Imaginary Friends

Photo by Ben Rayner

We saw Alessi’s second ever gig at the end of last year. Heavenly Records had taken over a bar off Oxford Street just before Christmas and we stumbled in all drunk and were like: “Wow! She’sssh amasssshing”. It’s an obvious comparison, but she sounds a lot like Joanna Newsom. A sixteen-year-old, sweet, innocent Joanna Newsom. She also reminds us a bit of CocoRosie, but without the annoying feminist rants. Her dad produces hilarious TV shows, such as Modern Toss and Snuff Box, and she does her own little zine called Brain Bulletin. She hates flies, bees, long nails and spitting; loves books by Edward Gorey and drinking tea from a flask. She calls her guitar Grizelda. Vice: What’s your favourite animal? Alessi: I like manatees. They’re quite bulbous. They just eat lettuce in the sea and they don’t do much. Oh, I love owls, and sparrows, but owls are my favourite birds. I have an owl pendant that my friend Stella gave me. It used to come on this sort of fancy hip-hop gold chain so I put it on to string. Everything I like I put on to string—it’s just more comfortable. Who is your best friend? Maddy. I didn’t really have many friends at school. I had a few, but I only made them towards the end and I’d already made the decision to leave by then, so I was like, you know, bad timing, right? Couldn’t you have been nice all these other years? I hated school. Have you ever had an imaginary friend? Yes, I did when I was little. I think he was kind of Moroccan or Ethiopian. He was called Alibo and he was a very spiritual person. I’d talk to him. In my head we’d have conversations. It’s really weird what you do when you’re little. How come you didn’t know his nationality? Why didn’t you ask? Sometimes I think his voice changed. I don’t know. I had fun. We’d talk about what I did that day. My dad found it funny. He’d say, “How’s Alibo doing?” and I’d say, “He’s OK. He doesn’t like you asking.” You’re not alone if you have someone in there; I think that’s the thing. I didn’t really speak out very much. He would be in my head so we would go everywhere. It’s like a mental diary. He was seeing everything I was seeing. Would he comment on what was going on? I think he did. Maybe we’d have a few quarrels. Sometimes I’d give him this role where he was the person who would stand up for me in school if people were being, like, not very nice. I gave him this role of being encouraging to me. Then I started writing songs and I didn’t really need Alibo. I found a voice. Tell me about Grizelda the guitar. I called it that because it can be grizzly and I like the word Zelda. Grizelda. My other guitar is called Graham. It’s the one I taught myself to play on, so it’s the one I became really good friends with. Reliable Graham. If he was a person he’d wear jumpers with robins. He’s a very thoughtful boy. Nice Graham. What would Grizelda wear? She’d wear long, flowing dresses and Birkenstocks—she’d wear them to be comfortable. She’s practical. She’d wear an unusual dress, but very sensible shoes. There’s nothing worse than sore feet. You can’t get anything done with sore feet. JOHN MCDONNELL
myspace.com/alessimusic