Simply Alanis Morissette
Maranda Pleasant : Let’s talk about your current project.
Alanis Morissette : My album came out last year, it’s called Havoc and Bright Lights. The first single’s called “Guardian.” The chorus was inspired by my relationship with my son, and frankly, the verses were about what we talked about a few minutes ago: I was noticing that mama bear guardian protectorship that is what it is with my son, and it’s really glowing and striking. The verses are about applying that to my very own self. It was an inner child and outer child song. That’s the first single.
We’re shooting different videos, picking different singles. The second song, my preference, is a song called “Empathy.” We were on tour last year for seven months and we shot a video in Jerusalem. I love the universality of music and how it can viscerally connect people from culture to culture, regardless of anything. It kind of levels everything out and connects us. That universal sound thing is a big deal to me. We could talk about that for hours, too, the whole art and planet part.
Maranda Pleasant : Is there something special that this album represented for you? Is there something in you that wanted to be born, that had to come out?
Alanis Morissette : My son was five months old and I built a makeshift studio in my living room so that I could do the attachment parenting approach and write the record at the same time. That was fortuitous, that we could build that in the house. My husband was making his record in the other room, so literally this house was this secret makeshift studio for both of us while I was breastfeeding and hanging out with my son. I had postpartum depression—I’ll look back on this and just shake my head and wonder at some point, but I’m still kind of in the trenches right now. Writing the record for me—every record is almost a surprise. When people ask me, what are the themes you want to grapple with on this one? I have no idea until the record’s finished. That was again the case. I love it.
