The brilliant Allie X stopped by Montreal on her last North American tour to promote her sophomore album Collxtion II. Before performing to her beloved fans, she told us all about how she created this album and how certain songs came about!
With Collxtion I you collaborated with a lot of different people, did you do the same for Collxtion II and how was it creating this body of work?
I did a lot of co-writes, same as Collxtion I. I like to write with people and have people produce because I can only take a song so far production wise. A lot of the same people were both in Collxtion I & II, but what made Collxtion II kind of different was that I ended up taking a lot of what I had from the album-I’m looking at it and not really knowing what to do with it or knowing how to make it into an album. Taking a break and then sort of dissecting everything and then starting some new songs completely from the ground up and applying those ideas and inspirations to the rest of the songs.
Did the songs take you long to write?
Yeah ahaha. It took me so long cause a lot of the time I have these melodies that I really like but everything else is wrong, but I really believe in the melody so I have to completely just dissect it like I said, just take the melody out and build it up. So new verses, lyrics, pre-chorus, a whole new production and that was the case for 2 or 3 of the songs on the album.
How do you feel your music has grown from Collxtion I to Collxtion II
Its gotten more minimal I think. The mixes have gotten stronger. I explored a higher and super pop part of my voice for Collxtion I and for Collxtion II there’s lower, more chilled out vocals, just kind of what I was feeling.
For Paper Love, how does the concept of the video go with the song?
I made the video with Renata Raksha, she’s a director, Russian American director, and we both agreed when approaching the video that we needed a theme of paralysis and a theme of transformation. The song is kind of about going into something and knowing its going to destroy you, so we wanted those 2 themes. Renata came up with the idea that I would be a doll and these kids would love me at first but end up destroying me. And yeah, that was a very clever representation of those themes.
The last song on the album is True Love Is Violent which is a more stripped down song, why did you put that song last and what was the inspiration behind it?
I thought it just made sense in the sequence to go last and it was always a ballad. It used to be a purely piano ballad but I added some drums and guitar. The inspiration I don’t know, I wrote that with Bret and this guy Chris in Topanga in his studio and the inspiration was the piano sequence, we kind of let the lyrics lead us on that one, we didn’t have the title True Love Is Violent until half way through it, it sort of just came out and its about real love being torrential.
What lyric are you most proud of on the album?
Hm, I think my favourite lyrics are on Simon Says. I don’t know if this is the best lyric on the album but why don’t we say Everyday in every way's a puzzle, pieces of a person are a game, love is still a mystery to me but watch me move when I hear his name.
How has tour been?
Its been great! This is our last show of 8 cities in North America and I didn’t know what to expect having not played most of the cities before and just being a smaller artist but the fans have just been insane! Even when we only sold like 200 tickets or whatever its always insane, they’re all dressed like me, they’re screaming, they’re making me feel really good, its been inspiring, I feel now ready to write cause I’ve had so many great interactions with the fans.
What’s your favourite city to perform?
I really like Portland! It was a city on this tour and I’ve had great shows in Portland but I also just really love the city, its so chill, its got great food, I don’t know it has a very nice relaxing vibe, I can really relax in that city.
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