For weeks, the new Alanis Morissette album rotted on my desk, untouched except by sporadic co-workers who invariably picked it up to ask, "Alanis Morissette has a new album?" Morissette returns to Milwaukee on Oct. 5 for a show at the Riverside Theater. Since I never did bring myself to listen to her forgotten latest album, in lieu of interviewing Morissette, I opted to sit in on a reporter conference call with her, so other people could ask the questions for me and I could live blog it:
1:10 After 17 minutes of on-call elevator music, the conference call finally begins. All reporters are told to keep all questions related to her upcoming North American tour and her latest album, Flavors of Entanglement. So much for me asking if "You Oughta Know" was really about Dave Coulier. That was the only question I could come up with.
1:12 A routine question about the pressures of following up a massive hit album like Jagged Little Pill actually yields a really interesting answer: Morrissette explains that, to keep from dwelling on that pressure, she wrote the songs on her follow-up "as quickly as possible, and I still do, my songs only take 20 to 30 minutes to write apiece." At that rate shouldn't she have, like, dozens of albums by now?
1:14 All the questions so far have been unwaveringly polite; most begin by flattering Alanis.
1:16 Someone asks the first question clearly intended to get Morissette to mention her well-documented break-up with actor Ryan Renolds, the purported inspiration for her new album. She parries. "It reflected serious dissemblings in my personal life," she explains of the album, with no name dropping. "It allowed me to hit rock bottom in a way I'd never done before. I'd always bottom dwelled, but never hit the bottom before."
|
|
1:18 Morissette says "about" with that distinctly Canadian inflection. I am glad that I am on mute, because I snicker like a child.
1:19 How does Alanis feel compared to the days of Jagged Little Pill? "Older." She's very likeable.
1:23 A guy from New York Daily News�the first publication I've actually heard of on this call�asks a question that's met with a dull rant about the Dalai Lama.
1:26 About! Still funny.
1:30 Alanis says she prefers to use recyclable batteries when she can. How did this conversation get so boring?
1:30 This is interesting, though: "This tour is a lot more physical" than some of the other ones, Alanis says, so she's training: running, biking, etc. I'm picturing an awesome Rocky-esque montage.
1:32 A snickering, bubbly Morissette answers a question about her reputation for being angry: "If I'm going to be one-dimensionalized, it's an honor to be considered angry, because anger is so often swept under the rug when it comes to women."
1:34 "I want to know if you have any advice for women for getting over a guy," one emotional woman reporter asks, clearly drawing on personal experiences. Morissette gives a long, sweet and sympathetic answer about grieving, finding support and comforting ourselves. If her music career never re-ignites, she'd be a logic choice to write an advice column.
1:36 OMG! The first Dave Coulier question of the day! Drama! Asked if she has any response to what Coulier has said about her song, Morissette says: "I've never talked about who my songs are about, and I won't. They're written for the sake of personal expression � With all due respect to whomever may see themselves in my songs, and it happens all the time, I never comment on it because I write these songs for myself."
1:37 "Have you spoken with Dave about it," the incorrigible reporter follows up, "about who it was about?" "CAN WE MOVE ON," an angry publicist interjects!
1:39 The next question begins with a long, glowing siloquey about how much Alanis' music means to women everywhere. Order has been restored. The call ends one uneventful question later. I didn't ask anything.
