Anastacia - Heavy Rotation: Das Track By Track - Pop24

After 4 years, how did it feel to get back into the recording studio?
Being back in a recording studio after four years is pretty overwhelming since this album has taken such a short period of time to come from its beginning stage to the finished product. I'm still trying to absorb the fact that I actually do have an album and we have finished it, so it's exciting.

Tell us about working with Ne-Yo.
Ne-Yo actually has worked on this album, and not only being a great artist he's also a great producer and he writes for other people. My A&R David Massey emailing me, "We've got it! We've got it!" And I'm like, "What? What do we
have?" And I Can Feel You came across his desk and he said, you know, "Ne-Yo and Chuck Harmony wrote a song for you." And I'm like, "OK." I listened to it and it was so funny cos he really did do my, like, sing my verses a little bit like I would sing them. He even threw in a couple of, like, you know, "Yeah-eah-eah," you know, like my harmonies, my this, my that, my ad-libs. It was wonderful to get a song that was so complete, number one in what it had to say, because it's really what I'm feeling in my life right now, I'm feeling the love, I'm feeling the happiness, I'm feeling great from my toes to my head. So it was really fun that the song itself emulated how I feel inside, you know, and sort of expressed it in words. I was really lucky to get that. And then, not to mention, it always was considered, "Oh, this is gonna be a great single," and now it's the first
single, you know, so I'm really happy that that is in a way opening the door to Heavy Rotation for everybody out there.

What message do you want to convey to your fans with this new album?
You know, I think that...I didn't even know what I was going to make happen with my album when I started writing it. You know, most people... I think most people called it when they described to me, "Oh, my God, this album's gonna be... I can't wait to hear what's gonna happen with this album now that you're married, you know, you've changed labels, oh, my God," and I'm like, these things are all part of your character and you start to realise, you know, you're growing up and you're altering who you are. This album is grown-up but free-spirited, almost kind of grown-up with a little bit of kid in it. I hope that when my fans listen to the album and they hear it they really get what I've been doing, maybe some of the things that I might've had to go through and some of the things that I feel, you know. That's the whole purpose of sometimes, for me being a writer, is communicating those things and being able to say it because you think somebody needs to hear it, you know.

Who are your musical influences?
I'm not big on musical influences because I really didn't... You know, my whole life has been loving what I do in music, loving the part that I can bring to the music industry or to the part of the music industry, but I never really listened to music, growing up. Music for me is my vessel but I don't use it the same way most people use music. You know, I use it to get my thoughts out and I have fun singing when I'm onstage, but I don't really have these influences in music the way that people have used even me as their influence, you know? I wish I did, cos it probably would be a better...probably would be a better answer, huh. (Laughs)

Who would you like to work with in the future?
Interesting. Who would I like to work with in the future is... Sometimes I don't... I actually don't really think about that any more. I did when I first started, there were a lot of different names that came up. And I think that organically, whatever ends up happening, if a unity between an artist and me happens because it's right, that's probably gonna be the right thing to do, but I don't... Like, I know what I wanna do in the future, I wanna do a covers album in the future, like, ten years down the line, I wanna cover some really great songs, you know, more than I wanna do a Christmas album, you know what I mean? Like, somebody's like, "You should do a Christmas album." I'm like, "Yeah...I wanna do a covers album," and just pick some really random, great songs, and do that one day, you know. That's like a wish that I have that I'd like to fulfil musically, more than it is working with someone.

What have you missed the most about being out there actively promoting your records and touring?
I think... You know, it's interesting. It's every album is different, so I guess because I've been away so long, what I might have missed, kind of, in the process of doing an album is actually realising that I can sing, cos I haven't sung in a while, so it's that, is from nothing to something, seeing the song,
like, go from absolutely nothing in a room with two people and then all... you're listening to the mix of this song and you're like, "God, I... That's
so weird that I wrote that." You know, it's kind of surreal because I had so
much time away from it, to sit away from the moment, I'm able to absorb it in a different way now, writing music, which, even though it was under a pressured timeframe, I signed to Mercury, like, in April, so obviously putting this album out in this period of time and having it all completed, it's quite fast for someone that didn't write anything prior to signing to this label. But it also is a nice challenge to put myself under to know that I can do that. Not that I plan on doing that again, Mercury! But... But it was kinda cute, it was kinda cute to see myself fall apart a couple times.

What have you enjoyed the most about having time off?
(Laughs) What have I enjoyed most about having time off? I really... Like, you wanna know my first initial thought? Having a little bit of alcohol, to be
honest! I don't drink when I work because of my voice, and being able to still work, even though I did the clothing line and I was doing other things, even though I wasn't doing music, I could have a glass of wine, you know, and I
know that that sounds silly... I'm not talking, like, bottles of vodka... I just don't even do a glass of wine or a sip of alcohol or I don't go out to dinners and talk in crowded rooms. I, you know, have a very isolated life when I work, so I think being able to hang out with my husband and, like, eat three meals a day and have glasses of wine when I felt like it, and get up and go to sleep when I wanted to and not worry about singing the next day and, "Is this gonna be OK?" It was just nice to be in that peace of mind. I have no problem going back to work, but, you know, it just was nice to be able to feel that, cos my work schedule was always so one thing after another after another after another,
even when I got ill with cancer, it was, "I gotta hurry up and get better so that I can go back to work." I never really took time off, in its proper sense, ever till just recently, so... I've really enjoyed every moment of it, hanging
out with my friends and just, you know, kicking back and not worrying about worrying. You know? And I think I... I think it shows even in the album that there isn't a little bit more of an inner peace in being able to find my own self again and regroup with myself, and now I'm coming back to work maybe being the least stressed person in the room. (Laughs) So it's kinda cool.

How would you describe your personal style?
I think that it's really interesting, my personal style. You know, it's like a question that you get asked and you're like, "Ooh, God, I don't know." I'm very comfortable in jeans and a T-shirt. However, what I'm trying to just get across is more of the femininity in my personal style. So if I'm gonna wear a pair of jeans, most of the time I'll throw it on with a Chanel jacket. If I'm gonna wear a leather pair of pants, then it's gonna be a really yummy cashmere sweater with a gorgeous belt around it. It's sort of juxtapositioning the soft and the hard together, where before I think really did a lot more of the hard-edged look. I'm trying to incorporate a lot more fashionable... being a lot more conscious fashionably. You know, I used to always say I didn't wanna wear too many clothes that ended in a vowel, you know, cos I could, you know, potentially be broke. But, you know, I think that the reality is that our business, our music business is so focused around fashion that if you don't wear something that ends in a vowel, you're not noticed, so, you know, Cavalli, Versace, Armani, I'm there with you. (Laughs)

How do you stay in such great shape?
One thing that I do is I try to keep in shape, and I definitely took some time off recently while I was being in the "time off" mode and didn't do anything, and actually got bigger for my wedding day than smaller, which was hilarious. Me and my husband both. Then it came to, you know, we gotta do an album cover and we gotta do pictures and I gotta get back into a moment. I find that yoga and running on a treadmill are the two things that I really like a lot. My sister
also is a personal trainer and when it comes to trying to get a certain look attained, she'll get me in the gym and kinda beat me up a little. But, you know, really moreover than not it's the food you've put in your mouth we all know has a lot to do with what you look like on the outside. Genetics have a lot to do with certain people, but what you eat, "you are what you eat" phrase is very true. When I'm not working a lot, if I continue eating a lot of food, it'll just, you know, incur a bigger pant size.

Why did you choose to work with Chris Applebaum for the 'I Can Feel You' video?
I think the choice of choosing a video director and deciding to choose Chris Applebaum goes hand in hand. Like, if he says yes, you just decide to pick him,
cos he's amazing. He is, like, puts the B in beauty, he understands what to do with lighting, you know. And when thinking about, "I wanna come out with a video," you know, "to show my new single, it's on a new record label,"
everything is just new, new, new, you gotta pick somebody, like a Sante for
photography, that is the great, amazing director that's gonna be making me look feminine and beautiful for a video - that's Chris Applebaum, you know. So, really, really lucky he also did, you know, wanna work with me for quite a few years and it just never... the opportunity never got placed there, so, you know, he was real happy cos he's liked my music in the past, and...I think that it's just... It was divine right order, it was perfect timing and I'm really glad that...that we have the opportunity to try to do something even new in our video which hasn't been done in a couple of other videos, but you have to wait to see the video to know what I'm talking about.

Why are you moving to London?
Oh, London, what a great town. Well, you know, I appreciate London cos my husband was born there and I appreciate the hospital he was born in, I just
appreciate it. But the reality is is that London is a great town and I...I've always had a little bit of a fascination with wanting to move to London, and I think, about five years ago or so, I started looking at properties in London, and then the tour started and it seemed kind of a little bit weird to have a property you're never at because you're on tour all the time. So I didn't get a
chance to buy a property but I started looking and started falling in love with little bits and pieces. It just always fascinated me and I liked it. My husband and I have been there for a good nine months and...nine months to a year we've
been living in London but we also live in LA as well. It's, you know, I mean, in my career it's better to sort of have maybe two places to live, because for our travelling. And now it's really gonna serve a good purpose to promotion, being able to hub out of London instead of America, which I did on most of the albums. It makes it easier on travelling, so... I don't drive in London because, you know, everyone should fear for their lives cos it's just not a good look, it's... I'm a great driver in America, like, super-great, awesome kinda dude driver, learned on a stick, you know what I'm saying? But I really just think that other-side-of-the-road moment hasn't quite sunk in, and I think that I'm just a great passenger in most vehicles, that it'll just...that'll be the reality, or I will be on the tube, or on the bus, so those of you who see me, it is me. It is I. I am travelling. Whatever way I can.

What do you like most about London?
You know, I think most of my... most of my time in London has been spent winterish colder times, and granted, London's not like the sunny capital of, you know, England, all right? Or any capital of England is sunny. But I think that...that my love for England is the people, and I think that if there's really something that draws me to London is the charm of the people. The humour, I get it completely, the dry sense of humour, the pub mentality that England comes with, I love, you know. I'm completely getting, you know, to understand even the language barrier that comes within being a Londoner and being from America. You know, I've had many a moment where, you know, like, my husband and I have been on completely different pages on what we're saying and I'm like, "What?" And he's like, "What?" You know, so, it's... slowly but surely I'm starting to become... understand the language, understanding the people, loving it. And on a sunny day, there is nothing more beautiful than being in London, truthfully, it really is a beautiful, beautiful town when the weather's
beautiful, which happens about three times a year, but if you get that little moment, yo, dude, you're in it.

What keeps you sane on the road?
Really truthfully, you can't rely on anybody else but yourself in this business. I have to be really conscious about what's going on, and when my tank is empty or when my fuse is a little short, when I'm a little tired or hungry or... You really have to not push yourself to limits that, you know, don't make you react particularly correct, and I've learned the hard way. I've learned, you know, because my tank has been empty and, you know, and this and that, and that has happened that you... You kind of realise that it depends on how you wanna live
your life and I'd like to live my life with the least amount of regrets that I have. So it's trying to be present in a lot of the things that you do is really what I try to do to stay sane. So I don't necessarily go, "Ooh, I have to, you
know, bring this music with me on the road." What I do is I'm like, "Ooh, I have to bring this DVD on the road so that I...when I'm an insomniac and I can't go to sleep, I'm like, you know, "Next series, next series," you know. It really is just, it's a daily process to try to figure out how to stay sane on the road. It doesn't become any easier in time, you just have more tools to work with, I guess, you know.

Why do you think that your music has connected so well in the international marketplace?
You know, I've often asked myself the question to why my music maybe has connected to the European market so well, and whether it's I'm an artist that keeps it very real and I'm not coming with a...agenda, I pretty much wear my heart on my sleeve and I'm down to earth yet kind of quirky and... But I also have a voice that people really particularly like, and then in the package
with all the rest of it, it works for a European person who is brought up on a lot of values. They're brought up on keeping it real and family and tradition, and all of these things that I take very seriously in my life, and I live it to the daily, you know, structure of how I live my life, I say what I do, I do what I say, and I think that's how a lot of Europeans are, you know. I find that in
the German community, they're very much, they say what they say and what time they say they're gonna do it is when they do it. And then you have the Italians or the Spanish that, you know, they do it on siesta, you know, everything's, "In a minute. It will happen in a second, darling," you know. And you just sort of adjust, you know. You realise you can't get frustrated with the country you're in, and I find a lot of Americans do that. They get very frustrated with the European community, so maybe in some American artists' pasts, they have gotten frustrated with the European community more than I did, and then they liked my voice, so it could be a million different reasons and it could be none of
the above. I could... I don't even know that I'll ever be able to figure it out.
I'm just grateful that here I am and it's been a decade and I'm still making music and I'm still really gratefully happy that the European community accepts the music I make and I'm still enjoying doing it for them, so, you know, that's
what I would say.

How do you think it will feel that first time you walk out on to a TV show to perform your new single?
Performing my first single, my new single, is always one of those moments where you're still learning, you're not quite 100% on the song yet, you know, you haven't exorcised a couple of mistakes. So it's kind of like the first show in your tour, you know, you can't say that it's gonna be as great as the tenth show.
I hope to, you know... I hope to give everybody a great performance, I hope that, you know, they're not disappointed, I hope they... there's not too many comparisons of music in the past and what I've done, and, "Oh, I like this song better." But I just... I really do like I Can Feel You, I like the single a lot, and I'm gonna enjoy hopefully performing it as much as I've enjoyed a lot of the
other songs that I've put out as singles.

Can you tell us any stories about your time in Germany?
In Germany, if I can give you a little bit of a story, it was the very beginning of my career, I think it was the first album, and I got an opportunity
to perform at Rock am Ring, very big festival in Germany, outside festival, cold festival, and rain in the festival. OK - diva. Do you think I...? I was like, "Oh, my God, my hair, my make-up, my..." I didn't know what to do, I was like, "What am I gonna do? I'm in a heel, like, I need to get other shoes." There were so many moments where I had to try to... So I had to put... I had to try to put a hat on, cos literally I was being strangled by my hair, the wind was like, whoosh, and my hair was so long that it had, like, wrapped around the microphone
and this and that, and so I was trying to, like, point in directions where the rain was going, and it was, like, sideways rain, so... At the time, I was wearing glasses, I was like... (Mimics wiping glasses) "squeak, squeak, squeak," you know, and I'd sing a song, and I'd be like... (Mimics wiping glasses) "squeak, squeak." It just was like, you know, I couldn't win for losing, I just had to go with it. And very, very cold, and the first time I'd ever performed probably for 45 minutes in front of someone. You know, I don't think...I could not, like, get my hand off the microphone after. It almost was, like, stuck. And so I went out there and just, you know... Also they didn't let me do an encore because it's a festival, but I went out there anyway and just a-cappella'd with my audience, we had a good time. But it was very fun and it was quite a good, interesting introduction to hair and make-up thoughts, you know, of a backup plan. (Laughs) Always have a backup plan when it comes to outside performing, man.

Can you tell us any stories about your time in France?
I was in, you know... Most of... Most of my memories happen to be from the beginning of having a career, and everything is just so wild to me. You know, I will say that, like, on an aside, I come to...come to France, and it's like my first country that I start doing promo in, and I get to the hotel and the hotel is called Hotel California. OK, like, I'm from America going to France, like, couldn't it be called, like... (Pretends to speak French) You know, it couldn't be called something fabulously French, it was like, Hotel California. So I stay at Hotel California, which completely like is... And I'm from California, which is completely boring, and... But I have an instore and it's on the Champs-Elysées, and they have to shut down, like, half of the half of the Champs-Elysées because FNAC, which is this amazing record store in France, they have the whole instore there and, you know, even just trying to get me in there was... I was floored by how many people were there. I just... I couldn't... I didn't even know what to do, I was like, "Am I supposed to sign autographs? What happens? Do I start here? Where do I start?" It was... It was, like, a wild experience, the first instore, especially, you know, knowing that, you know, the
Champs-Elysées is such a famous street and they kind of shut a little bit of it down for me, I was like, "Aah!"

Can you tell us any stories about your time in the UK?
I have so many stories for the UK, but the one that sticks in my mind is when I first sign to the label and I was having dinner with the label. And I think there were a lot of - what do you call them? - doubting Thomases in London that I even was singing the... you know, the real singer behind my own songs. So, often I, you know, have come to my career at the very beginning and having to prove to people that I actually do sing, and... And I thought, obviously, "I'm signed, I recorded the album, nobody's gonna still say, 'Is it really you?'" And, you know, a few wines later, the English, shall I say a few pints later, that they are just going and enjoying themselves in this great restaurant. Tom Jones is over here and, you know, like, the Atomic Kittens are over there and all these, like, great, you know, known bands all over the place. And I didn't know any of these people were here, and so I just... I... Somebody had said, you
know, "So-and-so," and pointed to him across the table, "doesn't think that that's really you singing, that it's probably..." I was like, "Really? You know that... I mean, didn't they see me at the TV show?" They were like, "Yeah, but it's a TV show and you know how things can happen." I just, I told him that, I was like, "Really? That's interesting." So I literally got up, stood on my
chair and I stood on the table and I started singing live, and the whole
restaurant, we're talking Nobu style, it was big, just started shutting up. They had no idea who I was, I wasn't...I don't think I was a star at the time. I don't even remember, but I do remember shutting the whole restaurant down. And they're all like, "Yeah!" You know, like a, like, mini concert. But, you know, I had to do what I had to do to prove, you know, rugged on my reality, man. Don't tease me and tempt me. I'll take you up on it. (Laughs)

When the campaign for this album winds down, and you look back, how will you define success?
You know, I think that I have a hard time defining success because you're as good as your last moment, so, you know, I mean, it really... Your single could be here and then, you know, in one moment it's not. Success is not necessarily a number and success is not the amount of money you have. Success is how you live your life and how you choose to take away what you choose to take away from it. You know, there is no promises for tomorrow, so we are all on, you know, this unknown time agenda that I think we all take for granted a lot. And, you know, just because you have a name does not give you any more power than another person, but that's not what a lot of people do. They use their name for power, they use their name to get what they wanna get, they... some people abuse people with the name and the power that they have in our business as well as in our political worlds and in our, you know... and in just teachers and children, and many different facets of our world are not appropriate with their level of head success to true heart success. And so, for me, you know, do I want this album to do well? Of course I do. There's been a lot of people who have worked really hard, and for it to happen would make me happy because a lot of people would be happy that this, you know... There's record company people, there are producers, there are managers and people that are spending very long hours that, you know, would feel accomplished by all these long hours, and that would make me happy that it didn't go to...to not being a celebratory moment. But I believe we're successful already, and we haven't sold one album. We've done a really, really good job, and we've had fun doing it, so that in itself is true success, you know.