Bruce Edwin: And I read that you opened for
the Stooges!
Alison Sudol: Yeah…
Bruce Edwin: That amazed me, because I got in to
the punk scene at an early age, and what was that like for you?
Are you an Iggy fan or what?
Alison Sudol: Well, I think I didn't know enough
at that time about Iggy, and I was researching like crazy, before
we did the show, and was just absolutely like falling over, blown
away by him.
Bruce Edwin: Awesome.
Alison Sudol: Like, when I was doing the
research and stuff, so I think performing on the same bill with
him, it meant so much then, but it means even more now, I think
as I've gotten a little older, but I was bragging to any body and
every body, and I'm not the bragging type, but I was telling
every body.
Bruce Edwin: Ha, I would too.
Alison Sudol: and the Kings of Leon were on that
same bill too, it was crazy, but yeah, just watching him up
there, blew me away.
Bruce Edwin: I bet, I saw an interview with him
(and I'm bringing this back, so bear with me), I saw an interview
where he said if he could have started out doing more blues or
classical type of stuff, he would have done it, but he needed to
make money, and rock and roll was a gig he could make money at,
and now he's going off in to other areas he originally wanted to
do, but it seems like you've got some more, I won't say rock and
roll can't be dignified or a high art, because I think it can, or
pop music for that matter, but it seems like you've got a lot
more intelligence, or academia, or scholarly qualities behind you
more than the average rock or pop singer out there, you're name I
heard was obviously taken from (a line from) Shakespeare, so, can
you tell me about that? Is there an area of study that you are
heavily in to and influenced by aside from your music, or
what?
Alison Sudol: Well I think, I didn't go to
college, I figured I'd postpone it, because I was 16, I graduated
high school early...
Bruce Edwin: That's incredible....
Alison Sudol: And I was really young for 16 in
some ways....
Bruce Edwin: Yeah, and smart obviously...
Alison Sudol: (laughs) Nerdy! So the idea of
going to college where people were like drinking, and partying,
and smoking pot, it was too much. I was too scared. So I put it
off, and then I never went, and a part of me has always felt,
well, you've got to keep educating yourself, to justify not going
to college, so, I just always try to read as much as I can, and
try to talk to people that are smarter than me, and have done
more, and try to absorb, you know, because, this lifestyle can
lend a lot to one's intelligence. It can help you, you can learn
so much from the places that you go, and the people that you
meet, if you choose to make that a point, you know, or, you can
just like drink your self in to a stupor...
Bruce Edwin: Ha ha!
Alison Sudol: You know, but, I'm not very good
at that.
Bruce Edwin: That's awesome, that's very wise of
you, very cool, you know, as a student of the world per se, with
travel, that is an education unto itself, that's great.
Alison Sudol: Yeah, that's what I got.
Bruce Edwin: Definitely, that's very, very cool.
Your songwriting is so highly developed for any one, but
particularly for an artist of your time, kind of early in your
career, and you've probably been asked this many times, so
forgive this, but when did you really start formulating your
songwriting?
Alison Sudol: When I graduated high school, I
met a few people who introduced me to other people, and I ended
up being taken under the wing by a songwriter, (...) and she just
took me to every writing session she went to...
Bruce Edwin: Wow.
Alison Sudol: And she took me every where, every
where! And (she) was not easy on me by any standards (..) You
know what I mean?
Bruce Edwin: Ha, yeah.
Alison Sudol: So she did that, and then she just
kind of let me go when I needed to go, and go on my own, you
know, and I had a band, and it was terrible, and blah, but I just
kind of learned through trial by fire essentially, but I did what
I didn't want to do, and then I stopped everything, and just sat
down at the piano, and started honing in on what I really wanted
to do. From all of that other stuff of learning, and working with
other people, and being taken in different directions, and
absorbing, it was then like O.K., now you've got to find you in
that, that was at 19, and the first song that I wrote was 'Almost
Lover,' which is weird...
Bruce Edwin: Wow, ha!
Alison Sudol: Yeah, like literally the first
song I wrote by myself on the piano.
Bruce Edwin: Wow, amazing, beautiful song, I
love that song by the way...
Alison Sudol: Thanks, it was a start, and it was
honest, you know?
Bruce Edwin: Yeah. I know, as I'm sure you do, a
diverse array of artists or artistically inclined people, and
some of them believe that their artistry just comes from them, do
you believe in any so-called spiritual inspiration, or element
beyond the physical realm that inspires you?
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