Interview: Alison Sudol of A Fine Frenzy
By Jed McGowan
Noisetap Editor
2007’s been a busy year for Alison Sudol, the talented 22-year-old singer/songwriter behind A Fine Frenzy. She wrapped up her debut album,
One Cell in the Sea (in stores July 17 on Virgin), has been earning extensive airplay on name-making radio stations, and has wowed hard-to-impress audiences in her native Los Angeles and at the South by Southwest music festival. To top it all off, later in the year she’s joining the music elite – Rufus Wainwright, Sean Lennon and Neko Case – for an extensive U.S. tour. I recently caught up with Sudol to discuss the new album, musical influences and playing live, among other topics.
We’re getting close to the release of your debut album, One Cell in the Sea. Are you nervous? Excited? I’m completely excited. Honestly, it’s a dream come true. The amount of lovely feedback I’ve gotten ahead of time is very exciting.
What’s the history of the album? How long have you been working on these songs? The oldest song on the album is the first single, “Almost Lover.” I wrote it maybe two years ago. So it’s really just been the last couple of years that I’ve taken to build up the album, and a lot of the album, maybe half of it, came after I signed with Virgin. So it’s pretty new too.
Do you have a favorite track from the album? I don’t know. It kind of depends on the moment. All of these songs are personal. It just depends on my mood really.
You go by the name “A Fine Frenzy,” which comes from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream. Do you consider yourself a bookish, literary songwriter? Definitely. I think there’s so much inspiration in literature and so many beautiful images. And I think one great image can spark another.
Just out of curiosity, who are some of your favorite authors? I really love C.S. Lewis. I read all of the Narnia books when I was younger. Lewis Carroll. I loved all of the Alice stories. As I got older, I got into Ayn Rand, Dickens, and lately I’ve been reading a lot of Jane Austen. You know, anything that’s got a great story and interesting characters...I like to be able to get into a different world and see the world through somebody else’s eyes.
When did you first become interested in writing songs and recording music? Was it an early passion for you? Pretty early. I was always a writer. I was always writing stories. That was kind of my favorite thing to do when I was younger. And then as I got older, music meant so much to me that I wanted to do it myself. When I was like 13 or 14 I started writing. There’s something about writing a story or writing a song with a melody. It’s kind of like putting a puzzle together. It has to all work out. It has to be a certain amount of syllables and it has to fit together. And that really inspired me more than anything else.
Can you take us through your songwriting process? Do you start with lyrics first? A melody? It’s a weird thing. It’s like a dreamlike state when it comes to me. It’s hard to say whether the lyrics prompt it or the melody. I sit down at the piano and start playing chords, and the song comes to me and I just work it out. Sometimes the melody will come with the lyrics but then there’ll be a patch of lyrics that’s missing, or a patch of melody that’s missing. But they kind of come together.
Who are some of your influences? Your favorite bands and singers? I love Bright Eyes, Death Cab for Cutie, Sigur Ros, Coldplay, Simon & Garfunkel, Camera Obscura, Kings of Convenience, Philip Glass, Erik Satie, Brian Eno. Those are some people that I admire very much.
You’ve got good taste. Let’s talk a bit about your live shows. You played the South by Southwest festival. Did you enjoy yourself there? Oh my God, that was so much fun. I’ve never seen so many bands in one place. That was the first time I’ve ever been out there. I’ve never heard so much live music at once. It was crazy. They’re playing out of the back of trucks, in grocery stores and shoe stores – it’s wild…It’s quite an experience. I wouldn’t listen to any music for about a week beforehand, so you’ll really be craving it. It’s a lot to take in.
You just finished up playing some headlining tour dates. Where did you play and how did it go? We played the West Coast for a few dates. We played Portland, Seattle, San Francisco and L.A. We did the east coast: Washington D.C., New York and Philadelphia. It was so much fun. It was just really wonderful to get out there. We haven’t done a lot of touring, we’ve done a little bit. To actually go and have people come see us…a lot of people are just wandering in and you’re getting raw reactions of people who have never heard the music or have only heard a track or two. You see how the music affects people and it was really, really great. I’m looking forward to going out again with Rufus Wainwright this summer.
Sean Lennon and Neko Case are also on that tour with Rufus. That’s an impressive bunch of songwriters. Are you a fan of their music? Are you looking forward to the tour? I think I’m beyond excited. There’s the excitement of going out with such great artists. And then there’s also the excitement of learning from them. As someone who’s starting out, these are people that have succeeded and that are really true artists who haven’t compromised. I just really admire all of them. And also being able to meet fans who are obviously music lovers. I always go out after shows and meet people, and I’m really looking forward to that. I went to [Rufus Wainwright’s] El Rey show recently, and it was really interesting to see how varied the crowd was. All the different kinds of people who respond to his music. It was really interesting and really cool. So I’m really looking forward to seeing who comes out.
