Happiness Is Going To Get You infuses dark pop with classical influences.
With a background in musical theatre and classical piano training, Allie X, born Alexandra Ashley Hughes, first broke through in 2015 with Bitch. Known for her synth pop, avant-garde inflected sound, the singer emerged from the Toronto indie scene before relocating to Los Angeles in 2013. There she adopted the “X” in her name as an intentional symbol of identity in flux—“the unknown variable,” as she puts it. This title takes on a new meaning in her fourth record, Happiness Is Going To Get You. Released last week, it deals with finding joy in the most unexpected and unknown places.
The artist, whose boundary-pushing approach to pop has earned her both a devoted cult following and critical acclaim, has found a new sound in her roots of classical music: liminal nostalgia with a softer approach to her signature electronic sound. With her new album, Allie X is diving into familiar territory with fresh senses. Composed on the piano, she’s finally found a way to defy the rules of her classical training. Happiness Is Going To Get You is in some ways a full circle moment, a personal testament to Allie X’s growth, pain and happiness.
10 Magazine USA caught up with her to dive into musical and fashion inspirations, her childhood, and music-making process.
Photographer msjosephin
What was your first musical memory?
I remember being a kid on the playground and being a weird little girl. No one is talking to me so I’m making up a very emo song about it, wandering around singing it to myself. I think it was about wanting these girls to be friends with me.
You clearly already had a feeling for music and songwriting. How did you then actually get into music?
This has been coming up like a lot because the album that I made leans into this classical training that I had. I did piano and voice lessons and my parents were simply trying to be supportive. I was like “I want to sing, I want to do music”, so they put me in music. The thing is that this very traditional training kept me further away from what I ultimately ended up doing, which is writing and producing. That stuff can be helpful but it’s also quite a hindrance and some of it needs to be unlearned.
How has your process of making music changed over the years? You say you have to unlearn certain things.
I didn’t listen to music properly as a teenager. I wasn’t actually able to connect my feelings, which were quite intense my whole life, to bands that I related to. Maybe a little bit with artists like Tori Amos, who is classically trained as well, or Fiona Apple. So I didn’t listen to music properly until after that. And that’s when I started understanding what a good song was and how far away I was from actually writing one. You need to be a fan to be a good writer, you know? For maybe the first half of my life, I was just a singer.
So at what age did it click for you?
It was after theatre school, when I was working in the ensemble of musicals around Toronto. I was like: A, this is so dumb, this is bad quality, I wouldn’t watch this. And B, I’m too good for this. I can make something much better than this myself. Even though my songs were shit at the time, I still had a sense that I had a vision and I should go do something that’s customized to me, not go interpret someone else’s work.
For the new album, if you had a mood board, what ideas, what images would be on it to describe the energy?
A lot of it’s on my Instagram. The first thing I posted was a mood board — visuals where science meets spirituality. Time, space, and this interconnectedness of mythical stuff, astrology and science. The concept came from Moni Haworth, who’s a very talented visionary photographer listening to my demos and taking away this sense of nostalgia. She said: “I see you almost as this one woman show. The whole thing feels very meta. And I hear this Baroque instrumentation. Almost seeing you as this Victorian woman who transcends time and exists in two places at once.” From there, we thought of the Perspex cube as the vessel of time travel and juxtaposing the modernity and the digital world against the nostalgia and the fragility of the past.
We gave the time traveller a name as well: the infant Marie. She’s sold as this musical child prodigy, but me and Moni thought she’s probably just a very little woman. She sounds kind of like a showbiz hustler. A lot of me is in that character as she’s attention seeking, but still a very serious person. There’s a reason that she keeps putting herself in these places where people are observing her. She’s also ignoring them and she doesn’t want to be seen. There’s definitely a sense of humour to it as well. It’s been fun exploring such a rich concept.
Parts of writing this record made me feel like I travelled through time, especially returning to the piano to write it. I didn’t expect that to happen. All of a sudden I could sit down at the piano and finally find the language and the connection to my own feelings to just make a simple song.
Is there a song on the record in particular that feels very personal to you?
The final track, It’s Just Light, is the one that I feel is almost the thesis of the record and definitely asks a bunch of questions. It speaks to the devastatingly beautiful nature of being alive, which is, I think, essentially what this record is about. The X in my name asks a lot of the same questions: Who am I? Why am I here?
At what point in your life did you start experimenting with a new look and having a more distinct style?
If you took a picture of me in grade nine, I didn’t look that different than I look right now. I wasn’t even trying to do anything, I was honestly, in my own way, trying to fit in. I would wear turquoise eyeliner and a light green lip. My friends’ parents asked if I was a goth. I was like: “I don’t know, am I?” It’s funny, because as I’ve gotten to know music, goth music and post-punk has become my favorite. I do relate to the term goth now. I think I’ve always had it in me, being quite melodramatic and pale.
Are there any style icons or influences that you can name?
I love the post-punk, new wave movement that came out of the UK and the new romantics as well like the Blitz and all those club looks, Vivienne Westwood and Princess Julia, Boy George, etc. These days I’m inspired by that time in music, which had many different looks. It was very unpretentious in a way. I also have a side of me that loves the luxury fashion houses and a lot of the amazing things that go on there that aren’t punk at all.
What inspires you today specifically in terms of music, fashion or art?
I like the new Last Dinner Party album, droney music like William Basinski. I’ve got Faith by The Cure on repeat all year long. I’ve got Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) on repeat right now. I like the new Rosalia song.
Visually I’m drawn to stuff that’s opposing messages, like something that’s kind of hilarious but also really dark. I really like Hodakova, she’s very exciting in fashion. This year I’ve become friends with Charles Jeffrey. We’re born a day apart and sometimes I’m looking at him and I just see so much of myself. So we’ve been collaborating a lot. Finally, I’m into some of the Italo Disco stuff that was happening in the 70s — there’s really crazy imagery.
I’m so sick of polished imagery, especially in this age where everything can be perfect. I’m drawn to VHS footage and finding those absurd and raw moments in photography. We’re all just a bit fatigued on digital perfection.
If you could just pick three songs to listen to, what would those be?
My friend showed me a song the other night that I was so amazed by, by an Irish artist called Lisa O’Neill and it’s called Old Note. A Cocteau Twins song would probably be another one. And then maybe Faith by the Cure.
