Alex & Sierra hope love will pay rent

Alex Kinsey and Sierra Deaton met when they were in high school in Florida but didn’t begin a relationship — musical or otherwise — until college. As Alex & Sierra, they won the third season of televised talent show “The X Factor” in 2013 and released their jazzy, Jason Mraz-y debut, “It’s About Us,” last October.

The couple, in the middle of a tour that hits House of Blues on Friday, got on the phone to talk about stardom, the vagaries of reality TV and why they’re (only sort of) like Sonny & Cher. An edited transcript follows.

Q: You held a writer’s writers camp before starting this album.

Alex Kinsey: When we were on “The X Factor,” we had a bunch of really talented producers and songwriters working with us, and we got to know them really well for nine straight weeks. When the show was over, we went to LA and did a writing camp with all of those awesome people from the show, close to 20 of us in this house. We’d get up in the morning and meet in the living room and break off into groups and write, have a happy hour, then go write some more, then go off on a hike. It was very natural and organic and just a lot of fun. We got most of our album in one week.

Q: Do your fans have a proprietary interest in your relationship? Having been on TV, people must feel like they know you. Does it ever get weird?

Sierra Deaton: It’s kind of funny, because we never thought (anybody) would be really interested in our relationship. We just thought people would be interested in the music, and it’s definitely an odd sensation. Because we’re in it, it doesn’t seem very interesting to me, but there’s people who know everything about us.

Q: It took a while between your “X Factor” win and the time your album came. Did you worry that you were missing your moment?

Kinsey: That’s definitely something we thought about. Riding the wave that comes with a show like that, there’s a surge of all of a sudden going from zero Twitter followers to half a million in a couple of months. … (but) it doesn’t matter who’s following you on what social media if you have a great album. … It was like, let’s write an album and get it out in a reasonable amount of time, so that people don’t forget about us.

Q: You went out for “American Idol” and got cutduring Hollywood Week. What did you learn that helped you on “The X Factor”?

Kinsey: Honestly, we didn’t get enough experience to even take much away from it. It didn’t feel quite as real as “The X Factor,” (which) wanted to make sure that the stories you told were your stories, the songs you were singing were the songs you wanted to sing. Granted, we didn’t make it far enough in “American Idol” to experience what went on behind the scenes, but “The X Factor” felt more genuine and artist-centric.

Q: It was around that time they started calling you a modern-day Sonny & Cher. Had you known who they were that was when you went on the show?

Kinsey: Oh yeah. Our parents are (from the ’60s). We definitely have some knowledge of that kind of stuff.

Deaton: We don’t see that at all, except for the fact we’re a couple. Our music doesn’t sound anything like them, but we take it as a compliment because a lot of people love them.

Kinsey: That’s OK, compare me to Sonny & Cher. I’m not going to complain.

Q: Even the best couples have fights. Did you ever have to go onstage (when you were fighting) and smile through your gritted teeth?

Kinsey: Every couple has disagreements, but I think one of the coolest byproducts of us being able to do this together is, we could argue all day, then go onstage and music kind of makes you forget about it.

When: 6:30 p.m. Friday

Where: House of Blues, 329 N. Dearborn St.

Tickets: $20; 312-923-2000 or livenation.com

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