Alanis Morissette Pens New Song for 'Dogma'
Canadian singer/songwriter also has role in fall
film; plans autobiographical scrapbook,
screenplay.
Senior Writer Gil Kaufman reports:
With a new song, a planned book and screenplay, and even a
part in an upcoming movie, there should be no doubt Alanis
Morissette is back with a vengeance.
Before issuing last year's Supposed Former Infatuation
Junkie, the Canadian singer/songwriter took a year off
following almost two years of touring behind her multiplatinum
Jagged Little Pill.
But now she's back at work: Morissette will make her feature
film debut in the fall with a cameo role in "Dogma." She also
has written a song for the film directed by Kevin Smith
("Clerks," "Chasing Amy").
Seated in her backstage trailer before performing at the July
23防5 Woodstock '99 festival, Morissette said she recorded
the new song, "Still," at Abbey Road Studios, and that it "got
me really excited about the next record."
"Still" will mark the second year in a row Morissette has debuted
a new song in a film. Last year's "City of Angels" included her
Grammy-winning ballad "Uninvited" (RealAudio excerpt).
Also percolating, Morissette said, are a screenplay and an
as-yet-untitled scrapbook for fans.
"I'm ... always writing words,
whether they wind up being poetry or lyrics, diary entries or
garbage material," Morissette said. "The book, thus far, is
kind of a scrapbook of sorts with revelations and stories and
journal entries and questions and photos. ... It'll come out at
some point" (RealAudio excerpt of interview).
Seated with her legs tucked under her, surrounded by brightly
colored tapestries draped over a couch and lining the walls
and ceiling of her trailer, Morissette 霠a former child actress
who starred in the Nickelodeon show "You Can't Do That on
Television" in the mid-'80s 霠also revealed that she's been
working on a script for a feature film.
"It will be made into a movie at some point," Morissette said
of her screenplay. "The theme is the inner workings of a
relationship without glossing over the intricacies of it, which I
love to do."
But first up is her role in Smith's already controversial
"Dogma," in which the singer plays God.
Asked how one prepares for such a demanding role,
Morissette said the only way she knew how to get psyched
up was not to prepare at all. "Kevin Smith and I both believe
that God is us," Morissette said. "So there's really no
preparation needed. It's really small, it's a small role."
Morissette, who directed the video for the latest single from
Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, "So Pure" (RealAudio
excerpt), said she got the role after years of building a mutual
admiration society with Smith.
"I just think he's brilliant, and he was very supportive of me,"
Morissette said. "[We] met a few years ago and he showed
me his script for 'Dogma.' [He] had invited me to take part in it
with him when I first got off the road for Jagged Little Pill. But I
was so burnt out that I didn't think I'd be of much value to him.
But once I'd rejuvenated a year later, he had that cameo role
still left" (RealAudio excerpt of interview).
After a two-album Canadian career as a teen pop star,
Morissette smashed through in the United States in 1995 with
the explicit single "You Oughta Know," from the 25
million-selling Jagged Little Pill. Supposed Former Infatuation
Junkie took a more introspective and spiritual tone, with such
songs as "Thank U" (RealAudio excerpt).
Prior to the release of "Dogma," Morissette will hit the road
with fellow singer/songwriter Tori Amos for a co-headlining tour
called the 5 1/2 Weeks Tour. The outing kicks off Aug. 18 in
Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., at the NCR Arena.
The tour is being co-sponsored by MP3.com, a website that
offers downloads of music in near-CD-quality form, and retailer
Best Buy.
"Bringing two visions together to make one show can be
tricky," Amos said in a statement announcing the tour, "so
obviously it takes a lot of mutual respect and a load of gear.
With that in mind, Alanis and I are bringing two trucks just for
ourselves: one filled with wine, the other filled with lip gloss."
Touring with Amos was a priority for Morissette, she said,
because she sensed the two might have common ground.
"Obviously we're both different artists," Morissette said, "but I
can understand the place that her music comes from. And I
very much respect her."
--
gender is just an excuse, relationship shouldn't just be an excuse,
love is often an excuse, although sometimes these excuses are all
we have to hold onto,
death is the reason and living is the celebration
- Beth Orton
--
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