Alicia Morgan (13) Interviewed

Posted July 23 by Jess

Alicia Morgan, a.k.a. Alicia 13, is putting her guttural vengeance back in business. After a hard-hitting hiatus of drugs, a hurricane and loss of a friend, Morgan is remembering what it’s like to wow doom fanatics. When she’s not stuffing shelves at her local public library, she’s sharing studios with Boston’s Morne and UK’s Lazarus Blackstar. In the last decade, she’s taken a break from the fast-changing music industry. Returning with fresh ears and a voice that’s descended several octaves since her younger years in Insurgence, she’s realizing life after doom act 13 is remarkably positive.We’re very pleased to hear that as Morgan is waylaying guitarist Liz Buckingham for a possible 13 full-length, or, fingers crossed, a discography. We phoned her for an artist update to discuss her voice, the direction of the music industry and the monotony of her pigeonholed title “ex-girlfriend of Mike Williams.”

What are your current musical projects?
I did a track with Morne from Boston, which is really different. It’s more like spoken word. That will be out in August. Jeff [Hayward] from Grief is in that band. It’s nice to record with him. When I was over in England a couple of months ago, I did some guest vocals with Lazarus Blackstar. [It’s] what you’re used to hearing from me, really screamy and guttural. I’m happy with both of them because they’re really different. I [am] excited about getting another band together and going back to the studio now that I know that I can still do it. I can’t wait for them to come out.

How do you feel getting back into music after your music hiatus?
I never stopped writing songs and listening to music. As far as actually performing, I would say I sang a couple of times with EHG maybe in the early 2000s, 2001. As far as doing anything myself, it’s been since 13 broke up. I just needed to take a break, let’s put it that way. I was having all sorts of personal issues. I got really burned out on the whole music scene. I needed to take a step away from it for a while and reassess everything and listen to stuff with a fresh ear, too. Once you start to hear bands that sound like bands that sound like bands, I just get super jaded and I didn’t want to jam with anybody at all.

Where did 13 come from?
I was in Insurgence and Liz [Buckingham] and Ellen [Mieczkowski] were in Thunderpussy 13. I think it was either Danny Lilker or Kevin Sharp, someone from Brutal Truth [who] said, “You should check these girls out, you guys should meet.” I went down to their rehearsal space. We sort of jammed and I came back with lyrics and sang a song and the next thing we were like, “This is totally clicking!” The cool thing about 13 was that when Liz brought a riff, I was like “I absolutely love that!” There wasn’t a lot messing around. Songs got written fairly quickly.
Liz [has] always been into the sort of heavy, ‘70s sound. She’s more into Saint Vitus and Pentagram and, of course, Black Sabbath. Whereas, I was more into bands like the Amebix, the heavy, heavy crust sound. We’d go over to each other’s houses and listen to stuff. She opened me up to the whole world of ‘70s vibe and likewise, I was a huge crust punk fan. We combined those together and that’s why it doesn’t sound like either thing, it sounds like a mix of the both.
The problem back in the early days [is] we fell between the two scenes a lot of times. People at punk shows didn’t like us because they said we were too slow. People at the metal shows said the same thing. Back then, there weren’t a lot of bands playing that slow at all, especially because that was the era of grindcore. We got in touch with Grief, Eyehategod, Buzzoven and Cavity. Those were like the four bands I felt that we were doing the same thing. It was a really organic thing that all happened at once. The bands were really close to each other and we all played at each other’s shows and played on tours and stuff. That was cool. That’s how 13 started and then we sort of took off from there.

You released a demo and self split releases, but no full-length. What happened?
We kept trying to gather stuff for a full-length, and don’t forget we lived in New York City. It was very, very expensive. We had to pay to rehearse. If you told me 15 to 20 years [later] people would be interested, I would have been shocked. I think toward the end, we got a little bummed out, a little disheartened about the whole thing. With one foot in the punk scene, one foot in the metal scene, and now that’s completely accepted. Back then, we came out of this scene in New York City that was very judgmental. If you didn’t adhere to a formula, you weren’t part of the scene. Things have changed a lot since then. Now there’s bands that’s combining doom and black metal or whatever.

What was one thing you wanted to accomplish with 13 but never did?
The most major thing was we never released an album obviously. It was very frustrating at the time, we were writing some good new songs and I wish that I had not been so negative and had talked to Liz instead of just letting the band die. But we really were burnt out from always being broke.

Well I’ve heard rumors that there will be a potential 13 discography. How much of that is true?
I was in England a couple of months ago and I talked to Liz about it. The whole problem is of course I lost all the masters in Hurricane Katrina, but there’s ways around that. She said, “Well if you can find a label to put it out…” We have had offers throughout the years for people. I got a message from Chew [Hasegawa] from Corrupted who had a new label, Nostalgia Black Reign, and me and Liz talked and said, “Yeah, let’s let him do it.” Apparently that’s going forward. First of all, it’s the whole getting stuff, ripping it from vinyl and putting it together like that. It’s going to come out, it’s just taking some time. I would be down to play a reunion show at some point if we could ever figure out the logistics of getting everyone together since we’re all in separate countries now.

Say you guys get together for a reunion tour. Who would play with you and Liz?
Ellen is out of the picture, no one has talked to her since the band broke up. I asked Liz, “Have you heard from her?” As far as putting this together, just the record, it’s just me and Liz dealing with it right now. Our last bass player, Dean [Marmo], he works in the studio and he was supposed to be helping me compile the tracks, but I haven’t heard from him in months so I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know about playing live. I don’t know how that would work out. She’ll write the riffs, I’ll write the lyrics and we’ll just do it that way.

Your meaty vocals astounded ears back then. How much were you concerned about the reaction to your voice?
When I was in Insurgence, my voice was pretty low. But when I sang with 13, I think a lot times it wasn’t just [me] vocally, it was the whole band. A lot of the times people weren’t expecting us to get us there and sound like that. They saw us plugging in and everything. Don’t forget, 13 was during the height of the riot girl stuff, like the height of that Seven Year Bitch …they sounded like girls! I’ve had guys ask me what effects I use on my vocals live. I don’t use anything. It would get a little offensive after a while. I had guys ask me to sing for them because they couldn’t believe that was my real voice on stage. When I’m on stage, I’m in another realm. I just want to play the music. I don’t even think about what other people are thinking. A lot of times with 13, the usual response we got was just people standing around not really knowing what to do. They were like, “Oh ok, this isn’t what I expected at all.” In some ways, it was a little disheartening. They were just sort of open-mouthed, which I guess is a complement [laughs].

Was there every any vocal sound that you were specifically going for?
I always tried to stay away from labels like feminine or masculine in regards to vocal style. I have a low voice anyway and although there was a period in 13 where I deliberately tried to make it sound as guttural and harsh as possible most of the time that’s just what I sound like when I’m taking that approach to that sort of heavy oppressive music. I used many influences that were outside of the metal scene in sort of finding my vocal style. I never wanted to sound like a man. I wanted the vocals to be another instrument, a rhythmic counterpoint to the thudding sounds of the music. The vocals had to match the weight and blackness of the sounds, the imagery of the lyrics and the bleak, harsh feeling of the whole project.

If metal fans don’t know you as the Alicia 13, they’ll know you as the former girlfriend of Eyehategod’s Mike Williams. In fact, Decibel did an interview with Mike Williams in February 2006 and dropped your name a couple of times, yet again as “the girlfriend.” Now that it’s all said and done, does this ever get old?
I know. It’s frustrating because I’ve noticed that too. I’ve noticed on Wikipedia or something it will mention me as the ex-girlfriend of the Eyehategod singer. But also in the same token, he’s done a lot more musically than I have. I’m not trying to put myself down or anything, but they have like eight albums out or whatever. When we were playing shows together, it was completely equal, people knew about both bands. But as time went on, 13 faded into the background and the only way that I became mentioned was like a footnote. It was like, “Alicia 13 used to go out with Mike Williams.” It does suck, but it’s the way things are, unfortunately. I’m still waiting for the day when someone is “boyfriend of Alicia 13” [laughs].

What was happening at that point in your life right before Hurricane Katrina changed everything?
We were living in New Orleans and living a very marginalized life and just completely broken down and not doing very good things and not being very smart and just living just basically everything he writes about. The hurricane changed all of that. In some ways the hurricane changed everything in my life in a lot of ways for the better. I sort of got out of this death lifestyle that I had. Now, things are a lot simpler and clearer. Sometimes you have to lose everything. It sounds like a cliché, but it really is true. Our entire house burned down and we lost our freedom for a while. Then I lost one of my best friends who died in the hurricane. It was just one thing after another.

How did the hurricane change your life for the better?
I find that I really, really appreciate stuff now. I really appreciate the tiniest, simplest things. The only thing that’s going to last you in this life are your friends and what you make of situations. At that point, sometimes you have to lose everything to realize what’s important in life, what really, really matters the most. All that other stuff is just background noise. Of course you mourn the loss of [my] lifestyle, you morn the loss, certainly, of my friend, and morn the loss of my stuff. But in the end, it’s all nothing. I’m still here. Mike’s still here. He’s doing good. I’m doing good. I’m making music again. That’s all that matters.

How do you feel about your contributions in the music so far?
I think in our own shambling way, [13] contributed something to the history of doom metal. I’m not happy with a lot of the recordings sound-wise, especially the singles with Eyehategod as those were recorded live in our practice room on a 4-track. But in a way, I like their very "falling apart" quality. I wish we could’ve recorded more tracks that sounded like the last one, "Witch", which I think is easily our best sounding recording. I’m proud of what we managed to accomplish in our time together and it holds dear memories for me.

What are some records that you’re really into right now?
Kylesa [Static Tensions], Trap Them [Seizures in Barren Praise], Transient [Transient], Electric Wizard [Witchcult Today] and Malachi [Wither To Cover the Tread].

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