BC Jean and Mark Ballas of Alexander Jean. Courtesy.

You’ve surely heard of love at first sight, but for the members of Alexander Jean, Mark Alexander Ballas and BC Jean, it’s more like love at first sound. The music duo turned married couple—both working musicians prior to meeting—connected through a shared love of performing.

“We met at a singer-songwriter night at a mutual friend’s house,” Jean said. “It was kind of like a fun party night where singers and musicians would get up and perform.”

These were no ordinary house shows, either, considering the caliber of talent in the room. Take Jean, an accomplished songwriter in her own right. Jean was signed to Clive Davis’ J Records and worked with some of the biggest hitmakers in pop, including Max Martin and The Matrix. She may be best known for writing the song “If I Were A Boy,” which would go on to become a smash hit for Beyonce. Ballas also sports a hefty resume that includes both the stage and screen. Ballas released his own solo album in 2011, has performed with national theater touring companies and was nominated for an Emmy for his work on “Dancing with the Stars.”

It sounds a little like a script from a movie. Jean was up performing when Ballas walked into the room.

“He couldn’t see me; he could only hear me,” Jean said. “And I think he liked what he heard.”

“I loved it,” Ballas quickly chimed in.

Ballas said the vibe for that kind of gig in Los Angeles can sometimes be disconnected, with people distracted and looking down at their phones.

“Right when I got there, the whole room was just watching this girl on stage, and she was killing it,” Ballas said. “Her voice gave me the feels of a Janis Joplin. I was just blown away.”

Ballas later went to the stage to perform his own set.

“Mark got up there with his amazing guitar skills; he was definitely making eye contact and flirting,” Jean said.

The two exchanged numbers and began hanging out, though the musical collaboration didn’t come until more than a year later.

“After we did that, we realized we had great chemistry both on and off the stage,” Jean said.

What started as a passion project snowballed with the duo writing more songs, then releasing an EP, going on tour and signing with a label—everything was eventually falling into place. After getting signed, Alexander Jean was already in the process of taking a year to hone its craft. The pandemic forced that year to stretch longer.

“We’re becoming more self-sufficient. We finally learned to press the buttons and produce our music from home,” Jean said. “It’s been rewarding to be able to put our ideas down without having to wait for a session.”

“It’s great to be able to go in with our executive producer, Jimmy Messer, with fully formed ideas instead of driving him nuts with all kinds of different ideas,” Ballas added.

The band has since released an EP, Coming Down, as well as a handful of singles like an acoustic cover of “Another One Bites the Dust,” the Halloween-themed “Toe Tag” and RIFF favorite “For Anybody Wondering.”

Ballas is always writing on his guitar, while Jean is always writing notes and lyrics, she said. The two lean on their past experience as musicians to get right to the point. A surprise benefit of being both a married couple and band is the added honesty in giving feedback about song ideas. With both having such diverse backgrounds in music and stage, it makes it very easy for the pair to get right down to business when it’s time to get new material recorded.

“We’re pretty savage,” Ballas said, laughing. Added Jean: “When you’re in a session, you can’t be sensitive. You’ve gotta be able to throw a bunch of shit against the wall and see what sticks and be open and honest.”

The pair agree that it’s a friendly competition to find the right direction for a song. The best idea usually wins, Ballas said, but as it is in marriage, the winner is also sometimes the one who fights for an idea hard enough.

Ballas and Jean describe their sound as a ’70s-meets-’90s aesthetic. While Ballas grew up playing grunge, thrash and emo, he also loves the blues. He watched his father and uncle play guitar together growing up.

“Genres, of course, still exist, but people’s records don’t have to sound like just one thing anymore,” he said, pointing to Post Malone as an example. “He’s on the hip-hop chart, but he’s also got a rock influence and is out there singing with Ozzy Osbourne.”

Follow writer Mike DeWald at Twitter.com/mike_dewald.