StubHub EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

A Fine Frenzy

Your tour kicks off March 4th in San Francisco.
What are you most looking forward to about being
on the road?

Sleeping on the bus. It's the loveliest feeling, falling asleep with the
road purring beneath you. I'm also looking forward to exploring more.
There are a lot of wonderful cities out there with many delightful
nooks and crannies to investigate.

Did you enjoy being on tour with Brandi Carlisle last fall?
Any good stories from the road?

I did! We had a lot of fun. In New Orleans, Brandi ordered an
enormous amount of food up to her hotel room and invited all
of us. I mean, it was ridiculous. Gumbo, po' boys (so horribly delicious, I ate myself sick because of them), rice, fried chicken, some goopy scary yummy things that were filled with lots of unknown things... We were all disgustingly full...

ARTIST BIO

Alison Sudol inhabits a vivid imaginary world populated by siren songs and sailors, sightless creatures and fragile fallen eagles, a place where almost lovers and hopeless dreams are bid a melancholy musical farewell. And on One Cell in the Sea, Sudol allows the listener inside that often-fantastical world, revealing her inner life via songs Harp magazine praised as "fraught, haunted and beautiful."

A Fine Frenzy

Your tour kicks off March 4th in San Francisco. What are you most looking forward to about being on the road?

Sleeping on the bus. It's the loveliest feeling, falling asleep with the road purring beneath you. I'm also looking forward to exploring more. There are a lot of wonderful cities out there with many delightful nooks and crannies to investigate.

Did you enjoy being on tour with Brandi Carlisle last fall? Any good stories from the road?

I did! We had a lot of fun. In New Orleans, Brandi ordered an enormous amount of food up to her hotel room and invited all of us. I mean, it was ridiculous. Gumbo, po' boys (so horribly delicious, I ate myself sick because of them), rice, fried chicken, some goopy scary yummy things that were filled with lots of unknown things... We were all disgustingly full...I mean, button-popping, I'm going to lose my cookies full...and Brandi made a bet with Josh (Neumann, cellist) to drink an entire tub of gumbo. More money was plunked down by various other band members, and Josh dug in. I don't know how he did it. There was a lot of name chanting and grossed out squeals (mainly coming from me). That gumbo was scary! He won the bet, brave thing! And went on a ghost tour that night! Ah, touring...

What can your fans expect to see now that you're headlining that'll be different than the tour with Brandi Carlisle?

We're adding quite a few songs to our set, including one or two covers. There will be more quiet moments and more storytelling. That's all I can disclose at this moment. ;)

Is there one song you enjoy singing live most and seeing the crowd's response?

I love playing "The Minnow and the Trout" because it reminds me of story time as a child. It's quite a special experience when the audience is quiet and calm and everyone is transported to the fairy tale place that doesn't get visited much by adults. The entire room feels hushed and peaceful. It's pretty incredible.

Is there a particular city you're most looking forward to visiting on the tour?

All of them! Each city is special in its own way. That's the great thing about touring. And, if you don't like a place much, you're gone the next day! Hurrah!

What's the last live show you've been to? If you weren't on the road, who is touring now that you would really want to see perform?

I went to see Corey Chisel (Wandering Sons) last night at the Hotel Cafe. He was wonderful. There's an earnestness about him that is very rare these days, a real music man quality that has nothing to do with fame or ego or Hollywood-ness. He's very talented. I would absolutely love to see the Kings of Convenience and Bright Eyes live. Also, I hear Sigur Ros is life-changing live. That would be amazing to witness.

With all the reunion tours that have happened recently (The Police, Van Halen, Led Zeppelin's performance), do you have any favorites you really hope to see hit the road again?

I wish I could see Simon and Garfunkel reunite, though somehow I doubt that will happen. That would be spectacular, though.

"Almost Lover" from One Cell In The Sea has been a big success for you. What can fans expect next?

Our next single, "Come on, Come out," should be coming on (coming out) fairly soon (terrible, unfunny, I know). We will be touring quite a bit, and there is much more music to come.

Alison Sudol inhabits a vivid imaginary world populated by siren songs and sailors, sightless creatures and fragile fallen eagles, a place where almost lovers and hopeless dreams are bid a melancholy musical farewell. And on One Cell in the Sea, Sudol allows the listener inside that often-fantastical world, revealing her inner life via songs Harp magazine praised as "fraught, haunted and beautiful." 

One Cell in the Sea is the 14-song debut from A Fine Frenzy, the lineup fronted by 22-year-old singer/pianist Sudol. While A Fine Frenzy's songs are ethereal, the musical and lyrical vision is as thoughtful, brainy and delightful as Sudol herself. Born in Seattle and raised in Los Angeles, Sudol is an only child of divorced parents, finding solace in music that ranged from Ella Fitzgerald to Elton John, from Motown to the melodic melancholia of new global British bands like Aqualung, Radiohead and Keane. The diatonic minimalism of Philip Glass and transportive allure of Icelandic music like Bjork likewise thrilled and informed her sensibilities. Sudol's literary tastes are equally eclectic, including the graceful prose of Jane Austen and the quirky, surreal tales of Lewis Carroll and C.S. Lewis. Then there's the band name, nicked from A Midsummer Night's Dream ("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.") Sudol's songs embody the qualities of her influences: "In Carroll's 'Through the Looking Glass,' from one moment to the next you don't know where you are, but at the end it all makes sense," she observes. "You can be in the strangest situation, but it seems normal. I love incorporating that sort of twisted logic into my writing." 

Some of her earliest and most beloved memories are woven into the songs on One Cell in the Sea. "I remember really responding to natural phenomenon," she recalls. "I'd get so excited about rain, snow, birds and I vividly remember our yellow piano." That early inspiration is described in the lush and lilting "Come On, Come Out," as Sudol sings, "watching the sky, you're watching a painting / coming to life, shifting and shaping."

The story of A Fine Frenzy has been shifting and shaping for several years, beginning when Sudol was 18 and penned 'Almost Lover,' which would eventually become the first single from One Cell in the Sea. A strong student, Sudol graduated high school at 16 and formed a band shortly after. At 18, she left the band and turned to the piano for comfort and inspiration. Evenings became her favorite time, airing her deepest thoughts and liveliest imaginings as she played and wrote for hours on end. Though live performing is her passion, Sudol kept A Fine Frenzy under the radar in Los Angeles. "Sure, it's easier getting recognition playing the club scene than it is hanging around in your living room," she acknowledges with a laugh, "but I wanted to keep it quiet and let the music speak for itself." It didn't stay quiet for long, however, and it was in that very living room where Virgin Records CEO Jason Flom came to see Sudol and partake of her mother's cookies and A Fine Frenzy's equally delicious songs. 

Entering a Burbank studio near her home in late 2006 with British producer Lukas Burton (who has written and produced for Paul McCartney, James Blunt and Dido), A Fine Frenzy began work on their Virgin Records/Capitol Music Group debut. Sudol and frequent touring bandmates Stephen LeBlanc (keyboards) and Daxx Nielsen (drums) were joined by stellar players for the recording. Contributing to the CD were the album's co-producer, bassist Hal Cragin (Iggy Pop, Rufus Wainwright), along with award-winning string arranger David Campbell (Beck); guitarists Dave Levita (Alanis Morrisette, Sinead O'Connor) and Michael Chavez (John Mayer, Five For Fighting); and drummer Joey Waronker (Beck, R.E.M., Smashing Pumpkins). And by early 2007,  One Cell in the Sea was born. Sterling songs include "Near to You," a spare, yearning yet hopeful tune about a new love in the shadow of an old ("I'm battle scarred / but I am working oh so hard  to get back to who I used to be") and the rollicking dynamism of "Lifesize." Those are balanced beautifully by the delicate, lingering vulnerability of the first single, "Almost Lover," to the bop-along but soaring "Think of You," just a few gems that populate the captivating and hypnotizing One Cell in the Sea.