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As someone who has done thousands of interviews, I am asked all the time, "What is so and so like?" The reality is the secret to a great interview isn't that complicated. You put two people together and sometimes they vibe.

As a journalist that feeling of talking to someone you know you will have a working friendship with for the next several years is one of the most gratifying experiences.

The first time I met up with electronic superstar Alison Wonderland backstage at the Shrine in L.A. in 2018 that feeling was instant. Four years later when we finally reconnected to discuss her return to the Shrine this April 1, as well as her upcoming album, Loner, and new singles like "New Day," was just as rewarding, if not more so.

Wonderland is an artist in the best sense of the world. Brave, compelling and totally outspoken, and equally thoughtful and gracious, she reminds me a great deal of my favorite interview of all time, Alanis Morissette. And what makes both of them such great interviews is at the heart of their successes as artists — they believe in the art with fierce strength and passion. It is their catharsis and often times their escape.

Wonderland says in our interview she went through traumas she was not ready to speak about in the last few years. But she explains in our fascinating conversation she channeled that experience into Loner and turned the pain into her most optimistic record yet, one that she needed to make for herself.

I spoke with Wonderland about the new record, freaking out while meeting Stevie Nicks and her excitement about coming back to the stage.

Steve Baltin: How have you been?

Alison Wonderland: I've been great dude. How are you?

Baltin: It has been interesting times, but it's been fun. I swear, I did 4027 interviews during COVID because every artist was so bored. I did 90 minutes on a Friday night with Stevie Nicks.

Wonderland: One time, this is a long time ago, there was an award show in Australia, and I was like the filler DJ that played between the ads of the award show, and Stevie Nicks was at the awards show. I didn't even really know. And I walked out of my dressing room, which was just like a little room, and I turn the corner and Stevie Nicks is standing there and talking to Kylie Minogue. And I just went, "Huh," like this and they stopped and they saw me and I just went, "What the f**k?" I then ran away. That's my only interaction with Stevie Nicks. It's pretty cool. I was so shocked. Can you imagine a music fan running around a corner, not expecting Stevie Nicks in Australia, talking to Kylie Minogue?

Baltin: Would you know what to do today?

Wonderland: No, I don't think so, I don't know. It was more just the shock factor. I think if I knew she was gonna be there, I would have been a little bit more composed, but I didn't. And I'm like, "That's f**king Stevie Nicks, just standing there."

Baltin: So that was part of my COVID experience. Your COVID experience, you actually got to make new music.

Wonderland: My COVID experience was very much album oriented. It was a really weird time for me actually. And this album was written during that weird time. I think this is by far the best body of work I've ever made. I'm really proud of this. I could have made this album a different way, or decided to go in a different direction with it, but I really, really thought it was important that I stayed honest with what I was doing. I actually have no collabs on this album, it's just me. The album's called Loner. I need to get it out, 'cause it's an outlet for me. Once it's out, I'm like, "Holy s**t, now everyone knows about my life and my personal life, and it's just like some of this stuff my parents don't even know." There's that element of it. But, for me, sitting on songs and not putting them out, it gives me anxiety, because I'm sitting on all this energy that I put into a piece of creativity that's just sitting there. And so being able to get it out and tell an entire story for me and just put it out there in the universe, it's almost like a therapeutic thing for me to just like, "I'm done. I'm done with that feeling that I felt or that story. It's out there. I can set it free and move on." And that's how I feel about songs.

Baltin: Writing is often subconscious and leads you in its own direction. So are there things that you go back and hear on Loner that surprise you?

Wonderland: Not so much surprised. I think this album was very intentional for me. I was very aware of how I felt when I wrote this. It was more a way for me to process what had happened. I basically looked back on my last two albums and I went, "Okay, Awake and Run. What's the theme here? I'm the victim. Okay, Well, f**ck this. I don't wanna do that. What's the common denominator in all of these things happening all the time? Me. So, I need to look in the mirror and I need to go find power in this s**tty experience, and I need to go and become a better person and not attract things like that into my life." And I just was like, "No, I'm gonna be a victor, I'm gonna win, I'm gonna come out of this happy, even though it's like the worst experience I've ever had," which I'm not ready to speak about right now, but it was a very intentional album. I wrote this because I needed to write it. I needed to say it. I needed what had happened to be written in words. And for me as a songwriter to be able to write something out and put it out there, it's a way of me healing. And so I basically used this whole album as a manifestation, where I acknowledged what was going on, but I refused to sit in that. I was like, "No, it's gonna be fine, I'm gonna be fine, I'm gonna be happy." And this is actually really the most hopeful album I've ever written. And it became a rebirth for me. And it's about finding power in being a loner, it's about finding power in loneliness. It's about finding power in the dark things and turning it into something positive and turning it into strength, and that's what this album was about. And when I look back and I listen to all the lyrics, I'm like, "Yeah, that's exactly how I felt, and that is exactly what happened." It was a very intentional thing for me this time.

Baltin: You're from Australia. Nick Cave, who's like the Australian god, was telling me once that to him as he writes, you're always writing what it is you're longing for. So it's interesting for you that you say that this is a manifestation. So as you wrote did you start to feel the victory from the songs?

Wonderland: Yes. I'm a way better person and happier person because of this album. I feel so strong. Literally the worst thing that ever happened to me in my entire life, hands down. One day, you're gonna hear the story and you're gonna message me and be like, "Holy f**k." I came out of it better, because I could have just sat in this being a victim, and I just refused. I was like, "No. You can throw all this s**t at me as much as you want, but I'm gonna come out on top. I'm gonna come out happy." And I did. Like I genuinely feel like I am a lot closer to happiness than I ever have been. And I hope that this album helps other people realize that in the darkest of times, the only person that's gonna be there for you is you. Truly, no one else. The only person that can change things is you. The only thing guaranteed in life is change, and the only thing that you can control is how you react to that change. Because one thing I did learn is that you can literally have your entire life completely taken from you. In the matter of one minute, everything can change. And what you decide to do with that is on you. And it is hard to come out of it happy, but when you do, it's like, "I really did that." It's like when you're a kid and you see parents buying their kids cars, and those kids don't have to work for the cars and they're driving these cars around. Well, I never had that. I bought my own car. But, oh God did I love that car, because I worked so hard to save up for that car. Till this day, I love that car, [chuckle] and it wasn't a very cool or special car, but I did that, I worked hard. There's value in where I got to because I worked for it and it wasn't easy.

Baltin: Was there one song that jump-started the album?

Wonderland: The first track on my album is a song called "Forever," which I feel sums up my entire album. I was sitting in a Starbucks drive-through during the pandemic, with my friend Trent. And I was crying to him, bawling my eyes out, being like, "I'm doing everything I can to make everything okay, and the universe keeps taking s**t from me and it's beyond my control at this point. I don't know why nothing is going right for me, I don't get it. And it's nothing that I can fix, it's just situational." And I was crying and I'm like, "It feels like this is gonna happen forever because I keep trying and nothing's working." And he looked at me and he was like, "It will feel like forever until it doesn't." And I just looked up at him and I went, "Oh my God." And that's like a repeating line in the intro of my album. Is it will feel like forever until it doesn't. It's gonna be tough. But, I don't want anyone to feel sorry for me. So this album was me being like, "Yeah, this is a very horrible thing that happened. You don't have to feel sorry for me, I'm fine."

Baltin: Let's take this to the stage, 'cause we're talking about the Shrine show. How much of the new material will you be playing live?

Wonderland: Most of it, yeah [chuckle]. I'm still trying to work it all in 'cause I'm like, "What should I take out?" 'Cause people will always be upset if I take something out. But that's a blessing and curse of releasing more music and having people like songs so.

Baltin: So what songs from this record, especially because as you say, it's a record of hope and empowerment, are you most excited to see how people respond to live?

Wonderland: "Forever." I think "Forever" is gonna be, live, really euphoric for people. I actually previewed it at Red Rocks and everyone was like, "Oh." And the visuals to that song came to me while I was tripping on shrooms. I don't know if I can say that. I can, who cares. They're gonna legalize it anyway at some point. Someone was like, "Hey, you should try micro-dosing." And I was like, "Okay, sounds cool." And I tried to micro-dose one day when I was at home, I think I over-dosed and I'm actually on the phone to my old visuals guy who's still a friend of mine, we were just catching up. I'm talking to him and an hour's gone past and everything's fine, and I start making sausages on a pan, and all of a sudden the pan started like turning into rubber, and I'm like, "Oh my God." I look up and the whole room is breathing and everything is all of a sudden sepia colored and I'm like, "I'm gonna have to call you back, like I'm tripping balls right now." So I actually just bought an Oculus that day, and I'm like, "Maybe if I put this Oculus on and program it so I'm sitting at the beach, I can ride this out." And so I'm sitting alone at home with this Oculus on, on a beach somewhere, tripping out, and then all of a sudden I get this image in my head of this colorful stained glass, just like the visual for "Forever." I got it in my head and I saw the choir, I saw how it was gonna start, I saw everything, this was before I'd finished even the album, I just saw it and I called Garth [Crane, her manager] and I still had my Oculus on, I'm like, "Siri, call Garth." I called Garth, and he picks up and I'm like, "Garth, I need you write this down because I'm not sure if this is a bad idea or an amazing idea, but I'm tripping balls." The next day I revisited and I'm like, "Yeah, no, this is brilliant." We tried it out at Red Rocks, and when I look back at it, it was exactly what I saw in my head when I was tripping. It's a really rare feeling, I don't think that many people in the world get to feel this when there's something that you literally see in your head as a creative and then it materializes not only sonically but visually into exactly what you saw in real life. And that's what happened to me.

Baltin: Let's talk about the next single, "New Day." For everything we're talking about in connection with the record and the theme of the record, "New Day" is such an appropriate title. Is that the recurring theme throughout the record, the fact that everything can feel new?

Wonderland: Yeah, it's like acknowledging what's going on, but remembering that tomorrow, hopefully, you're gonna wake up, your two feet will be on the ground and it'll be a new day. And you try your best and if it doesn't work, at least you know you tried your best, and then the next day is gonna be another day, and then the next day is gonna be another day, and thinking about stuff like that, it keeps me going during times where I feel hopelessness. I really believe that humans react so strongly to negativity, it's just how we're wired. But the good things, you can survive with positive thought as much as negative experiences, so I wanted to bring that to light.

Baltin: What do you take from Loner when you listen to it?

Wonderland: I feel very proud of this body of work, and I don't know how it's gonna go, I don't know if anyone's gonna care about it. They might not, but even if they don't, this is just such a real and honest take on s**t. Sonically, I experimented with more organic sounds as a juxtaposition to the more digital synthesized sounds that I'm using, and I've really learned where my voice sits best. And I think lyrically, I've become a better communicator. So this is the thing about being an artist is you're always growing. And so in that part of it, I was like, "Wow." I listened to the album and I'm really proud of this.

Baltin: I am curious about the vulnerability on the record. Are there artists or songs that you think back to where you first understood how much you can put of yourself into a song?

Wonderland: It's always been these things that I've resonated to. LCD Soundsystem, everything James Murphy writes. I really resonate with people that are so literal obviously, Smashing Pumpkins; sonically, the Knife. It's a little more cryptic with the lyrics, but I still feel something with it, and I think it's not just always lyrics that make you feel something, it's intention and it's spirit behind what you're saying, and it's the human side of it. So yeah, sometimes it's just about feel for me.

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