Allie X<\/a>, the ever-morphing musical vessel of Alexandra Hughes, is taking her artistry to other worlds. Change has never scared the Canadian-born, Los Angeles-based expert of synth-pop. Since 2015, she\u2019s been churning out hits beloved by the internet and airwaves alike, shape-shifting along the way, consistently keeping the dedicated fanbase she\u2019s cultivated on their toes.<\/p>\nAfter establishing her early sound of catchy indie on earworms like \u201cBitch\u201d from her 2015 EP, CollXtion I<\/em><\/em>, she quickly shifted her sonic and visual landscapes. Her 2020 LP, Cape God<\/em><\/em>, drew inspiration from HBO\u2019s documentary, Heroin: Cape Cod, USA<\/em><\/em> and America\u2019s opioid epidemic. Despite the inclusion of poppy, danceable singles, the record\u2019s dark, thematic underbelly demanded attention. This kind of balance continues on Girl With No Face<\/em><\/em>, her junior album from 2024. She traded in drug-plagued East Coast landscapes to paint pictures of a vampiric ’80s Los Angeles, to spin stories of Hollywood\u2019s perils and to hone in on themes of identity and dark femininity all over the tracklist. It blessed fans and critics with futuristic power pop hits, namely \u201cGalina\u201d and \u201cOff With Her Tits,\u201d that don\u2019t shy away from drawing poignant lo-fi inspiration from hallmarks like Depeche Mode and Cocteau Twins. <\/p>\nHer newest offering, Happiness Is Going To Get You<\/em><\/em>, is her most ambitious project to date. She\u2019s taken to social media to start curating the bleak but inviting world she\u2019s built for the 12 new tracks and visually, this equates to black gowns and veils, maps with mysterious coordinates and the biggest, boldest, blackest hairdo, spottable from wherever you are in her wide world. She\u2019s employed an alter-ego, Infant Marie, as the protagonist who will serve as a vessel for the album\u2019s lyrical content. <\/p>\nThe singles from Happiness Is Going To Get You <\/em><\/em>solidify Allie X as the singular creative she\u2019s always been. \u201cIs Anybody Out There?\u201d is a piano-driven power ballad about apocalyptic apathy. \u201cReunite,\u201d fueled by bouncy, baroque arrangements and paired with scripture of lesbian love (and heartbreak), is one of the star\u2019s best to date, and is a song only she could create.<\/p>\nAllie X\u2019s originality and self-actualization are to be strongest in this new era. It\u2019s the result of separating herself from previous label and industry ties. Self-written, produced and published, Happiness is Going To Get You <\/em><\/em>is a world of her own. The next step is transporting the rest of us to it.<\/p>\nAllie X sat down with PAPER <\/em>a week before the album’s release <\/em>to discuss Happiness Is Going To Get You<\/em>, her newfound creative ownership, and the importance of wigs.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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Happiness is Going To Get You<\/em><\/strong><\/em> comes out so soon. What are you feeling right now?<\/strong><\/p>\nIt\u2019s weird. I want more time, but I also just want it to be out. I feel like my records are meant to be consumed as full bodies of work, so I\u2019m eager for that to happen. I\u2019m also feeling the pressure of numbers and analytics, so it\u2019s a bit of every emotion. A lot of adrenaline, that\u2019s for sure. <\/p>\n
I love how conceptual this record is. There\u2019s the introduction of an alter-ego, Infant Marie? Could you tell me about her and how the idea for this album originated?<\/strong><\/p>\nIt was nowhere near fully baked when I started the music. It was a concept that was inspired by the music, and a lot of the ideas came from a brilliant artist and photographer named Moni Haworth. She\u2019s absolutely brilliant. She\u2019s such a rebellious thinker. When she heard my album, she heard a lot of nostalgia within the baroque instruments in there and the sonic threads that are of a different time. She also told me that she sees me as a one-woman traveling show. The Infant Marie is almost that. She\u2019s a vaudevillian, burlesque performer. There\u2019s a photographer who took pictures of women in New Orleans in the ’20s, and there\u2019s a bit of that as well. Even though it\u2019s a dense and sci-fi narrative, I really love and internalized this concept we developed on a personal level.<\/p>\n
How did the hard switch come in a post-<\/strong>Girl With No Face <\/em><\/strong><\/em>era? How did you go about wrapping that album and entering into these new ideas?<\/strong><\/p>\nI see them as very directly related. Girl With No Face <\/em><\/em>took a long time. There was all this pent-up anger, and it was difficult and such a challenge. But it had to come out. It cleared this emotional space in me for something completely different. This record was very easy and poured out effortlessly. The creative process was seamless and so strange. I was sitting at a piano, writing songs like \u201cWho is she?\u201d She\u2019s the Infant Marie, I guess. <\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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Would you say it\u2019s been a different process from each of your other records? Or do others stand out as similarly easy and smooth processes? <\/strong><\/p>\nI really found my voice over the past five years, by working in isolation and taking over creative and managerial control over everything. I don\u2019t really work with collaborators anymore. I\u2019m now the producer. In that way, it\u2019s similar to Girl With No Face<\/em><\/em>, since it\u2019s rebellious and has the same ethos. Like I\u2019m ignoring all trends, I don\u2019t care what anyone else is doing, I don\u2019t care what they think of it. For better or for worse. That\u2019s how I\u2019m going to sustain my career. It\u2019s very important that I found that. Sonically, it\u2019s very different. Maybe you could tie it to Cape God<\/em><\/em>. It’s more of an organic sound, even though there are synthesizers over all of my work. There\u2019s also nostalgia, thematically, in Cape God <\/em><\/em>as well. What\u2019s funny is that I feel a teenage experience through Cape God <\/em><\/em>and Girl With No Face<\/em><\/em>. Being a teenager was a difficult time in my life. This is the first time I’ve written an album where I feel like a lady.<\/p>\nI love that. It\u2019s funny since it\u2019s the first \u201clady\u201d album, and you\u2019re playing Infant Marie. I\u2019m living.<\/strong><\/p>\nI know! Yes. <\/p>\n
Tell me about some of the musical and non-musical influences for this record. <\/strong><\/p>\nIt started as voice memos at a piano. I didn\u2019t know for certain, but I had a feeling in the moment \u2014 vague ideas I put to the side while writing Girl With No Face \u2014 <\/em>that it would be a piano-based album. I knew it would be reflective and have a dreamy sound. My first curiosity was seeing if the voice memos could turn into piano demos. Once I started doing that in Ableton Live, I was like, \u201cWell, I\u2019m hearing this bass line and these drums as well.\u201d At that point, I got into listening to Fiona Apple again and Tori Amos. Then bands like AIR and Beck. Lots of hi-fi, well-produced albums of the ’90s and early oughts. Girl With No Face <\/em><\/em>was so lo-fi. After each album, I always want to do something so different. I was waiting for a hi-fi next album. As I developed it, I heard soft rock, a la Paul McCartney’s solo era. There was some Portishead.<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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I was about to ask if there was any trip-hop I could get excited for.<\/strong><\/p>\nYes! Absolutely. And Fatboy Slim and the whole emergence of that Bristol sound in the ’90s. I was listening to a lot of Bj\u00f6rk as well, who does a great job of using electronics in her organic sounds of production. It was all so fun and indulgent. I finished the record in Copenhagen. I totally nerded out, opening up a piano and playing its innards, throwing retro drum machines on it. I was nerding out. <\/p>\n
I love it. You center so much of your music in specific locations and time periods.<\/strong> Cape God <\/em><\/strong><\/em>is so East Coast, <\/strong>Girl With No Face <\/em><\/strong><\/em>is LA. You finished this one in Copenhagen. Are there locational ties for this album? How about time periods? <\/strong><\/p>\nTime and space are the concepts of Happiness Is Going To Get You<\/em><\/em>. It\u2019s grounded in the non-groundedness of the universe. I see listeners in their own cubes flying through space. It\u2019s about that profound experience and pain and joy of being alive, back to my original concept of \u201cX,\u201d where science meets spirituality. The emotion that created these songs was profound for me. <\/p>\nYour music tends to be quite timeless, despite how hard you\u2019ve leaned into certain time frames. <\/strong><\/p>\nThank you. <\/p>\n
Lyrically, it\u2019s not stuck in time. You mention grocery stores like Gelson’s and Vons. How do you go about adding signs of the times like this? <\/strong><\/p>\nIt wasn\u2019t intentional. It was just something that happened. These things all felt like they were in the same world. The longer I songwrite and produce and worldbuild as a career, the more I realize that it\u2019s not even coming from me. I\u2019m just channeling it. The deeper I go, the further removed I get, the less logic I use, the easier it just comes out. <\/p>\n
Were there a lot of scrapped tracks for this album? <\/strong><\/p>\nNo, honestly. Maybe one or two. It\u2019s only around 35 minutes long with a few interludes. I used everything I wrote in a short time frame. <\/p>\n
I love that. I love the trend of shorter projects right now. Saying what you need to say, then moving on.<\/strong><\/p>\nIt works very well with our ecosystem of music. We consume so rapidly. There are shitty things about technology, obviously, but what\u2019s cool about music is that you don\u2019t have just one chance anymore. You can just keep throwing spaghetti at the wall. No one\u2019s gonna cut you off because you\u2019re direct to the internet. <\/p>\n
Especially now that you\u2019ve reached a point of no labels or ties. It\u2019s taken a long time, but you don\u2019t have to rely on these external collaborators. You have this creative control. <\/strong><\/p>\nYeah. I got myself out of all these shitty contracts. Anyone who was slowing me down or holding me back is now out of the picture. When I finished these demos in February, I thought, \u201cCan I get this album out by the Fall?\u201d because there\u2019s so much involved with shooting artwork and mixing and mastering, all these things. I remembered how I used to need permission, and so many things were gatekept from me. This time, I was like, \u201cI can do it.\u201d I was so focused and moved through this gatekept industry in a way I never had before. Happiness is Going To Get You <\/em><\/em>is a celebration of me being a creative and getting it to my fans in a way that I have never been able to do before. No matter how it does, that in itself is something I really celebrate at this time.<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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Were there thematic or conceptual ideas that you explored on this record that you hadn\u2019t expected when you first started?<\/strong><\/p>\nYeah. An empathetic and mature viewpoint came on certain songs that I hadn\u2019t voiced or felt inspired to voice in a musical way before. That\u2019s gotta be a good thing.<\/p>\n
What songs are you excited for the world to get its hands on? <\/strong><\/p>\n\u201c7th Floor\u201d is fun. I never count on things going well with songs, but that one has potential. Some of the most interesting songs are the title track and \u201cUncle Lenny.\u201d I love the final track, \u201cIt\u2019s Just Light.\u201d <\/p>\n
What\u2019s the balance between you and this alter-ego? When you decided on it, did you have expectations for filling it? How has that relationship formed? <\/strong><\/p>\nThere was no pressure. I got to know her better. I did a performance two nights ago in London. It was a private event with chamber arrangements of some of the songs. We had sheer material across the stage that created a fourth wall. You could play with shadows. I couldn\u2019t see anyone from the stage, so I felt like I was in the cube! I felt like I was her. I didn\u2019t speak to the audience or address them or anything. All I did was an Infant Marie bow at the end of the show. It was cool. It reminded me of mask work or theatre school. I keep finding her, and I\u2019ll be exploring it on tour next year. <\/p>\n
Tell me about the tour. You have dates with Magdalena Bay in the Winter. What\u2019s it going to look like? <\/strong><\/p>\nI\u2019m not sure. It\u2019s their tour, so my production will be a bit scaled down. I\u2019m thinking about who I can afford in my crew. I don\u2019t need a front-of-house person; I need a hair person. The hair is the most important part. <\/p>\n
If we can\u2019t get the cube, we can at least get the wig.<\/strong><\/p>\nI haven\u2019t announced a lot of the tours for next year yet, but it\u2019s going to be hefty. <\/p>\n
Let\u2019s talk about working with Moni Haworth. <\/strong><\/p>\nPAPER<\/em><\/em>\u2019s a big fan of hers, right? <\/p>\nPAPER<\/em><\/strong><\/em>, yes. But also personally. I love her work. How was shooting the cover with her? <\/strong><\/p>\nI never know what an album is until I have the cover and visuals figured out. Working with Moni feels like you\u2019re in the presence of a genius. She wouldn\u2019t like me saying that. Trends don\u2019t matter to her; she won\u2019t take a cover if she finds the artist or idea boring. She\u2019s hyper-focused on what she\u2019s doing at one time. She deep dives, her imagination is crazy and she’s incredibly smart.<\/p>\n
She sounds amazing. While you\u2019re thinking about this album in terms of time and space, let\u2019s say you have a time machine. You can visit one past version of yourself and tell her one thing. What version of yourself are you speaking to and what are you telling her? <\/strong><\/p>\nI\u2019d visit my sick, teenage self and tell her exactly what she needs to do to feel better. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s beautiful.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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Photography: msjosephin<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Allie X, the ever-morphing musical vessel of Alexandra Hughes, is taking her artistry to other worlds. Change has never scared the Canadian-born, Los Angeles-based expert of synth-pop. Since 2015, she\u2019s been churning out hits beloved by the internet and airwaves alike, shape-shifting along the way, consistently keeping the dedicated fanbase she\u2019s cultivated on their toes. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.unlockingsite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.unlockingsite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.unlockingsite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.unlockingsite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.unlockingsite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7082"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.unlockingsite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7083,"href":"http:\/\/www.unlockingsite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7082\/revisions\/7083"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.unlockingsite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.unlockingsite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.unlockingsite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.unlockingsite.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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