2014-05-29 ARCH ENEMY: Alissa White-Gluz about "War Eternal", linup-changes and psychedelic dreams (English)

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I talked with Alissa White-Gluz, the new singer of ARCH ENEMY - about her new band, her songwriting, her fans and somehow even about vegan Metalheads.Interview

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The first question is really general, actually. How were your first months with ARCH ENEMY?

You mean the months now, like our first gig?

Yeah, the actual real start after you came out to the fans, the first live show etc.!

It's been great, it's been fantastic! You know - the reception to the album, to the music video, even to news itself has been really, really positive. We understand the gravity and the nature of the situation, we know it's a big deal, we know it's a very serious matter and we didn't take it lightly. We wanted to make sure that we presented this news to the fans in a way that would be as respectful as possible. To my fans (that I have personally), to the fans of Angela, the fans of ARCH ENEMY as a band... and that's why we presented it the way we did. With Angela, Michael and myself giving very, very honest and detailed statements about what's going on. We wanted to present music right away too, we had the video ready to go and it's been going really, really well. I'm really thankful that everyone's been open minded enough to just let the music do the talking.

Some of the fans reacted kinda, well, rough on the announcement. I've read a couple of comments on Facebook and some of the fans were really unsatisfied by the decision. What do you make of those people? I mean, they are also fans of ARCH ENEMY.

Well, I don't read comments because that’s actually a really silly thing to do! So, I haven't experienced that, you know? If people not want to be a fan of the band because they don’t like the music, that's totally fine! But if they want to not be a fan of the band because they just have a decision to be rooted and are into one member, that's a little bit silly. Especially considering that this was all Angela's idea! [laughs] She was the one that made that happen. If they love Angela they should really respect her decision here.

Alright! Concerning Angela: She said that she'll do family and management tasks. Does she still have influence on the music and the live-performances or is she just doing business tasks?

It's more business. She has her hands full as it is with the business side of ARCH ENEMY. So, the music is really just the band.

Personally, I'm one of those guys who got an early access to the album and I was able to listen to it for the past weeks. And striking for me is actually that your music sounds very similar to the old ARCH ENEMY, so for me, you personally blend in very well. Is this something you were going for and trying to achieve or were you going for a new sound?

Thank you! I think we were going for a bit of both. We want to have enough traditional ARCH ENEMY elements to make it very clear to people who have been fans of the band for a long time - which, by the way, I am of those people - we wanted to make sure that they've got nothing to worry about. That ARCH ENEMY is still ARCH ENEMY. But then we also wanted to open the door to be able to making new stuff. There's no sense is just re-writing "Rise Of The Tyrant" or re-writing another " Khaos Legions". We wanted to have a new album! And "new" means evolution, it means change, it means adding in, subtracting, putting things in and taking things out. And so yeah, we wanted to keep it very exiting an interesting while still giving a nod to respect the 13 years that Angela spent with the band.

Concerning the future, you said that you're changing the sound in like little portions. What are we to expect in the far future? Will there be any more change which can be more drastically? Or maybe a small side-project planned there?

Eh... I have no idea! For ARCH ENEMY I have no idea what we're gonna do. For right now, we're just focused on this album. This album's no even out yet! [laughs]

Yeah, of course!

So we don't have really any ideas for the next album yet. But I have a side project and Michael and Sharlee are playing in SPIRITUAL BEGGARS. We all love a lot of different kinds of music, we're not in any way limited to one style of music, we're all very open minded. And we enjoy lots of different kinds of music.

Okay! Let me phrase that differently: Is there anything that you would like to do in the future which you haven't done in the past?


With ARCH ENEMY or maybe just a couple of the guys... or maybe even a totally new project?

I do have a completely different project that is not really ready to be released yet... but it should be within a year I would say. That something like a Punkrock project - which is something that I've always wanted to do. And that's also cool, because for those people who really like hearing my clean singing and aren't likely to hear much of it in ARCH ENEMY... that project is, I would say, about 80% clean-singing. It's a very cool project! It's me and a couple of my friends who happen to be very good Canadian Metal musicians themselves. But instead of doing Metal together, we're doing more of a fast-paced Rock, kinda punky band. And I'm excited about that! That's gonna be my next priority after ARCH ENEMY.

That's a great transition, because also I wanted to ask you about the clean parts - or rather, the missing clean parts - in ARCH ENEMY. When performing, rehearsing or writing, do you miss the clean parts you had in THE AGONIST?

You know, I could say that I miss clean singing a little bit, because it is something that I enjoy. But I am so satisfied with performing ARCH ENEMY songs, because they're so juicy, they're so tasty to play on stage that I don't miss it at all when I'm on stage. I even have a couple of songs that I wrote where it's just clean singing. I've done a lot of death vocals and will continue to do death vocals. So, it's not something that I miss on stage, because the ARCH ENEMY shows are so adrenaline-filled and so energetic and chaotic and heavy that there's really, really nothing missing there for me!

If you do older ARCH ENEMY songs, some of the really old material: Is there anything where you say "I can't sing this" or even "I don't wanna sing this"? Or is everything ARCH ENEMY has ever written something where you say "I wanna this and I can do this!"

I would be willing to do all of it and I can do all of it! You know - obviously, if you have that many albums, there are some songs you're never gonna end up playing live. Even if you have just one album, there are some songs that're not going to make it into your live-set, for one reason or another; there are just some songs that remain album-songs. And so, right now, we have a pretty long show we're doing, it's almost 2 hours long, but that's still not enough time to cover a dozen studio albums or anything like that. So, yeah: I'm enjoying doing the old songs we are doing. And we're discussing some that we haven't been doing but that we consider putting into the set, too.

Maybe you can give us a couple of names there?

We do stuff of "Wages Of Sin", "Khaos Legions", "A Doomsday Machine"... we basically cover the big songs from all of the Angela-era albums. And then we also do the singles.

Let's get back to the album, "War Eternal". I read that you wrote a couple of the songs yourself?

Yeah! I wrote the lyrics for five of the songs. And the vocal arrangement for those songs and collaborated with Michael on the rest.

So you were totally involved there?


Concerning the actual lyrics: This is a question I like to ask people, because I think it's really interesting for fans to interpret the music a little bit - where do you get your inspiration for your songs from? Any personal influence you have and you put into ARCH ENEMY?

Yeah! I mean, when I write lyrics, I do it when I'm feeling it. Because if I do it when I'm not feeling it, they're usually, you know... they're not inspiring and not fun for me to perform later. But on this album, there was a lot of chaos going on in my life... actually, in all of our lives, because of big, big changes happening for us, regarding our respective bands. And so I wrote from a more personal place. I tend to write lyrics a lot from the mind - but in this case, I wrote a little bit more from the heart. And I feel like that's really allows for songs to connect with people. Really emotional album!

Concerning the actual process: If you say you're doing this very emotionally: Are there situations where you just have an idea and you need a piece of paper to write it down or is it something you can collect and then just write "one song in an hour" or something?

No! I usually keep a pen and paper in my purse. The bad part about that it gets crumpled and I can't find a way it later. [laughs] So I started making voice memos if I have a great idea for a vocal melody or a vocal rhythm or a style for something. Then I just sing it or scream it into my phone. Often I wake up in the middle of the night - I'm a really bad sleeper, like I'm not good a sleeping... but I have crazy vivid dreams all the time! So, sometimes I wake up from a crazy nightmare or a really cool dream and I'll just open my phone and start writing down lyrics. And actually, that's how I got a lot of the lyrics for "War Eternal": Half asleep at 4 AM in the dark, writing the lyrics!

So, we got some semi-psychedelic songs on the album?

Yeah! [laughs]

That's kinda cool! Now, that's a standard question, but: You got a favorite track on the album?

It's so hard to choose! It's really hard to choose... but I think... for me it would be between "As The Pages Burn" and "Avalanche", I think. But it's really hard to choose, I really like all the songs!

Probably very good to hear for the fans! Alright, I've got a couple of more personal questions, a bit aside from ARCH ENEMY, because I think you're one of the key figures of women in Heavy Metal or Extreme Metal. There aren't very many women in Metal bands, still - how do you experience being the lead singer of one of the biggest Extreme Metal bands there is?

I hasn't really changed me at all, as a person! I've always been very grateful for whatever opportunities I get and I'm grateful for the good people around me and I make an effort to not keep negative people around me. And actually, every in ARCH ENEMY is extremely humble and really down to earth. And I think that's really cool, because even though ARCH ENEMY has achieved a certain level of success that makes us regarded in a certain esteem - we are still like little kids exited to get on stage before every show and then super pumped-up and hyper after the show and, you know, high-fiving each other, giving each other hugs... so, yeah: It's a really good band to be a part of and I'm more than honored to continue in Angela's place to keep ARCH ENEMY alive and driving!

I suppose there could've been some pressure, switching from THE AGONIST to ARCH ENEMY - did you experience something like this at all or were you like "Okay, ARCH ENEMY, gonna do that!"?

I wasn't too worried about this, because I knew I had Angela's blessing in this and I knew she had confidence in me and the rest of the guys in ARCH ENEMY also were totally confident in my abilities. Once I started jamming with them and writing songs I was really confident in the music that we were creating together, too, so I wasn't too worried about it! When I got kicked out of THE AGONIST, then I was a bit worried, because I really did not want to abandon THE AGONIST fans, because they've been with me for like, 10 years! And I'm actually quite close with some of them and it was a big shock for me and I knew it was a big shock for them. So, that actually made me a lot more nervous and upset than stepping into ARCH ENEMY did.

May I ask how that happened? I mean, I read that you were kicked out - but why exactly?

Eh, it's something that I try to put out of my mind, because it's obviously a painful topic. Obviously, when I found out the news about ARCH ENEMY I told them and I was under the impression that everything was happy and running smoothly. We even had a plan to make a nice partnership between the two bands!

What I didn't know is that they actually weren't happy at all and were finding a replacement for me, even while we were on tour together! When we had the last booked show completed, as soon as that was done, they basically told me: You're out, you're replaced, Bye. And so, that was a huge shock, I didn't know that any of that was going on. And it was basically what I've put my entire life into it at this point.

But: I learned a lot from that, too! I learned how to be careful who I associate with and I learned what to do, what not to do... in certain situations, on a professional level and on a personal level. And so: I just can move forward, look to the future and focus on the positive - which is everything about ARCH ENEMY! And that's what I plan on doing. Because it's way too painful to live in the past. I'm proud of the albums that I made with those guys, I think we were a great band, I would have loved it would've continued being a great band with them - but there's some things you can't control.

That's a good approach I think! Last question: I read that you're active in PETA, the animal rights organization? How does this affect your personality and also, your style of music? Because, apparently, in the whole Metal scene, there's a lot of people who try to be manly, have to eat meat all time...

[laughs] I actually think that this is a big misconception about Metalheads! I've always thought that Metalheads were quite the opposite of what they're perceived to be. They're not just a bunch of, like, stupid drunk, sweaty people! I mean... sure... they can be! But for the most part, I my experience with Metal bands (and being in a Metal band!) is that they're very thoughtful, sophisticated people!

They have a deep understanding of human nature, a deep understanding of politics often... I have some friends in the Hardcore scene, and there, being vegan or Straight Edge is very common in that scene. In ARCH ENEMY, we're a majority of vegetarians and vegans. And there's a lot of bands like that! Actually, it's hard for me to think of a metal band that doesn't have at least one vegetarian or vegan in it. I've been vegan since before I've been doing Metal, obviously! So, that's a 100% who I am and it's 100% engraved into my personality. I'm an activist for animal rights and human rights in that sense, but you know: I'm also a musician! So, when it comes to lyrics, of course, I express myself in that. But it's a different field: Music is art and I think it's cool to include a message within art, but it's not the only thing I think about when I'm performing or writing.

Don't get me wrong there - I'm not saying that the Metalheads are what they seem to be!


But they - or rather, we, being a Metalhead myself - we have a certain image on us. The question is: Is that difficult for you with a certain, say, personality?

You know, I'm like a weird person, I've always been a weirdo! I think it would be boring to be totally conforming and normal anyways! So if I'm the odd-man-out (which often I am, just because I'm straight edge), then... whatever? I'm used to that! [laughs]

That's not really a big deal for me. I really couldn't care less if people think it's not Metal to be vegan. I dunno - I think I'm making music that's considered Metal and I'm also vegan, so... [laughs]

Okay! Thank you so much for your interview! Do you have any last message for the fans?

Yeah! I guess I just like to say "Thank you so much!" to the ARCH ENEMY fans for the incredible support. For those of you who are moarning the loss of Angela or are still unsure about the lineup change: I totally understand, I get it, that's fine, take whatever time it needs to be comfortable with it! Don't forget that all the albums that she did are still there.

You know: This doesn't delete what she did, this is actually paying homage to what she did. And the band is really happy, we're really proud to "War Eternal" and I look forward to the release dates, so that everybody can hear it and let the music dictate what they think about the band.

And also, I'd like to say a big thank you to the fans that I've had for many years, for my previous fans, for the KAMELOT fans, for really, really supporting me and being so kind and understanding what situation I'm in right now and being there to support - because that makes a big difference to me!

Thank you so much again, looking forward to seeing you live again this year - have a great tour!

Thank you, bye!