Alison Wonderland wants the dancefloor dwellers of Quensland to injure themselves — but not in a bad way.
The classically trained DJ has dropped her first original track, 'Get Ready', and she expects the accompanying national tour to be a sweaty affair.
“I just want it to be fun and crazy and for everyone to jump around, injure themselves and have a good time”, declares the genre-bending darling of Australian dance music, recovering in bed after an “overwhelmingly cool” weekend tearing up the Mix-Up Tent at Splendour In The Grass – the first of 20 wondrous pit-stops across the country.
“As always, I love Splendour, the happy vibes, people who are there to enjoy the music and no Southern Cross tattoos, if you know what I mean!”
The tour will see Alison playing from Bendigo to Wagga and everywhere in between, leaving no state across Australia without a party.
“It's going to be tracks that I love playing at the moment, but I don't want to plan it too much.”
'Get Ready' marks her transition from DJ to EDM producer, her ability unsurprising considering her experiences studying cello in Europe and at Sydney's Conservatorium of Music.
“I was learning how to write classical music and analyse compositions, which is always in the back of my mind... even for 'Get Ready', although it's quite heavy, it's still in the song format of verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus.”
The track also sees her laying down her own top-notes for the first time, lending her vocals purely because it made sense to do so.
“I said ‘Screw it, it’s my music, I wrote the lyrics, so I might as well just try and sing it’.”
Mercifully for lovers of a natural ditty, Alison ditched auto-tune in favour of her own sweet intonations.
“When writing the demo, I just made sure the feel was right and it was written for where my voice sits, and in the end it just worked.”
The track sees her collaborate with home-grown electro/ indie duo Fishing, who wowed Wonderland with their rapping skills when they met backstage at Groovin The Moo last May.
“It reminded me of old Beastie Boys... I thought it was sick, sent them the track and two days later they sent a rap back and I knew it was the right thing and that I had higher powers looking over me for that one.”
Two mammoth years have seen Alison play sets at the official Grammy and Brit Awards after parties, impress veteran Annie Mac with “the best party set I've heard in a long time” and sign with EMI.
“I've always been scared that a major label would be really controlling, but I've been really, really lucky with EMI, who give me so much freedom and treat artists like artists. It's rad and I've pretty much recorded everything in my bedroom.”
From bedrooms to major festivals, Alison is proud of the waves being made by Australian producers in the international scene.
“There's a real resurgence for Australian music at the moment. It’s just mindblowing seeing the artists that are coming out and it just makes me happy.”
Alison’s currently writing her debut album and assures that her dexterous craftmanship will come from the heart.
“Everything I make comes from a really honest place. I'm not really afraid of doing that, it's just how I write. I can smell bullshit when things are contrived and I think other people can too... it's not that I'm making music to make money, I just do it to keep myself sane.”
Alison Wonderland plays Oh Hello! August 14 And Elsewhere September 21.
