Alela Diane makes the sphere of intimacy universal in her album “Looking Glass”

Alela Diane made a name for herself with her first album The Pirate’s Gospel, self-produced at home in 2004 and reissued by the Holocene Music label in 2006. Sold over 100,000 copies and acclaimed by critics, it propelled this native of California to the forefront of the international scene. Already on this first opus, she drew on her personal history to write and compose. This first album was largely inspired by what she had felt following the divorce of her parents and the abandonment of the family home filled with childhood memories.

In Looking Glassreleased on October 14, the singer looks back on this painful event, in particular on the track Dream a River, both sunny and full of nostalgia. While evoking the feeling of emptiness perceived at the time, she expresses the desire to find this lost family love.

The family is a subject close to the heart of the singer. Her videos regularly feature her daughters, her daily life, at home, a bit like Super 8 films that would be revealed to the general public. “My music is a very deep part of who I am, and I’ve always found it natural for music to be an extension of my life.” explains Alela Diane. “Given that I write and compose at the same time as my life as a mother, necessarily I observe my life passing by”. She adds : “Showing my home, my family, it’s part of me. I’ve always incorporated elements of my personal life into my music. My songs are a testament to who I am and where I come from.”

Paloma which opens the album was written in Mexico City, during a violent storm that left the family without power for several days. “The song is about the abnormal events that happen” says Alela Diane. “I mean the events that you don’t naturally expect in your life, like the fact that a storm destroys everything, that there are no more schools, and that water can destroy everything”. A text where she was able to channel her anxiety that arose during this event, by clinging to the simple pleasures of life, such as having her daughters make up.

In When we believedshe talks about her life as a young musician on tour, and reflects on “past versions of herself”. With its long fixed shot where Alela Diane sweeps in front of her house, the clip seems to want to capture the value of passing time.

But the writing of Alela Diane has nothing navel-gazing, quite the contrary. Because if the words often start from the daily life of the singer, they always open on the outside. And when asked if she thinks her intimacy can resonate around the world, she replies: “I don’t know. That’s a good question. I think sharing personal stories or writing about what’s happening in the world can resonate with people. Listening to songs, even if they’re personal to me, they can hear resonances of their own lives.” She affirms her faith in art: “Music is a way to connect people with each other. Anyway, I hope that people who listen to my music can relate to it.”

Howling-Wind is a perfect example: under its appearance of a soft lullaby accompanying its daughters playing in the garden, the song is actually about “this violent wind that is currently blowing through our world: climate change, the pandemic, fires, the thirst for justice…”, according to the admission of its author.

What is currently happening in the world has had a huge influence on the writing on this album.

Alela Diana

about his album “Looking Glass”

This way in which the intimate sphere espouses more global concerns, Alela Diane thought about it in relation to time: “In this album, there is a look at the past, but also looking to the future, saying that the period we are currently living in is right in between, and that we must grasp the intensity of the present”. She specifies: “But it’s not just about the intensity of everyday life. It’s an observation album about the state of the world.”

And this notion of gaze inevitably refers to the title of the disc and its reference to the mirror. “The title has a lot of different meanings to me.” explains Alela Diane. “First, it’s to talk about the mirror that reflects its own image. Take stock of yourself”.

The expression Looking Glass inevitably evokes Lewis Caroll and his novel on the other side of the mirror – Through the Looking-Glass in original version. “Lewis Caroll gave another interpretation of it: through the looking glass, everything is reversed, and this is also a meaning that I thought of when choosing the title”, confirms Alela Diane who also gives a third meaning: “Finally, it also evokes for me the bond by which we can connect to each other through the Internet, the telephone, social networks… as I talk about in the song Strawberry moon”.

Listening to the disc, the crystalline glass of the mirror can also be heard in the pure voice of the singer, highlighted by refined arrangements signed Heather Woods Broderick and the sober and elegant production of Tucker Martine. The one designated as the heiress of Joan Baez – “I have a lot of respect for her,” specifies Alela Diane – offers us an album filled with grace, to be savored in the present, but which will no doubt know how to last over time.

The Scrapbook Looking Glass by Alela Diane was released on October 14 (Naive). Alela Diane will be in concert this October 18 at the Café de la Danse (full) and on February 6, 2023 at the Trianon. Find all the information on the official website or the Facebook page.