Interview by Miriam Cadoni
Are you ready to set your utopian time machine back to the ’90s with a little detour to the early ’70s? Well, if you are up for this musical adventure, what you have just to do is to join me in discovering this hotly new heavy rock band called Aliceisleeping. The grunge London based-trio is welcoming its first debut album “Completely Fine” via its own imprint Mandrone Records. For knowing more about this upcoming release and the band, we had a nice chat with the singer and bass player Alice Dionis. Are you ready to come aboard this sonic adventure?
Hi Alice, welcome to Femme Metal Webzine. How are you and how life is treating you in these precarious days?
Hi! Thank you, it has been a very intense year in so many ways, but overall it’s all good thanks. I’m very happy to be chatting with you at Femme Metal Webzine.
First, for who’s not familiar with you and ALICEISSLEEPING, would you like to tell us how the band got together?
Sure! It all started in 2017 when, after a long silence since my last project ended, I started recording new songs with our guitarist Dan. We published our first EP “Space Wanders & Bleeding Hearts” in 2018 and a labyrinthine single called “Brian’s Tale” in 2019.
Whose both releases were very well received. But things really started rolling after we found our drummer Jon in April 2019, who, amazingly, lives just down the road from us which is not very usual in London!
In February, it will be released ALICEISSLEEPING first album “Completely Fine” via Mandrone Records. What can you share about its general production?
The production was a very long and meticulous process and we had so much fun doing it! It took us a whole year to complete, and I must say it really saved us in 2020 which was such a difficult year for everyone. Despite the distancing, the creative process kept us sane and brought us very close.
Connecting with the previous question, how was the first approach with your new label Mandrone Records? And how this partnership is treating you?
In this difficult year for the music industry we really struggled to find a label, so we decided to venture into this business ourselves by founding our own label. It’s something we’ve been dreaming of for a long time so we’re very excited about it. Our album was the first in line for pressing, but we are already in talks with more artists for expanding the family!
The band’s debut EP “Space Wanders & Bleeding Hearts” was published back in 2018, what can you recall about it and how much of its sonic elements will be present in “Completely Fine”?
Our first EP came out quietly. For me, it was a slow awakening and it meant breaking the ice with a friend/enemy (music) that haunted me for a very long time during the years I spent away from its scene. It was a timid process, just like when you are making your first steps after an injury, but once it was done I felt reborn.
The EP launch gig was like an electric shock: the frenzy was back, the creative fury and passion were very angry with me and bit me hard, hahah. All these emotions have been channeled into “Completely Fine” which is a natural progression of “Space Wanders & Bleeding Hearts”, only much heavier and anxious.
In the press release are cited bands such as Smashing Pumpkins, Rush and even early Queen. On a general note, how much have these bands influenced ALICEISSLEEPING‘s musical palette?
This is a very good question! We mentioned these bands because within the rock genre they managed to do anything that came through their heads! Queen and Rush are practically the air we breathed during our training years and still have remained a strong uniting point for us. We love the Smashing Pumpkins very much and they were an inspiration at a later stage.
I think our sound is very close to them because we were teenagers in the 90s and grunge influenced us so much. Plus, given that Billy Corgan expressed his love for Queen and Rush on many occasions, I think somehow this intricate interconnection has reflected on our style.
Alice, you used to be part of the Italian post-punk rock quartet MAB. What did you learn from that experience? At this point of your career, what ALICEISSLEEPING represents?
Oh, I learned so much from my experience with MAB. I learned that with determination, perseverance and seriousness you can get excellent results; that the level of effort is never balanced with what you get in the end becaus sacrifices are far much bigger. Then, that you have to be patient; that alliances and friendships are fundamental in such a difficult path of an artist’s life. Actually, my mom told that it wasn’t easy.. in vain! [laughs].
Aliceissleeping is a breath of fresh air for me. It’s a new beginning where I can continue my creative path. I carry within the same passion, the same taste for darkness and heavy sounds together with two sensational musicians Dan and Jon in which I feel that I can really go over and beyond my limits.
I was literally intrigued by the artwork created by Federico Salis. What does it represent and how does it connect to the lyrics present on “Completely Fine”?
I’m glad you like the cover and that it triggered your imagination. In this artwork, Federico was able to perfectly draw what we wanted to communicate that in a ‘keep calm and carry on’ culture, the reality is quite different because emotions are strong and irrepressible.
For what concerns the title of the album, it ironically says ‘everything is completely fine’ but the cover which is inspired by the sci-fi movie “Attack of the 50 Foot Woman“ is painted in acid colors and it depicts an unsettling scene where I am a huge monster destroying the city holding terrified Dan and Jon in my hands. So yeah, Completely Fine.. is it?
What the future holds for ALICEISSLEEPING and how the pandemic impacted your original plan?
We are very much looking forward to the release of our first album on the 5th of February! We are very proud of it and we can’t wait to get some feedback. We were hoping to go on tour but unfortunately due to the pandemic, which prevented us from doing so many gigs already, we will have to delay things a little longer. Nevertheless we already started to write the second album so from our point of view the engine is on full steam and we’ll be hitting the recording studio very very soon!
So, Alice, we’re almost at the end and with this please be free to say hi to your fans and your readers. Thank you so much for this interview.
Thank you so much for this lovely chat, I just want to say thank you to every single one of you rock lovers and supporters. You are keeping music alive and kicking! I can’t wait to see you all downstage for some proper good old fashioned mosh!