Alison Wonderland joins pop’s party
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Extreme sport … Alison Wonderland ends up covered in bruises after most of her gigs. Picture: Supplied.
Source: Supplied
ALISON Wonderland performs her DJ sets like they are extreme sport. The petite musician, songwriter and now singer has come off stage after sets covered in bruises, with a chipped tooth and bloodied nose with no recollection of just what happened.
She knows how it happens but just can’t control it.
“Look, here’s a photo and that’s just my legs. Usually my whole body is covered in bruises,” she says and then jumps on a kitchen bench to demonstrate how she beats herself up.
“I’ve chipped a tooth, come off with a bleeding nose, cut myself up. I jump into the crowd a lot and I don’t care. I have come to in moments of clarity to wonder how I got on top of a speaker stack.
“The best thing I have ever done was to decide not to worry about how I look on stage and just go with the music.”
That instinct to just go with her creative impulses is working out just fine for the artist known as Alexandra Sholler on her passport.
Trained as a classical cellist, she switched to playing bass in indie rock bands before embarking on a DJ career.
Wonderland gained national notice when she entered the inaugural She Can DJ talent search in 2011. She came second but got what she really wanted — a record deal with EMI.
Record deal … Wonderland (left) scored a record deal after finishing in the top 10 of EMI’s She Can DJ talent search. Picture: Simon Bullard.
Source: News Limited
“I remember saying to EMI: “You know, I don’t want to win this but if you like my music …(winks),” she says, laughing.
She released the ubiquitous mix CD but then whispers began swirling that the label was developing her as an artist. Not a producer in the vein of David Guetta and Avicii who enlist other vocalists to sing their songs but a traditional pop artist.
After introducing her talent via debut single I Want U, which topped the influential song aggregator Hype Machine, Wonderland started to stir some serious buzz among her peers and international tastemakers.
Wonderland was offering something completely different. Channelling her mother’s love of the Beatles, Blondie and Eurythmics with her father’s penchant for Nick Cave, Tom Waits and Bob Dylan, her music is electronic but certainly not the generic dance pop pumped out of Sweden or LA hit factories.
As she prepares to release her debut record Run, which features the original vocals she recorded on her iPhone, the talented musician still refuses to call herself a singer.
“I know I’m not a singer but I think when the words you write are coming from you, the song communicates better,” she says.
“It’s not that I don’t want to be a singer it’s just that honestly, I never thought one day I would be a singer.
“When I was really young, I used I used to tell my mum I wanted to be a rock star or the editor of Rolling Stone. I never thought about the singing part.”
Wonderland decamped to Los Angeles last year to work on her record as she scored international deals.
The songs started pouring out as she soaked up the experiences of living in Hollywood; the parties, the celebrities, a famous boyfriend she won’t name.
Her champions include Diplo and Christopher Mintz-Plasse aka McLovin from Superbad stars as her maniacal kidnapper in the video for U Don’t Know
“I didn’t have to, but I did go to LA. A lot of the album in written about my time in LA. It was all written in the moment, the now. not looking forward or back,” she says.
“I think writing music is cheap therapy, which is good because after I finished writing the album, I felt way more balanced. I did not feel as insane.”
Like many of her music peers, she admits to suffering anxiety if she isn’t channelling her nervous energies into creating. Wonderland is also a perfectionist who will labour over a note, a beat, a word until she is 100 per cent happy with it.
She blames an intense desire to be honest for driving her to the brink of madness.
But ask her to explain the precise stories behind the songs such as current single U Don’t Know, which features The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne, and the walls come up.
“You have obviously heard the words of my album. I tend to surround myself with slightly troubled humans … sometimes … I think. Bad boys? Yep,” she says.
“It’s scary because everyone is reading my diary. And I really hope the people I am writing about do not read the words. Although I’ve already warned them.”
One to watch … Her debut record Run is much anticipated in American dance music circles. Picture: EMI Music Australia.
Source: Supplied
Run will be launched this week with a series of launch parties for fans who have pre-ordered the album. They will also serve as warm-ups for the gig of her lifetime — a spot on America’s fabled Coachella Festival in Palm Springs next month.
Wonderland still can’t believe she scored a slot on the influential double-weekend event.
“I was meant to go last year because The Knife were playing and they are one of my favourite groups of all time and biggest influences. I bought a plane ticket to America, told my manager not to book any shows for that time,” she says.
“The day I supposed to leave we went to an all you can eat oyster bar in LA and I got so sick.
“I was sitting in the bathroom being sick and sorry for myself and kept saying ‘I’m never gonna get to go to Coachella unless I play. F … Coachella.”
“We were all laughing about it … I didn’t think that was a realistic thing. It is the dream. So now I think maybe I put it out to the universe.”
Run is out on Friday. The album launch parties are 68 Cecil Street, South Melbourne, Tuesday,
33 Bayswater Road, Kings Cross on Wednesday and 249 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley on Thursday.
