Arch Enemyn Alissa White-Gluz avautuu ensimmäistä kertaa potkuistaan The Agonistista: Pahin selkäänpuukotus urani aikana

Kanadalainen laulajatar Alissa White-Gluz liittyi Arch Enemyn riveihin Angela Gossow:n jäätyä bändistä sivuun vuoden 2014 maaliskuussa. Alissa lauloi tuolloin vielä perustamassaan The Agonist -nimisessä yhtyeessä ja naisen oli alunperin tarkoitus jatkaa yhtyeessä Arch Enemyn pestistä huolimatta kunnes The Agonistin muut jäsenet yhtäkkiä julkaisivatkin tiedotteen, jonka mukaan Alissa oli korvattu uudella laulajalla. Alissa on nyt ensimmäistä kertaa kommentoinut aihetta Hatebreedista tutun Jamey Jastan luotsaamassa podcastissa ja paljastanut uusia asioita saamiinsa potkuihin liittyen. Nainen on kertonut aiheesta seuraavaa paljastaen yhtyeen toimineen todella rumasti tämän selän takana:

”It was in 2013, and Angela and Michael [Amott, guitar] from ARCH ENEMY had asked me if I wanted to join, and so I said, ’Well, can I keep doing the band that I’m in?’ [referring to THE AGONIST]. And they were, like, ’Yeah, we want you to be happy, so if you want, we can work out a schedule where both bands can be fulfilled.’ And in my head, at that point, I had already been spending a lot of time with KAMELOT [touring as a guest vocalist], so I was, like, ’Oh, well, with KAMELOT, I’m just a guest. They can replace me easily. So I’ll just stop doing KAMELOT and focus on ARCH ENEMY and my current band.’ ’Cause that band was my baby. I built that band, I picked the name, I drew the logo, I directed all the photo shoots… You know, it was my band.”

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”I thought that we made great music together [as THE AGONIST]. I really liked the music that we were all making. I think everyone was very talented in that band. And so I told them. I was actually on tour with KAMELOT when I started having discussions with ARCH ENEMY, and that was earlier in the year. And so when I got back to Montreal, and then the next time we were all together, we did a short run, I think, in New England. And so I got all the guys together and we were in, like, a Wal-Mart parking lot. I think the van was getting an oil change or something, so we were sitting by the trailer, and I called them all over and I told them. I’m, like, ’I’ve signed a confidentiality statement, so I can’t tell you the name of the band, but I just wanna let you guys know I’m gonna start working with another band. I’ve been working with KAMELOT a lot recently, and that’s been taking up my time, but I’ve decided that, to make sure I have enough time for both, I just won’t do KAMELOT anymore. But I’m gonna be working with this other band. I think it’s gonna be great for us, because it’s a band that we all like. It’s a band that we’ve wanted to tour with for a long time.’ And they were, like, ’Who is it? Is it NIGHTWISH?’ So they weren’t happy, but then I told ’em, I’m, like, ’But don’t worry, because I’ve worked out with the manager a schedule where we’re gonna have enough time to do our stuff. The manager’s totally cool with me keeping my band. So it’s gonna be fine.’ And the manager [of ARCH ENEMY] is Angela. So with Angela, I worked out a schedule that would have made it totally fine for ARCH ENEMY to do some tours and record our album and me to still have enough time to devote to that band. And another thing that I told ’em, I was, like, ’At this point, I’m also not gonna be working my dayjob anymore, so those forty hours a week I can devote to music.’ So I was, like, ’Okay. Perfect.’ And this was in, like, June or July of 2013. In July and August, I was on tour with [THE AGONIST], and then September I had a KAMELOT tour, October I had a Europe tour with [THE AGONIST], November I had a KAMELOT tour again, and then December finally, I came back and [THE AGONIST] did some local shows. And the whole time everything was good, and we were, like, really positive. I was actually really happy. ’Cause I was, like, ’Wow, things are finally going well. They are being really understanding.’ And I have e-mail chains back and forth with Angela where I was, like, ’No, they’re being really cool about it. I’m really happy. And the schedule looks good.’ And I forwarded them the schedule. It was literally broken down for, like, the next three years. Like, March and April will be ARCH ENEMY time, June and July will be your [time]… Like, really, just perfectly laid out. And it was great. Michael was happy with that too. And we did a show in a city in Quebec. It was around mid-December [2013]. We did the show, and I was on a video interview from a local TV station, in French, and they asked, ’What’s going on? How’s the band going?’ And I remember being really happy and telling them, ’Yeah, I have five songs written, and we’re making a new album now. And it’s really cool music. I’m really happy. I’m excited to get the album done.’ And I remember just being really proud of what we were doing musically and where we were going. And then the next morning… One of the guys [from THE AGONIST] doesn’t live in Montreal, so the other three guys showed up at my door and came into my house. And they were just, like, ’We need to have a meeting.’ So I was, like, ’Okay. Well, what’s wrong? This is a crazy emergency meeting. For sure, let’s talk about what’s going on.’ And never in a million fucking years would I have suspected that I was getting kicked out of my own band. They basically sat down and they told me that one of the guys in the band gave them an ultimatum and said, ’Either we kick her out or I’m gonna quit the band, because I don’t want her in the band anymore.’

”While this was happening, I was in complete, complete panic mode. Even as we were having the meeting, I was, like, ’Well, we don’t have to do this. Why is this even a thing?’ And so then it ended with them leaving. And I was, like, ’I’ll write to…’ We had just gotten a new manager at that point; he hadn’t done anything yet at this point. But I was, like, ’Look, I’ll write to him, and I’ll tell him what you guys think, and we’ll figure something out.’ And I thought I was still gonna work this out. And so as soon as they left, I went to go into my e-mail to get the manager’s contact, and I couldn’t get into my e-mail account. So then I went to go into my Facebook, I couldn’t get into my Facebook. I went to get into Twitter, I couldn’t get into Twitter. I went to get into our YouTube, I couldn’t get into YouTube. And these were all accounts that I created, and I had only recently — because I had been so busy with KAMELOT — I had only recently given access to some of the other members to start posting on, and because I had been so busy, I didn’t notice…

”It was the middle of the night in Europe at this point, so I was calling Angela freaking out, calling Michael freaking out, ’Oh my God! What just happened? I don’t understand.’ I was trying to get hold of the people at Century Media [THE AGONIST’s then-record label], trying to get hold of this manager guy. The manager guy didn’t seem to understand what was going on. And he was, like, ’Well, you quit.’ And I was, like, ’What? I didn’t quit. This is my band. I would never quit this band.’ And he was, like, ’They told me you quit.’ So I was, like, ’Can we get on the phone, please? I don’t know what’s happening right now.’ My whole life was basically being destroyed.

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”So finally, I was freaking out. I couldn’t get into my accounts. From my personal account, I wrote to Angela and whatever. And so finally, I actually managed to just, like, guess the security question and I got back into my e-mail account. And so then I was able to get the contacts that I had been building up for twelve years — everybody at the label, the manager, all this networking that I had been putting all of my life into, all of our contracts were saved in PDFs in that account. So I got back into there, and then I saw the e-mail chain that was accidentally forwarded from the label dating back to September where [the guys from THE AGONIST] went and found some other person to replace me on vocals. So now I had a name. I had no idea who this person was. I’ve still never seen her, never spoken to her ever. I just thought a professional courtesy would be, ’Just letting you know… Are you cool with this? Because I’m gonna be taking over your baby and your brainchild and the art that you’ve worked your ass off to create. I’m now gonna be representing that. Is this okay with you?’ But I never received anything like that. Another thing that was super weird was I wrote these lyrics [for THE AGONIST] about being vegan and about being straight edge. And so I’m, like, ’Is this person vegan and straight edge? Is this person just gonna be singing something that they don’t even believe in?’ And I still don’t know.

”Basically, I saw this happen. It occurred to me that they had been lying to my face throughout an entire thirty-day tour of Europe. Me talking about ’em, ’I’m so excited for the album. Listen to this. I did this on a song.’ It now occurred to me that they were smiling to my face but secretly knew that they had found someone else.”