One of Australia's leading dames of the dance floor Alison Wonderland has come a very long way since the She Can DJ competition. Having since then inked a deal with EMI, played shows across the globe as well as slots at some of Australia's finest festivals, Alison has just dropped her first original single 'Get Ready' that also happens to feature the rapping talent of fellow Aussie's Fishing. Pulse caught up with Alison to talk about her single, plans for an upcoming album and trolling name droppers.
Pulse: Hello Alison, what's been happening today? I just completed about half of the tour now, I got home yesterday, so just chilling out today. I’m actually packing my room up because I’m moving house, so there you go!
Any highlights from the tour so far? Splendour, which was technically part of the tour. Splendour is probably one of my favourite and most loved festivals, the fact that I got to play a main time slot on the Mix Up stage and that I got to play my own music this year meant a lot to me, so that was pretty special.
Tell us a bit more about your new single 'Get Ready'. Any main influences that went into writing it? Not really, I wrote it quite a while ago in my room. It was going to be an instrumental and then a few people had said "why don’t you try some rappers on there," and I thought, yeah maybe I should do that, and I guess Fishing kind of surprised me with how awesome they were and I couldn’t really say no to that.
Your vocals also feature on the track, was that a bit daunting? I actually avoided as many vocals as I could on the track, so it wasn't that bad! It is weird hearing my vocals getting played, I guess I wrote that line in the song - I may as well sing it.
You come from a classically trained backgound as a cellist, how did you get into DJing? It kind of just happened, in a way I never planned it to happen – my intention was never to become a DJ, or anything like that. I never even thought about it when I was a cellist. I was over in Europe playing, then I came back to Sydney I joined a couple of bands and played bass guitar and through that I got introduced to DJing. It was more something I was doing because I loved it, I was playing in my room, I was doing a few small nights around Sydney- it was the thing I would do because it made me happy, it was something that I looked forward to every week.
Do you incorporate any of your formal training into your DJ work? I think subconsciously I do actually , but I try not to have it at the forefront of my mind when I am doing stuff like that - I think if you overanalyse things it doesn’t end up coming out naturally.
There's an incredibly diverse mix of influences in your mixes, I personally quite enjoyed the addition of the Rolling Stones; what kind of music did you grow up with? I grew up on The Beatles. When my mum found out she was pregnant with me, she would play Beatles songs to her tummy, and when I popped out I think it was the only thing I listened to the first five years of my life. I remember for dress ups at school I was the Octopus from Octopus's Garden while all the other girls were fairies (laughs).
Your favourite tunes lately? I’m still that playing that Kendrick record ("good kid, m.A.A.d city'), I love it so much. I’m finding there’s a lot of great Australian music coming out at the moment and that's making me really happy. I love what Willow Beats are doing, Owl Eyes is doing some great stuff and Flight Facilities too, there must be something in the water. And I can’t forget Flume, he’s amazing. I think it’s actually really nice the support local artists are getting from Australian audiences, I’ve not seen anything like this in a long time.
Do you think the music is changing, or audiences are changing? I’m not sure – but I think there’s a lot of ways to discover music these days, its' a lot easier to buy a laptop and make stuff yourself. Saying that as well, there’s a lot of shit, but there’s a lot of amazing stuff too. People who haven’t had the resources before, have that now and we’re hearing some amazing things from people, which is great.
Can we expect an album any time soon? There’s an album. Don’t expect it to be club bangers, I wrote songs, so that’s what the record is.
You've just worked with Fishing. Any other collaborations coming up? I’ve done quite a lot of collaborations on the record and they’ve all been my friends so I made sure I kept it in the family, you can always push for a big name or whatever but I just really wanted to make music with people who I love and respect as artists.
Anyone we might know? Yeah, but… (trails off)
It's ok, we'll keep it a surprise. Annie Mac recently described one of your sets as 'the best party set I've heard in a long time', that's some pretty high praise. I bumped into a friend who was running a small night at a pub in Sydney and he was like ‘do you want to come and play in return for some drinks’ and I’d had a bit of a crappy night so I said yeah why not, and I got out, and just played for myself and Annie Mac was there, I didn’t even realise. I remember a British woman that I thought looked like Annie Mac came up and was talking to me then I realised it was her!
Any tracks you tend to gravitate toward in your sets? It really depends on the mood I’m in. I’ve always had a slight favouritism towards hip hop, but apart from that, if a track is good, I’ll play it.
Do you feel that the DJ world is a boys club? Given the recent hubbub over Nina Kraviz, do you think anything has changed? When I started, and I’d been playing for three or four years before She Can DJ, it was a bit of a boys club but I think now there's a lot more femaies out there not making it about their sexuality- I never associated Nina Kraviz as marketing herself with sex, she's a muso, that's how I think of her. I think things have changed but I think at the end of the day women who do market themselves like that are usually the loudest, so people do notice that a lot more, but there are a lot of amazingly talented, legit females out there and at the end of the day, people know what’s real and what's not.
So it says on your bio that you happen to be good friends with Oprah...It’s a lie! Every person has asked me that – I actually wrote that, I wrote it ages ago in my bio! I hate how people always name drop so I did it to take the piss out of people who name drop.People are always like, I hang out with this guy, or with that guy, so I’m like, well I’m good friends with fucking Oprah!
Remaining 'Get Ready' Tour Dates:
24.08.13 - Plantation, Coffs Harbour
28.08.13 - Secret Show
30.08.13 - Speak Easy, Villa, Perth
31.08.13 - Electric Circus, Adelaide
07.09.13 - Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
11.09.13 - Charles Sturt Uni, Wagga Wagga
14.09.13 - Snow Party, Thredbo
19.09.13 - The Corner, Melbourne
20.09.13 - Discovery, Darwin
21.09.13 - Elsewhere, Gold Coast