Since the release of his first solo album OutsideChild a year and a half ago, Quebecer Allison Russell was nominated three times for the Grammy Awards, was awarded the prize for best album of the year at the Americana Honors and Awards and sang alongside Joni Mitchell, between other highlights. Russell is back in his native Montreal for the first time since the release of the album. The Pop Montreal headliner, who had to rest her voice to protect her vocal cords, gave us an interview by email.
Posted yesterday at 8:00 a.m.
Q. The past year and a half has been amazing for you. How are you ?
R. I’m doing well. I am recovering from a vocal cord hemorrhage and I hope to come back stronger! Last year was an intense whirlwind, as surreal as it was very happy. Honestly, I haven’t had time to really realize what happened to me yet…
Q. How has your life changed since the release of the album?
R. Due to the recognition obtained OutsideChild, I get more job offers than one person can handle. I have to learn to say no to interesting proposals. As my grandmother would say, it’s a nice problem to have. Write a book [Flatiron Books publiera ses mémoires] is a new challenge and it prompted me to start therapy – which is a very good thing, I think! The partings with my daughter – Ida, the light of my life, who is now 8 years old – while on tour have been difficult, but I am grateful that FaceTime exist !
Q. How does it feel to come back to Montreal after all this?
R. I missed Montreal so much. OutsideChild is, in many ways, a declaration of love to my beautiful city. I’m so happy to bring this music home!
Q. You grew up here, but it’s also here that you suffered the pain that you discuss on the album. Do you still see this city as a place you love, as “home”?
R. Everything I am was formed and shaped by Montreal. I don’t know if I would have survived my childhood in another city. Once a Montrealer, always a Montrealer!
Q. What can we expect for your presence at the Rialto Theater this Wednesday?
R. To a creative communion, to the joy of a survivor. Music is a different conversation with every show because the human beings who join us are part of that conversation. And we move too!
Q. You have been nominated for three Grammy Awards for OutsideChild. How did you receive this immense recognition?
R. It was a complete shock! I was in the middle of recording a podcast when I found out. There’s a very funny video of me swearing in disbelief!
Q. The American folk music industry has also celebrated your work, including presenting you with the award for Album of the Year at the Americana Honors and Awards. Is it particularly special to receive these accolades?
R. It’s very special because I really grew up as an artist, author, woman, activist and mother in the folk, roots and Americana music community. It means a lot to me to have the esteem of my peers and colleagues. And to be the first black artist, of any gender, to win the “comtemporary roots” album of the year in 2022 is both a source of sadness and hope. It means a lot to me to have crossed that ceiling. I won’t be the last!
Q. OutsideChild is an infinitely personal record. And it’s the one that earns you more celebration than ever…
R. By being entirely myself, by telling my most painful and vulnerable truths, I have been recognized and celebrated for the first time in a career that spans two decades. It gives me so much hope.
Q. One of the highlights of your year was that moment on stage with Joni Mitchell during the Newport Folk Festival last summer. Tell us about this moment.
R. I will never get over it! Meeting Joni was amazing, we talked about our love for Montreal and Saskatoon!
Q. What’s next for you?
R. I’m finishing my memoir and I’m fully into writing my second album. It will groove a lot more. I let myself go in my joy of the survivor and I seize the good of this life, which is there despite the pain and the traumas. Think of a meeting between the album Quietfire by Roberta Flack and the Sound & Color by The Alabama Shake! It’s so much fun to make new music!
At the Rialto Theater this Wednesday, at 8 p.m., as part of Pop Montreal.
For the sake of clarity and conciseness, the statements have been edited.