|
 SOAPBOX: ALANIS MORISSETTE GETS THE LAST WORD
ALANIS MORISSETTE is back on the charts and touring the world with her newest album, Flavors of Entanglement. She shares with us her thoughts on artistry, her gay fans and her lovely lady lumps
I’ve always assumed that I was speaking to “human beings” through my music, regardless of gender, race or sexual orientation. So as far back as I can remember I have been actively involved in the gay community. When I was 11 years old my first manager was gay, and most of my best friends growing up were gay, so I don’t really think about it.
I love when the crowd goes wild after I sing the verse in “Ironic,” that I meet the man of my dreams and his beautiful...husband. It’s so cute. Having spent time in New Zealand and other countries where the gay community is super supported by the government, I see the different levels of awareness, and so any opportunity I have to support the gay community, I will take it.
This is going to be an interesting political year, and having someone in office who is open-minded, progressive and conscious would be a great help for gays and lesbians. I think whoever is in office is a deep reflection of what’s going on across the planet, so I would be less concerned about the one person in office and more concerned about the consciousness of the planet in general.
This album says a lot. One track on the album speaks to my personal relationship unraveling and my hitting rock bottom and then the phoenix rising in a sense. There is a track that focuses on me believing that the personal is the political. I’d rather put the focus on my own consciousness and my own day-to-day personal life to “be the change I want to see in the world,” versus trying to control the world to reflect some change I’m unwilling to experience in myself.
I’m really a lyric person. When I’m singing a song for the first time, most people don’t know what the fuck I’m saying. So, when I go out on tour this fall, having the record out will help, because people will know what I’m singing about and what the themes of the songs are. They’ll be familiar enough to join in, too.
When I write a song, I usually am writing for myself. When I share a song publicly, it’s an act of invitation to interpret it in any way they may want. You’d be surprised at how many interpretations I have heard. And I have heard some funny ones over the years. After hearing the song “Hands Clean,” this woman came up to me and said, “God, it’s so intense you wrote about the relationship you had with that woman…” I thought, Huh, that’s interesting, because it’s about a man I worked with when I was 15. Everyone has their own take on my songs.
Debuting songs live before they are heard on an album makes me feel vulnerable. It’s like having kids—I’m not going to be presenting my kids, hoping they are liked. I’m going to say, “Here’s my kids.”
I didn’t want to be one of those women who woke up at 55 to realize that I passed up any chance of getting married or having children because I was such a workaholic. So, I stopped for the first time ever. I spent a lot of time in Canada and Northern California. I started writing a book, designed some jewelry and gutted my house and redesigned it inside and out. I like to ride motorcycles and love to travel. Road trips are fun, and I like to have parties at my house.
Speaking of fun, my cover of “My Humps” came about when I was in the studio writing another intense song. Guy Sigsworth, with whom I worked on this album, said almost on a daily basis, “What horse of the apocalypse are you bringing in today, Alanis?”
Believe me, I’ve tried to write a simple, hilarious song. I just can’t do it. I said, “I’d like to write a song like ‘My Humps,’” and we all started laughing. We did a piano version of the song, and a week later shot a video for it in my garage.
There are a million different interpretations of the song, even on my end. One of the most surprising to me is from singing some of these lyrics in a ballad kind of way, interestingly enough there are a couple of moments of empowerment.
--
Flavors of Entanglement is available now. Visit alanismorissette.com for tour dates, tickets and more ’lanis-liciousness.
|
Instinct Online 
