LAKE FOREST – Alison Sudol is still nervous going to parties.
The 23-year-old musician – who heads the band “A Fine Frenzy” and recently put out the hit song “Almost Lover” – hasn’t shaken her childhood shyness.
“I still get anxious in those social settings,” said Sudol, a fiery redhead who said her hair color more matches her temperament when she’s passionate or mad. “To see the world opens you up and steals your fears. You find your mind has changed, but I feel I’m still the same at social skills.”
On Sunday Sudol performs a free concert at Pittsford Park as part of the city’s Summer Concert Series. At least a thousand are expected to turn out.
“I love doing free shows because then anyone can come,” she said in a phone interview. “People of all ages come. It’s fun to play for the 12- and 13-year-olds. The looks on their faces are amazing. Young kids don’t have social anxieties. They’ll yell things out and sing loudly.”
The Los Angeles-based artist was born in Seattle to parents who taught dramatic arts. As a child, she didn’t have many friends. Instead she buried herself in books like the “Chronicles of Narnia” and was fascinated by nature, mystery and the magical worlds of writers like C.S. Lewis, E.B. White and Lewis Carroll.
After moving to Los Angeles with her mother, she started singing at 11 and wrote her first song at 14. In high school, Sudol started a band and taught herself to play the piano. At 19 she began writing songs on her own, including “Almost Lover,” on the album “One Cell in the Sea” which hit #23 on Billboard’s Hot Adult Contemporary Chart.
She signed with Virgin Records at 21 after the company’s CEO heard her demo CD.
Q.How do you describe your music?
A.Like the soundtrack of a fairytale gone slightly askew.
Q.What fairytale?
A.A mixture of Snow White and Alice in Wonderland. Snow White has a bit of the dark side. Alice in Wonderland has the strange, bizarre and unexpected.
Q.Some call your music haunting and mysterious…?
A.That’s lovely. This record had a dark undertone. I feel like for me my happiest moments are tinged with the awareness that there’s sadness on the flipside of the coin.
Q.What inspires you?
A.Aqualung, Radiohead, Coldplay and Keane. Coldplay’s music is so uplifting but not cheesy. You listen to it and you’re taken away. It’s so honest. There’s kindness to their music.
Q.What do you want people to take away from your music?
A.An escape from life for a moment. At my favorite concert everything falls away for an hour and you just feel good. You’re in the same emotional place as everyone else. I hope they leave with a similar feeling and they’re rejuvenated.
Contact the writer: 949-454-7307 or eritchie@ocregister.com
