Two years ago, Lexi Shroll (’24) graduated from Rollins College with a degree in Music and a plane ticket to Nashville. Now, donning a pink dress and wielding an axe, she’s making waves in the town known as a mecca of American folk and country music.
Her latest single and music video, “Dead Man Walking,” received thousands of views on YouTube and nearly 20,000 streams on Spotify after its sardonically upbeat melody set to jarring imagery and murderous lyrics caught on among Nashville’s country-pop aficionados.
She wrote the song in a few hours in her room in early 2025 and, at first, shelved it without giving it too much thought. It wasn’t until she began performing it live at songwriters’ rounds that fans began telling her how they loved that ‘murder song’. Hence, she reached out to a producer, Jesse Savio, to get the song recorded professionally.
Her idea to add a video of herself luring viewers into an anti-heroine’s world of bubblegum madness wasn’t immediate. Inspiration came from doomscrolling a Pinterest board of housewives wearing weapons. According to Shroll, “The idea of being a sparkly, pink person holding an axe was so striking in my mind, and I realized there was a story that could be told via video. I pictured this character who was in her house, waiting for her partner to get home and losing it because she realized he’d been cheating.”
Shroll describes herself as “really lucky to work with a team, including a wonderful photographer Chasten and a videographer, Paige MacKinnon.” Chasten “got many photos that I was able to use on my website.” The three, along with friends and Shroll’s mother, rented a quaint house in East Nashville one May day, and created a cheerful, “vibrant, and fun” video – that is, if you ignore the threats etched into the mirror in blood-red makeup, or the freshly sharpened shears about to tear though the potted plants on the front porch.
In the hours after throwing a release party—with a playlist that featured “Dead Man Walking” after every other song, to drive the point home—the single began to circulate beyond her existing following. “Within the first 36 hours I hit 1,000 streams,” says Shroll. Previously, she had not hit the 1,000 streams per song milestone on Spotify. “It just caught on, and everyone just told me, ‘I love that song and I love that dress.’”
Shroll’s disclaimer is crucial. “I’ve felt betrayed,” she concedes, “but I’ve never put on a sparkly dress and wielded a hatchet.”
Hence, in her next single, she decided to axe the hatchet and pivot to a theme that couldn’t be more different: the moment she fell in love. Shroll says, “I had a magical moment in 2024 on New Year’s Eve when I said ‘I love you’ for the first time. It was such a sweet moment that I went into a writing session with a friend, Addy Prado. I absolutely knew if I brought that idea to her, she would bring it to life.”
Shroll describes the music video “Harry and Sally,” which comes out on Nov. 6, as “focused on aesthetics and how pretty I could make things.”
“I had a fun time exploring it, and I was very lucky to have wonderful friends who could participate as extras. My very kind friends and mom helped me decorate and transform my house into a beautiful New Year’s Eve party in July.”
Shroll’s ambitious music video projects haven’t interfered with her regular gigging schedule around Nashville. Rather, she describes a “great growth of opportunities” including “at the Basement East. That’s a really cool place to play here in town, along with hotels like the Virgin Hotel or bars like the Distillery in Nashville.”
Meanwhile, her former songwriting professor at Rollins, who just co-wrote and premiered the musical Rivers Run Wild, remains a friend and supporter of her musical efforts. Artist-in-residence Daniel Flick notes, “Lexi knew where she was heading, and she’s going there. In music, people are encouraged to have a plan B. But Lexi is 100% dedicated to her art, believes in herself, and she’s going to go there.”
“She’s driven and she’s headed to a really successful music career.”
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