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Dear Shirley

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Kingdom Come

From the recording "Kingdom Come"

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Kingdom Come
by Dear Shirley

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Dear Shirley is the solo project of Los Angeles-born artist Alex Lichtman, whose music blends introspective songwriting with richly textured production.

Raised in a creative household—his father played in a local flute choir and his grandmother, Shirley Lichtman, was a pioneering sculptor and feminist artist welding metal in the 1960s—Alex was surrounded by art from an early age. He first picked up the violin as a child, dreamed of being a drummer, and started teaching himself guitar at age 12. By 16, he was playing in garage bands with his high school friends, laying the foundation for a lifelong pursuit of music.

In 2015, Alex moved to Chicago to study audio design and production at Columbia College, where he co-founded the band Holler and immersed himself in the city’s punk and rock scenes. From gritty basement shows to local DIY venues, Holler became a fixture in Chicago’s underground circuit, fueling Alex’s passion for raw, honest performance and collaborative sound.

After college, Alex pursued work in audio engineering and sound installation, quietly building the vision for his own solo material. That vision became Dear Shirley, named in tribute to his grandmother and her fearless creativity. The debut album—recorded at Soul Honey Records with longtime friend and engineer Andrew Christopoulos—is a culmination of years of writing, experimenting, and returning to the roots of why he started making music in the first place.

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