ALYSSA REID
Tone is bittersweet in new album
Alyssa Reid can’t help it.
Like Adele, the Edmonton-bred pop star has a hard time writing happy songs. Reid’s latest album, Phoenix, is filled with eight bittersweet tracks, including Suffocating, a piano ballad inspired by a deceitful love interest, and Dangerous, an uptempo number about a narcissistic friend.
True to its title, Phoenix is a rebirth for the Toronto-based, Juno-nominated singer. After releasing two glossy pop albums, featuring such hits as Alone Again, The Game and Satisfaction Guaranteed, Reid wanted to pare down the production on her latest effort, due Friday.
The Journal talked to the 22-year-old about Phoenix, sad songs and Justin Bieber.
Q What made you want to switch up your sound?
A I was writing a lot for radio and it feels very formulaic. I really like the idea of just writing things that are meaningful to me, that are about personal experiences. There’s a really honest thing about that and I wanted to translate that through my album this time around, instead of just things that sounded catchy.
Q Which songs did you start off when you made that decision?
A The very first song I wrote specifically for me on this album was Suffocating. We were trying to do production on it and it was taking away the guts of the song. It’s such a beautiful song and everything we were doing to it was dumbing it down and taking all the passion from it. So, we were like: ‘Let’s just use strings and a piano.’ Then, we were like: ‘Why don’t we do the WHOLE album like that?’ Works for me.
Q What inspired the song ?
A It’s about someone who I started getting feelings for and going down that avenue ... and then, about two months in, they were like: ‘You know I have a girlfriend, right?’ Of course I don’t know you have a girlfriend, you a**hole. People are so awful, but it’s great material (for songs). At least something good comes of it.
Q Where do you write your songs?
A I write most of the upbeat stuff in the studio but all of the depressing, bummer songs like Phoenix, come at 4 o’clock in the morning, when you can’t sleep because your head is going a mile a minute.
Q Who or what inspired Phoenix?
A It’s about somebody I love a lot but I don’t think they were a good person for me. Maybe I didn’t bring out the best in them, but that relationship was a little bit toxic. So it’s about moving on from that, and trying to become a better, stronger person because of it.
Q So this is a really heavy album.
A Yeah, I have a lot of angst. I don’t know why. I try to be really happy, but I suck at writing happy songs. I find it very easy to write what miserable feels like, but I don’t have the words to describe things like ‘You make me smile so much.’ Sometimes I think. ‘Can I be happy for ONE song?’
Q You were discovered by your label, Wax Records, after you posted a (not so happy) YouTube parody of Justin Bieber’s One Less Lonely Girl (in 2010). Is there any one song from his new album that would you cover if you were starting out now?
A Love Yourself. I love that song — it has a happy guitar vibe but it’s a ‘Go ---- yourself ’ song. I seldom post covers anymore, but I was actually thinking of posting a piano version of it.
Q Have you seen any parodies of your songs?
A No, but I’ve seen some amazing covers of my songs. I’m still, to this day, baffled that people make covers of my songs considering that’s what I did to get my record deal. I’m so appreciative of what’s happened for me in the past couple of years and that I get to do what I love. I feel so lucky.