Interview: Alison Sudol of A Fine Frenzy

Alison Sudol is the singer/songwriter behind A Fine Frenzy. A surprisingly soft spoken, demure individual for a front woman, she’d rather curl up with a book than party all night. Her love for poetry and classic literature comes through in the images she invokes in her fanciful yet emotional lyrics, and she named her band for a line from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: “The poet’s eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven, and as imagination bodies forth, the forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing a local habitation and a name.”

When I spoke with her, Sudol had recently finished up a European tour and was embarking upon a new adventure: several dates with Lilith Fair 2010. We discussed a wide range of topics for such a short chat: songwriting, touring, paint fights, love, and her plans for the new album she’s going to be writing this summer. My “heart was ticking like a bomb in a birdcage” as I sat in the grass adjacent to the Pacific Northwestern countryside, interviewing this beautiful, talented woman.

There’s this one question that everybody asks you, about how your first album, One Cell In the Sea [2007] is so different from your second album, Bomb in a Birdcage [2009]. In those interviews, we’ve heard how you felt you grew, and how you wanted to let loose and have fun with this second album. I’m interested to know, though, how different has this most recent tour been from previous tours?
I think that I went through a lot when I was making this record. I was going through a lot, mentally and emotionally…going through some rebellious patches and just a lot of change, personally. And so, the first tour that we did with this record was kind of tumultuous for me. [After that] I had a few months off to really take some time and to think about things. Then we went to Europe and I really got my head together and then it was just…it was fantastic!

I really love playing this music live — it’s really fun. I’ve always been invested emotionally in it, but when you go through a really rough period with something — just like when you go through a rough period with a loved one or a friend — it kind of makes you stronger.

When you say that you had a tumultuous period, I’m not going to pry too much, but was it just like the touring, being on the road, being away from home, your dog, favorite foods — all that kind of stuff?
Yeah, yeah, and sort of wrestling also with being a quiet person naturally and then kind of having your life…[trails off, thinks for a moment]

I think the first album was just so…new, and I was just a little overwhelmed with everything. This next time going into it, it’s like I knew what to expect. I was a little bit freaked out by it, but now I’ve found a balance and I love it.

People that become musicians…you’re either one of those people that just wants attention all the time and so you go out there, and you’re constantly like “Me, me me!” [laughter] and it’s great, it’s a great lifestyle for that. But then if you’re the other kind [of person] where you’re a little bit socially awkward or shy, or supersensitive, and everything affects you, and that’s why you’re a musician, then when this is your life it is…

Harrowing?
Yeah, but then you just got to find a way to work around it, and now I feel like I have.

That’s good.
I mean, it’s a process.

Yeah, it is for everyone, I’d imagine. So, I was watching the video for “Electric Twist,” and I loved the part where you get to splatter paint all over the room. That’s like, one of my dreams! It looked like you were having so much fun. How was that? Whose idea was it?
I actually thought it would be fun, but I never mentioned it to anybody. The treatment, that video idea, was an idea that I had in mind, but I didn’t say anything about it. Then the director, Justin Purser, was like, “What if we had a paint fight?” [And I said] “Yeah! Yes! Please!” It was so much fun, especially because I was the only one with paint. The guys didn’t have any, so they couldn’t really get me back, so it was basically just me attacking them with paint.

[laughter] That’s awesome!
But one thing I learned from that video shoot is that if you have a cement floor, and you have wet paint, and you run in it, you’re basically guaranteed to fall.

Oh no!
You see both of my spills in the video. I just was running, and like, yeah — bam! Smack. I had the most amazing bruise on my knee. My knee was just black and blue and green and yellow.

You should have tried to play it off like you were a derby girl or something. All tough.
Yeah, totally. I kind of like, rolled over and started crawling, trying to make it look like I meant to do it cause you can’t really do [the paint scene] over.

Yeah, it’s not like, “Cut! Okay let’s start again, clean off the room.”
Yeah, no, it didn’t work like that.

What video do you plan to release next?
I don’t know. I’m hunkering down actually — this summer I’m working on the next record, so I think that that might be it for this [record].

You’ve already got songs going for the next record?
Yeah.

Is it going to be different? Do you have a name, or any details to share?
It is a very intimate record. It’s a bit of a fable, and I think it’s more along the lines of “One Cell” than “Bomb.” It’s super organic and childlike in a way, and it’s just so pure and full of love. Also, I think — because I’ve grown a lot — it’s geared a bit more towards searching rather than just being angsty…it’s a little bit more grown up and childish at the same time, I don’t know how to describe it. [laughter]

Were you inspired to do a fable by the castles of Europe? [laughter]
I think in general I’ve just been very happy. I think happiness makes me feel like a little kid. When I’m at my best, I feel like I’m about 10 or 11, you know? Everything is full of wonder. I don’t know, I think that that really influences my music a lot — it makes me revert to the things I loved at that time.

Yeah, it’s important reclaim that innocence you had as a young girl, before puberty hits us and makes us so self-conscious and worrisome.
Yes. Absolutely. I mean, I feel like from about 14 to 19 I just got so far away from where I was when I was a kid…you get hung up on what people think of you, and trying to fit in, and that’s when you lose your individuality and then you have to work really hard to get it back.

When I was doing research on you, I saw that a lot of people call you indie, but you’ve never been on an indie label. Have you noticed that? Do you know why?
I think it’s a huge compliment…I think it’s because I never wanted to go a traditional route, I’ve never really fit into a traditional mold. I think that’s what independent artists are great at, and I think that even if you’re on a major label you can still be an independent…

…person?
Person. And I’ve been lucky that I’ve gotten to maintain that. So, when people recognize that I’m like, “Yeah!” because, you know, it was a little bit scary to go onto a major label in the first place. The only reason that I did is because people were like, “Yeah! We love your songs about rabbits and fish,” you know what I mean? [laughter] And I’m like “Really? Oh weird, ok great!”

A musician is an artist, and artists need to get paid. They’re going to do it their way, on their own personal terms, you know? There’s a lot of people who like draw a line. I don’t, really. I just feel like, who are you, the audience, to judge? That’s just a long, silly discussion that goofy writers and commenters on YouTube have.
Yeah. Well, I think people love to put things in categories because it makes things safer, or like, make more sense. [With] music especially — it’s just one of those things…if you’re doing things right I think it should be un-categorizable…which is annoying for a writer, I’m sure. [laughter]

[Laughter] Yeah, well, I mean, it’s kind of annoying for a writer if you try to compartmentalize people, you know? Like, we don’t really do that. We don’t really limit ourselves to like being a metal site or an indie site or something like that.
I think that’s good though.

So, do you play any other instruments, besides the piano?
I play guitar really badly — like very, very badly — but well enough to write with. So, I do write on guitar. And, uh, I play a little kazoo. [laughter]

Kazoo? Yes! I play punk rock triangle.
I play the tambourine, that doesn’t really count. Yeah, and little bit of accordion, kind of.

And you taught yourself piano to write songs?
Yeah.

Is that because you would write words that you thought would go good to music, or because you had wanted to learn how to write music itself, and then writing lyrics came secondarily?
Well, I think I’ve always considered myself first and foremost a lyricist because I love writing, and when I was a kid I did a lot of stories — I wrote stories and kid poems. My poetry is atrocious for some reason — I can’t really write poetry, I need to have music.

I taught myself piano partially because I was just a total bum and I didn’t really want to take lessons — like typical lessons. I [tried] to take typical lessons and I ended up not learning, and I was frustrated. I just wanted to be able to write. I did work with this woman for a little bit, Jolene Bell, who’s awesome. She showed me how to keep time, and different ways to make chords, and what certain things meant. Then she was like, “Okay, get out of here. Scram! No more!” so I had to learn the rest myself. It’s great. I mean, there are things that I’m definitely hamstrung by, by doing it that way, and I really respect and admire people that are classically trained.

Some artists go back, after being a musician and putting out like 10 albums or something, they take a break and get classically trained.
Yeah, well, that might be what happens for me. I never had it as a goal to be a concert pianist, I just wanted to be able to write songs and not be dependent on anybody else.

I’ve always wanted to learn how to play piano and play music. Someday maybe I will, when I’m an old lady, and retired.
It’s never too late, it’s never too late.

So, Lilith Fair is one of the biggest concert events of the summer, how surreal has your rise to fame been?
I don’t know, I mean, I don’t even think about fame. That stuff is really alienating and you start to look at yourself outside of yourself, and it’s just weird, you know? We’ve played in huge amazing venues and we’ve played in crappy, crappy little dungeons of bars with, like, four people in them. At a certain point you just go with the flow and it’s all about making good music and connecting with people. You just have to keep the focus on that…you could be on the top one day, and on the bottom the next.

Yeah.
But it’s amazing to get to be a part of this, especially with all these great women.

How may dates are you playing?
I think we play five.

Right on. That’s weird the way everybody’s just playing a couple of dates.
Yeah, it’s regional…It’s cool for us to get [to play] the West Coast and to start here in the Pacific Northwest, because this is like my favorite place to be. We’re in LA already so it’s easy, you know? Just a little jump.

Did you stop through Portland at all?
No, we just woke up and we were here [at the ampitheater]. I’ve been to Portland many times and I love it there.

I love that town, it’s a good place.
Yeah.

I’m from Olympia, Washington.
Oh, I hear that’s really beautiful.

It’s a cute place. A small town in the middle of forested area, my moss-land that I walk out into every day.
Are you serious?

Yeah, we have hanging moss and lichen in my neighborhood, it’s really pretty.
I think that’s where I’m going to end up. I spent some time up in the Cascades. The mountains and the trees and the clean air and clean water…I mean, it’s something I miss a lot. If my family and friends weren’t in LA I would just leave right away. When you’re always gone anyway as a musician, [it’s hard] to not have your home base be near the people you love.

I deal with that all the time. My husband and I left our family and friends back East and moved out here.
At least you have each other.

Yeah, we have each other, we’re super in love.
That’s super amazing. One can hope, right?

Love is there.
Love exists.

Yup, indeed. Sometimes I think we depress people.
Why?

Because we’re best friends and completely in love…I feel like sometimes people see us and they feel sad, like they’re never going to find it themselves. I’m like, look, I cried when I saw Forrest Gump when I was a young teenager because I saw Forrest and Jenny in love on their wedding day and I was like, that’s never going to happen to me. But it did. I never thought that weird little me would find someone I love so much, that loves me back. It just happens, though.
That’s amazing. I don’t think it’s depressing. I mean, I think it’s all a journey…the more I see that people have that, the more I’m like — that’s amazing, it exists.

It does! Just don’t settle.
Yeah, yeah. [Laughs, raises her eyebrow and smiles] Yeah, not going to…