More about: Alison Wonderland

Alison Wonderland’s stats sheet is one of the best in the business. The Sydney born, LA-based producer, songwriter and DJ has lived a career millions across the world could only dream of. The highest-billed female DJ in Coachella history, a number one on Billboard’s Dance/Electronic albums chart and headline slots at shows and festivals across the planet, Alison Wonderland has seen it all, lived it all, and come out fighting on the other side.

It isn’t her highs that make her such an important figure in the EDM genre, however, but the lows. In a world captured and framed through Instagram stories, Snapchat filters and showered in champagne, Alison is one of the few artists able and willing to take a step back, to step on the brakes and open up to her listeners about her personal struggles. Not only does she open up, she’s willing to delve deep, and her brand new album Loner is a reflection not only of her own personal difficulties, but more importantly the triumph of not letting it define her. 

Alison Wonderland, real name Alexandra Margo Sholler, began her journey in music at a young age, originally training as a classical cellist whilst growing up in Syndey. She reached such a level that was selected to take part in the Sydney Youth Opera, before deciding a life of Bach and Beethoven wasn’t for her. Instead, she found herself draw to heavier, more indie-influenced outlets and played bass for a number of new indie and punk bands across the city’s thriving music scene. “It was amazing” she recalls of her first time onstage, playing bass as part of her friend's punk band to thirty people in a dingy underground pub. “I was so high off that first time of ever experiencing that adrenaline that I didn’t sleep” she smiles, as she recalls her early stage days. “There are so many first times that we experience in our lives and so many people don’t realise how exciting it is to do something or experience something for the first time that changes your life. The older you get the less that happens and I really enjoy, and it’s probably why I love evolving so much in my music, but I enjoy finding things for the first times. It gives my inner child some sort of joy”.

"Then and there I knew I wanted to make music and perform music for the rest of my life” she adds, as the memories drifts once more to her subconscious, “I’ve never felt higher than that moment”.

Her first introduction to electronic dance music came a few years later, when she was invited to a friend’s part and heard ‘Silent Shout’ by Swedish house duo The Knife for the first time. Enchanted by what she heard, she scribbled down the name of the group to research later, and has spent the past 10 years striving to reach their level. At times, she has exceeded it. 

After slowly picking up the craft of producing, as well as adding touches to remixes by artists such as Sam Sparro and Ladyhawke, Alison began making a name for herself across the EDM circuit. After a year of shows and festivals such as Parklife and plays on stations such as BBC Radio 1, in 2013 Alison Wonderland (a play on the Lewis Carroll novel) released her debut single ‘Get Ready’, in collaboration with house music duo Fishing. A year later, she was signed to EMI Music Australia and released her debut EP Calm Down within six months.

Alison’s 2015 Wayne Coyne (of The Flaming Lips) collaboration ‘U Don’t Know’ kickstarted a new phase of her career, and saw her gear up for the release of her debut album Run. Across it’s 12 tracks and 43 minute runtime, Alison introduce her fresh new electronic stylings to the world, and through collaborations with artists such as Djemba Djemba, AWE, Lido, Ganz and Alexander Burnett, she rose to become one of the biggest names in Australian EDM. With tracks such as ‘U Don’t Know’ touching on elements of trauma and the impact of abusive relationships, it was a sign of what was to come, as Alison became one of the first artist of the genre to use it’s hyper-real instrumentation to delve into dark and serious subject matter.

Run was a huge success, and granted Alison the ability and reach to play festivals across the world. Baring her soul to thousands of people every night, however, took its toll. Outspoken about her personal mental health difficulties, she at times struggled to keep up with the endless demands on her time and energy. Her 2018 sophomore album Awake found Alison breaking down the boundries of her self belief, with tracks detailing stories of deflecting loved ones, rejecting support when she needed it the most, and shining the spotlight on the harsh reality of being an internationally touring artist. “It is fucking lonely” she told Hypebae at the time of Awake’s release. “You don’t wake up and do a 9-5 job, there are no structured hours. You’re waking up and you’re not in an office. There are days upon days where you wake up and you won’t see another fucking human and that’s crazy”.

In August of 2019, it all came to a head when she made the difficult decision to cancel her 2019 tour in order to priorities her mental wellbeing. "It has been advised by both management and doctors that I take some time to recover” she said in a statement on Twitter to make the announcement, “I really need to work on my mental health right now”.

Three years and one pandemic later, Alison Wonderland’s third album Loner is here to further detail those emotions, and to reframe her narrative as one of defiance rather than victimisation. “This isn’t a weakness, this is strength” she explains of the album’s themes. “When people say 'loner' it’s usually a negative thing, but I wanted the concept of a loner [to mean] going it on your own and being independent, I didn’t want that to be a weakness anymore. It’s a strength and I wanted to show myself that anything that could be perceived as negative or weak can be a strength and can be recontextualised in that way”.

Even before the pandemic began, Alison had begun thinking about her next project and had put in some time in the studio to determine the album’s direction. Lockdown, however, and the isolation it brought changed everything. “We were forced to reassess some things and that’s what I did,” she said of the time. “Being a touring artist and then suddenly being stationary and seeing the entire world pause, and seeing everyone go through it at the same time; it was a very eye-opening experience. It definitely made me realise what my priorities were and I’ve made a lot of changes in my own life”. “A lot of people felt quite alone and lonely, and probably still do. There was so much uncertainty and that was a big thing for me, feeling out of control. It made me realise that the only thing guaranteed in our life is change and the only thing we can do is react to it”.

As she was writing the early sketches of what would become Loner, she took some time to re-examine her previous work through the lens of whose she’s become following an event that she describes as “by far the worst thing that’s ever happened to me, so much so that I’m not really ready to talk about it”. “I wanted to reasses my writing before starting the new album, and the narrative of all my previous work has been about me as the victim, which is true,” she explains. “It’s not been easy but I don’t really want to be the victim anymore. I had a really difficult and embarrassing look in the mirror and decided to make a lot of life changes, because the way my life was going wasn’t going to result in what I wanted”.

“It was an actually rock bottom moment for me, and I’ve had a lot of rock bottom moments but this was the one that changed my life completely,” she adds of a period which found her reflecting on her life in greater detail than ever before. A time which was inspired, in part, by a conversation she had with her friend Trent whilst crying in one of the many Starbucks drive-throughs in L.A. “It’ll feel like forever until it doesn’t”, a phrase used in comforting passing, quickly became Loner’s mantra, and became the introduction to the album, ‘Forever’. “It’s weird how such a small sentence really changed me,” she notes of the motto. “I wanted that to be the start of album because that was the mantra that really got me through this and helped me turn my life around”. 

As she delved deep into her emotions across roaring, bass-heavy production of Loner, she found herself opening up in a way she’s never experienced before. Rather than hold everything tight to her chest, she decided to let go, no matter what others may think. What came of it is Alison Wonderland’s most triumphant album to date, and a beautiful allegory of self-discovery and inner-strength. So determined was she to get the sound just right, that she working specifically with a vocal producer to ensure her voice was as clear and her singing as strong as possible. “Vocally and lyrically, this felt truely like my core poetry,” she smiles. “This is by far my favourite body of work that I’ve ever released. It’s such a life changing series of events for me that I’ll look back on this album in the future and be like ‘Yes bitch, you did it'”.

How important, even for an artist as celebrated and successful as Alison, is it to continue to push yourself and striving to be even better? “It’s vital,” she answers. “Pushing myself keeps me hungry and interested, and I’m so inspired creatively. This is my third album and I’m working on a genre that’s so heavily reliant on technology and the amazng thing about technology is that it’s the one thing that’s constantly evolving. There’s so many things that you can do now that I wouldn’t have been able to do easily when I started producing”. 

As our time draws to a close, only one real question remains: having gone through such a difficult time, come out the other end and written an album filled with heart and emotion unlike any other, is this the strongest Alison has ever felt as an artist? From the other end of the call, a smile rises across Alison’s face. “Fuck yes. I’m seasoned now at people having instant opinions of me and my work” she laughs. “I’m so proud of this album, and if some people don’t get it I’m not going to care”.

Loner is out now.

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More about: Alison Wonderland