Alanis Morissette Says Thank You For Lifetime Achievement Award And Readies New Album

03/10/08 6:30pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

Alanis Morissette received a lifetime achievement award and was inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall Of Fame during the Canadian Radio Music Awards luncheon in Toronto last Friday. Since she's only 33, is she ready for such honours?

"I feel grateful," Morissette said at a press conference following her induction. "It's a challenge for me to let myself be recognized for anything, so it's a great opportunity to 'stand there and take it,' as my friends say. I see it as amazing encouragement to continue on my path."

Morissette's career has been marked by constant change. Her first two records, 1991's Alanis and 1992's Now Is The Time, introduced her to the Canadian public as a dance-pop princess. By 1995, she had moved to Los Angeles and recorded Jagged Little Pill. The album's collection of angsty, post-grunge songs completely flipped Morissette's sound on its head. It also turned her into a superstar and has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.

Many of the songs on 1998's Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie lacked catchy choruses like those found on Jagged Little Pill. Her last studio album, 2004's So-Called Chaos, marked yet another departure and featured more upbeat, happier songs.

Through her constant changes, Morissette says some things remain the same. She doesn't look at the beginning of her career and her most recent work as being very different. And despite the fact that she's sold more albums than any other female rock artist, Morissette still worries about how each one will be received.

"I know that every night before a record is released, I wake up with a start and I'm completely freaked out with the thought of sharing what's going on with me with the public," Morissette says. "Then I fall back asleep, and all is well."

Morissette may well wake up the night before May 20. That's the day her seventh studio album, Flavors Of Entanglement, hits stores through Maverick Records. Former Frou Frou member Guy Sigsworth (Bjork, Imogen Heap) produced the album, and Morissette says his presence makes the album sound a bit different.

"He's more technologically inclined to begin with, sonically, just as a human creature. He's a techno man. It was a nice fusion of my sensibility and his, which is part of why I wanted to work with him."

Morissette has been quoted saying she hates writing and was in tears when she wrote with producer Glen Ballard for Jagged Little Pill. Writing Flavors Of Entanglement was a bit easier.

"I'll realize it's time to write because typically I'll have about two journals full [of material] and, for the writing of Flavors Of Entanglement, I filled about seven journals," Morissette says.

"Now when the process is happening, certainly there are tears in my eyes, but it's something I rely upon now. I used to believe in the concept of writer's block and those kinds of things, whereas now I just think that writer's block simply means that maybe you could be watching a movie instead."

Despite these creative struggles, Morissette will continue to write and release albums. She finds the process therapeutic, as it helps her understand events unfolding in her life. She says she still enjoys performing songs from her back catalogue, and feels "no shame" when she looks back at her career.

"I often feel like they're [her songs] prayers in some ways to myself and, on tour right now, when I'm singing songs from the last however many years — 13 years, I guess, at this point — there is not one lyric where I cringe. And that says a lot to me, because I could easily be having a cringe festival from singing songs a few years ago."