”, and the next minute I’m going to the co-op and getting a pizza for dinner.

Did you feel the post-gig or tour blues from being on such a high from the shows?

Honestly it felt like it didn't happen. It was over with so quick. It was just like two days in a row and then I literally came back from Nottingham and straight to work. I didn't even come home. I was at work and I was like, la, la, la, la, la, I'm on the radio, oh, yeah, I just supported Papa Roach. That's cool, isn't it? Anyway, so the show today… haha. It did feel really surreal, but even now when I think back to it, I was like on stage at Wembley Arena. Before Papa Roach. Was I? Really? That's crazy.

It's an epic achievement. I would assume with the great things that you’ve done throughout your career, there have been many challenges that have come along the way. What would you say have been the biggest challenges that have come up for you over your career?

I think like my ‘thing’ is that I always want to do more and help more. So it's like the imposter syndrome for me. That's massive. You know, questioning myself, “am I doing enough? Am I actually doing enough for new bands?” You know, I think I'm doing enough, but then you'll get comments on socials from like men, obviously, that are saying that I’m not. For some reason, you're the face of new music and you're a bitch, and you know, there's like hundreds of nice comments too, but you see the bad ones and it makes you question yourself, like, am I not doing enough? Am I a bad person? Is my music taste shit?... But of course it's just me getting into my head and kind of overcoming that and thinking, do I not deserve this thing? I created this freaking show. Of course I deserve it, and like so many good things have come from it, but I always second guess myself, even if I get one negative comment out of like a thousand. It will make me really get into my own head about if I deserve to be there and stuff. So I think that's at the minute, probably my main challenge.

That's a big one for a lot of people, I think. You’re definitely not alone on that. You're clearly a very big supporter of new music and new artists. Has that purely come from a place of being in a band or, is there more to it? Why do you feel that's particularly important for you, showcasing these new talents in what you do?

I feel like there's such a money barrier with bands at the minute. You either need to make it your full time thing and people that can't do that have to go to normal jobs. Like I did. There's not enough time or support to do what you want, so I kind of totally understood that, and I just thought if no one else is doing it, surely that there's something I can do. If I can get a job in it, if I can leave my nine to five call centre job and be that person, then that's going to help so many other people. So yeah, I've done that, which is amazing, but I think it was definitely like the frustration of being in a band and not having money, you know and my family, not being rich and all that kind of stuff, that put a fire in my belly to do that. To push that, because it just wound me up seeing the only people who succeed were people with money or the connections in the right places. So I thought if I can wangle myself to be that person, then that's going to help so many other people at the same time.

That’s brilliant, and you’re right. With a lot of things within music, like so many other industries of course, having the right connections is crucial, and money to a degree as well as you say. So if you don't have those, you can only push so far.

Where do you go? Where's your entry point? If you don't know what to do, where's the accessibility? If I was still in the band now and I knew what I knew now, I'd find it so much easier, but the reality is when you're starting a band, you have no idea what you're doing. You don't know who to talk to, you don't know where to send your music, you don't know who you should be trying to get in front of. You don't know any of this stuff. So making it a bit more open and accessible and creating a path is just so important, I think.

So with that, what would or do you suggest to young or new artists? How do you think they find their way? Where do they need to be pushing more?

First of all, don't worry about your music being perfect because a lot of the time you'll keep re-recording to the point where it just sounds so dull and lifeless because you've gone over it so many times. Just keep creating music, keep pushing it out and I think figure out what your sound is. Then, when you've got a sound and you're comfortable, go to bbc.co.uk/introducing and upload your music, tag the genre. So if you want to get on to Introducing Rock, make sure you tag ‘rock’. It'll then start going to your local station and it'll come automatically to me anyway. So it's kind of set up for you so that you can keep putting your music on this platform, and even if it gets played locally, that's such a good step in your scene and you can build up from there. It's then about building that repertoire, I guess, and just keep throwing shit at the wall until it sticks. Literally just keep doing it because as soon as you give up, you're definitely not going to get anywhere. Even if you're putting songs out and they're not getting played, it doesn't matter. At least you're still doing it and there's still a chance that something will happen. But then if you just give up, then you've stopped yourself, kind of stopped your own path, I think.

Definitely, and is there anyone in particular on your radar at the moment?

How long have we got? Haha. I really love a band called Eville. They're amazing, and I think I said on the radio the other day they’re like if Paris Hilton joined a metal band or Slipknot or something… they're really, really cool. It's like rock and metal, but make it ‘brat’ kind of vibe. They're awesome. I love a band called Tropic Gold. Who else am I really into? South Arcade had a really, really good journey through Introducing. They seem to have done quite well the last year or so. Unpeople, obviously. The way that band had one song out and everyone fell in love with them was iconic. Who else? False Reality, Knife Bride. The list goes on…

For anyone who hasn’t heard of the above bands, take it as your sign to get to know them. Now, you’ve also got your Mantra club nights that you put on every month. When did you start that?

October last year. It feels longer than that. It's taken years off me, mind.

So, when and how did the idea for this begin?

I actually had surgery in August last year for endometriosis, and the recovery period was really long. I'd not had time to just sit with myself and figure out what my next project's going to be, but with this, I literally couldn't move, so that was perfect. Literally two days, I was still off my tits on painkillers. I said to Tim, my boyfriend, “I'm going to have to do something. I cannot just sit here and just wait for my body to heal.” I was watching a K-pop documentary, and you know they have those meet-and-greet sessions in a big shopping centre. You know what people used to do in Woolworths ages ago? It was kind of like that, and I suddenly thought, what if I can try and combine that with new artists? I then started workshopping different ideas, and I had the spider diagrams going, and then, Mantra was born. Again I knew we needed to make it accessible to people that want to get into music and discover new music. So I basically tried to figure out how we can get a gig, a meet-and-greet, for like a tenner, and making it 14 plus was really important as well because a lot of venues are generally 18 plus. So I wanted to make sure that kids, young teens, could get into music and to meet artists and have that experience. I remember when I was a kid, I hardly went to any shows because it was so expensive. Like really, really, really expensive. So I wanted to create like a little community that would benefit bands and fans and bring them together, and yeah, Mantra was born. Obviously called it Mantra because Bring Me The Horizon are my favourite band.

So how did you make Mantra become a reality?

A lot of yelling. A lot of emailing. A lot of screaming. A lot of crying. The breakdowns were real. Essentially just finding a venue that was right and would pay the bands, because a lot of the time, if you're doing like this intimate kind of thing like Mantra is, the bands get like 40 quid, 50 quid, and that's just not sustainable. It's not even a train ticket now. Especially if the band's like four or five pieces. It's ridiculous. So finding a venue and a promoter that got it. Currently it's promoted by DHP, and they own the venue - they own The Grace, so the overheads were a lot cheaper. So stuff like that was in the back of my mind. So we went with The Grace, and that was amazing. They pay the bands more than 50 quid, which is all we want. It's enough for them to make the journey. They have bevs and food and stuff for free, and can kind of put money back into their band, which is what it's about. So yeah, that box was ticked, which was lovely. It's really refreshing, to be honest.

I can imagine. Do you notice within the audiences that come to Mantra, are they a diverse crowd?

There's so many girls, I love it, and like they're at the front as well and there's mosh pits just full of like every single kind of person, and it's a really welcoming environment. Like the amount of people that turn up on their own because they feel like it's a safe space is really, really cool. So yeah, there is a little community now just full of like white people, black people, mixed race people, Asian people, girls, gays, theys, like everything. It's really nice. There's never normally any drama. There's never arguments. There's never people feeling like they’re not welcome or, even if, you know, people are worried the first time they turn up, they leave with like a new group of friends and they'll come back together and it's just really wholesome.

So in the space of a year you’ve made it into quite a successful brand. You've got the events, you’ve got the merch now. What do you see coming next for Mantra?

I see so much, but whether it will happen, I don't know. I want like Mantra world domination. I would like to do things, but I'm going to keep them under wraps because I want them to happen so much, but I definitely want Mantra to expand, and I want the bands to benefit from that as well. So I've got a few ideas that hopefully might happen next year. We just keep going. We keep yelling into the void until stuff happens.

Amazing. I can’t wait to see what you’ve got in the works for it. Now we’ve discussed your support for new and emerging artists, but as a woman of colour, what are your feelings on the representation or lack of it in the music industry currently?

I feel like it's getting more inclusive, but there is obviously a way to go. Especially, if you're looking at festival lineups and stuff like that. There is no women or people of colour at the top of these bills. I don't feel like it's been long enough for the music industry to give women and people of colour really a chance to get there as it’s been so white male dominated for so long. If things keeps going the way it's going, which is far more inclusive, plus seeing more diversity in people in charge , things will eventually change. Plus the people that have got a problem with change will die out soon and the old school mentality will be gone. Brutal but true I guess.

Have you dealt with particular challenges as a woman of colour in the industry?

It's been really difficult because it's not kind of direct in the sense of “you're brown so you can't get hired.” It's more like people don't see you in a certain space if you're a person of colour, and especially in the rock and metal world, for the older generation it's a bit odd that a girl that isn't white would be into that and would be the face of that. I've had a lot of comments from older men online because of that and suggesting you know, ‘you don't look like you're into this because X, Y, Z.’ So I wouldn't say it was like a career challenge, it's more the way that people perceive you. I think people definitely assume someone that's doing what I'm doing would look a certain way, and that's been quite hard but I feel like I've got to a point now where I've broken that boundary a little bit, or that stigma, because, well, I'm here and I've been here for a long time now so get used to it. Get used to it or turn off, I don't really care.

Absolutely, and it’s great to hear that the diversity and representation in the industry is improving, slowly but surely. What do you think could help improve this further?

There needs to be more diversity in people in positions that are at the top, that can then hire people that look like them. At the minute, it's always been white men at the top, and a lot of the time, it doesn't probably even come into their mind that, you know, maybe we should try and look for something a bit different or some diversity. So basically, we need more women and non binary people to get into the industry in general anyway, and then push their way to the top. We can start it in the pits, let's all get in a mosh pit. More women in the pits and then just work our way out from there.

I love that. Shout out to all the girls reading this to push yourselves into those pits at the next show. You mentioned you had your surgery for endometriosis last year. Has that had an effect on your work?

Massively. I've got a list of diagnoses - endometriosis, adenomyosis, PCOS and PMDD. So when I was having the surgery, the recovery time was so much longer than I expected. I had to cancel a lot of work because the pain was so bad. Still there's no cure for it. The day to day pain is horrendous plus the surgery recovery pain is also horrendous, and it's a battle I’ll never win. I need another surgery. Earlier this year I was put on these hormones to try and sort it out and it just made it even worse. I was on my way to work and I went into ‘fake labor’ at the train station, literally screaming, thinking I was giving birth because the two hormones they gave me didn't work well with each other. So it sent me into labor like symptoms. So I had to cancel my radio show with two hours notice. Stuff like that is so frustrating. I can't sit down and feel my pain when I'm at work, which is really odd. I have to kind of disassociate a little bit just to get through it. So that's quite hard, just putting a brave face on and just getting on with it. They've given me loads of crazy pain meds to try and deal with it but I can't take them because my job is literally talking to people live on the BBC and I want to make sure I’m present and sharp and on it. I'm unhinged at the best of times. If I'm on all these crazy painkillers, I'd probably lose my job haha. So that is quite tough.

When you’re in pain it’s hard to sound happy which is what your job on radio is all about of course, so that must be very difficult.

I've got to sound like I'm not in crippling pain. It's shit. Like when they open me up for surgery, all of my organs are stuck together. It's on the back of my pelvis, my ovaries, my bowels, my bladder, my appendix, liver I think as well. Everywhere. So the pain is everywhere. Constantly like on my side, I can feel it, and it feels like someone's yanking me down because it's all together. So every day you've just got to deal with it. The surgery dealt with it to a degree but they need to basically do it again. They could have just taken my appendix out for God's sake, like it’s kinda silly they didn't do it. I'm doing a lot of stuff with Endometriosis UK, the charity at the minute, about stuff like that and helping teenagers understand how it is.

It’s amazing that you’re using your experience in such a positive way, teaming up with a brilliant charity like Endometriosis UK. What was involved with this?

I did a campaign with Endometriosis UK which came out last month called the Big Give campaign. It was all about how teenagers are affected by it and I shared stories of my teenage years that was super honest. We raised £23,376 which is awesome!

Incredible. Okay, to round things off, what do you hope for from the industry in the next, say, five to ten years? What are your hopes of seeing within the industry?

There's so much, but you know what I really hope? I hope that everyone can just be fucking nice to each other because the industry, especially for rock and metal, is small and I feel like, especially with women, there's so much competition because you're like pitted against each other constantly, right? It's always blown my mind that it happens and I just think if everyone was nice and put people forward for different things and helped people grow, I think the world and the industry would be a much nicer place. Obviously I want to see just more women and gays and brown and black people doing their shit, and just owning it as well and being confident enough to do that. So I know a lot of the time, like a lot of people of colour that I speak to that are teenagers, they're like, “oh, we don't see anyone like us so we don't know how to do it.” Well, just do it, trust me. It'll be okay. Look at bands like Nova Twins. They are so important for stuff like that. They're inspiring a whole new generation of kids and it's just so great to see. So yeah, just fucking be nice. More gays, more theys, more women, more fucking people of colour.

And lastly, what bit of advice would you give to all of the women and young girls aspiring to get into radio and the music industry? What do you feel they need to hear?

Just do it. Honestly, just do it. Don't let anyone tell you no, and if someone does tell you no, tell them to fuck off.

A huge thank you to Alyx for being a part of UNMUTED. As such an important voice in the music industry as it is, I’m incredibly grateful for her sharing what she has done here and being a part of it. You can find Alyx on social media platforms under @alyxholcombe and to keep up to date with all things MANTRA, make sure to give @thisismantraworld a follow too.

UNMUTED: A Conversation with Alyx Holcombe

Search Posts

Featured Posts