Picture by Ken Pierce

PiercingMetal.com recently caught up with THE AGONIST vocalist and former Canadian Idol participant Alissa White-Gluz. The following is an excerpt from the interview:

PiercingMetal: I like your voice a lot. You terrify with the Death growls and then light up the sky with your clean melodies. How hard is it to do the both styles numerous times across the course of a song and album? Do you realize it sounds as if two different people are singing for the band?

Alissa: "Haha! Thank you so much! Actually it is extremely challenging to sing the way I do. I mean, I have to manage my breathing so that I have enough to scream while the singing takes a break and enough to reach the notes when I'm breaking from screaming, as well as keeping enough air in my lungs to tear around the stage. I spend every hour of the day managing everything from my speaking volume to what I eat to how much I work out to minimize wear and tear on my vocal chords. And I do realize too, that I sound schizophrenic! Often people write in asking which guy does the screaming... it's really annoying! But at the same time I can't blame someone for not knowing. I think the funniest incident was when someone wrote in asking how Chris does 'those amazing brutal screams' at the end of 'Business Suits And Combat Boots'... and I had to tell him that it was actually me doing it on the recording! Chris just mouthed the screams for the video because I had layered vocals there, and I was singing clean at that point. I love challenging myself though, and would never want to sacrifice an idea in songwriting just because it may be difficult to pull off. I purposefully write my songs to be challenging, because that is what makes them fun."

PiercingMetal: Moving on to how the band came to forming, what’s the inside scoop on what led to the creation of The Agonist. Did it start from scratch or did another band lead up to this and become the group we can enjoy today.

Alissa: "Danny and Chris were in another band with the former Agonist drummer when I joined up with them. I had quit my other band just as they had dismissed their original singer. We changed the name to THE TEMPEST and started gigging and recording non-stop. We welcomed Simon into the band and changed the name to The Agonist shortly after signing with Century Media. We are still developping and growing in our identities, and I don't expect to ever stop."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Watch the Features section on this page for BW&BK;'s recent catch-up interview with Alissa, coming soon.