ALISSA WHITE-GLUZ Steps Out Into Her Own With BLUE MEDUSA: 'It's Cool Not To Have To Fit Into A Box In Any Way'

By David E. Gehlke

In November 2025, Alissa White-Gluz announced her departure from ARCH ENEMY after more than 11 years as the band's frontwoman to pursue a solo career. It was a decision that carried a degree of risk — ARCH ENEMY is arguably one of the biggest melodic death metal outfits and remains a top international draw. White-Gluz, for all intents and purposes, could have comfortably fronted the band for an extended period of time and enjoyed the increasingly rare commodity of music career stability. Instead, White-Gluz is striking out on her own with her new band, the aptly named BLUE MEDUSA.

The launch of BLUE MEDUSA comes not only after her time with ARCH ENEMY, but also with THE AGONIST, the Montreal, Canada-based act White-Gluz fronted from 2007 to 2013. Couple that with the countless guest spots she's done over her career, and it's clear that there's no better time than the present for White-Gluz to have a band to call her own. Fresh off the announcement of BLUE MEDUSA guitarists Alyssa Day (MINDSCAR, ABSENTIA) and Dani Sophia (ex-Till Lindemann) and in time for the release of the band's first single, "Checkmate", BLABBERMOUTH.NET caught up with the frontwoman for the latest.

Blabbermouth: You announced plans for a solo album in 2016. What, ultimately, pushed you to go this route and go completely solo? How long have you been thinking about it?

Alissa: "I'm kind of a workaholic. I've always been trying to fill time. Not that there's a lot of spare time: there's almost none. I've been doing so many collaborations and guest appearances, all over, everywhere, for everyone else's albums. A friend of mine put together a playlist for me of every release that I've done, and I don't think it's complete. I think we missed a few things, but it came to 15 hours of music. Then I realized, 'I don't have any of it to my name.' I was like, 'Holy shit! That's 23 years of grinding myself into the ground.' I'm super proud of everything I've made, but none of it is truly my own. I guess I was thinking about it for a while, but it wasn't eating at me. It was, 'That would be cool, that would be fun.' With every collaboration, I would think, 'Oh, it would be cool to bring them onto my stuff.' It got to a point where it was, 'Life's short. I got to do it at some point.'"

Blabbermouth: Is there an autonomy aspect here as well? As in, now you get to control everything.

Alissa: "No, I don't feel the need to control every aspect. I fully want people — if someone is better than me at something, they should do it. I don't need that. I have a great team, so I have delegated, so it's not me controlling everything, but I think, in terms of expressing through music and art, it's cool not to have to fit into a box in any way and not have to remain tethered to expectations. One of my favorite artists is Devin Townsend. I love how he kept reinventing himself and just doing whatever he wanted, basically, just creating a world where a lot of his albums sound very different. But I, personally, really like all of them because I think they are all super creative. I was always inspired by that."

Blabbermouth: If you're singing for ARCH ENEMY, you're going to be singing to that style. Does this now give you the opportunity to move outside of that realm a little bit?

Alissa: "Yeah! I think it's similar to when Jeff [Loomis] stepped away a few years ago [from ARCH ENEMY], pretty clearly. NEVERMORE is Jeff's baby. It's so cool to see NEVERMORE there again. I'm so excited for what they're doing, and what I've heard so far sounds so good. I'm so excited it's happening, and I'm so excited for Jeff. It's inspiring to see an artist like Jeff take his art back into his own hands. Obviously, a lot of people, for many years, were like, 'When's Jeff going to play the 7-string?' 'When's Jeff going to write a song?' 'When's Alissa going to sing?' Now it's all going to happen. [Laughs] You're going to get all of that from Jeff, you're going to get all of that from me. I think it's pretty exciting."

Blabbermouth: You used clean vocals a few times in ARCH ENEMY. Will you be testing your vocal range more in BLUE MEDUSA?

Alissa: "Yeah, it's not really like 'testing it out,' because I'm pretty confident in what I do. I know what my strengths and weaknesses are, what I will work to improve, and what works and what doesn't. With BLUE MEDUSA, I'm definitely just going to go according to what feels good in the music. Whether that be clean belting, spoken word, or black metal screams. Whatever feels good for that set of words, and whatever the mood is. I'd like to kind of do that. Sometimes I try out a few different things. Sometimes there's a part of a song where I'm like, 'Oh, I'm definitely going to do some clean singing there because the underlying chord structure is so tasty.' Then I put singing on it, and I'm like, 'Now I don't hear the underlying chord structure as much. Maybe I'll go back to being a rhythm instrument, and I'll just scream on this part and let those chords shine.' So there are different ways of approaching this."

Blabbermouth: You've spoken a lot about Oliver (Palotai) and what he brought to the table for your first solo single ("The Room Where She Died"),and you're in a relationship with (MISFITS guitarist) Doyle (Wolfgang von Frankenstein). Have they been your support system as you've taken this leap?

Alissa: "Oliver is a professional contact more than anything. We really click musically. We both have a big love for OPETH and a lot of progressive, not really accessible music, I guess. That's one way to put it. We've had a lot of fun working on stuff. Doyle is sort of the opposite. He's a personal contact, but not a professional [contact]. [Laughs] He's a professional, but I don't see him in a professional light. Our professional fields don't overlap. I hear him playing guitar all day, every day, and I think he's amazing. I think every riff he writes is gold. I love his band, and I love him, but it's not exactly the same style that I do."

Blabbermouth: There's no intersection.

Alissa: "Right. There's no intersection there. Obviously, he's been a huge part of my life for a long time. He's an amazing support system."

Blabbermouth: You recently announced Alyssa and Dani. Did you have any criteria for the band members of BLUE MEDUSA?

Alissa: "One of the reasons that I intentionally left it nebulous and didn't put out a full band photo is because I realized that after talking to a lot of younger musicians, there's really a gig economy in everyone's head. I'm a millennial. You're probably one, too. [Laughs] I feel like after us, people who are younger have grown up in a very different world. When I say that I was in a band before social media, people's minds get blown! [Laughs] I remember when Myspace came out. 'We can use this Myspace thing to promote our band!' I remember that. So, I very much wanted to have a band, but I also wanted to keep it relaxed. If someone is in it for one song, then they want to take off because they got a better gig, do it. I want you to feel good; I want you to succeed. If you can do this tour, but you have a family and can't do the next one, it's cool, the door is always open. I have tons of friends who are amazing guitar players, drummers and bassists; my door is open to them. I have done so many collaborations that I want to pay it forward."

Blabbermouth: I'm glad you brought up the gig economy, especially as it pertains to musicians. The days of being in one band and being able to live off of it are largely over.

Alissa: "Oh yeah. Everyone has a second band and a passive income. It's not possible. The music industry is not sustainable for artists, unfortunately."

Blabbermouth: Is the idea to build up to a full-length release? Or will you release just singles?

Alissa: "I'm definitely planning on releasing an album. I want to make sure people don't have to wait too long to hear what BLUE MEDUSA sounds like. I want us to release a lot of singles so people are familiar with the songs, and then, when we release an album, of course, there will be more songs they'll hear. I still feel like, because it's a first album, even though people know what my voice sounds like, I think it's kind of cool. It's a thing that is said in the industry, 'Once the album comes out, it's dead.' Everything leading up to the album, the prelude to the album, is really where the magic happens. Once you release it, it's pretty much dead in the water. I want to make sure I have enough time to release singles and create videos and content, so people can get to know the music before the album drops. Once the album is out, I'm going to tour and make appearances everywhere, but I think that, given my experience in this business, it would be unwise to throw an album out there cold. I think it's a better idea to warm everyone up with singles."

Blabbermouth: What are your plans for a label? Will this be on Napalm Records? Or with someone else?

Alissa: "I don't know right now. I'm open to anything. I've been self-funding it so far, and that's kind of nice, to be totally sovereign. Napalm released 'The Room Where She Died' and they're awesome. I'm open to it, but I've been focusing on getting this release out, so it isn't something I've been thinking about. It's on my to-do, but it's not something I've been thinking about."

Blabbermouth: We talked about the changing industry, the question has to pop up: Do you need a label, given everyone you know and your history? That would be a lot of hours to put into it, though.

Alissa: "It has been a lot of hours, even for one release. It's always interesting — I've always admired when I hear artists going fully independent. It's not something everyone can do, but I feel like I've accumulated so much experience and knowledge about this industry that maybe I could do it. We'll see."

Blabbermouth: You've been an outspoken proponent of animal rights and veganism. Will those themes apply more to your lyrics now?

Alissa: "Maybe. So far, it hasn't been. So far, the lyrics have been harnessing actual emotions that I'm feeling. Honestly, normally, what happens is that I wake up at 3 a.m. and my brain is like, 'Fuck you! We're going to be up all night.' [Laughs] Then, I'll write down what I'm thinking. I'll wake up, look at it, and try to see if it conjures up any image. For example, the new single ['Checkmate'], I was like, 'It's a game of chess. That's kind of interesting.' I like to create lyrics that have a strong analogy, so that I'm able to pick from imagery and create descriptive lyrics, because even with chess, it's 'Oh, you have the queens, pawns, black and white.' You have all of these things you can use in the lyrics, and sometimes, if you don't have a focused image in mind, it can be hard to come up with lyrics that are convincing because you kind of don't know what you're talking about. I guess I'm a visual person; I like to think, 'This actually could be a chessboard.' It helps to build a theme around a song."

Blabbermouth: In the meantime, it's not like you won't stop championing those things.

Alissa: "Oh yeah. It's such a part of who I am. I don't know if those topics will work their way in. I think a lot of those topics make me really sad. Sadness is not a motivating thing for me creatively. It actually kind of kills my creativity. Anger motivates me, so I can be creative when I'm angry. Luckily, I'm not angry that much. That's why I write it all down. I'll probably feel fine in the morning, so let me get it all down now."

Blabbermouth: Let's do more of a basic question: How difficult was it to land on a band name? Everything is taken.

Alissa: "That's why I was so torn. I was like, 'Oh, what do I call this? I don't know what to do!' I had a pretty solid list of 30 names. I was like, 'This is pretty good. I really like this.' Then, I went through and looked for what was taken: everything is taken. Then I narrowed it down to three or four where I was like, 'I think I can use these.' I sort of did a field test with them, like with people I ran into or with friends: 'Okay, possible band names.' And I said them all. Most of them, out of that short list, unfortunately, people went, 'What?' Or 'What is that?' Or, 'How do you spell that? Say it again.' I was like, 'Okay, no one knows what that is, actually. That's not going to be good the second they walk away.' Then I started field testing BLUE MEDUSA, and as soon as I said it, people went, 'Oh, BLUE MEDUSA. Of course.' That one worked. It's almost like what I was saying about the lyrics in how they evoke an image. This is the image you should be thinking about because it's my band. [Laughs] It helps to remember the name because you already have a visual association with that word. I figured it rolls off the tongue. It was Doyle who came up with the name. He's a master at monikers and delivering nicknames to people. Everybody in our circle has a nickname from him that's perfect. And I really wanted 'MEDUSA,' but it's so taken. He was like, 'We can play with that.' He started kind of riffing on it, and then he's like, 'BLUE MEDUSA!' I was like, 'Actually, that has a nice ring to it.' I sat on it for a long time, and after field testing it and seeing what a positive response it got, I was like, 'Okay!' As soon as I drew the logo, I thought, 'Oh yeah, okay.'"

Blabbermouth: You have the Louder Than Life and Aftershock festivals booked. What else are you thinking about in terms of live shows?

Alissa: "We're putting together the structure right now. Definitely, festivals are awesome. We're looking at filling in and doing some more stuff, too, but also very much focusing on getting singles out, more than anything, just so that people know what to expect. We have a really good team that has come together very naturally. I'm very lucky, and I have really good people around me. We're sort of in the beginning stage of bringing all of the ingredients together."