ARCH ENEMY's ALISSA WHITE-GLUZ: 'I Have Social Anxiety'

Revolver TV's Zeena Koda conducted an interview with singer Alissa White-Gluz of ARCH ENEMY at the Schecter Guitars 2016 NAMM party on January 23 in Anaheim, California. You can now watch the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On ARCH ENEMY's plans for the rest of 2016:

Alissa: "We're gonna do a little tour in Mexico — just like a short tour in Mexico — and then I'm gonna head back to Montreal. And we're all gonna be in our respective hometowns writing music and working for the next ARCH ENEMY album. I don't think any of us wanna release something that we're not happy with, so we'll have to make sure we have enough material that we're happy with, but that shouldn't be a problem, 'cause almost every time they present me with a guitar riff or something for me to build a song on, I'm always, like, 'Pfffttt… This is so good.' So I don't think it'll be a problem."

On what ARCH ENEMY fans would be most surprised to find out about her:

Alissa: "Probably that I have social anxiety, I think. Yeah, it's funny, because I think that's pretty common in musicians, actually, but from the outside, people would never think that you could do the job of a musician if you have that. But, I mean, it was crippling at one point. Now I'm okay with it. A lot of my musician friends have the same kind of anxiety and panic when faced with crowds of people, and I do too. And I don't think people would think that, but I do, and I really have to fight against that whenever I'm in a situation of meeting people, which is pretty embarrassing to say, 'cause I meet people every day. And you know what's weird? I didn't have it before I started touring. It's like the touring caused it. That's the thing: when I'm on stage, I don't care; there could be ten people there, there could be ten million people there. But if I'm offstage, I'm, like, counting the people, I know exactly where everyone's standing, how far they are from me. So it's a very different thing, actually. I think it's pretty common, actually, in musicians. You wouldn't think, but I know a lot of people that have the same sort of thing going on. So, yeah, if ever I have a resting bitch face when you see me, it's not because I'm a bitch; it's because I'm afraid and I don't know what's going on."

ARCH ENEMY's latest album, "War Eternal", sold around 8,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to enter The Billboard 200 chart at position No. 44. The CD was released on June 10, 2014 in North America via Century Media Records. The cover artwork was created by Costin Chioreanu.

ARCH ENEMY in November 2014 parted ways with guitarist Nick Cordle and replaced him with former NEVERMORE axeman Jeff Loomis. Loomis made his live debut with ARCH ENEMY on the band's fall 2014 European tour.

The tour edition of "War Eternal" contains "Stolen Life (2015 Version)", featuring additional leads by Loomis as a bonus track as well as a DVD including an intense live set filmed in Korea plus all official videos.