Things are about to get real for the Sydney based DJ and producer. Her album is due out in a day and she’s certainly feeling it. “I’m excited but I’m really nervous,” she adds with a quick grimace. “I dunno, it’s an album, it’s my album!”
And it certainly is, as it’s something she’s laboured and loved over for a long time, especially in the lead up to it’s completion.
“I was up for 48 hours finishing mixing my record, and when I say up for 48 hours I didn’t have any sleep, but I had way too many coffees and the only thing I ate was chocolate chip cookies. It got to about 11pm and I realised that I’d finished it. I was in a room by myself and I had a bit of a cry,” she adds with a laugh.
“I went out that night and it was really crazy. I ended up playing a show that night and one of the decks cut out while I was playing so the music just stopped. I got on the mic to everyone and said, ‘Sorry, I feel really socially weird tonight I haven’t slept in two days and I just finished my record. Can someone give me a hug?’ Then all of a sudden like 80 people came on stage and we were all hugging. The music came back on and I started playing again and it was just the most amazing experience, it was crazy.”
While the moment may have been a rare experience, the general friendly vibe of Alison Wonderland’s gigs are a firm reality, and something that she enjoys watch unfold at each and every show.
“I feel like at my shows it has become more of a community thing, and it makes me really really happy,” Alison says.
“At my warehouse tour that I did last year a lot of people connected when we were there and were writing under my Instagram pictures or on Facebook that they’d met each other there. They were there for the music and just to have a good time, and I don’t want anyone to be there because they feel they have to be there, they should be there because it makes them happy. The only reason I want people at my shows is because of that.”
The ethos that Alison runs by has also led her to a rather unusual entry to her album launch gigs. To attend one of the events fans need only to buy her new album, Run, and get to the doors first – as the gig will be an intimate setting there are only a set amount of spots.
While she may be nervous about the album, it’s simply because she cares so much about it, and creating it with friends only doubled those feelings. Whether you get into the launch gig or not, be sure that Alison will keep creating music and there’ll be plenty more unusual chances to see her again.
“I’m not doing it to impress anyone. I’m doing it because it’s the one thing that I really connect with while I’m doing it and what I really love doing. When I perform it’s equally important for me as it is for the audience so I just try to be super real about it,” she says.
Release: Run is available March 20 from all good retailers
Written by Amanda Sherring
