It’s 10am on a Tuesday morning and Loverboy has entered the Zoom chat to meet with one Allie X. Appearing in front of us bedecked in a chic black and suitably gothy ensemble with the most alien eye-lashes you ever did see, she calmly sips on her elixir of choice – English Breakfast Tea, ready to discuss her third studio album, Girl With No Face – out now.
This release marks the first time X has written, recorded and produced an album by herself. Speaking to her it’s clear this process wasn’t easy but her pain is truly our gain. Packed with the most precise production, it contains deliciously disturbing lyrics from a person living on the brink. The not-so-underlying tension finally cracks, revealing Allie X’s inner demon, who, plot twist, has been her true form all along. ‘There have been these layers of me that have been suppressed. I was holding back and just being a sweet, typical pop artist. I’ve had enough of that.’ she tells Loverboy.
The result is the most maniacally gleeful, goth-pop gift, which over its eleven tracks, pays homage to the 80s, full of theatrics, experimentation and punk. With Allie X the sole driving force, Girl With No Face achieves complete cohesion and one clear vision. That being Klaus Nomi, Wendy Carlos, Lene Lovich, Divine, Toyah and all the other freaks that brought that rebellious insanity to their art.
Favourites for us are first single, ‘Black Eye’, delivering a vocal that takes you from devilish to deranged in sixty seconds, and also opener ‘Weird World’ giving us Post-Punk perfection, complete with lyrics in German and lines like, ‘Hail Satan, at least he keeps a promise.’ Loverboy speaks with Allie X to find out more…
Congratulations on the album but I feel we need to give breakout single ‘Off With Her Tits’ its flowers first!
Thank you, there is major support from the community and I love that. The thing about that song is it’s ridiculous as well as dark. I don’t even care to explain the title too much, it’s all there in the delivery.
Were you ever worried about a potentially bad reaction to that title?
I knew my fans would understand. There are advantages to being a more niche artist. Like, imagine if Taylor Swift dropped a track called ‘Off With Her Tits’. The Deep South would be up in arms.
Instead we are blessed with amazing videos from fans in Brazil banging their breastplates in their bedrooms.
Ah, that’s a Brasilian artist named Frimes.
Icon. The queer fanbase have really taken their reviews to a new level. I saw one saying, ‘The Ring if she served cunt.’ Haha…
I do love the reclaiming of the word ‘cunt.’ I used to be very…if I heard anyone say that, especially straight and male, I would be so angry. But now I just love it! I am totally digging that whole new verbage.
Personally I live for the wailing on ‘Black Eye’. It reminds me of your earlier work compared to Cape God which was definitely more chilled vocally.
It’s an interesting conversation because my natural inclination is to sing out really loud. I studied theatre and musical theatre people are always about ‘LAAAAAAAAA!’ But I’ve always found my voice too theatrical for the Allie X project. With Cape God I really experimented with my singing. It was beautiful but I was holding back so much. But this record, I am happy to say, is the first time I have found the right context for my eccentricities, theatricalities and my singing voice. On almost every song I am squealing, screaming or wailing. Or belting. It’s been really fun to not hold back.
I’ve been seeing a lot of fans hyped for ‘Galina’.
Oh cool. I’ve been trying to figure out how much to tell of this story because I don’t want it to get back to the person but let’s see…I will say that ‘Galina’ is about somebody who was helping me in a life/medical sense who then just went M.I.A. and I was really stuck. So the song is kind of about the frustration of that but put through this lens of her being this magical, witch-type figure.
The Girl With No Face has such a strong musical concept that looks to the past, I have a couple of artists that came to mind and I would love to get your thoughts on. Although it kind of feels lazy journalism so I apologise!
It’s hard not to! It’s a very referential and indulgent album. Haha…
Well, Kate Bush was really the first one…
I totally love Kate Bush. I watched a documentary on The Hounds of Love when she transitioned to being the producer. She used this incredibly rare and expensive, huge synth and I totally delved deep into that. As a business woman she also made all these moves that I found really inspirational as well, like setting up her own management company with just her and her family running it. Then vocally of course, I love her eccentricities. I have a really high end, bright voice as well so I feel this kind of vocal camaraderie.
You recently posted about Wendy Carlos too, another legendary female producer.
Yes, my partner introduced me to Wendy a decade ago, playing Switched On Bach. I just found it so ahead of its time, whimsical and fantastical. I love all the work she did for the Kubrick films as well. A pioneer.
The last person I wanted to mention was someone I listen to daily, well, actually it’s just one song, but it’s Sarah Brightman’s ‘Phantom of the Opera.’
You know that one I never thought about but I totally see why you would make that connection. I think there is a punk spirit on this album but there is also a gaudiness and campness that undoubtedly comes from my background in theatre.
The three references I pulled were all women but actually I feel this album has a real masc energy to it.
Yes, honey, there is something going on. That’s interesting though because I don’t know if I have had that exact thought but I’ve had murmurings in my own mind. You are the first journalist to comment on it. I don’t know how to analyse it myself, but I am open to people’s opinions. I do think I have a strong masculine side that seems to be coming out more in the last few years. Maybe because I’ve had to hide it for a long time. Navigating this industry has definitely meant that behind the scenes I have had to be somebody I don’t really want to be. There have been these layers of me that have maybe been suppressed, repressed and they just came out during this album.
Did you feel the need to be more passive before?
Yeah, just sweet and often pretending I was younger than I am. I really have a lot to say and am quite a direct person. So I was holding that back previously and just being a sweet, typical pop artist. We aren’t really supposed to run our businesses or have opinions. I’ve had enough of that and it definitely came out in the creativity and on the business side of Allie X. It has been quite a transition over the last few years. I think I am just at the point where I would just be honest and disliked if I have to be than try to create some sort of image that isn’t really authentic.
Girl With No Face is the first whole album you have produced alone.
Yes, I’ve dabbled before but never attempted to do a whole record.
Do you see this as being your path moving forward?
Being in Los Angeles and so many co-writing rooms, I had started to think, ‘Oh maybe I am just someone who brings a vibe.’ But with this exercise I feel I have proved to myself that if I am alone in a room, I can write and produce a song like, ‘Off with Her Tits’. That was a huge empowering and liberating thing for me.
But at the same time to take on the pressure and the ‘ego mind fuck’ isolation that comes with trying to do something like this all by yourself, it’s not very healthy I’ve found. So for the next record I’m hoping to do a co-production with someone. I am fairly exhausted from doing this one, I would say.
I can’t even begin to imagine. Was the whole album written and recorded during peak-Covid isolation?
So, yes, it started during the pandemic and was written largely because of the time afforded during that time. I would take breaks from it, like I got really into DIY. I would go from working on the record to re-doing this room for instance. I did all this cabinetry.
Lastly we are named after the biggest-selling single of 2001 and always ask what is your favourite Mariah song?
Did I say ‘Fantasy’ last time? No? Did I say ‘Hero’? No? I said ‘Emotions’? Oh well, yeah, duh. If I said ‘Emotions’ last time then this time I will sing, ‘Treated me kiiiiind, sweet destinyyyyy…’
Girl With No Face is out now.
