ON “PHETAMINES,” ALLY EVENSON’S STILL PISSED, BUT THIS TIME IT’S FUNNY
Evenson’s latest single, “Phetamines,” hashes out her bitterness towards a twisted system with crashing drums and piercing distortions. Her previous releases gradually poked harder at the parameters of traditional pop music, but “Phetamines” marks a breaking point. This is pop if it were dragged behind a car, tumbled around in the washing machine, and dried with a few jolts of the electric chair. It’s a not-so-understated introduction to more music on the horizon. Evenson sat down with Pleaser to indulge in the era that “Phetamines” kicks in motion.
PHOTOS BY EMMA FISCHER
Ally Evenson’s been infiltrating the music scene right under our noses. She’s supported acts such as The Japanese House and Band of Horses, as well as toured as a guitarist in Chloe Moriondo’s band. Her debut album, BLUE SUPER LOVE, dropped in November 2024, which received high praises from Pitchfork and earned her a rightful place on Pigeons and Planes’ “Artists To Watch” list. Not even a year later, she’s on the verge of unleashing another album; a project that would more appropriately be called an experience.
You’d never guess that the chaotically captivating “Phetamines” is a product of her merriest and most playful era yet. The surface of her upcoming work is smeared with ache and angst. But below the floorboards, she’s embracing her campier side, poking fun at personal grievances, and incorporating sounds for the sake of psychological satisfaction. Perhaps this facetious approach to harrowing feelings is what makes Evenson’s music hurt so inexplicably good.
Pleaser: I do have to start by asking since it was such a substantial part of the BLUE SUPER LOVE imagery, and continued to appear in this year’s “The Line” music video...where does the blue hat come from?
Ally Evenson: It’s kind of ridiculous. My label and I were figuring out imagery for the album, and they were like, you should have a costume, you should have a look. I was like…eh…since I famously change my appearance all the time. That hat was from a girl based in New York [VAISSEAU], who knits clothing and hats. I saw it and it grabbed me, it feels like this little weird character I wanted to create. A cartoon version of me almost, since I feel like BLUE SUPER LOVE was such a dramatized version of myself.
Further on the topic of creating your own brand and imagery…do you happen to be a horror fan?
AE: Oh yeah. Yes. So much so that it probably annoys the sh*t out of people and they’re like, ‘dude we get it.’
That love shines through on “Phetamines,” your latest single, with its whispers and the repetition of certain haunting lyrics. Give me a fresh take, explain this song to me as if I’ve never heard your music before.
AE: This song is my favorite song on the upcoming album, which is controversial, because everyone really loves the pop girly ones. But this song represents me as the music I listen to and the music I’m most inspired by. It feels like a sexy scary song about capitalism…and that’s what it is.
Aside from “Phetamines” being your personal favorite, is there a particular reason you chose it to be the first single?
AE: There actually is a lot more. I was inspired by Geese and how they dropped “Trinidad” as their first single [from the album, Getting Killed]. I thought, this song is just Cameron Winter screaming at the top of his lungs and it's awesome. It’s a smack in the face, and I think that’s an awesome first single. “Phetamines” appeals to the people who love alternative music and heavier music and I think the people that expect the pop side of me in the first single are going to be like… “what the f*ck is this?” But I kind of want that.
But it hasn’t even been a year since BLUE SUPER LOVE released, and not only do you have an album, you have some other big surprises up your sleeve. How have you been able to turn around multiple bodies of work so fast?
AE: I’m so exhausted. I think it’s now catching up to me. I feel very accomplished. But it didn’t feel forced, this album. I did writing sessions Monday through Friday for like two months straight and I just wrote every day. Once I realized what I wanted it to be it kind of all came out. I love it more than BLUE SUPER LOVE…It really reflects where I am in my life right now, which is really fun and funny and giggly and campy.
What was so distinct of the BLUE SUPER LOVE era though was the layers of texture that gave a new and unexpected wash on pop. Are we going to see that sound evolve on this new project or are you taking a new direction?
AE: Yeah, definitely. The sound is not changing really. BLUE SUPER LOVE and the new stuff…it’s all in the same world. This project that's coming feels more “me”...it feels really like my baby, I love it.
You should be proud of it! And the incorporation of all of these textures and sounds that you do, which we especially hear on “Phetamines,” what do you think attracts you to that?
AE: I love, as we mentioned, horror and film. When I’m writing songs, I see what I want the video to be or what the song “looks like.” I love sound design in movies, so I love these weird little additions. It scratches my brain. Radiohead is my favorite band and they do that a lot. They have such an awesome grasp on textural elements that you don’t hear right away. There was a song on BLUE SUPER LOVE, I can’t remember which it was— my friend texted me and said, “Ally I’m listening to this song, and I genuinely thought that there were people walking around in my house,” because they’re doing it in the song and it sounds so crazy.
That’s awesome. I worked with an artist who used a lot of found sounds on their upcoming album, like a dog sniffing or people laughing, but it’s incorporated in a way that feels familiar so that you can’t exactly decipher why you like it so much.
AE: There’s a song on this album, it's like the interlude of the album. It’s basically my producer [NYDGE] getting in his car and driving around and field recording everything in his day, and it simulates a car crash. It’s not so much a song, it’s more of an experience. That’s going to be a fun one.
So you’re really interested in creating worlds within your music. This album pulls from daily life, it pulls from film, is there anything else that influences your upcoming work?
AE: This project is so lighthearted to me. I feel like my last album was so deep and so depressing. Now I feel like I’m genuinely happy and enjoying life. I was having so much fun writing these songs. One thing I like to say is I know a song is good if my producer and I just laugh at it. We’ll be doing something and be like, “that’s ridiculous we need to put it in.” I drew from cute, funny things that were happening in my life, the people around me too. My friends have been major influences on this album.
Glad to hear you’ve moved into that era for yourself, and I think we need more music like that right now too.
AE: We do. If I took myself so seriously, I think I would go insane. There needs to be a level to which I can say, ‘this is stupid, I love it.’
I had seen a Pitchfork review of BLUE SUPER LOVE that said “...she’s still at her best working in big sounds and big feelings—super sad, super horny, and, especially, super pissed-off.” Are these themes you’ll be leaving behind, then?
AE: Oh, I’m still pissed…you’ll see…I’m still pissed. It’s very dramatic but it’s also campy. Most of the singles are angry, but they’re angry in a way that to me feels funny. I think to the listener it won’t, which is cool. “Phetamines” is an angry one but it’s not so much angry at a person, it's angry at the government. And there are definitely sad ones. On BLUE SUPER LOVE I was actually angry, and it was genuinely hard for me to sing some of those songs live because I would get so worked up. Now, I feel like I’m playing a part.
So the same ideas still resonate, you’re just leaning into them from a different perspective?
AE: Mmm hmm! I’m very excited for the roll out of this album, it feels really fleshed out.
