Alison Wonderland has shared her highly anticipated fourth studio album, Ghost World.
Speaking on the album’s themes, Wonderland previously shared: “I often feel like I’m wandering this earth trying to find my home, both artistically and personally..sometimes it feels like the search will never end, I want people to know that while you’re on that search, there is place of refuge here for you, with us, in Ghost World.
“I am forever grateful for the people who listen to my music and allow me to continue to create, to exorcize complicated feelings and emotions through my art and – yes – my ego death haha. I am only here because you are.“
Rolling Stone AU/NZ caught up with one of Australia’s most successful electronic exports to chat all things Ghost World, being a female artist in a male-dominated industry, her love of Trent Reznor, and more.
Alison Wonderland’s Ghost World is out now.
Rolling Stone AU/NZ: When you’re onstage as Alison Wonderland, is it a mask? Is it another persona?
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Alison Wonderland: Not at all. I think it’s way more accurate to who I am. I think when I’m in real life, it’s more of a mask, if I’m being honest. And I think that is probably why I translate so strongly live because… I feel the purest form of myself [when] I’m up there. It’s a big outlet for me and it’s not a mask at all. If I’m backstage, I’m always in my trailer because I get anxious or if I’m, you know, having to go to some industry party I’m by the food, by the catering. Yeah, so I do not feel like there’s any sort of mask when it comes to music and dance. Back in the day, criticism was rampant and I was a lot newer to the scene.
The electronic dance music world to outsiders is an impossible nut to crack… I was raised in in the rave scene in the early ’90s… I’m a pre-digital kid. But to an outsider looking in they see someone a DJ on stage pressing a button. They don’t understand what you’re doing and they don’t understand that there are multiple things that you are. You’re also a creator, you’re a producer, you make music, as we’re going to talk about in a moment with Ghost World.
Ghost World is really about me trying to find my place, when you’re growing and you’re evolving, especially as an artist or in the music industry or any industry and you need to still be in love with what you do… So I have to work out where I fit in… I felt a little bit like a ghost… I just kind of felt like, ‘What world do I fit in? Where do I fit in anymore?’ I don’t know because it’s easy to feel replaceable here.
My life has changed so much since I started — not only my career but my personal life. I’ve evolved and this needs to evolve with me. So a lot of this album, the start of it, I was really trying to work that out and by the end of it, there was like a two week [period] where I think I wrote six of the songs in two weeks, where I just got really frustrated with myself and situations around me that weren’t…
I think a lot of people feel this way, but I was getting very frustrated because I didn’t know where I was sitting and I was feeling like I was stuck in the middle of the ocean and I couldn’t see any land on any side of me and I was just like, ‘Where am I?’ And I think a lot of people have that and they feel like that and they don’t feel like they’re a part of something.
So I was having that. And then in two weeks after I thought I’d had the album, [I] wrote six songs and all of them made the album and they’re all my favourite songs… It was like a really weird and awesome experience to work on this and I really feel like I went back to my roots with this album, and I think having a break between Loner and Ghost World and doing Whyte Fang really helped me go back to my roots actually… my chops came back a little bit, you know? Because Loner… I was so isolated and it was such an internalised album. It was just a very different energy… there was just something that I felt like I was missing in the last little bit. And then I came back.
It’s just been the best experience. I’ve lent more towards women remixing… the remixes for the first two singles so far have all have been women and not on purpose. I just wanted that energy around me. I could sing to the rafters about how great it was working with them.
Yeah, Nina[jirachi] came up to me when I first met her and she’s like, ‘Oh my god, you’re the reason I started this and I remixed when I was 15 one of your songs,’ and it was just really funny because I’m such a fan of hers so it was a nice moment and then when we started working on music together it just felt really natural and I felt like oh, we truly do produce in a really similar way.
One of the takeaways of the album is it’s actually quite muscular, which I really appreciate. And it’s right there from the opening track. Who was the guest vocalist? I couldn’t pick it.
Ghost world? Ghost? That’s my kid.
Is it? No, I didn’t spot it. But it is chunky and muscular.
That’s what I was trying to say… [I] think like it’s definitely not as introverted of a record…. This one felt like my first album where I really had just like felt like I had so much to say to the world and perform and go hard…
…like the whole point of Ghost World is that I’m in this universe that I’ve created for myself because I don’t know where I fit in and it’s not a wimpy thing… I’m not trying to be a sad sack about it. It’s like, ‘What dimension am I in?’ I’m making my own dimension and that’s kind of what this whole thing is and we’re going to build a whole show around it and it’s just a universe. It’s a universe.
I mean, when you’re creating a universe, you can just start building and adding, and your partner makes film, so I have to imagine you’ll be making music for film at some point.
That is the goal of mine. You know, I’ve done a few things, small things here and there… I’ve already told him eventually that’s where I would love to do more stuff because I’m also originally a classical cellist, so I studied composition. And for me, film music’s always been a big part of — because I’m such a visual creator — my imagination. It works in my head. But yeah, I think it’s a completely different beast and I think it’s something that I’m gonna have to really learn how to do. And I think a great example of a musician moving over is Trent Reznor… I’m just trying to get him to make one video clip for me.
I have to ask you about Coachella and that incredible moment.
Which one?
Oh, 2018. I think it was 2018 when you became the top-billed DJ in history.
I think that’s bullshit. I actually don’t like saying that because there’s so many women now that have gotten to that point. So I don’t really want to claim that and I think it’s like a weird thing to say. But at the time it was a big achievement. But it’s not really where I see myself achieving things. But I will say, for me, the things that make me feel like I’ve achieved something is when what I’ve written translates… People understand it and I don’t have to explain it to them… Or like when someone comes up to me in the street and tells me that my music had an impact on them in a really positive way. And that’s when I’m like, ‘Oh, this is why I do this.’ This is why I’m still going. Also probably because I can’t do anything else. I’ve tried cooking, I’ve tried being a human, nothing.
We have a list of [the] greatest Australian electronic artists, and you’re in there. Yes, you’re in there.
I will say I think I’m an album artist and I try and be a single artist but for me it’s like a time capsule and I’m trying to tell a story… I’m such a storyteller that every time I’ve tried to do singles it’s never felt right for me, and I wish I was a single artist because maybe in this day and age it’s probably better.
There was one kid that was opening one of my shows in America and he was literally the opener. We had, I think, five people before me. And he came to say hi. He had some single that was doing really well and I was like, ‘Congratulations, I wish I could just do one-off singles. That feels great. That looks great.’ And he goes, ‘Well, Alison, people listen to a single for six months, but they listen to an album forever.’ And I’ll never fucking forget it. And I was like, ‘You know what? You’re kind of right, dude.’ So that made me feel better. Whether it’s real or not, I’m gonna pretend that that’s a real thing.
Because I know as a music lover, I listen to albums and that’s the only way I listen to things… I’m very interested in the whole body of work… the thing I’m obsessed with [at] the moment is a new Turnstile album… I don’t know if you listen to it but [it’s] the best thing that I’ve heard in such a long time, it is so fucking perfect and I love it in the order that they’ve done it and how they flow into each other.”
