By Carl Begai
When French Canadian vocalist Alissa White-Gluz joined Swedish melodic death metallers Arch Enemy in 2014 at the request of her predecessor Angela Gossow, she was well aware of what awaited her: extensive touring, a rabid fanbase with high expectations, and an expected group of haters. So it went that, when Alissa broke her ribs in the middle of her first ever tour fronting Arch Enemy in support of her band debut, War Eternal, she chose to forge ahead despite the considerable pain. Most singers wouldn’t even entertain such a move due to the fact singing requires being able to breathe, which isn’t an easy task with a busted chest. Catching up on Arch Enemy’s European support tour with Nightwish in December 2015, Alissa revealed she hadn’t experienced any more major physical disasters since that first road trip, but admitted she was steering clear of the skateboard stashed on the tour bus just to be safe.
“There was so much pressure at that point and so much going on,” she says of that first tour with Arch Enemy. “For 10 or 12 years (with The Agonist) it was a struggle just to get booked anywhere, so when I was given this beautiful itinerary of a year or two full of shows… I’m not built to say no to that. I wasn’t about to say ‘Hey, since I’ve been working for 12 years and I’ve finally gotten this far, time to not do it.’ So I did the tour and it was against the doctor’s orders but fuck that, I’ve never followed doctor’s orders anyway (laughs). It definitely held me back a little in terms of performance for a few months, but it worked out.”
At the time of this interview Arch Enemy had been on the road for almost two years supporting War Eternal, an unheard of amount of time for a band that hasn’t quite graduated to headlining arena shows just yet. When they finished out 2014 supporting Kreator in Europe most people assumed the band would spend 2015 working on new material. Arch Enemy opted to remain on the road, closing 2015 with one of the biggest tours of their career in terms of audience numbers.
“There’s still a demand,” Alissa says of the band’s decision to spend so much time on tour. “Especially in this situation where we’re fortunate to have fans accept the new music and the new line-up. We want to give them a show if they want it. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact I can’t say ‘no.’ I feel so incredibly lucky that if anyone wants to see me perform I’m like ‘Really? You want us to play a show? I’m in…'(laughs). That and the fact these guys have been touring for 20 years; they just love doing it so they’re happy to play any shows that come our way. It’s a mixture of enjoying what we do and being workaholics. We’re still going but we’ll have to write some new music, which will be our focus in 2016.”
Anything written yet?
“We do have a few little things that are starting to come together. Dressing room writing (laughs).”
One stop on Arch Enemy’s extensive 2015 journey took them to Japan’s annual Loud Park festival, which was a special occasion for several reasons. The band was embraced by Japanese metal fans before the rest of the world caught on, warranting a guest appearance by original vocalist Johan Liiva during their set along with guitarist Chris Amott making a one-off return as well.
“That was the first time I met Johan and it was really cool,” Alissa says. “I think it was nostalgic and cool for a lot of the fans; they were singing along, some of them were crying. Arch Enemy is a band that has come full circle in so many ways, it continues to grow and evolve, and there’s always been a good heart and soul to the band. I think that’s why it’s fun for the fans to see Johan up there on stage. He’s always welcome on stage with us. Angela is still involved, obviously, Chris was involved with the Loud Park show, so it really is like a big family. Japan was one place that supported Arch Enemy in the very early years, so I think it was a nice gift to give those fans the chance to see Johan and Chris with the band again.”
In stark contrast, Arch Enemy getting the Nightwish tour was a match made in hell for some unsuspecting Nightwish fans. As the second band on a three act bill – following Amorphis – Arch Enemy spent a month in Europe educating the symphonic metal faithful on the finer points of melodic death metal. There were no reports of Nightwish fans bursting into flame upon exposure, but there were certainly some wide eyes and jaws dropped when Alissa hit the stage screaming bloody murder.
“It’s funny, but I would like to think that I do have one foot in the symphonic metal scene thanks to Kamelot, doing guest vocals for Delain, so maybe some Nightwish fans have a small idea of who I am even if they’re not familiar with Arch Enemy. Maybe that will help them place the band a little bit. For the most part it seems the initial reactions are ‘What the fuck is that?!’ (laughs). Some of the Nightwish fans are older, which is great, but not something we usually see. Some Nightwish fans don’t understand what’s happening, but by the time we’re a few songs in we can see people getting into it. These are people that have probably never put the horns up even once in their life and Nightwish is the heaviest band they listen to. They think they’re going to the opera and then I come out and rip their faces off (laughs). It’s different but it’s great. I’m a big Nightwish fan and I’ve had a working relationship with them in the past, so this is a really fun tour. Musically it may not be what their fans have been exposed to before, but a lot of them are enjoying the experience.”
Alissa’s stage outfit for the tour touched on the fantasy metal aspect of what the average symphonic show had to offer, appropriately adding to the Angel Of Death persona she was no doubt crowned with by some Nightwish fans.
“(Laughs) Whenever you’re on a tour and you’re not the headliner, you have to roll back your production a little bit because Nightwish has all of their pyro and props. We went into this bare bones, very punk-style with a backdrop and our lighting guy. The show is just the music, and the visuals have to come from us so I’d better make sure that I look visually intriguing (laughs). Okay, yeah, the blue hair…. but I’m used to that so I upped the ante a little bit, and it’s fun anway to dress up a bit. And this crowd isn’t weirded out by stage outfits, whereas on the Kreator tour that would have been a bit strange.”
A conversation with Alissa isn’t complete without addressing her role in Kamelot as a backing vocalist, a post she’s held since 2012. The fact she still devotes time to the band even though Arch Enemy is her top priority – and that the Arch Enemy camp supports her pulling double duty 100% – speaks volumes of the respect all involved have for one another.
“I’m still super close with Kamelot and I have been talking to them and confirming with them, but I’m always happy to perform with them,” Alissa says. “That’s why at Loud Park I did the Arch Enemy set and then the Kamelot set the next day. It’s fun for me, but it is a different thing now because before I was just somebody singing with Kamelot and I’m now the representative of Arch Enemy. I’m creating a marriage between these two bands whether I like it or not, so it’s something I do keep in mind. And I actually do see a lot of Kamelot shirts at Arch Enemy shows.”
“It’s a tricky situation because they have so many guest singers, but there’s been quite a bit of me on the last two Kamelot albums. If they have a girl there on tour who can do the clean vocals she sings those parts. If I’m there it’s all me.”
With that in mind, it’s fair to say she’s become an integral part of the Kamelot sound.
“I like to think so. I think it’s nice that the fans can hear the song the way it’s familiar to them rather than just leaving those parts out or something. But, I’ve been talking with Thomas (Youngblood / guitars) a lot about how we can make it work in the future. It’ll be cool, whatever we end up doing.”
The subject of clean singing being introduced to the Arch Enemy sound has been brought up repeatedly because of Alissa’s ability to pull off growls and clean vocals with ease. There’s no guarantee it will show up on the band’s next album, but there’s nothing to say it won’t.
“Every time the idea of clean singing in Arch Enemy comes up Angela, Michael (Amott / guitars) and everyone loves the idea,” Alissa reveals. “I love doing clean singing, which is one of the main things that drives me back to Kamelot all the time. It’s fun for me, and I love singing Arch Enemy stuff without clean singing but I think it would be cool to introduce it. It’s just a matter of if it feels right. I think we’re all waiting for the time when we get that feeling because none of us are against it, but we’re against forcing it into the music for the sake of ‘Look what I can do…’ Daniel (Erlandsson / drums) plays guitar really well and plays different styles of drumming, Jeff (Loomis / guitars) sings really well, so we all have many talents but we don’t have to use all of them in every song all the time. That being said, if there’s an opportunity to use clean vocals we’ll probably do it.”
At press time, Alissa was presumably enjoying the downtime of not being on the road, although there has been some unconfirmed rumbling about Alissa joining Kamelot at some point during their 2016 tour cycle.
“We work so hard in Arch Enemy that the idea of downtime is kind of scary. It’ll be album writing in 2016 but Michael and Sharlee (D’Angelo / bass) also have Spiritual Beggars and Jeff has his solo stuff, so I’m kinda like ‘Uh oh, what do I do now…’ (laughs). Doyle (ex-Misfits) and I have been talking about working on some stuff just for fun, not with the intention of touring it or anything. If it does happen it’ll be in 2016 because I’ll probably be going stir crazy.”
“I’ve been reading some articles recently about the psychological impact of touring, and it’s all true. As musicians you go from this life of nothing being regular or routine, every day is a different city or country, there’s this daily uncertainty and the challenge of having to win over your fans. Then you go home and you don’t have to do anything. There’s no struggle to find the door to the venue, there’s no catering…. it’s very weird. It creates a sort of post-partum depression for lack of a better term (laughs). I find that lasts two or three weeks and then I start to get used to being at home.”
“It’s a constant back and forth between two really different worlds. When you get home you don’t really want to talk about touring, but of course your friends ask how the tour was. The answer is usually ‘…good…’ It’s hard to carry on a normal conversation because, for us, being ‘normal’ is playing in front of hundreds or thousands of people. We don’t take that for granted but that’s our day-to-day. When I go home, if I say that some people think I’m bragging and I’m like, ‘But wait, that’s really how it was every day…’ (laughs). I’d rather hear about my friends’ lives, about their kids, about the wedding they went to; that stuff is exciting to me because I don’t get to do that stuff.”
Live photos by Carl Begai
Arch Enemy band photos by Tim Tronckoe Photography
Ciao war eternal é un album micidiale !
Love the music, you are besutiful…..can’t stand the screech. Sing dammit!