Complaint Review: Alex Cantrall Music Producer

Alex seemed legit, with plaques on his wall and boasting about his past accomplishments during our initial introduction made by a fellow cohort and scammer Erik Desando aka EJ.  I should have left when Ej said to us, good producers get paid, the best get paid and laid (referring to sex) while they both looked at me and laughed. I chose to brush this off as I am a chill person who can take a joke but not any more after this experience.  This was not funny, or a joke they were serious and they thought I was their next loaded, and loose meal ticket.  Ripe and ready to be taken advantaged of and thats what they did.  

After securing $25,000 in a wire transfer I had my first session with Alex alone (without EJ) where he introduced me to Jeff, his music partner and made me sign a contract on the spot without looking it over.  He made sure to get this before luring me to the back of his sound proof compound studio in sun valley.  After being shoved into a small room with a large screen where Jeff works, I felt nervous and unsafe.  Alex sat on the floor blocking the doorway and Jeff sat in a chair below the screen, I was in the middle of them.  They wanted to play some tracks for me they “threw” together for my opinion.  Locked in this room Alex says “now that we are officially making music together we have to watch porno together!” In an excited tone and I immediately freak out on the inside and try not to show my terror or lose my cool.  Why did he want to watch porno with me?  I thought we were here to talk about music.  He immediately embarrassed me, tried to make me feel insecure about my sexuality, and questioned what was wrong with me.  He then instructed Jeff to put porn on the screen and he happily obliged. I was grossed out and mortified, I wanted to cry.  I just gave this man $25,000 to make few songs and now this.  I was not sure if next they were planning on a gang rape but thats what it felt like.  I tried to change the subject but they kept reverting it back to watching porn.  What was particularly disturbing to me was the fact that his recent client base was mostly made up of underaged children and influencers, he said everyone he makes music with watches porn with him.  Wow.  Changing the subject I finally heard the track and was disapointed.  The quality was bad, which they told me this was just a sample, regardless it was not anything I would pay for or want to associate with.  I told them they needed to do better and was able to leave shortly after.  

The next session Alex was eager to get this going/finished he invited a girl named Courtney who was a writer to our session.  She was no better.  The track we agreed on was not cool or something I wanted but it was all he had, and the pressure of Courtney being there made me participate and go along with this, the song we put together was cheesy and not good.  I finally intervened taking over writing the lyrics cause she was bad at coming up with lyrical content.  I was paying for their expertise but I was better at coming up with lyrics that the both of them.  The worst part is when they started making fun of a young boy they work with who has a “crush” on Courtney and Alex labeled as “in the closet gay” and proceeded to make crude sex jokes about my lyrics saying “c*m” instead of “come”. and Alex insisted Courtney type that on her computer.  immature and unprofessional.  

She recored the song, we left the session, he insisted I come back and record, I didn’t want to but I already paid the money and felt pressure.  Half way through I broke down and told him I couldn’t do this, it just wasn’t me.  He agreed and we went back to the drawing board for the next session.  The same thing repeated with him and Courtney.  They whole time they were both horrible, she was rolling her eyes at me every time I would speak and just was all around unpleasant to be around.  I had to scratch this song too it was way off.  I thought these guys were hit makers.  Not so much.  

Feeling the pressure of already paying this person I kept going back for more abuse, each session became increasingly worse for me, the harassment got worse, he was forcing me to sing music I did not want to record, and telling me about his conquests with other women outside of the studio even drugging one of them and playing a game of “puppet master” with her, something he thought was hilarious. He showed me a video of this drunk/drugged woman named Cherie passed out at his house. I was able to reach out to her eventually because he bragged about her instagram page, and he quickly manipulated her against me and she ultimatly sided with him and doctored messages to make herself look better claiming I called her "too hot for him" which is false. I don't know a self respecting woman who would act this way knowing what happened to her, have it confirmed by me, someone who was clearly not there.  Alex obvioulsy told me or I would have no clue.  

He was unprofessional and crude, something I was willing to put up with to get a few great songs, but I wasn’t seeing that manifest.  The situation got so dark and I was so desperate, he asked me to send him sexy selfies as motivation to make new tracks and if I had any other music he could reference that another fellow artist and I had worked on.  I agreed, not thinking of the consequences or the potential for him to poach that music and thats what he did.  He downloaded these on his computer and the next time I saw Jeff he was playing really good tracks, I said is this my new music ? It sounds great, I actually heard something I liked for once.  He scoffed at me “NO! it for someone else.”  After that I gave up, I think I attempted one last session before I broke.  

This is not what I paid for or what we had agreed on this is what I was getting didn’t matter if I liked it or not.  I attempted to rectify this with Alex and he refused to compromise.  Saying that this is why he only works with unsigned artist, he gets the money and doesn’t have to deliver.  With a signed artist he only gets paid if the label wants to pick it up.  I was basically out of luck and screwed out of $25,000 at this point, and he was now threatening me and my reputation with false claims that I was a drug addict, a stripper all my life, and I have sugar daddies in las vegas, this was all made up by him in an attempt to discredit me. It gets more weird.  He threatened me in a txt too explicit to show on this site and told me he wanted to paint me as a crazy person.  In this last attempt to gain the upper hand he played other potential clients songs he did not have permission by me to do so.  The the same songs I did not want to record or want anyone to hear, in an effort to gain their trust after hearing the story from Cherie, these were her clients. He offered a $2,500 refund which is what I thought he deserved, he thought that is what I deserved again we clashed.  I was trying to be fair because we had a few sessions, which in no way shape or form equate to $25,000.  

Bottom line is he used me for money and thought I would have sex with him. When that didn't happen he sought revenge and has the means to do so.   

From what I wintnessed during this horror story he invested the money for my project into himself and his daughter's career as an artist, he was in the beginning stages of building her brand and career.  Her name is Young Kylie she also works for Disney.  He invested little to nothing into my project and and made me so uncomfortable I did not want to come back to the studio. I was left with nothing. This is how he makes his bread, scamming unsigned artist with no label to protect them.

I was not taken care of or cultivated as an artist.  He sabotaged me as a result, and made me live in fear for no reason.  He bullied me and I have never felt so degraded in my life.    

He owes me $25,000 and if I took him to court I’m sure I would get more.  

In one last attempted to get help and enlisted a guy named Mathew Cohen of surefire intelligence to assist me and get the money back. He turned out to be just as big of a fraud as Alex and Ej, if not worse.  He promised if I gave him $2,000 he would go after the both of them and recoup my money as a private investigator.  He fell off the map after receiving the money and claimed he was in the “red” with my case when I confronted him, and has not retrieved the money.  He failed to procure any work that he was able to show me, so again I was blindly trusting another untrustworthy person.  This was another set back and major fail for me.  Mathew assured me that he was on my team and I fell for it.  However, the vibe I got from him was he either got paid off by them or he completely scammed me too, and created elaborate lies to keep me on the line and thinking he was a good guy.

Moral of the story is Alex Cantrall is a scum bag and owes me a minimum of $25,000. 

Mathew Cohen turned out to be a far right twitter troll named Jacob Wohl, posing as a private detective, lying to me about his age, position in life and coinsidentally has a very shady past similar to Alex and Ej.  Alex knows how to skirt the law and cover his a*s well when it comes to sexual harassment and taking peoples money.  Avoid him and his services at all cost.