COMMUNAUTÉ • COMMUNITY
Montreal’s
Metal Queen
ALISSA WHITE-GLUZ PROVES
HEALTH AND ROCK ’N’ ROLL
CAN COEXIST
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ife on the road is tough. Now consider
the toughness level of a woman in a
Heavy Metal band, touring the world,
and singing extreme vocals in a predominantly male genre of music—from
the road crew and fellow musicians to
the fans. It’s a lifestyle with many casualties, both mental and physical.
“There are two types of people: those
who are cut out for this life and those who
aren’t,” says Alissa White-Gluz, lead vocalist for Arch Enemy. The blue-haired, wailing-banshee beauty was back in her home-
town to play an evening slot at Heavy
Montréal. “Some people have talent and
practice every day but if they can’t tough it
on the road, it’s probably not going to work
out for them. It’s a rough life.”
Alissa spoke with Montréal enSanté mo-
ments after her adrenaline-fuelled set at last
year’s festival and a day after her 30th birthday. “It’s just a number to me,” she admits,
adding that with a decade of performing
under her belt she feels quite a bit wiser and
more mature than most of her peers.
As for all of the trappings of a Heavy
Metal lifestyle, she puts the notion of
partying 24/7 to rest. “We’re so dedicated
La reine montréalaise
du métal
to this band we don’t abuse our bodies. We
ALISSA WHITE-GLUZ PROUVE QUE LA SANTÉ
ET LE ROCK’N’ROLL PEUVENT COEXISTER
the last 18 months and that’s not counting
Par | By Jason Santerre
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a vie sur la route n’est pas facile. Maintenant, imaginez si vous êtes une femme dans un
groupe de heavy métal qui parcourt la planète et qui chante à tue-tête dans un monde
musical dominé par les hommes—des musiciens aux machinistes en passant par les admirateurs. Ce mode de vie fait plusieurs victimes, tant mentalement que physiquement. g
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MONTRÉAL enSANTÉ ÉTÉ 2016
have to perform the next day so we keep
it professional. There are some bands who
can party every night and pull it off but
we’ve done something like 260 shows in
all the flying, running around, the photo
shoots and media obligations, so we have
to eat right, get enough sleep and exercise,
simple as that.”
And it helps that her boyfriend often
joins her on tour. “It alleviates the mental
grind of touring, for sure. We get to work
out together every day with the help of gg