A beautiful city like Budapest was probably the best set for our interview with Arch Enemy’s Alissa White-Gluz. From the upcoming Arch Enemy album up to her favorite vacation sites. We talked about everything. Read on and find out exactly what she said!
The band is working on the new album and you are writing some of the songs for it. What can we expect from it?
Well, so far I think the way Arch enemy works is we have a lot of ideas that are „brewing“ in our minds and when they are ready we sort of unleash them and write the songs. So we don’t really force it because we want the quality of the songs we release to be high standard – when it comes to our music we don’t want to release something just to release it. So Michael’s been writing on his own and with Shirley and Daniel, jamming with Jeff also, I’ve been writing poems and stuff. Soon we’ll get together and put all the pieces into the album – we have a good solid base for now and I’m very excited about it.
Can we expect a cover song on the new album? Arch Enemy has done some covers before.
Maybe, we did a couple of covers, two on the War Eternal – I don’t think they were released everywhere. We did Shadow on the Wall and???. We also did a couple more for smaller releases. But I really don’t know. I’m not sure if there’s a song that we particularly want to cover, I have a few songs I would like to do but I haven’t discussed it with the band. Maybe I’ll do it on my own but it will be a secret for now.
Do you have a vocal coach?
No. No, I just tutor myself.
When you were with Agonist there were much more clean vocals. Are you going to do something similar for the next Arch Enemy album?
Maybe, I can’t really say yes or no. I don’t think it would be fair to what Arch Enemy is to just put clean singing in just because I can do it. If the song requires it, then it makes sense to do it but just adding it for the sake of doing the clean singing. If there’s a real reason than it makes sense.
This is your second performance in Budapest. You were here last year with Nightwish. Do you do visit the city, do some sightseeing?
I’ve been to Budapest a few time actually, I always go to the city. I’ve been here more than that for sure, at least three or four, it’s a beautiful city.
Are you maybe coming to Croatia?
I would love to go to Croatia, definitely.
On vacation maybe?
Oh no, I don’t have time for a vacation but I know Arch Enemy has a lot of fans there. I saw the Arch Enemy Croatia fan club. I really would like to go there but it’s not really our decision if it was we would go. It would be cool but there is a lot of things that have to come together to make it happen. So maybe. Soon I hope!
Do you have a favorite location for spending your holidays and vacations there?
My favorite place int he world? Oh my God…I have no idea. I mean there are so many places I like for different reasons. I love California for the weather and the ocean and nature. I love japan for the culture and people. I don’t know, there is so many amazing places in the world from what I’ve seen so it’s really hard to choose.
Will you be touring with Kamelot maybe? They are also coming to Budapest in January 2017.
I don’t know. I did a tour with Kamelot this year, I did a few shows in Japan and some in South America and it would be fun (it’s always fun to tour with them) but I have to balance my schedule in Arch Enemy so whenever I’m available I’m happy to be there.
Who is your favorite singer, is there anyone you would like to sing with?
That’s a tough question, there I a lot of singers I really like. I can think of three singers I haven’t sung with that I think are amazing. One is Devin Townsend, I really like his voice, the second one is Brody Dalle from the Distillers, love her, and also Mia from Crucified Barbara, she’s a fantastic singer. And these are all people who I know personally as friends but I’ve never sung with them.
On your last tour, you were the new singer in Arch Enemy,the new album was out. Nightwish had a new singer also. How did the fans react to it?
Actually, War Eternal came out at the beginning of 2014. and the Nightwish tour was at the end of 2015. So the album had already been out for a year and a half by the time we did that tour so it wasn’t really super new but I guess the Nightwish album was pretty new. Yeah, I think we were definitely the heaviest band on that tour, I think Arch Enemy is more leaning towards death metal than Amorphis or Nightwish. We did extremely well in merch sales and showing people who Arch Enemy is as a band. So big thanks to Nightwish for having us on that tour. It was nice for me also just because I’ve known Floor for many years and I’ve toured with her in three different bands ( with me in three different bands 9 ). And it was nice to see Nightwish fans welcoming her. I’ve seen Nightwish with a few singers, even me for one show
