Alison Wonderland is one accomplished young lady. In her 29 years, the Sydney-based DJ and producer has become one of the hottest properties in the Australian music scene, selling out tours both at home and overseas and nabbing big-time festival spots.
But there’s one accolade the classically trained musician has that few other Australian musicians can boast: she recently gave a talk at Harvard University’s Business School. If you’re not quite up on the reputation of the world’s most prestigious school, it’s a big deal.
Wonderland gave the talk, which touched on her journey in the music industry, back in February and went into further detail about just what she covered in an interview with Music Feeds, including how surprised she was to be speaking at Harvard.
“Yeah, we spoke to a class at Harvard Business School. It sounds completely made up, I know, but it actually happened! [laughs] They approached me and my manager to talk about growing your business within the music industry,” she explained.
“Specifically, I wanted to talk about staying true to yourself and keeping things honest, not trying to be something that you’re not. It was a business talk, though, so I guess we were talking a bit about personal branding and how to stay on top of that side of things.”
“I generally tend to have no idea about business matters – I’ve found I’m just not that way inclined. My side of the talk was more just about being upfront about who you are and what you’re about as an artist.”
Indeed, Wonderland has been adamant about steering her own path in the music industry. “The minute I start thinking that I am somehow [a different person] is the minute that I should quit. Only caring about your own profit and inflating your ego… that’s not why you should be in a creative field.,” she told MF.
“I’ve definitely said no a lot more than yes when it comes to being approached by [major labels] and that sort of thing,” she continued. “Especially in the beginning, when I was starting out. I think that made me work a lot harder in the long run.”
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“I’m so grateful to those labels for letting me do things myself. No-one’s told me how my music should sound, or how I should write, or how I should record. I mean, there are some songs on Run where the vocals were literally recorded using an iPhone voice memo.”
“The album cover was something a friend and I shot together. I arranged the tracklist myself. These are the sort of things that can often be micro-managed by the bigger labels, but not one that I’ve worked with has interfered on any of those counts.”
“No-one has told me what to do once, and I’m really lucky for that. Everyone has just been so completely trusting of my own abilities and the belief I have in my own vision.” If we do say so ourselves, that trust has definitely been paying off.
