Tarah Who? Gets Jagged

Alanis Morissette

Jagged Little Pill (Maverick/Repsise)

Tarah Who? Gets Jagged: French-born, L.A.-based grunge-punk artist Tarah Who? told us about her love for an Alanis Morisette classic (and the Distillers too).

(Maverick/Reprise)

Tarah Who?: I don’t really have favorites of anything. There are too many things that I like, and things that still need to be discovered, that I prefer to talk about 2 albums that mean a lot to me, that are definitely high in my TOP favorites!

The first one is Jagged Little Pill of course. I was young when I discovered Alanis and there was something in her music and the words I would understand (I was 15 when I discovered Alanis and English is a second language) that really resonated with me.

I actually started writing music and teaching myself the guitar with Alanis’ songs. I started as a drummer and bass player and played in different rock bands, but I would write songs and just never told anyone because they were too personal. They were my true feelings. When I started taking the songs I wrote more seriously, the producers and musicians I would be working with asked me who my influences were, and I would respond Alanis Morissette.

So in their minds, I wanted to sound like Alanis. This was really frustrating to me because even though I liked that album and I still do, I never wanted to sound like Alanis, or as a matter of fact, I never wanted to sound like anyone else but me. But I was shy, and I didn’t dare to say anything, so I just went with it. We arranged an album that sounded good, but it wasn’t me.

When I discovered the Distillers with their album Coral Fang, I loved everything about that album and Brody’s persona. I thought, “Yes! This speaks to me!” That anger, that rage, and fast-paced guitars, I thought YES!!. But still, those were songs I loved and love to listen to. Coral Fang just makes me happy, it is just so good, and raw.

Those two albums are definitely a part of my life and growth as a woman and female musician.

Tarah Who? Gets Jagged: Tarah Who?’s single “Royal Knight” is out now.