Alison Wonderland: 'I've Become A Lot More Confident With My Creativity And What I Stand For'
Alison Wonderland (aka Alexandra Sholler) is back with a surreal concept album, GHOST WORLD – and it's because of Billy Joel. The Australian EDM superstar, a streaming sensation who in 2018 was Coachella's highest-ever billed female DJ, had contemplated quitting music.
"There was a time before writing this album, or halfway through, where I was calling my manager every night, going, 'I'm done – like I don't wanna do this anymore. I don't know where I fit anymore. I don't know what's exciting me, and I don't wanna put out something that's disingenuous.'"
But then Sholler caught an interview with the Piano Man. "He was saying, 'There were so many times I wanted to give up, but I had to ask myself, 'Is there still gas in the tank?'' I was like, 'Oh my God, I'm still selling out [Colorado's famous] Red Rocks [Amphitheatre] every year. I'm still playing festivals. There is gas in the tank. I owe it to myself and the people that have lifted me up to really put myself out there and go as hard as I can.' So shout out Billy Joel!"
The iconic DJ, producer and singer/songwriter is Zooming from a cosy Los Angeles bedroom as she is expecting a second child with her husband, American filmmaker Ti West, in two weeks (she's since publicised photos of baby Ash West). "I'm just so pregnant right now," a sanguine Sholler laughs. In fact, she is conducting advance interviews for GHOST WORLD, her fourth Alison Wonderland album – the glitchy lead single Get Started produced alongside Dylan Ragland (the retired Party Favor). And Sholler declares it "a very honest, 'this is what you get' record." She's a candid subject, too, and fun.
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The Eora/Sydney native is settled in California – proximity to the international circuit key. "I'm super homesick," she decries. "I do not enjoy it. But my husband's here and my kid is here, and my whole family's here now."
A transgressive, Sholler has never felt that she belonged anywhere in the electronic dance music scene. Besides, she sees herself as authentically subcultural, rather than a super-DJ. "I've always struggled to really define where I fit in in the industry. I've always found that, even in the Australian industry, I don't know who's taking me seriously; who's not. I think I'm a very fan-based artist, rather than an industry-based artist."
This sense of detachment may be related to Sholler's bicultural heritage. Indeed, it's invariably erased from narratives, but Sholler, a second-generation Australian, is half-Croatian and a dual citizen. Her mother emigrated from the then Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in childhood, and Sholler describes their Southeastern European family as "traditional". She feels her Balkan identity "very deeply," and it accounts for both her tenacity and fatalism.
"My mum would love that you said this, because she says this to me all the time – like we're just built different. We're stronger, we're fiery… There's some weird, deep folkloric personality there that I think does feel quite connected to that side of the world. Every time I go to Eastern Europe, I just feel so at home there – it's very weird. There's this weird stoic energy as well that comes from that side of the world. I also can really handle my vodka. So I wonder if that's part of it, too."
Sholler still can't envisage herself as an Australian EDM ambassador. A classically-trained musician, she played cello in the Sydney Youth Orchestra and then bass in indie bands. Sholler became enthralled with electronica on hearing The Knife's seminal 2000s album Silent Shout in a club and took up DJing around Eora/Sydney. She competed in 2011's She Can DJ contest, sponsored by EMI Music Australia, and secured a deal.
Initially, Sholler had experimented with production under the anonymous alias Whyte Fang. But, in 2013, the nascent vocalist unleashed her first single, Get Ready (featuring Fishing), as Alison Wonderland. Yet she would crossover with the signature alt-trap anthem I Want U (off 2014's Calm Down EP), making triple j's Hottest 100.
In 2015, Sholler, now residing in LA, delivered her debut, Run – Wayne Coyne from The Flaming Lips an implausible guest on U Don't Know. Run not only entered the ARIA Top 10 Albums Chart (it was certified gold), but also made #1 on the Billboard Top Dance Albums chart. That year, Sholler booked her premiere Coachella. She remixed Dua Lipa's New Rules. At home, Sholler received two ARIA nominations. In 2017, the globetrotter placed in the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs poll at #89.
Sholler quietly celebrated the 10th anniversary of Run in March and reminisces about promoting it with strip club parties. "I think back then it wasn't as common to do shows and pop-ups in weird, unique spaces. It just felt so right. The energy was so next level every time I played those shows. It was really empowering… For me, just as a woman in the industry, that's very important to me to feel like everyone's on the same level."
Sholler subsequently released 2018's blockbuster Awake with cred cameos from Trippie Redd and the notorious Chicago driller Chief Keef, plus The Weeknd's associate Illangelo as co-producer of Church. The album was personal lyrically, with her ruminating on an abusive relationship, depression and anxiety. In 2022, the post-pandemic Loner arrived.
In 2023, Sholler revived Whyte Fang for an LP entitled GENESIS – if not more experimental than warehousey, with shards of industrial, minimal techno and jungle. She styled the sonic hybrid as "dark electronic". Crucially, GENESIS came out via Sholler's tastemaker FMU Records. She played her fourth Coachella ("an insane thing to say!"), albeit as Whyte Fang – the year a viral set by Skrillex, Four Tet and Fred again.. signalled the EDM resurgence.
Sholler emerged as an advocate for mental health in an industry reeling over Avicii's 2018 passing. Recently, she has challenged "strange" patriarchal misconceptions about motherhood in a male-dominated dance music scene, specifically that her career would "suffer". Soon after 2023's Coachella, Sholler had her first child, son Max Rivers – coincidentally heard on GHOST WORLD's horror-coded title-track.
In October, Sholler posted on Instagram: "I have a kid and a kid on the way. Why is that such a weird thing to believe??… women can do fucking anything. I have never felt more powerful or creative in my life."
Even in 2006, Sister Bliss was taking her baby on tour, and many of today's most in-demand female DJs have children – including Belgium's Amelie Lens, Ukraine's Nastia, a single parent, and Sholler's fellow Australians NERVO, Anna Lunoe and Logic1000, all at their peak.
"Honestly, I feel like I've been a little bit of a blueprint all the way through my career of people doubting women – especially when I first came onto the scene," Sholler ponders. "There wasn't really anyone in my genre doing what I was doing like I was. Look, this has been a constant narrative that I think is just very archaic.
"I've always been the type of person that, when someone has said to me, 'You can't do something,' I've said, 'Watch me.' And that has done me wonders in my career, because I get very competitive with myself."
The sexism is overt. "I had someone say to me even, 'I hope you never have children 'cause your career will be over,' and I went, 'Watch me!' Because I always felt like I really wanted to have kids. It's something that's been deeply set inside of me, like in my soul – I felt it. I think, with the right support network and the right partner, you can do all of that. [But] I was told my creativity would dull – which was bullshit, because I felt even more creative afterwards. I felt more driven."
During her first pregnancy, Sholler found solidarity from other mothers in the biz. "I was talking to Grimes about it – 'cause I was really nervous. She said, 'It's really punk rock to do this now.' So I was like, 'Yeah, this is punk rock, I'm just gonna do it, and I'm gonna play my shows. I can still create life and create music at the same time – I don't have to choose one or the other.'"
Notably, Sholler rejects what she considers 'victimhood' or any notion of a martyr complex – she's a fighter and a survivor. "I actually try not to make such a big deal about it, you know. There's no 'woe is me' in this situation. I'm grateful that I'm able to do this. I had a lot of trouble getting pregnant. So I'm grateful. I'm grateful every single day that I'm able to do this and be a creative – like what a life!"
But, Sholler stresses, "being a mother doesn't define who you are as a person." Brilliantly, her own mum relishes festivals and was filmed at 2023's Coachella, tying the shoelaces of Rae Sremmurd's Slim Jxmmi before he hit the stage. "I'll go home after my set, and she'll still be out!"
Sholler has always approached albums aesthetically, as well as conceptually, conjuring a fictional universe around the music – and GHOST WORLD, delayed from October to December due to manufacturing complications and possibly her perfectionism, is no exception. But the album is for her fans, Sholler seeking community and sanctuary with outsiders in the realm of the rave. Ironically, despite her early trepidation about airing more art, she wrote songs expeditiously. The process recalled the Run era.
"I've become a lot more confident with my creativity and what I stand for. With Run, I went into that album – and with the Calm Down EP – really wide-eyed and just kind of not thinking too much. I think I actually weirdly brought that back.
"With GHOST WORLD, I'd gone through so much stuff in my life and in the industry [but] ultimately the thing that brought me back to feeling that way – and I think that's the best way to create, like [with] this naivety and this not over-thinking – was when I was working on my Whyte Fang album.
"I did that independently with no one commenting on it, and it just felt so freeing, and it felt exciting – like when I had started with my earlier albums. I missed that feeling."
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Sholler laboured on GHOST WORLD without external input. "I think going back to just not having any outside voices inspire my creativity and being really adamant on that and being quite protected by the people around me of that not happening was such a great move." She emphasises, "So I did this for myself and the people that listen to me. I didn't do it for anyone else."
The worldbuilding of GHOST WORLD began once Sholler had composed the music – West sharing an astute observation on vibing to it. "He said, 'Look, it sounds like you just don't know where you belong. Every song is you trying to search for that space. You kind of feel a bit like a ghost.' I went, 'Oh, my gosh, I do.'" She ran with the idea visually. "I wanted it to be a world. I didn't want it to be just like a ghost. I wanted to create a world where I felt like I fit in, and I wanted to create a world where I feel others would feel like they would fit in.
"Especially in this day and age, everything's so loud, and it's really hard to find your voice and everyone's very combative. And [so] I think that creating this world was something that was really important to me, not just for myself, but for the people out there who also feel like they don't fit in. And this isn't like a 'victim' thing. It was just like, 'I'm gonna create this world, because I don't know where I fit in as an artist, I don't know where I fit in as a mother' – because it's really hard to explain my life to other people. I don't know where I fit in as a wife… I'm not saying that like my husband feels that way. But it's an internal thing.
"I've never had a big group of friends or anything or been part of a collective. So it's been pretty much a lone wolf project from the start. And again, I've never been like an industry darling. I've always felt like I had to prove myself."
Sholler admits that the theme of estrangement is "exaggerated," but emotionally resonant. "I wanted to find a place in limbo that was my limbo."
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The DJ is an innate curator – and A&R. Ever-playful, she lists Whyte Fang as one of the album's collaborators (the electro XTC). "Oh, Whyte Fang, she was terrible to work with!" Sholler jokes. But, for the eerie Voices, she solicited New Jersey's DJ_Dave, who, leading the algorave movement, exploits coding to generate music. More buzz is her collab with 'girl EDM' phenom Nina 'Ninajirachi' Wilson on Heaven. "I've been a really big fan of Nina – I think she's so talented," Sholler enthuses. "I'd had her support some of my shows in America already."
Sholler credits the ARIA 'Breakthrough Artist' winner with helping her to complete the Heaven demo, having exhausted various cohorts. "I knew it needed to be a four-to-the-floor drop – and I'm a trap producer, really. I love half-time, so four-to-the-floor. [But] if I do it, it's always like a minimal techno thing – and I was hearing blog house in it. I know it needed to go there – like a bit dirtier, a bit more nostalgic."
Wilson sent her contribution within a week. The pair teamed on a second track, Sirens, "because we just got on so well creatively," Sholler continues. "When [Wilson] produces, it reminded me a lot of how I make music. So it was quite easy for us to work together."
As with Flume, Sholler has been pivotal in progressing the 'Australian sound', an inventive mode of future bass. It's regrettable – and outrageous – that she's yet to score an ARIA. "I used to be really bummed when I didn't get recognition," Sholler concedes. She again praises West's perspective. "He makes me feel better. He talks me off a ledge."
Sholler has shaded contemporaries – deleting a missive on X (formerly Twitter) directed towards an unnamed pop superstar whose stage design resembled Whyte Fang's. But today she is diplomatic. "It's hard for me to comment on that kind of stuff, because I don't know if I take things too personally. So I've had to just shut it off."
The trailblazer views the influence of underground acts on the mainstream positively, lauding Charli xcx. "I am so obsessed with what she did for electronic music and bringing it up more mainstream. I think it was a really good thing."
It's allowed Sholler to select leftfield singles from GHOST WORLD, such as The Prodigy-like trap banger PSYCHO, featuring Flatbush Zombies' rapper Erick The Architect (who previously blazed on Whyte Fang's SCREAM). "There was a lot more of an open mind to what could be a single." Everyone benefits. "So, I mean, I'm open to the weird becoming mainstream."
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However, Sholler is concerned about the high stakes of being an artist in a volatile (and "oversaturated") environment that impacts earning capacity in addition to mental health. She's discomforted by the pressures social media has engendered – creatives necessarily serving as content creators. "It's a weird climate for artists right now. I think it is really toxic. And I don't think it's a mental health thing; I think it's a social media thing."
The vagaries of algorithms and shadowbanning, with reduced reach and engagement, are a problem. Sholler has had exchanges with "bigger artists" who question the value of posting content that isn't visible unless there's payment – "that's really fucked up," she says. "I have a lot of friends who've kind of given up, whereas you just have to post and ghost – 'cause, if you think about it too much, you're gonna go insane. And I started going insane."
Economics is a compounding issue, with touring prohibitively "expensive," Sholler rues. "When I started DJing, [promoters] would cover travel or hotels. They don't really do that anymore. So, especially when I do my shows at Red Rocks, I've never made money on those shows. Or if I do like Coachella or Lollapalooza, I don't make money on those shows. That is all going back into the stage, and the design and the visuals and the production – and people don't realise that… I mean, there are some DJs that walk in with their USB, and they have a number one hit worldwide, and they plug in… I like to create worlds. So I'm obviously making it more difficult for myself!"
Surprisingly, Sholler is optimistic about the potential of AI – or, at least, striving to be. "I don't know what's next. All I know is that I refuse to be an 'old head'. I love the fact that electronic music is technologically-based, so it's always evolving. So I'm trying to be open-minded about things and keep it human."
Sholler often uses the word "grateful," and it's how she feels about her audience. But she acknowledges that "now it's really fickle for new artists" to establish theirs. It's for this reason Sholler launched the global FMU Records in 2022 – its flagship release, I Surrender, from South African DJ/producer Jon Casey and Argentinean trapper Dabow.
"There's so many amazing artists creating the best beats I've ever heard in their bedrooms, but they're not social media influencers." She adds, "I hate posting – like trying to sell myself, it feels really weird… I'm a performer. I like being on stage. I speak through my music." Sholler hopes that her label will provide acts with "a stepping stone." "I feel really proud to be a part of that. I don't really get anything back from it, except satisfaction. I love art."
GHOST WORLD's spectral hyperpop finale, Is This The End?, captures Sholler in an existentialist fugue. She posits it as "a weird ego death," engaging in "a dialogue with myself about feeling really replaceable now and is my career over and I'm not like the 'hot thing' – you know, you're never the 'new thing' again." Sholler penned it in five minutes. "It was something that I've been needing to say out loud, and it's still really hard for me to listen to, but it was just a bit of an admission to myself," she states wryly. "I was getting really in my own head."
Sholler disavows perfunctory professionalism. "I feel like – and I think I've said this 10 years ago – but the moment art doesn't feel like art, and it feels like work, I don't wanna do it." She was on that precipice. "It was just starting to feel that way for a little bit," Sholler divulges. "I started feeling really replaceable and invisible." But the funky Everything Comes In Waves suggests that she intuits that artistry is cyclic. "I have to remind myself of the days when everything was fine to keep myself going sometimes."
Fortunately, it isn't the end. Sholler hints at fresh Whyte Fang bangers. "I have a whole project brewing for that," she offers. "When you start getting really creative, other things happen, and I started making more and more music. So, yes, there's a lot of music coming."
Last year, Sholler softly introduced a festival-oriented cosmetics line, FMUB (Fuck Me Up Beauty) – "something that I've been wanting to do forever." The DJ maintains that she isn't building a brand to rival Rihanna's FEИTY BEAUTY empire. "I don't even think I'm an entrepreneur. I'm just such a creative, and I'm one of these people that loves my ideas materialising into real life." Nonetheless, Sholler will be "expanding" FMUB in 2026 with "more products ready to go." She mentions applying her favourite "hyper hue lip and cheek tint" for the Zoom. "It adjusts to your natural pH, so anyone can use it."
That Sholler is dedicating GHOST WORLD to her day ones is paramount. "I do it for the people," she laughs, "and my own sanity." And, as she rolls out GHOST WORLD and baby two, Sholler is planning to tour a new immersive show with homecoming dates. "I'm definitely going on tour – and that starts early next year. But, obviously, 'cause my husband and I are both very busy people, we take turns in being busy.
"[But] I literally just got a text from the guy that I work on my visuals with, 'cause we're brainstorming. So I'm really excited."
GHOST WORLD will be released on Friday, 5 December. You can pre-order/pre-save the album here.
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