Spring Break
A fine interview with A Fine Frenzy
Alex Nagorski
Issue date: 4/10/08 Section: Life!
My cell phone rings and I hear a very meek and humble voice on the other end. Fire haired and melodiously uplifting 23 year-old songstress Alison Sudol, better known as the woman behind indie music sensation A Fine Frenzy, greets me in such a way that you can hear the smile in her tone. Taking a break from preparing for her Boston show tonight, we chat for a little bit about Shakespeare, inspiration, and music.
AN: So first thing's first. Your name is Alison Sudol, yet you record under the name A Fine Frenzy. Why is that and how did you come up with it?
AS: It's because I wanted the music to have its own name and not have everything be so focused on me. That's basically why once I'm finished recording and producing a song, it's as much the listener's as it is my own - they have as much ownership over it as I do, so it's just a way of sharing it. The name itself comes from "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
AN: Oh really? That's so cool, I didn't know that!
AS: Yeah, it's a really beautiful quote that Theseus says: "the poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven, and as imagination bodies forth, the forms of things unknown, the poet's pen turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing a local habitation and a name." It's really an excellent quote.
AN: Yeah it really is. Your sound is clearly full of various influences, ranging from both classical and swing music to a whole slew of artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Elton John, Radiohead, Joni Mitchell, Fiona Apple and Coldplay. Who would you say your biggest musical inspiration is and why?
AS: Ahh, I don't know I mean I think it really depends on the day, because some days Sigur Ros is the center of my universe and other days it's Aretha Franklin or The Beatles or some classical piece. I mean, it just depends on my mood and I never know, which is why I like so many different kinds of things because you can have a different music for every mood.
AN: So first thing's first. Your name is Alison Sudol, yet you record under the name A Fine Frenzy. Why is that and how did you come up with it?
AS: It's because I wanted the music to have its own name and not have everything be so focused on me. That's basically why once I'm finished recording and producing a song, it's as much the listener's as it is my own - they have as much ownership over it as I do, so it's just a way of sharing it. The name itself comes from "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
AN: Oh really? That's so cool, I didn't know that!
AS: Yeah, it's a really beautiful quote that Theseus says: "the poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven, and as imagination bodies forth, the forms of things unknown, the poet's pen turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing a local habitation and a name." It's really an excellent quote.
AN: Yeah it really is. Your sound is clearly full of various influences, ranging from both classical and swing music to a whole slew of artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Elton John, Radiohead, Joni Mitchell, Fiona Apple and Coldplay. Who would you say your biggest musical inspiration is and why?
AS: Ahh, I don't know I mean I think it really depends on the day, because some days Sigur Ros is the center of my universe and other days it's Aretha Franklin or The Beatles or some classical piece. I mean, it just depends on my mood and I never know, which is why I like so many different kinds of things because you can have a different music for every mood.