Alex Bach

It's midnight in a South Beach club called Macarena and men and women are dancing over by the bar, intimates who have known each other maybe for minutes.

On stage, an attractive young woman with high-gloss lips and a maroon electric guitar is singing a raw song of love-gone-wrong while a three-man band rocks out behind her.

"Can't you see I'm not like all the others?" pleads Alex Bach with practiced anguish.

No, she isn't. As many of her contemporaries are protesting the looming war with Iraq, this 23-year-old singer-songwriter is getting ready to travel with her band to the Middle East to entertain American troops.

"This is the way I can serve my country," Bach said before the Thursday night show, "to keep people from being homesick by bringing them some hint of home -- I see that as a tremendous service."

Patriotism takes many forms. It appears here in an aspiring, marketing-savvy rock 'n' roller from Palm Beach County who grew up in France, Germany and Abu Dhabi before high school in Delray Beach.

She's got a sexy image, a brainy attitude, a supple voice and a self-confidence that's almost eerie.

She is fluent in four languages. She's developed a following via the Internet that extends to Russia, New Zealand and South Korea.

"You are such a hottie!" one fan writes on her message board at a site for music downloads. "And your music is really good too!"

She and her mates -- Hector Rios on guitar, Thor Jeppesen on bass, Scott Blasko on drums, and her manager, Cary Reichbach -- are awaiting word from the Pentagon's Armed Forces Entertainment Committee on when they'll be going to Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, and the Persian Gulf. They'll tour for up to six weeks.

Like Jane Russell in World War II and Angie Dickinson in Vietnam, Bach will hug soldiers for the cameras and autograph the pictures. She'll pose with her guitar on tanks.

"I'm happy to do it, too," she says.

She expects to be going to battle zones. To be choppered onto carriers.

Is she scared? Nah.

Though you'd never guess it from the come-hither poses on www.alexbach.com, her major activity in four years at Atlantic High School was Army ROTC.

As manager Reichbach tells it, she was a classic outsider: a transplanted teen who barely spoke English and whose penetrating I.Q. scared off boys from asking her for dates; a discipline problem at home.

Bach says she got into ROTC for the challenge. "My first year of high school, I realized I couldn't do a push-up to save my life. And I couldn't take an order to save my life, either," she said. "So I knew I had to do it because I hate having limitations placed upon me, or even placed upon myself."

She wore camouflage and combat boots four days a week. The training "taught me confidence."

She became so ardent a cadet that she intended to apply to the military academies, changing her mind when an adviser warned that an armed forces career would be too confining for her creativity. So she went to FSU to study international business, intending to be a lawyer. As a sideline, she began singing with a jazz combo.

After a love affair went sour, she wrote a bitter poem about it and, when boredom struck on a long car ride with no radio, she made up a melody. Friends encouraged her to write more, so she learned guitar and started composing songs.

Her music isn't political, but she wrote a lament for the victims of 9/11 that's won acclaim.

Because of that attack, she says, war with Iraq may be necessary.

"America has suffered at the hands of a few extremist Arabs, and not all Arabs think like they do," she says, "but if they are aided and abetted by these other nations, then we need to stand up and defend ourselves."

Her mother was born in the U.S. Her father is a French Tunisian who managed hotels for an international chain. She spoke Arabic as a child.

Put all the elements together, and she's as American as an electric guitar.
- Miami Herald

"Anti-war musician" is like saying "round circle" nowadays.

"War is not the answer," declared Sheryl Crow’s T-shirt at the American Music Awards in January. Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit said at last month’s Grammy Awards that "this war should go away as soon as possible."

But then there are musicians like Alex Bach.

A singer and songwriter whose debut album, "Miles to Go" (2002), includes three No. 1 Billboard hits, Bach is scheduled to perform for American troops in the Persian Gulf and elsewhere. Patriotism is part and parcel of this rising star, as she discussed in an interview with this writer.

While some in the entertainment industry are leading protests against American intervention in Iraq, you want to perform for troops overseas. Why?

I can only speculate as to why many entertainers are anti-war. Perhaps it is because the predominantly Democratic entertainment industry still sees our Republican President's stance as a partisan issue, and not yet as a national safety issue. But no one in show biz is making the decision to go to war; only the President will decide.

And if Bush feels that we need to defend our safety, then I'm ready to go. My contribution to the war effort will be to keep the troops’ morale up. It may not seem like much, but when you're thousands of miles from home and you haven't seen your family and friends for months, hearing your favorite music can really do a lot to lift your spirits.

You have said, "America has suffered at the hands of a few extremist Arabs, and not all Arabs think like they do, but if they are aided and abetted by these other nations, then we need to stand up and defend ourselves." (The Sun-Sentinel, March 2, 2003) It seems you don't share the view of some in the entertainment industry that American removal of Saddam Hussein would be an act of aggression.

Is putting a loony into a straitjacket an act of aggression?

Let me give you a little bit of background as to why I think Saddam is crazy: "Saddam Hussein authorized his army to shell the [Iraqi] town of Halabja with mustard gas and nerve gas on April 16, 1988. The incident left at least 5,000 dead and thousands of others injured and diseased." (The Washington Times, Aug. 16, 2002) This man has got to be nuts to use nerve gas on his own people.

If we allow Iraq to have weapons of mass destruction, there is a much higher risk that biological warfare will fall into the hands of Muslim fundamentalists. Can you imagine the same guys who blew up the World Trade Center holding a vial of anthrax? I don’t think this is an act of aggression, I think this is an act of defense.

You could be described as an artistic entrepreneur. Would you please trace the evolution of your success?

The Internet has been my savior. Ever since I put my music on MP3.com my fan base has grown exponentially. Now I have my own Web site, www.alexbach.com, and fans in dozens of countries, including South Korea, New Zealand, Germany and the Middle East. Having international distribution and promotion allows independent artists, like myself, the chance to operate a business with very low overhead. I am so grateful that I was born into a generation where the shortest distance between two people is a modem!

What is the origin of your song "Miles to Go"?

Whenever I used to read my favorite Robert Frost poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," I heard music behind the poetry. It was always a personal goal of mine to write a song that helped other people hear it too. When the September 11 attacks occurred, I was in the studio that day. I was inspired by the acts of courage of Flight 93 (which overcame the hijackers) to write a song from the perspective of anyone who has to leave unexpectedly and may never see their loved one(s) again.

Who received the proceeds of "Miles to Go"?

The proceeds that I made from the sale and download of "Miles to Go" on MP3.com were set aside to be donated to the American Red Cross. But after I read in the Miami Herald on April 29 that they were grossly misusing the 9/11 donations and that less than 40 cents on every dollar were reaching the victims' families, I thought better of it. Instead, I donated the proceeds to a local battered women's shelter in West Palm Beach, Florida, called Harmony House.

With its allusions to Frost, "Miles to Go" has a quintessentially American quality. You have identified the closing lines of Frost's "The Road Not Taken" as your creed, and you're scheduled to perform the National Anthem and "Miles to Go" at Shea Stadium in April. As a polyglot who has lived on three continents including the Middle East, what does being an American mean to you?

America has always had a "pioneer spirit," and I can really identify with that. I am often introducing new marketing strategies in the music industry and showing that independent female artists can also be successful. Being an American means that I have a tremendous amount of freedom and the right to pursue my happiness. To me, making music is happiness, and playing for the troops is a wonderful way to support my country.
- Newsmax