Alex Hale and the Private Sector talk new name and new music

Hi Alex! So, you’re back - with a new name. Why are you leaving ACHB behind?

In short, I got fed up of having to explain what 'ACHB' was... We were originally called Alex and the Christopher Hale Band ('Alex and the' being a play on 'Alexander' which nobody got) but people constantly got that wrong on posters, and it was too long. 

So we decided in late 2023 to go in the opposite direction and just be 4 letters, which people couldn't *possibly* get wrong. Only they still did get it wrong (AHCB), didn't know how to pronounce it (it's just how you'd pronounce the letters!) or in one case assumed we were an AC/DC tribute act. 

And because people didn't know what it meant or how to say it, I don't think they were interested in listening to our music or checking us out. Plus people always looked disappointed when they found out it was just my initials with B on the end.

What inspired the new name? And why did now feel like the right time?

We ran through a lot of potential names and ultimately 'the Private Sector' was the only one Dom (our guitarist) liked. Me and Stephen (our other guitarist) had an enormous list - Spite Club, All Cats Have Birthdays, Alex Hale and the All-Night Carvery... but Dom hated them all, so we compromised... I like that 'The Private Sector' sounds both business-y but also like a forbidden zone from a dystopian sci-fi novel.

Will your sound change at all in line with the new name? Who are your biggest inspirations?

If anything we're going to sound more like ourselves because the name feels more like us.

I like a pretty wide range of music, but tend to lean into lyrical alternative stuff from 20 years ago - The Mountain Goats, Modest Mouse, The National... And all the obvious stuff, from The Beatles to The Smiths. Everyone in the band has common ground but also brings aspects of their own taste in.

You’re playing your debut show as Alex Hale and the Private Sector at the end of the month. How are you feeling about this?

Very excited. We're back, baby! It'll be the first full band gig of the year, with a new member (Luke, bass), promoting a new single - our first in two years - and we're going to put on a show!

Nottingham has plenty of venues to choose from. What made you decide to host this at The Grove?

We've been involved with The Grove from day one, and Cam who runs it has been one of our biggest supporters and best friends (and played bass with us over the last year, and recorded everything we've done since 2022). It's a venue we're super comfortable in - we feel at home there and don't even really need to soundcheck. It's accessible, has a great little bar, and the sound is really good.

You recorded a live album there not long ago. What was that experience like?

That was at my birthday gig where we were supporting Ead Wood (of Bristol's brilliant Langkamer). I don't think we knew it was being recorded but Cam sent us the songs afterwards and we figured it had been a long time since we last had recordings as good as those so why not?

How did you pick the supports for the show? Can you tell us more about them? 

They're all great friends of ours. Jonk are a perfect pop machine - it's about a year since their first show (which was also at The Grove) and they've been a tour de force since then, playing about a dozen high energy gigs including a barnstorming set at Christmas Covers. 

Eleanor McGregor is my all-time favourite local songwriter (though she lives in Sheffield now...) and reminds me of Emmy the Great. Her band features Cam, Heather from Flöat (my all-time favourite local band) and Tommy from Full Blast All-Stars. 

And finally we have Henry Tars who makes brilliant bleepy bloopy pop songs and has been one of my best friends for over ten years. This is his first gig in absolutely ages.

You’ve got a new single coming out at the same time as the show. What’s the story behind it? 

It's called When Your Parents Die and it's quite a miserable concept but a genuinely hopeful song (honest!). When I wrote it some friends had suffered parental bereavements and were in the process of clearing out houses, and around the same time my son - Lenny, who snuck an 'oh no' onto the recording - was born, so there's a mixture of sadness and... potential? I think I had a weird realisation when writing it that eventually I'll die and he'll have to make sense of the mess I leave behind.

You’ve also got a show coming up in Sheffield. What is it like doing shows outside of Nottingham?

We've been lucky in that we've only had joyous experiences outside of Nottingham. We've got loads of friends in Sheffield in particular (I used to spend a lot of time there in the 2010s and somehow haven't yet turned everyone in the local scene against me) and they have loads of great bands - Ye Woodbeast, Bean Weevil (sadly they've split up but we loved them), Posturing, and Good News to name just a few we've enjoyed playing with.

You teased some upcoming festival appearances on your Instagram. Can you reveal any of these at this stage? 

I'm not sure I'm allowed to announce anything, but we had a great time playing Radfest in 2024 and would love to play it again...

For those wanting to listen to your music after this interview, they may notice it isn’t on Spotify. Talk us through that decision. 

I read that Daniel Ek (CEO of Spotify) had invested $700 million in a company that makes AI military drones and didn't want to be a part of that. It was an easy decision for us because we've never made any money from Spotify and everything we've released is available to hear for free on our Bandcamp anyway. 

It would've been more difficult if we were a bigger band, and I doubt Ek is losing any sleep over us, but it just felt like the right thing to do. Immediately after we pulled our music from Spotify, we had a few friends do the same so it at least felt like we were all making this drop-in-the-ocean gesture together.

Other than what we’ve already discussed, what else have you got planned for the rest of 2026?

Our drummer Baz recently welcomed his second daughter (Florence) into the world and we now collectively have seven children between the five of us, so we're trying to focus on quality over quantity in terms of gigging. 

But we'll have another single out in late June, and hopefully will manage to record at least another EP by the end of the year. And I think it's about time we played Christmas Covers again, don't you?

@alexhaleprivatesector