Alex Kinsey and Sierra Deaton have gone from normal college students to well-known musicians, all due to a dorm room audition to be on The X Factor. Out of boredom, the couple submitted an online audition, thinking it would have no results.

“We thought no one would watch it. We had forgotten about it because we sent in an audition in January of last year and didn’t get a phone call until the end of May,” said Deaton. “When we got the call we had no expectations. We thought we would get a no but we wanted, like, bucket list check off to say we sang in front of Simon Cowell.”

After weeks on edge and in fear of elimination, Alex and Sierra were crowned as the winners of the last American season of the show. After expecting to be voted off nearly every week, they rose to stardom nearly overnight.

“On one hand everything has changed but at the same time it hasn’t at all. Our relationship hasn’t changed. Like when it’s just me and Alex or when we are with our families it’s exactly the same,” said Deaton.

After writing music and making smoothies with Jason Mraz among others,  the duo has found confidence in their own songwriting abilities, and put together a thirteen-song album to be titled “It’s About Us.”

Although neither Alex nor Sierra had written much prior to January of this year, they found styling lyrics and melodies to be much less complicated than anticipated, and even had difficulty narrowing down the album tracks.

“It’s hard picking songs its like, I would assume, picking a favorite child. They’re all important to you, you can’t just pick a favorite,” said Deaton. Kinsey agreed, but admitted that his favorite track on the album is track thirteen, titled “All For You”, which was the first song the couple ever wrote together.

The duo describes their upcoming album as a “melting pot.”

“We have a lot of different interests in genres of music so when we’re writing it’s hard to pick just one kind of style because we enjoy so many,”  Deaton said.

Opening for Colbie Caillat at the MAC on Aug. 29, the pair played songs off of their new album, as well as a cover of Britney Spears’ “Toxic.”  As their set went on, they drew more attention from the audience, and by the end, had full attention, at which point Deaton joked: “this is different because we’re used to playing restaurants where everyone is facing away from us.”

After gaining fans on national television, and attracting even more with the start of their tour, Alex and Sierra are bound to be successful with the release of their album. The stars are enjoying the ride and taking in every second of their new journey. “The best part has been being able to play and write music everyday and know it’s acceptable,” Deaton said.

Not only does the couple get to do what they love as a career, but what hits it home to them is how other people react to it.

“Every once and a while someone will come up to us and be like ‘I started playing guitar because I saw you one the show’, or last night a woman came up to us and said ‘ You made me fall in love with music again’. That kind of stuff is really cool,” said Kinsey.

The couple will be on tour through Sept. 28, crossing the country with Colbie Caillat and Train.
“Everyone we talked to said that you’re going to be really tired all the time but it’s going to be the best time of your life, and it has so far,” said Deaton.

Listen to Alex & Sierra’s single: