Swept Away

08/02/2002 9:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Neal Weiss

When Alanis Morissette, practically a LAUNCH veteran at this point, recently paid her third visit to LAUNCH's L.A. studios, it was an older, wiser Alanis who sat in the hot seat this time around. After performing songs from her new, completely self-produced album, Under Rug Swept, the Grammy-winning songstress discussed everything that's lead up to its creation, revealing that she's experienced quite a lot for someone who's still only 28. Read on to find out what she's learned and how she's grown, then go to her videos section to watch her exclusive LAUNCH studio performances of "Hands Clean" and "Utopia."

LAUNCH: Tell me something about "Hands Clean," the first single off Under Rug Swept.

ALANIS: "Hands Clean" was written about someone I had a relationship with and worked with when I was younger, and the verses and B sections are him speaking to me from the past-tense, and the choruses and bridge is my speaking back to him in the present-tense, so it's this virtual dialogue of sorts.

LAUNCH: How about "Utopia," which I'm really kind of smitten with? I think it's one of the most beautiful songs you've ever recorded.

ALANIS: I often find that unless I have something that I've created that I am aware of in my own mind to work toward, I wander around aimlessly, so it's sort of a map of sorts--and not one that I have to adhere to really stringently, but one that I can at least reference when I am on my path. So, um, just kind of my highest vision that I aspire to; I certainly don't live it every day, but I just try to.

LAUNCH: What about "Precious Illusions"? Tell me about that one.

ALANIS: Oh, "Precious Illusions." As I evolve and as I grow older, a lot of the things that I thought to be truths when I was younger just really aren't as I grow older. And that's disillusioning, and there is a grief and a loss of sorts when I segue-way from one awareness to another, and that's what I was singing in that song.

LAUNCH: I know you've described your albums as "snapshots." What is this latest album a snapshot of? If you had to look at the picture, what is it?

ALANIS: This album was a snapshot of my delving into relationships--particularly romantic ones, which I haven't before. My priorities--the top ones, anyway--have always been expressing myself, and traveling and career and evolving in many ways, and lately I've put a little bit more attention to my relationships. And you'd never know it by looking at my relationships, but...so this record really kinds of chronologizes the end of one romantic relationship and the beginning of another, and eventually sort of the end of another. And really the theme--if there can be one at this point, in my own mind--in this record is wanting to connect and wanting to build bridges over chasms, really.

LAUNCH: Obviously, you've had another record that dealt with relationship matters. Compare the Alanis--the "character" of Alanis--between this record and Jagged Little Pill.

ALANIS: I'm a little less passive-aggressive, which is good. A little less explosive, because of the fact that the passivity isn't there as much. I communicate a little bit more. I used to depend on my songs to be the outlets for any emotion, and in my day-to-day life I didn't apply the courage or the wisdom that I would apply to the songwriting process. So that's one of the biggest changes, I would have to say.

LAUNCH: You wrote and produced this entire album. Tell me if it's what you expected--was the burden was worthwhile?

ALANIS: It was a challenge to produce and write at the same time, because of the fact that as an artist or as a writer, I've always been insulated and in some ways protected, really, from the outside world. Producers would oftentimes serve as a buffer to the outside energies and comments, and this time around, I would go between both hats all the time and every person I was working with, whether it would be musician-wise or with gear or with logistics or whatever it was. I was fully engaged the whole time, so there wasn't really a moment where I could turn off. And it was challenging, but it was good, I have no regrets. I think I'll do it a lot more smoothly next time.

LAUNCH: You mentioned musicians. There were again some very well-known musicians on the record. What do those guys offer? Why do you decide, "Oh I need Flea from the Chili Peppers here"? Why is that necessary?

ALANIS: I wasn't even sure it was necessary until they came in and they were brilliant. When Flea plays, his sweet spirit is all over the track, and same with Dean [DeLeo, of Stone Temple Pilots] and same with [former Jane's Addiction bassist] Eric Avery and Meshell Ndegeocello. I mean, they are all really brilliant. And the bandmates that I've toured with that are also all over the record, it's like a community, you know? And I love creating community, facilitating it, and it's one of my favorite things to do now when making a record, I think.

LAUNCH: How about your last record, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which a lot of people described as maybe "more difficult" or "more ethereal"? What did you take from that experience that helped create this new album?

ALANIS: That's a great question. Writing Supposed after Jagged Little Pill was my way of just writing without thinking about anything and, as best as I could, not giving into the huge amount of pressure that surrounded the writing of that record. So if I wanted to throw out structure, which I did many times, I did, and I just really followed my gut on that one. So it allowed me to listen to my intuition and just really have it be an intuitive process, and I apply that all the time.

LAUNCH: It's obviously almost the most impossible album to record, from a commercial perspective, after the success of the first one. How do you feel about that album now?

ALANIS: I love that record so much. When I listen to it...I listened to it in Fiji a couple of weeks ago, and I loved it. It's like going through a diary three years later, so there's a lot of things that surprised me and charmed me in ways that I had forgotten about so. I like it. It was a great snapshot of that time; it really said it all to me.

LAUNCH: As long as I'm asking, how do you feel about Jagged Little Pill? Is it a trophy, is it an albatross, is it any of those things?

ALANIS: It's neither. I think Jagged Little Pill, when I think about it or listen to it, it's really a snapshot of that time in my life. So you know, much in the same way that we'll pick up a photograph of ourselves from 1995 and think, "Oh yeah, I remember everything that I was going through and thinking about." I have a lot of compassion when I see that record or even see footage from that time, because it was a very overwhelming period for me.

LAUNCH: According to your bio, there are several tracks that didn't make it onto Under Rug Swept that you are going to throw into a second album. Is that still happening?

ALANIS: I don't know about throwing them into a second album, but songs that didn't make this record may emerge on an EP of sorts or something to be released, 'cause there's a few songs that I would love to share that didn't make the album because they didn't feel right.

LAUNCH: Are you usually this prolific when you record or write songs?

ALANIS: Yeah, it's usually a fast process. Like, at one point when I was writing, there were one or two songs being written and demoed in a day. So if it's a belabored process, I abandon it. I don't like hashing something out and beating it up--it's not very channeled or creative to me, that.

LAUNCH: Here's the potentially clichéd question, actually: The sort of standard "women in rock" question. And I ask it because when you first emerged, you and several other artists...I don't want to put words in your mouth, but everything that went on the mid-'90s--Lilith, et cetera--it seems when you look at music now, it was all for naught. And I'm wondering how you feel about the place of women in rock at this time.

ALANIS: I just see the pendulum swinging all the time--whether it's patriarchy and matriarchy over the years, you know, the pendulum really has swung in a huge way with that one. And we're in a patriarchal era right now, heading back toward matriarchy as I see it. Ultimately, I would like to see that pendulum dangle in the middle, and with music I see it as not being any different.

LAUNCH: You're always politically involved. I get the impression that you kind of like to let your songs do the talking. Your songs aren't overtly political, but there is a politics there. Is that true?

ALANIS: Yeah, I believe the personal and the microcosmic, one-on-one stories are the political--they are the universal, they are the global. So if I can break it down to myself and one other person having a conflict, it's no different than the conflict or resolution, or lack thereof, between countries or between religions, you know? It's all about the same issues, just in more of an extrapolated form. One of my favorite ways to communicate anything--political or otherwise--is through a very personal expression. But I've done both, but my preference is definitely doing it more personally.

LAUNCH: Is it your responsibility to participate in political events? What drives you to want to do this?

ALANIS: I don't feel it's my responsibility--I feel it's my passion. I feel like it's who I am and it's something I believe in. So when I wake up every morning, one of the first thoughts that I think is, "How can I take care of myself enough to the point where my cup is overflowing to the point where I can be of service?" So that's basically what goes through my head every morning.

LAUNCH: You mentioned travel. I remember when you were at L.A.'s Museum Of Tolerance--I was covering that. I mean, that's a pretty amazing experience. You saw some parts of the world that we are now talking about a lot. What's your take with the war and everything that's going on in the world right now? How do you process that?

ALANIS: I just see it as a symptom of our consciousness not being as far along as it could be. I feel like we are all operating at .011 percentage of what we could be operating at, in terms of consciousness. So these are all symptoms of that cause, of that root cause. So I see a lot of dealing with the symptoms and the conditions of what's going on, but at root, it's our consciousness level and our spiritual void, as I see it, or our lack of awakedness, that is resulting in these manifestations. So I'm all for fixing whatever needs to be fixed--like, I do believe in bandages if you're bleeding--but my concern is always to get back to what caused the cut to begin with. So that's kind of where I'm at.

LAUNCH: Along the same lines, at least in terms of traveling: Did those experiences in far-off lands manifest themselves in the new record?

ALANIS: I don't know. I think my travel affects me on pretty massive levels and it would probably by default wind up finding its way into the songs. Just the belief in connectedness and our inter-connectedness on a spiritual level, and that theme sort of emerges in every song that I write, I think, by default. So yes, my travels affect me, but I think who I am affects where I want to travel to, so they both affect each other.

LAUNCH: Obviously you're touring the United States to promote your album. Playing in Dallas versus playing in Croatia--can you still get excited about something like that, after traveling the world?

ALANIS: Yeah, it's no different to me--playing in America or playing in Australia or Asia or wherever it is, we're all humans. It's all about connection for me; it's like a conversation of sorts. I just feel like I show up and I am as gifted by people who are there as they may or may not feel they are by me.

LAUNCH: The plan for the record--what does the rest of 2002 look like for you?

ALANIS: So far, just traveling and touring. Just sharing the music, really. It's really a question mark for me right now as to whether I want to tour around the world to the extent that I have in the past, because there are other creative forms and expressions that I also would like to do, and a tour may stop that from happening.

LAUNCH: What other creative forms and expressions? Can you share any of that?

ALANIS: I'm a writer at heart, I think, so I'd love to write a book and a screenplay. I've a story in me that I would love to share, and this is just all a matter of when is the time to do it. Is it to be done in 2002 or 2006? I have no idea yet. But I'll decide at some point.

LAUNCH: Any more acting on the agenda?

ALANIS: Not right now, but I would definitely be open to it if I felt like I was aligned with what the movie was about.

LAUNCH: You've been very active in music rights, artists' rights. This year seems to be a pretty pivotal year in that respect. What would you like to see happen? In a perfect world, what are the changes you would like to see happen, assuming there are changes you would want to see?

ALANIS: I think the changes are already being worked toward, but my fantasy as far as the music industry goes right now is to sort of level some of the playing field, have musicians and artists speak on their own behalf, especially in Washington. Have them be able to come to the table as much as the RIAA and record companies and digital companies, which are all represented very heavily and very well by lobbyists. And the RAC, which is the coalition started by Noah Stone, I think is a brilliant idea, to raise money for our own lobbyists so they can speak on our own behalf. And you know, as the light was shone on a new model being created for the Internet, so too was it also shone on the analog record company/artist contracts. So to have that further delved into and have it be more of a partnership mindset overall, I think, would be my fantasy--where it's mutually gratifying, where both people win or else there's no deal to be made. That's my fantasy.