When Alanis Morissette was 10, she recorded her first
single for a tiny label in her hometown of Ottawa, Canada. When
she was 11, she was a regular on the children's television
show "You Can't Do That on Television." When she was 15,
she had a successful career recording bright, happy dance-pop
in Canada, where she released two albums and won a Juno (the
Canadian equivalent to the Grammy).
And when she was 20, she released the album "Jagged
Little Pill." Full of songs about anger, lust and courage,
it struck a chord with listeners -- particularly young women
-- that continues to reverberate. So far, the album has sold
more than 6 million copies, earned Morissette six Grammy
nominations and made the singer's current tour the season's
hottest ticket.
Still, the question for some listeners is this: How
did Morissette, now 21, go from clean-scrubbed teen star to
angry alternarocker in such a short time? As she explained
in a recent interview, the transition wasn't an easy or obvious
one.
Q - Your album is doing incredibly well, and your
career is on the upswing. But as always seems the case,
there's also been a backlash. Does it bother you
to read such negative reviews or profiles?
A. I think I've been pretty resilient toward it for
the last eight or nine months. What I try to keep in mind
is that there are going to be a lot of articles that are
going to be misrepresentative of what I'm about as a person
and as a writer. I hit the proverbial wall of being overly
frustrated a couple of weeks ago, when I saw yet another
article that I felt just did not get it. At all.
Q - Didn't get it in what sense?
A. Didn't get it as in, (it) saw me as "the
ever-depressed, ever-angry Alanis Morissette," who is "the
poster girl for rage," (the) "alterno-girl who was the Debbie
Gibson of Canada in her youth." It's so one-dimensional, and so
selling me short.
Q - I had a similar discussion with someone the other
day who found it hard to believe that anyone could go from
writing dance pop to cutting a record like "You Oughta Know."
I said, "Well, weren't you a different person at 15 than you
were at 21?"
A. You're not allowed to evolve, and you're not allowed
to change. Especially
if it's a drastic one.
Q - When I was younger and started doing music, I was
immersed in the mid-1980s, when music was more for its sense
of entertainment. I wasn't writing to communicate anything,
and I was definitely not ready on the self-esteem level to
indulge myself and all my personal turmoil. I wasn't prepared
to be unadulterated; I saw music as a way to perform and
entertain people -- make them smile, and take them away from
reality. . . .
There was a part of me that disagreed with that, but
because I was 14 or however old I was and didn't have the
experience, I wasn't able to stand up for myself and say,
"Listen, I disagree with this way of writing, and I'm going to
do it my own way. See you later."
Because I had had the (commercial) success, whenever
I stood up for myself and said, "Listen, there's got to be a
different way of doing this," they would say, "Hey, you're at
the top of the charts. You're a famous 16-year-old girl.
What are you talking about?"
Q - But eventually you got away from that.
Right. I moved away from my personal and creative
environments, and just grew up, essentially. Took esponsibility
for my own life and didn't feel like I had to have someone
do it for me.
Then I eventually moved to Los Angeles and wrote
with different collaborators. The only thing I learned out
of writing with those people was what I didn't want.
I continued to run up against the "You know you
can't write that, young lady," you know? "You're too young
to say that."
I just kept thinking, "No, this isn't right." And
when I met Glen (Ballard, who co-wrote and produced "Jagged
Little Pill"), it was like -- without saying it -- he just
said to me, "You can be whatever you want."
Musically and lyrically, it was just so pure
and so spiritual for me. I felt that he wasn't judging me,
and I felt that he had enough security within himself
to give the ball to a 20-year-old and let her go with it.
Q - Because you're so honest about your own
experiences and emotions, your album seems a revelation
for a lot of listeners. To find out other people out
there not only have gone through such things but can
articulate what it's like is for a lot of listeners
almost like seeing the Virgin at Fatima.
Exactly. And there are so many people coming up
to me, saying, "I thought I was abnormal, and after hearing
what you say, I realize now that I'm human, and that it's OK."
In retrospect, now -- I was so immersed in the
record when I wrote it that I couldn't see beyond my hand,
holding it in front of me -- but in retrospect, I see
that record as a response. It's a response to what I was
immersed in when I was younger; it was a response to society;
it was a response to the way I was treated, the way I was
brought up. The way I was taught to be.
