Rebounding Alanis: ‘Eventually the phoenix rises’

Alanis Morissette says the approach to her latest music wasn’t so “Ironic” — even though that’s the name of her biggest hit.

In the four years since her last album, the Canadian-American songstress has endured a painful breakup with her fiancé, actor Ryan Reynolds. She forced herself to write about it in “real time” for her new CD, “Flavors of Entanglement.”

“It’s really been an unraveling in a great way,” Morissette told TODAY co-host Matt Lauer on Friday. “Sometimes unraveling can be scary. But [it’s] just really unraveling and hitting rock bottom in a great way.

“Eventually the phoenix rises. But while I’m in the thick of it, I write about it.”

That hasn’t always been the case for Morissette, who performed hits “Ironic” and “Head Over Feet” as well as her new single “Underneath” as part of TODAY’s Summer Concert Series. The seven-time Grammy winner and 12-time Juno Award winner claims she usually “writes in retrospect.”

But the writing for her latest release, which arrives June 10, helped Morissette, 33, “through some fragile moments,” as the healing power of music often does for many artists.

“The structure of having to show up to the studio was actually quite helpful,” she told Lauer.

Different flavors
Morissette, who hails from Ottawa, was a teen pop star in Canada who released two albums before breaking big internationally with her angst-ridden 1995 release “Jagged Little Pill.”

That album, produced by Glen Ballard, yielded six hit singles, including the explicit “You Oughta Know,” which is rumored to be a rant against former boyfriend and “Full House” television star Dave Coulier.

After an 18-month tour, during which she reportedly became disillusioned with the music business and superficial friendships brought on by her new-found fame, Morissette spent six weeks in India with her mother and several friends. That experience infused the hit single “Thank U” from her next album, “Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie,” in 1998.

It would be another four years before she released “Under Rug Swept,” which reflected much more personal contentment than her earlier work.

It was also in 2002 that she met actor Ryan Reynolds at a birthday party for Drew Barrymore and quickly fell in love. They got engaged in 2004, but split in 2006 — with Reynolds now engaged to actress Scarlett Johansson.

In one new song called “Moratorium,” Morissette declares “a respite from the toils of liaison ... I do need a breather from the flavors of entanglement … I declare a full timeout from all things commitment.”

‘A little tough sometimes’
Yet, she did commit to getting into the studio — as painful as that might have been.

“It was hard,” Morissette said. “It’s like a workout. Once you’re doing the workout, you’re happy. Getting there, putting the sweat pants on ... a little tough sometimes.”

Morissette will tour the world in support of her latest work. Her fans can also expect a memoir that will focus on women’s issues, inspired by young women who tell her their own personal trials and tribulations.

Until then, Morissette is dodging references to this record being a “comeback.” She claims a little less time in the spotlight has resulted in an illumination of herself.

“I consider it [my] coming-out-from-under-the-rock record,” she told Lauer. “Every time I go away, I experience things and then I write about them and share them publicly.

“It seems like I’ve been away, but really I’ve been adventuring and living and growing and growing up.”

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