Alanis Morissette – Interview

Alanis Morissette went from an unknown to superstar at the age of twenty-one. Now years later she has matured and—if you can believe it—grown better with age. We caught up with Alanis and discussed life and her latest release “So Called Chaos.”

I’ve listened to every record and now with “So Called Chaos” something really sticks out and it’s how you emphasize different syllables. Do you sing that way naturally?

I think when I started writing in that kind of way I was nineteen and the people I was writing with were really rigid in my opinion. I remember thinking during those times that I wanted to write in a way where there are no rules. I didn’t know if it would be in syncopation or in the rhymes, but I liked the rulelessness of it.

I didn’t know if you did it on purpose or I’m crazy.

You’re crazy. (Laughs)

“Knees of my Bees” is a fantastic song. Now if I’m reading too much in to this song please let me know—but you are playing with words right? As in “you are the bees knees” (for the kids out there it means you are cool back in the olden days) and “you make me weak in the knees”?

Yep. Sometimes I think the English language has its limits. But I love to rebel whether it’s gratuitous or not.

Aside from being a rebel, which I have no doubts you are (we laugh), do you also try to play with the words to make it sound unique or to keep challenging yourself?

It’s a combo of trying to entertain myself and also trying to communicate. As long as I can say what it is that I need to say then I’ll fit whatever I’m trying to say around a melody. I like the limitlessness of that and I don’t feel like I have to stay in a box.

“Eight Easy Steps” is intriguing because it’s sarcastic, but at the same time it’s taking on something… right? I can’t always tell what is going on in your songs. (Laughs) It made me think of those commercials where you can take a pill and lose weight and mocking that kind of garbage.

It’s me taking some of the more difficult challenges in my life and if I could get a gift from those times what would it be? What I came up with is if I had a kid or meet people who have been in a situation that I’ve been in, then I can support them in a way that I wouldn’t have been able to had I not experienced it. And then there is the whole “how to do something in eight steps.” I think there is a massive value in those—but I have to smirk.

It’s funny that you say you have to smirk because when I listen to the record I often wondered if you weren’t in the studio with a big smirk on your face. Not in a bad way–you love the songs and have meaning, but there is this wonderful biting sarcasm on the other hand.

In my opinion I think sarcasm and humor in a song, without turning it into a novelty song, is really charming.

It makes me think of the Beatles who didn’t necessarily want everyone in on the joke–if there was a joke.

I love the cheekiness of that. (Laughs)

Me too. Its funny when listening to the record I never knew what all the words were. I had to ask for the lyrics because I wasn’t sure in some cases what you were singing. At the end of the chorus for “Eight Easy Steps” I thought you were singing something about shit. And I told the label that I didn’t think that was what you were singing so I needed to read the lyrics.

(Laughs hysterically) I love that. That is so funny. Right on.

Do you believe that if you can’t write it easily you have to pass on it and go to something else?

Yeah. When I start writing songs and it turns into an overly belabored intellectual process I just throw it out. You know how it is when you write something and it writes itself.

Yep.

You know it was supposed to happen. It doesn’t mean that I won’t sit there and give it a minute, but if it means hammering it out I’m not going to do it.

On a more serious note—I played the song for my wife because I had to let her hear how you managed to get “doth” into a song. I can’t figure that one out. I don’t think I ever heard that before.

(Laughs) That’s funny.

How the hell-eth did you come up with that? I mean what is it a medieval love song?

(Laughs) It’s something I say to my friends. Whenever you are trying to convince somebody you aren’t something but usually it means you are that. Have you ever tried to convince somebody you aren’t scared of something? That means you are terrified. My friends and I always say that to each other.

You’ve had a lot of pressure following up the first record, was the pressure off on this album?

Yes. I felt like I was making a record under the radar and that is my favorite way to do anything. At some point I would like to write a book and other things, but I work best when there is some sort of deadline in my own mind but not when fifty people or fifty million people are breathing down the back of my neck.

But going under the radar is a double edged sword—you have to now go out and remind everyone who you are and tell them the record is out.

In this day and age it’s all about finding creative ways of letting people know it’s out there. If they want it, it is their deal, but the big thing is letting them know they can.

What do you listen to? Old stuff? New stuff?

I was born in ’74 so I missed out on all the great early ‘60s and early ‘70s. I love songs that are very autobiographical. I love Rufus Wainwright.

I really liked his last record. I was born around the same year and I missed out on it all too—I remember “Star Wars” and that’s about it.

(Laughs)

Have you thought of trying to reinvent yourself?

It will happen by default. When I’m supposed to switch something my gut will tell me to do something that stretches or scares myself and then I will.

I think age always has the biggest role in that. Metallica fans complained that they changed, but the guys are forty-something years old—how can you not change?

Right.

What do fans expect? I mean do they want to blow their ear drums out the rest of their lives?

(Laughs)

Right, now I know you as a person have to feel different because you are growing older and more mature.

I am and I’m always including more. At one point I was just perceived as only being angry, but now I’m being perceived as angry, peaceful, and spiritual. I’m including all of them. So every record brings out different parts like sarcasm, emotional, maybe funny.

Fans never want change, but how much do they realize they’ve changed over the course of five to ten years.

Right.

I think about myself—I have children and my life has changed so much since you put out your first record. I mean how much does a person change in the five years over which most artists release two albums. A lot I would guess.

Exactly. I think some fans want everything to stay they same because they want to stay the same and then there are people who are evolving and they are psyched that I’m going along with them.

It’s funny because you hear artists say this changed or that because of children, a loss of a relative, etc. and when you are twenty you don’t understand those things because most haven’t experienced it… but now we have.

Right, we have more in common with different things because of your experience. All I can promise myself and everyone else is that this record is a snapshot of this period in my life. It will be that by default.

When you look at music today—is it amazing to you, someone that is in the industry, how fast fads are cycling—almost yearly?

It’s a really kinetic turnover time. The thing I always default to is that I’ll always be here to write songs. If they want to check me out then great, but if they want to rock to a new artist every two weeks then have a nice day.

You’ve dreamed of being an artist—now you are. You probably dreamed of being a big star—you are. What is the dream now?

I’ll keep evolving and put that into my songs. Down the road I’ll probably have a kid or two or three. And there will probably be political events or spiritual things to comment on and humor. There is so much shit to talk about. I could write six songs in one day with everything that’s going on.

So maybe we’ll be getting a baby album?

A little lullaby record.

+ Charlie Craine