On her new album Havoc and Bright Lights, Alanis Morissette distills her entire body of work into its closing track Edge of Evolution: “…we’re ready to push envelopes into full-blown consciousness,” she declares in the final verse.
“The evolution of our consciousness can be such a lofty, overly heady, and, frankly, confusing conversation for people,” Morissette says. “So the song is an invitation to clarify and support what growth, healing, connection and self-expression really means for each person. Ultimately, supporting people’s next courageous step is all I really care about. I think that's what my contribution is — to engage musically, lyrically and publicly in the conversation about my and our humanity….this movement toward wholeness, rather than perfection or goodness, and deepening intimacy, connection and authenticity is such a big part of what I'm here to contribute.”
“A song starts with the seed, or the essence of an idea,” she says, and is written in under an hour.” “I far prefer writing about the personal and the micro in a concise way. That’s what interests me. Rather than paint overly broad strokes, I’d rather write about the one-on-one of personal interactions. And then allow it to be a commentary on the more macro effects we see in the world, from there.”
Morissette began writing the songs on
Havoc and Bright Lights shortly after giving birth to Ever. “Once my son was born, I immediately felt this surge of ‘I have to write this record,’” Morissette says. “Of course the timing couldn’t have been worse. Post-partum is not the time to be doing anything other than post-partum-ing. Because I'm an attachment parent, I wanted to be near him 24/7.” She turned the first floor of her home into a makeshift studio, inviting her
Flavors of Entanglementcollaborator Guy Sigsworth over from London, where the pair would knock out a song a day. “It was this unusual but perfect blend of mom-hood and artist,” she says. “It was a challenge to do both at the same time, but I had no other option. I was called to show up 100 percent for both, so this was the only way to do it. i developed a deep affinity and gratitude for coffee and falling asleep sitting up, for the first time in my life”, she says with a laugh.
The Ottawa, Canada, native first rose to international fame in 1995 with her four-time Grammy Award-winning album Jagged Little Pill, which at 16x-platinum remains the best-selling debut release by a female artist in the U.S. and the highest-selling debut album worldwide in music history. She has scored a series of memorable singles off her subsequent studio albums 1998’s Supposed Former Infatuation (which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard’s Top 200 Albums chart and featured the international, Grammy-nominated smash single Thank U), 2002’s Under Rug Swept (which also debuted at No. 1), 2004’s So-Called Chaos (featuring the Adult Top 40 mainstay Everything), and 2008’s Top 10 Flavors of Entanglement. She has sold more than 60 million albums worldwide, seven Grammy Awards (and received an additional 14 Grammy nominations), and won 12 Juno Awards.
Yet despite the accolades, the one thing Morissette has always craved most is connection. “In my teen years, I thought fame would afford me more connection but the opposite wound up being true,” she says. “Instead I became a screen upon which people could project their ideas, and it actually pushed them further away from me, which was devastating. The reason this new album represents such a celebration for me is that I can still exist in the context of popular culture, but I'm also experiencing connection because the climate now allows for it. Whether it’s through social media, Tweeting, or blogging, it's enabled me to achieve the intimacy with my fans and peers that I've always wanted.”
