Being dumped by a boyfriend can cause major heartbreak. But for 22-year-old singer/songwriter Allison Weiss, the various break-ups she’s survived in her short life, while still heart-rending, have inspired some jovial tunes.
“I’m all about catchy, upbeat, feel good music, but the one thing I seem to always write about is heartbreak and the demise of relationships,” says the corky Athens, Georgia, native. “Still, all my songs are sad songs that sound happy. I say they are the saddest memories sung to the tune of your happiest.”
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Her second EP, 2008’s “The Way She Likes It,” is a testament to just that. On songs like “Let Me Go,” Weiss metaphorically pleads for the memories of a past lover to escape her, belting lyrics like, “You were the one I wanted more than you could give / and you were the one that said we couldn’t live like this / and you were the one that made the plans before we landed,” over an upbeat, drum-heavy production.
Another track is “I’m Ready,” which finds a vulnerable Weiss singing, “I’m ready if you’re ready / well I’m ready, are you ready? / ‘cause my heart is breaking while you’re taking your time,” over constant guitar strokes.
And because Weiss is the epitome of a DIY (do it yourself) artist, and a graphic design student by day (“Graphic design is my second love,” she says), she’s able to make these sad yet happy moments come to life via her self-directed videos. “For ‘Let Me Go,’ my drummer came up with the idea that I would be captured on my way to rehearsal by bandits. For ‘I’m Ready,’ it was actually a project for my digital design class on stop motion. I thought I could totally do this for my video, and I got an A-,” she says.
“Let Me Go” and “I’m Ready” are the only songs off the EP that Weiss has released videos for so far, although she plans to put out more via her website, allisonw.com, and various social networking pages.
This month, Weiss will take her broken heart — and good humor — back to the studio for her as-yet-untitled follow-up CD, which will include eight brand new tracks. Like her previous albums, this EP will also be available via iTunes, Amazon and her website, as well as mom and pop stores back at Athens, Georgia. “Everyone that orders on my site gets a package straight from me,” she says.
Weiss also plans to relocate to New York City next summer after graduation to continue to expand and grow her music; she hopes to land licensing deals for MTV shows like “The Hills,” “True Life” and “Room Raiders,” among others.
“I will do whatever it takes to put my music out there more, so if somebody comes along and they want to help me and they can do more for me than I’m doing now, without me having to sell my soul to the devil, then, I’m totally up for whatever,” she says of the prospect of signing a major deal while in the Big Apple. Before moving up north, though, Weiss will wrap up her first tour planned for the Pacific Northwest, the Southeast and the East Coast, although details were limited during press time.
While Weiss, whose father played the piano, clarifies she hasn’t “been broken up with that many times… just enough times that they’ve influenced many songs,” she does admit a boy she crushed on was the reason she first got into music. “I’ve been playing piano since I was a kid, and then when I was in 9th grade, I got serious about playing the guitar because I had a crush on this punk-rock guy in my creative writing class and I wanted to impress him,” she says. “So I learned the power chords and got into pop-punk music. We only went out for one month, but whatever.”