Sunday Conversation: Alison Wonderland On Whyte Fang, Coachella, Pregnancy And More

This weekend, Australian electronic music artist Alison Wonderland got to finally unveil her Whyte Fang project in a major way, with a standout Coachella performance this past Friday (she will return Friday, April 21, for weekend two).

This is a very fertile time for Wonderland, who took the Coachella stage while very pregnant and after getting engaged this week. Talking to Wonderland the joy in her voice is palpable, both personally and professionally.

Wonderland is quick to point out that Whyte Fang is not a side project. As she tells Sage Bava and I, she was making Whyte Fang music before she was even releasing music under the name Alison Wonderland.

This allows her to show a very different side of herself, one that is driven by energy as she says. This is a more raw, primal side of Wonderland. We spoke to Wonderland about her pregnancy, the vision for Whyte Fang, bringing it to the stage and more.

Steve Baltin: So you kept the pregnancy secret for a very long time. Was it driving you nuts to keep it secret?

Alison Wonderland: Honestly, no. I really just wanted to sit and process everything before I was public about it. I felt like as soon as I’m public, that’s like another added person in my relationship, ’cause I went public with my relationship and the baby at the same time. So it was like a whole thing. I’m usually not that public, but it was just getting a little unavoidable [laughter]. I actually didn’t show for a while, so I was kind of lucky and then I popped. And I’m like, “I should probably tell everyone what’s going on now.” And I was super excited to say it. I just wanted to make sure everything was all good before I did. But I’m happy it’s out. Honestly, I feel so much better now it’s out because I feel like I was so hidden online. And I was not able to really be full me for a while because there was just so much going on that I couldn’t even talk about.

Baltin: We’re going to come on to Whyte Fang in a second. But I just actually interviewed a friend of yours, Nick Miller

Wonderland: Oh, I love Nick.

Baltin: But before interviewing Nick, I interviewed Willie Nelson, and I know that I’m the first person in the history of the universe to interview you, Illenium and Willie Nelson in the same day. So I’m going to ask you the same question that I asked Nick, which is what song do the three of you do together?

Wonderland: Oh, s**t. I don’t know. Would it be a cover? If there’s a benefit, then I think a cover would be the best option. That’s too much pressure. I can’t. Funnily enough, Willie Nelson did this interview, I think it was last year or the year before on his greatest advice on touring. And I literally think about it all the time and he was like, “Drink a lot of water so that you poop regularly.” I’m paraphrasing, but it was kind of like, “Drink a lot of water. Stay hydrated because you wanna pee regular.” And I’m like, “That is the best advice for touring. I just wanna all the time.” Anyway, Willie Nelson, me, Illenium, I actually had this written down as a cover I want to do. “Skulls,” by the Misfits. I just feel like it would be really sick to cover that song with Willie Nelson and Illennium and the lyrics are really weird and cool. The reason I like it is it’s ’cause it’s kind of like a bop and then you listen to the lyrics and you’re like, “Hang on a second, this is a bit strange.”

Baltin: The reason I laughed when you said that is because Sage can jump in in a second, but I sent her one of my favorite childhood songs, which is “Seasons in the Sun” by Terry Jacks. It’s literally a song about a guy who’s dying and she was like, “Oh, this is a bop.”

Wonderland: I will say that the bop with the really McCabe lyrics, that’s f**king polarity. I like polarity in arts. It’s like my favorite thing. And when I make music, it’s like my biggest goal, is polarity every time.

Baltin: What’s your favorite example of polarity in a song? Your best mix of that juxtaposition?

Wonderland: I wouldn’t say this is my favorite song, but a really good example is “Pumped Up Kicks,” by Foster The People ’cause it’s literally about a school shooting. And it’s weird to me whenever I hear people singing it ’cause it’s such like a pop song, but then when you listen to the lyrics, it’s literally about a school shooting. And I actually find it a really f**ked up song. Also, when I hear someone do a cover of a track, it always brings a message differently to me. DMA’s who are this amazing band from Australia, they did “Believe,” the Cher song. And it really kind of hit me in the feels. When I was listening to the original, I never got the message. And then when I heard them sing it made me feel a bit sad. I think sometimes it’s interesting ’cause as a songwriter, you write so many lyrics and you expect people to be really listening to them and your message, but the sad reality is I don’t know if people really do as much as I think they do.

Sage Bava: I’d love to know what three risks come to mind that when you say you’re a big risk taker that you’ve made.

Wonderland: Honestly, just putting myself out there as who I really am. Again, there was a lot of bullying happening early on in my career and me moving past that. It’s hard, you can’t really cancel the noise. But just trying to move through that was a big thing. I take big risks every day. And some things work and some things don’t. And I think the best lesson I’ve learned from failure is how to take failure now. When you have your first failure, it is so heartbreaking and it’s so daunting and you feel like the whole world is over. But once you get used to it and you know that there are other ways out or other options and you can always do things a different way, it becomes less of a, this is the end of the world, more of just like, this is f**ked and this is gonna be hard for a bit and it’s gonna hurt, but I’ll get out of it. It becomes more like a very difficult challenge.

Baltin: Let’s tie that in then with Whyte Fang and the idea of doing a side project that is a different sound. Do you view that as a risk or is that just something that’s just fun for you?

Wonderland: I don’t even consider this a side project. I started Whyte Fang before I was signed as Alison. I’ve had a really strong vision for Whyte Fang since I started that project, and that was again before Alison was even releasing music. I was doing Whyte Fang before I was doing Alison. And I always knew I would come back to it, and I always knew exactly the colors and what it would look like, and how I would present it. I could feel her, Whyte Fang. She’s like a personality in my brain. I could feel it so strongly the whole time, and I think with Allison, it’s so personal and I’m singing on the tracks, and I’m songwriting. And it’s like this whole kind of very different energy. Whyte Fang to me is more just like this primal artistic freedom that isn’t necessarily about my life, but more just about an energy. When people who are creatives feel like they need to do something else creative to awaken the other creative thing, my other creative thing is making more music, right? [laughter] And I honestly just always knew what Whyte Fang would be. I can’t even explain it, but I could see her, I could see everything. I could see the show, I could see the sound. This whole album, it was very simple for me to make because it wasn’t a log of my journey. It was a log of an energy that was nothing to do with a personal thing. I got to work with other vocalists, and it wasn’t a time capsule of a feel of a moment in my life. It was more just a time capsule of whatever the hell I was channeling that day sonically. And visually, I had really strong ideas for this. And yeah, I absolutely am in love with this album. [laughter] I’m so in love with it. I made a lot of it while pregnant. It was funny because people told me that I wouldn’t feel creative pregnant, and that it would ruin my life. But this baby’s trippy ’cause I was really creative. I’ve been really creatively inspired this entire time.

Baltin: Are you ready for Coachella?

Wonderland: I’m just really excited to show the show at Coachella ’cause it’s not just a sonic experience. It’s visual as well. And so there’s a whole element that I’m waiting to properly showcase at Coachella, and I’m so grateful I got given the opportunity to be able to do that. Every time in my entire career, I’ve been given even a sliver of an opportunity, I have taken that opportunity and made it my bitch every time. I was offered Coachella. I was like, “Well, f**k, I’m doing Coachella. I’m gonna make a album.” That’s how my brain worked with this. “I’m gonna do something grand, and hey, if it doesn’t work, it won’t work. If it does, f**king great.” But I needed that as a creative outlet, and then we move on to the next. But I really do really love this project. I’m kind of hoping that I’m able to tour it and stuff afterwards.

Bava: Where did the Whyte Fang vision come from?

Wonderland: Yeah. Actually it inspired me to put down the cello and pick up a laptop and start making music under the name Whyte Fang. That’s when I was making music early on. I remember the first time I heard “Silent Shout” by The Knife, and then on I was like, “I need to make electronic music. How do I sound like this?” I didn’t even know what it was. I’d never heard anything like it before. I learned how to sing and write. I just tried to do something ’cause I didn’t know how to do it. I didn’t know how to explain it. So that’s how Whyte Fang started. I actually released an EP, a remix of a punk band from Australia. A remix EP of their music with this really cool chick vocalist, Patience. They’re called The Greats. And this is before again, I was releasing Alison and stuff. And I took her punk vocals and made an electronic EP with it. Whyte Fang is probably the most simplified version of my brain, but it’s still really a lot going on. I don’t know. I’m reading this book at the moment called Clowns of Hyperspace, by Joe Roberts, who’s one of my favorite artists. And I feel like this is kind of my brain. It’s a choose your own adventure, but for tripping [laughter]. It’s like a psychedelic choose your own adventure, which I feel like Whyte Fang is. Yeah.