The Agonist – Alissa White-Gluz
Posted on July 10, 2009 at 12:09 am by admin
Our new guy Rob had a chance to do his first interview with Alissa White-Gluz, the cultured singer and screamer for The Agonist. We had some “hottest chicks in metal” questions lined up for another member of the band as a joke, but seeing as he just interviewed Alissa, we decided not to go with those questions to be polite.
Way Too Loud!: What influenced you, and got you up and playing?
Alissa White-Gluz: My friends band needed a singer. That’s pretty much it!
WTL: Do you know what influenced the rest of the band to start playing?
Alissa: Well, we all have really different influences. I know Danny [Marino] played guitar for a really long time, even before he was in a band, the same with Chris [Adolf, bass]. Simon [McKay, drums] plays a bunch of different instruments. Th common denominator is music that made us want to start a band. The band came together at different points, it’s not like we all joined together to make a band all at once.
Alissa: It was different writing compared to “Once Only Imagined” because back then we were playing a bunch of local shows around Quebec and Ontario and we needed songs. It was a continual thing where we’d write songs and play them until we decided to record a demo. Since we already had 10 or 12 songs, we decided to record an album, so we did that and it got released on Century Media as “Once Only Imagined”, whereas with “Lullabies for the Dormant Mind” we actually sat down and decided we were going to write an album. It wasn’t just a progression over years and years.
“The Tempest” was written a long time ago, in 2007, but the rest of the songs we wrote in 2008. It was something that we were working on in-studio rather than recording songs we already knew.
WTL: Do you write songs with the live aspect in mind?
Alissa: I really don’t write songs with a live aspect in mind. I probably should, because I don’t have any breathing space in a lot of the songs! I’ll be singing a song wishing I could get some water! I probably should write songs thinking a little bit more about the live show, but I don’t because I want the recording to be a project within itself, and I don’t want to sacrifice any part of the recording for the live show, so I end up challenging myself live and play the the songs exactly how they were recorded.
WTL: How did the title of the album come about?
Alissa: We actually got that album title before the album was finished. I was just kind of fiddling around with song ideas with the notebooks I use for lyrics, and every once in awhile I’ll have a really good idea and I’ll scribble a star or and X beside it. I had a whole bunch of ideas, and I kept on seeing “Lullabies for the Dormant Mind” and a few variations of it, and I thought it sounded cool, and I suggested it to the label, and they thought it was good, and everyone who I asked their opinion about it really liked it. All of my lyrics seemed to fit into that theme anyways, so we choose that and stuck with it.
WTL: How did the idea for the song “Swan Lake” come about?
Alissa: I really like classical music, and I really like a cappella too. I walked into the jam space and Danny was playing “Adagio” by Samuel Barber, which is a beautiful song, and I said “Oh wow, that’s ‘Adagio’! That’s so cool!”, and I realized that I had done some spoken word poetry to that song in high school, because in high school I never did was I was supposed to do. I we were supposed to write a 3000 word essay, I’d make a movie instead and get 100 percent on it, because my teachers really liked it. But yeah, I had that spoken word poetry, and I thought it’d be cool to use that as an instrumental track on the album, because we only had 10, which is kind of short, but none of us played those instruments. I played the flute and violin, but very badly, so recording an orchestra piece was unreasonable. so I sang the flute, the harp the strings, everything, so we had 30 tracks of my voice all lined up, and there it was!
WTL: How did the choice to use a violin in the song “Chlorpromazine” come about?
Alissa: There’s an interlude in that song that’s kind of like psychedelic, trippy, moody. We have this friend, Avi who plays with Frank Marino, Danny’s uncle, and he doesn’t play traditional sort of violin, he plays his violin sort of like a guitar, and we wanted a real violin, not an electric or synthesized, but a real violin. We were going to have it in some other parts of the album too, but it didn’t work out.
We let him go for half an hour, then cut and pasted some of his parts, and put it in there.
WTL: How did Youri Raymond end up doing guest vocals on “…And Their Eulogies Sang me to Sleep”? He’s known mostly for guitar.
Alissa: Youri has been a good friend of mine since I played a show with his band Unhuman a long time ago when I was in my first band. He’s an awesome guitar player, and he’s an awesome vocalist. Watching Unhuman is amazing, because at that time they were a 3-piece. They might’ve added someone, but I’m not sure. They’ve got this huge sound, an they’re super-technical with amazing vocal. I’ve always been a huge fan, and since he’s a friend I asked him if he could do vocals on our album, and he said I should do vocals on his album too, which I probably will. They’ve been working on that one for awhile. So I brought him into the studio and handing him some lyrics, and I told him to do anything he wanted, just something that I can’t do, because if I could do it I would do it myself! So we had him doing his crazy growls and stuff, and we had a spot where I was singing, and since the song was getting so full already, we thought we should do a trade off between my singing and his crazy orc vocals! He did some really cool stuff there!
WTL: What did Melina Soochan add to the album?
Alissa: She composed and played all the orchestrations on the album. Every time there’s an outro like in “Thank You, Pain” or “Birds Elope With the Sun” where there’s keyboards and piano, or in “Martyr Art” there’s a bridge. Throughout most of the songs, there’s something subtle like strings or pianos. She composed and played all those. She brought a whole other element to the album.
WTL: How did Christian Donaldson come about as producer? Did he do anything outside of the recording process?
Alissa: He also recorded our first album, and he’s also a good friend of ours. He’s also a guitar player in Cryptopsy and Mythosis, who we’re also friends with, and he’s a really awesome person to record with because he’s super patient. For me, I know I ask way too much of the person that’s doing the recording because I really don’t like using effects like auto-tuning or pitch-shifting and things like that, so I make sure that I keep doing the take until I get it. Sometimes I get it on the first take, sometimes it takes a couple of takes, and sometimes it’s really frustrating, which is actually where the beginning of “…And Their Eulogies Sang me to Sleep” came from, because it’s fucking frustrating sometimes! He lets me do a million takes if I need to, and he’ll tell me stuff like something was cool because my voice cracked in it, and it shouldn’t be redone, so it’s good because he keeps my perfectionism in control. I guess you could say he produced it in a way. He definitely gave his input, and we really respect his input a lot. He didn’t really write any songs with us, be helped to shape the overall sound of the album.
WTL: Can you tell me about the art on “Lullabies for the Dormant Mind”? It’s strange and intriguing, but it does fit the title of the album.
Alissa: The artwork on “Lullabies for the Dormant Mind” is from the same person who did our previous album was Natalie Shau. We were toying with ideas back-and-forth for a long time. We started on the album art long before the album was finished. I gave her the lyrics and the title, and told her what I was looking for, and it turned out she had a piece called “Lullaby” already, and that’s where the field of coffins with the single pillow came from, so I did a quick sketch and asked her if she could do something like what I drew, and she ended up doing that and keeping the whole Tim Burton nursery rhyme moon and fake stars, but also had the whole funeral procession look with the man and the book. And the back cover too, it was one of the ideas we had come up with on the way to the front cover, and the art inside. It was done by her, but sort of designed by me and her.
WTL: You’ve toured with a wide variety of bands in support of “Once Only Imagined”. How did that effect you as a band?
Alissa: At the time it was really hard because we were still a really young band, and we only had our first material to work with – any band I talk to is shaky with their first material, because it’s your first time writing and recording. Overall, I think it was a good thing for us because we got really inspired by the bands we were touring with and were able to take elements from them and work them into our music, but on a subconscious level, not even thinking about it, but in out latest album, there’s definitely some Enslaved in there, some Overkill, some Sonata Arctica and God Forbid. It’s cool because we got inspired by bands who we really like and respect and were able to tour with, and out music is that much better for it.
WTL: Ideally, what would you like a new listener to get out of listening to your music?
Alissa: I’d like them to listen to it again as soon as it’s done! (Laughs) Even me, and I recorded this, and I was hearing this for over a year, and I still listen to my own album, and I can say “Wow, this has longevity”. Even “Once Only Imagined”, I love it and it’s like my first baby, but I don’t even have it on my iPod! I should put it on there… I also hope that people would want to look at the album art and read the lyrics, and look into it more.
WTL: Is there anything that you’d like people to get out of the lyrics?
Alissa: Basically, the way I write lyrics is that I hope if someone wants to enjoy the song, or enjoy a nice poem, then they can and hopefully be inspired or aesthetically pleased at the sound and the look of the lyrics. There’s also a deeper meaning to all of the lyrics, and it would be cool if anyone that reads it would want to dive in and take a deeper look, and get a little closer to the lyrics and try and figure out what I’m talking about.
WTL: How did you end up on Canadian Idol back in 2006?
Alissa: It was a dare! It’s a long story, but what it was, it was kind of weird because I was kind of forced into it. We’d recorded “Once Only Imagined” by that point, and I thought it was stupid, but I got to know the producers a bit more, and they really liked me. I kept in touch with them a little bit after too. It was just fun!
WTL: How did you end up choosing to become straight edge?
Alissa: I never really chose it, it kind of chose me. Back when I was 16 I attempted to drink alcohol and thought it tasted horrible, and being drunk didn’t do anything for me. I hate smoke, I absolutely hate it, and drugs are so escapist to me, and so it alcohol when it gets to a certain point. I like my body, and I like to keep it pure, and I don’t like self-destructive behavior, which is easy for me because I find alcohol to be repulsive!
WTL: Do find that straight-edge is becoming trendy?
Alissa: I have no idea since I don’t know anyone who’s straight edge, except for Jay from Thy Will be Done who I met on our last tour, but beyond that I don’t have any other friends in Montreal who are straight edge. I mean if it is, that’s cool, it’s a good thing. All it would do is be positive for whoever falls into the trend I guess. For me, I’ve never been one to follow a trend anyways, but I’d rather it be trendy to be straight edge rather than it be trendy to be a heroin addict! (Laughs)
WTL: Do you think being straight edge is cheaper than the alternative?
Alissa: I think so, because the other guys in the band waste all their money on beer and stuff, and I can keep my buyout and show pay, because if you calculate how much money you would spend on beer to get drunk even once a week, and if you smoke, all the money you’d spend on cigarettes, that’s a lot of money at the end of the year!
WTL: There’s been stories of bands resorting to eating peanut butter and beef jerky for dinner on tour. Have food choices ever become slim for you on tour?
Alissa: Honestly I don’t know why bands do that! I eat the same at home as I do on tour. Maybe because in the United States it’s still easy to communicate, but maybe if I was in Russia or China I’d have a hard time, but I just go to the grocery store and buy whatever food I would normally eat at home. I was scared to before I went on tour because people told me I wasn’t going to be able to eat vegan. We usually get to the venue 12 hours in advance, so I just fill my cooler and the trailer with whatever I want and eat it over the course of the week. People don’t have to do that, they can just eat real food!
WTL: Who would you tour with if you had no rules?
Alissa: I would love to tour with Queen, No Doubt, Arch Enemy, Muse – that would be sick! Cradle of Filth and Strapping Young Lad. That’d be a fucked up tour, but I’d like it! That’d be a really weird festival. I’d even throw some musical theater in there like Jesus Christ Superstar and Cats at some point! (Laughs)
WTL: Who would you like to tour with who’s both feasible, but not obvious?
Alissa: That’s tough! Well, obviously everybody would like to tour with Metallica, an that’s not always feasible. I think Slipknot would be cool. I’m not really a Slipknot fan, but Slipknot fans seem to really dig us, which is really cool because they’re loyal fans. I like Slipknot, I’m just not familiar with their stuff, but they’re heavy and catchy. I think that’d be cool.
WTL: Where in the world would you like to tour?
Alissa: I’d like to go to Australia because I love surfing, and I have so many friends that go there and surf for months on end, I’m so jealous! I think the best place to go would be Japan!
The Agonist – …and Their Eulogies Sang Me to Sleep
Interview by Rob and Piers.
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July 17th, 2009 at 8:59 am
Cool interview! There’s a mistake in the 2nd question though. Alissa refers to Chris, as in Chris Kells, the bassist. Not Chris Adolph.