Alison Wonderland

From there, Wonderland’s DJing credentials went from strength to strength, but it took a few more years before she released any original music. These days, songwriting is her primary focus – Run, the debut Alison Wonderland LP, dropped last weekend – but thoughts about DJing haven’t disappeared from her mind. Consider, for instance, this recent nightmare featuring LCD Soundsystem’s tastemaking leader James Murphy.

“I had a dream that he invited me over to his house to DJ,” Wonderland says. “In my dream I brought all my vinyls with me, but none of the right vinyls were in the right sleeves, so every song I was playing was the wrong song. It wasn’t flowing or making any sense and he kicked me out of his house because he said I played the worst DJ set he’s ever heard. It was traumatic.”

This hapless behaviour scarcely resembles Wonderland’s real-life path. She began DJing under the Alison Wonderland moniker back in 2009, and after a filth-stricken period of graveyard shifts, gained countrywide recognition for her dancefloor adaptability. Then in 2014 came her long-awaited debut EP Calm Down, which spawned the triple j hits ‘I Want U’ and ‘Cold’. One might attribute Calm Down’s breakawaysuccess to beginner’s luck, but the five-track EP wasn’t Wonderland’s first foray into songwriting.

“I actually had an album written before I did the EP, which I scrapped,” she says. “I didn’t feel like it was right, and that’s probably the best thing I ever did. I learned a lot about songwriting just by trial and error, including making that other album.”

In the realm of party-oriented electronic music, full-length albums aren’t the preferred release format. Rather, the contemporary norm involves dropping a single every six to 12 months, plus the odd collaboration, and backing it up with a hefty slog of touring. By contrast, Wonderland’s Run is the product of much effort and deliberation, and is designed to take listeners on a 43-minute journey.Yet in spite of bucking the prevalent trend, it wasn’t a romantic notion of artistic purity that sparked the album-making process.

“I signed to a record label and that’s why I did an album,” Wonderland says. “At the time I’d never thought about it. But I was always that kid buying vinyls and CDs and listening to it in full, from start to finish. It’s definitely been the best thing I’ve ever done creatively. You really grow from something like that. Without realising at the time, I think it was a real blessing.

“Before all of this I was a classical cellist, and I was playing in bands and I was trying to find my place,” she adds. “When I did the Calm Down EP, it was the first time I really felt comfortable with what I’d made. That gave me confidence to write for the album as well.”

By definition, Run is an Alison Wonderland solo release, but it wasn’t constructed in isolation. Rather, a large portion of the album was co-produced alongside US stylist Djemba Djemba. There are tracks featuring local acts Safia and Brave, and international curiosities Johnny Nelson, Ganz and Lido also join the party. Heck, it’s almost like a mixtape showcasing the hip new faces of electronic music. For Wonderland, however, the cool factor didn’t dictate who she worked with.

“They’re all people that I have a friendship with and creatively mesh with really well. It’s just serendipitous that they’re doing well now, because when we met we were all just doing our thing. I’ve always made the decision to keep people I love and trust quite close to me and work with them. I want to grow creatively with people, because there’s no wall up when you creatively grow with someone.”

Listeners familiar with Run’s latest single ‘U Don’t Know’ will realise a huge elephant has just entered the room. The track features vocals from none other than The Flaming Lips’ head weirdo Wayne Coyne. Wonderland isn’t oblivious to this seeming incongruity, but she’s no less enthusiastic about Coyne’s presence. “It’s fucking cool that he is on it,” she says, “because having someone who’s in a completely different genre is pretty crazy and I really believe in collaborations like that.

“I’m really bad at networking,” she adds. “I’m just too scared. If someone that I really love musically actually knows that I exist, it’s the coolest thing ever. But I don’t go out searching for it.”

Whenever an album boasts an extended cast of guests, doubts emerge regarding what’s gained by the manoeuvre. In the case of Run, opening the gates to collaboration worked to temper Wonderland’s hyper-controlling personality.

“I have really strong visions about things, and I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing,” she says. “Before I was doing all of this stuff, I was producing music under the name Whyte Fang and I was really sceptical about working with other people. I guess I was nervous or I didn’t know if what I had in my mind would be realised. But when you meet people you mesh with musically and vibe with friendship-wise, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. I honestly feel that working with other people and co-producing helped me push myself a little bit more in terms of songwriting.”

Speaking of prosperous partnerships, Wonderland is now signed to EMI, which inevitably extracts her from the independent underground. However, if it weren’t for the last five years of DIY determination, it’s unlikely she could’ve secured the major label deal. Along the way, she’s had unflagging assistance from a tight-knit managerial team.

“My manager and agent are part of a group called Falcona,” she says. “I was the first person they signed in 2009. We’re all best friends so they kind of experimented on me; they wanted to try to manage someone, I wanted to try to do this. I have had a really amazing team around me. My label, weirdly enough, has never told me what to do or how to do it. It’s been a mixture between being really lucky and having quite a strong vision about what I want to do and how I want to do it.”

Thanks to these active ingredients, Run is now upon us. Following the album’s release, Wonderland will embark on her first major US tour, which includes a slot at Coachella. As for where she’ll be 12 months down the line, only time will tell.

“Who knows?” says Wonderland. “This time last year I didn’t have an EP, I hadn’t done [the remix for] Diplo & Friends and no-one in America knew who I was. I didn’t have a booking agent or a label over there. This time next year? I could be on Mars.”