ALISON WONDERLAND: LET YOUR ART SPEAK FOR YOU

On the eve of her new Rural Juror tour Sydney DJ sensation Alison Wonderland chats to Pulse's Charlie Kang about her new EP 'Calm Down', her hugely successful Warehouse Project Tour and drunken tweets.

Pulse: On a recent social media update you wrote, "I don’t drunk text, i drunk tweet." Who parties harder, you or your fans? AW: I do...oh, actually my fans are pretty wild; I’ve seen them do some pretty crazy things.

Can you give me an example? Just like people grinding their teeth and vomiting and sweating off their faces.

You recently wrapped up the Warehouse Project Tour, what was the best memory you have from it? I have two. The first one is having my mum come watch me. She’s only come and seen me play a couple of times, I was really proud to have my mum there. I wouldn’t be here without her. The other is when I was playing and as I looked up at the crowd the light lit over the whole warehouse and I could see two thousand people listening to my music and dancing in a warehouse. It’s crazy because I usually don’t remember shows, I blackout, so those are definitely my two best memories.

Where did the idea to play at warehouses come from? Was it from the Aussie movie Bootmen? Wow I haven’t heard that reference in ages. I wanted to give people an experience that was different to the normal scene. It was something that took a lot of hard work finding the warehouses. It took about 9 months to organize it. We thought that having it at a warehouse would be similar to a house party where people are more relaxed and friendlier to each other.

The tour sold out in a matter of days, what was going through your mind when this happened? It was a bit hectic; people were emailing me because they didn’t get tickets. We had to try and find some larger warehouses to play in. And others were already so edgy because of how the tickets worked where they would get sent a text on the day where to meet. But I couldn’t believe that all these people wanted to come listen to my music.

How do you feel about releasing your debut EP, 'Calm Down'? Nervous. And Proud. You’re letting down your wall when you’re releasing your songs to people.

What was the idea behind the video of the EP’s first single, ‘I Want You’? To have a Sister Act movie in a haunted slumber party way? [Laughs] That’s pretty cool you saw it that way. I wanted to create fantasy realism. I don’t even know if it’s a thing but you just create this idea that’s surreal but real at the same time.

What are the major themes that are expressed in 'Calm Down'? To not give a fuck. Being happy, then heartbroken, being depressed, then back to happy and then closure.

In the past you’ve mentioned that having people listening to your songs is like reading your diary, so how do these themes represent who you are? If you knew me you would realise the songs are very personal and you would totally understand how I feel towards certain people. 'Cold' is the most relatable to me where I was just too cool for that shit. Not in an arrogant way but you know when you’re in a relationship and like the song “And I knew it when I met you, that you would fuck it up”, I just knew it about this person. I was just like fuck this; I was better than that to be in this shit situation.

So would you say that writing music helped with your own closure? Most definitely, it helped me a lot.

Do you think these feelings and emotions are universally relatable? Fuck yeah, definitely. I’ve had lots of times where I’ve known people go through this and they can relate to it.

In your song ‘Sugar High’, part of the lyrics are “wish i could go back to when you took me, onto the dance floor, walk away." If you could do one thing all over again in your past, what would it be? Nothing, I have no regrets. I definitely think that all the things that have happened in my life have shaped me. It’s funny because I was talking to Wave Racer about this the other day and I tweeted something on Twitter: “Life’s fucking weird when you look back at how you got to where you currently are. If that makes sense”

As one finishes, a new tour begins. How did you come about naming it the Rural Juror Tourer? [Laughs] Do you watch the TV show 30 Rock?

I know the show but I don’t get the reference. I was just with my manager Garth and it just became this thing where we thought it would be a funny to name it the Rural Juror Touror and not take it so seriously.

After having success internationally, does playing in your home country, especially Sydney, still mean a lot to you? Fuck yeah, definitely.

Why is that? Because this is where I started off. This is where they have seen me grow and this is where they came from the beginning; I just want to give them a hug.

Another goldmine status update: “Just remembered that I tried to get into a strip club last night after lockout by pretending I was the DJ." As a Sydney girl, what do you think about the Lock Out Laws? I think they're stupid. You know I’ve been working in nightclubs and there hasn’t been any violence. But, It just means more house parties.

I imagine 'Calm Down' is just a taste of what’s more to come, what can fans expect to see production wise in the near future? More collaboration. I’ll be doing more collaborating with Mad Decent. I actually co-produced 'Calm Down', which was hard for me because I’m usually a control freak with my music.

Once you finish touring Australia and our Kiwi cousins, have you got any plans for overseas? Yes I will be heading to the USA afterwards.

Looking back at your success to date, what has been the best advice you've received? Let your art speak for you. A teacher of mine told me that. So many people talk a big game but they don’t show anything. You gotta do own thing and let your work do the talking and just don’t give a fuck.

['Calm Down' is released Friday June 27. Check Alison's tour dates below]

Alison Wonderland Rural Juror Tour Dates 27.06.14 - Discovery, Darwin 28.06.14 - Argyle House, Newcastle 29.06.14 - Flinders Social, Townsville 03.07.14 - Southern Cross Uni, Lismore 04.07.14 - Fitzgeralds, Bunbury 05.07.14 - Toucan, Mandurah 01.08.14 - Star Bar, Bendigo 02.08.14 - Amaroo Hotel, Dubbo 07.08.14 - World Bar, Queenstown 09.08.14 - Movitas, Mackay 16.08.14 - Karova, Ballarat 29.08.14 - Observatory, Hobart 05.09.14 - Plantation, Coffs Harbour 13.09.14 - Smirnoff Snowdome, Thredbo

Listen to Alison Wonderland on Pulse Radio

This article was originally posted on:

https://pulseradio.net/articles/2014/06/alison-wonderland-let-your-art-speak-for-you