Interview with Allie Gogino
Allie Gogino can be seen playing Rachel Jensen in The Red Road! But did you know that she’s also a singer/songwriter, who plays the violin, and dabbles in the guitar, mandolin, autoharp, and ukelele? She describes her sound as “if The Dixie Chicks, Fiona Apple, and Father John Misty had a baby… ” We love the description of her sound and can’t wait for more. Her EP, Hollywood High, is actually a series of three and the first is out now. Read on to find out more about this talented actress.
Photo credit: Isaac Sterling
GLITTER: What can you tell us about the new season of The Red Road?
ALLIE: The new season of The Red Road picks up a year after where season one ended. Rachel sees Junior again for the first time since he went to juvie, and she is becoming rather paranoid about getting schizophrenia like her mom. Kopus and Harold are at it again, we will meet some new faces, and there is quite a lot of bloodshed this season.
GLITTER: Who do you play?
ALLIE: I play Rachel Jensen, daughter of Harold and Jean Jensen. She is a seventeen year-old living a rather unusual upbringing with a recovering alcoholic and schizophrenic mother, and a father who works for the police department. The first season she started off really rebellious but came around towards the end once being broken up with by her Lenape boyfriend, Junior. She ultimately does love the people in her life but she is dealing with a lot of paranoia in season two.
GLITTER: Describe The Read Road to us in only 160 characters.
ALLIE: A multi-dimensional look at the social struggle between a small New Jersey town & a neighboring Native American community, based on real and fictitious events.
GLITTER: Tell us about your new EP.
ALLIE: My debut solo EP, Hollywood High, is actually the first of a series of three. I have been writing this collection over the last four years, and finally got to record the first chapter last summer. It was important to me to release something that is totally and completely from my perspective. I wrote all the songs, and co-produced the record. It was my first time to produce music and it was so fun! This first chapter is pretty dark, but there is a method to my madness.
GLITTER: What artists inspire your songwriting?
ALLIE: There really have been countless artists I have listened to a lot, whose songwriting I truly admire. Stevie Nicks, Chris Martin, The Beatles, Robin Pecknold, Father John Misty, Win Butler, The Eagles, Regina Spektor, AIR… to name a 100th of a fraction.
GLITTER: We also love that you also play violin for The Good Mad. Have your songs been featured in any show?
ALLIE: Well, The Lying Game was certainly the catalyst for The Good Mad as a band. We had a lot of songs featured on that show. Since then, we have licensed songs to more films than shows. A new film with Sarah Hyland, in which I also made a cameo, called See You in Valhalla, features a couple Good Mad songs. We have also scored a couple short films.
GLITTER: What other shows and movies have you been on?
ALLIE: Most notably, I played Laurel Mercer on The Lying Game. I played a hot mess of a character in the coming of age LGBT dramedy, Geography Club, and last summer I got to go to Hawaii to shoot an episode of Hawaii Five-O, which was terribly, terribly fun.
GLITTER: How would you describe your sound?
ALLIE: If The Dixie Chicks, Fiona Apple, and Father John Misty had a baby…
GLITTER: What has been the best compliment anyone has ever given you?
ALLIE: The best? Surely I have forgotten that by now. I tend not to cling too harshly to compliments or criticism. I would say one of the best compliments I received was from Randy Kerber when he told me that my songwriting was “Great; it’s real.”
GLITTER: What other instruments do you play?
ALLIE: Violin is definitely my main squeeze, but I like playing around a little with guitar, mandolin, autoharp, and ukelele. The Good Mad’s drummer is back from Canada, so I am enlisting him to teach me drums, which I am loving. Ever since I saw Whiplash, I have been really inspired to learn drums.
GLITTER: If you could perform with anyone alive or dead, who would it be and why?
ALLIE: Woah. I think my brain just exploded. I actually kind of think this is a rude question because it is nearly impossible to answer. The first artists that came to mind were The Beatles. But then again, their fans were always so loud back in the day you could barely hear the music. Playing with The Dixie Chicks is still an actual possibility, and Martie McGuire was the first artist who really inspired me to start learning a musical instrument. That would be a crazy full-circle, dream-come-true experience to perform with her. Playing with Fleet Foxes would rock my world too.
GLITTER: What is one thing your fans might not know about you?
ALLIE: I was a ballet dancer for nine consecutive years in my youth.
GLITTER: What do you have planned for the upcoming year?
ALLIE: The Good Mad just released an EP, so we are shooting some music videos for that. I am planning to tour this year, not sure if I will be by myself or with The Good Mad, but this year I am going to do some traveling and play music. I have to see this world! The Hollywood High EP drops April 7th, so I will be promoting that, and hopefully The Red Road gets picked up for season three and I will be back in Atlanta this fall shooting that.
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