For her forthcoming release, We Are Born, the darling of downtempo, Sia Furler, hits a distinctly upbeat groove. Indeed, the six tracks we've heard so far are decidedly funky. Just don't, whatever you do, use the F-word in the singer/songwriter's presence - it's very likely to irk her.
Having come to the attention of the KCRW-listening, latte-sipping music intelligentsia thanks to her turns with English post-trip-hop outfit Zero 7, for a while Sia was inadvertently defined by what was initially intended as a very limited, no-strings-attached guest spot with the lush lounge combo. Thanks to the success of Zero 7's debut album Simple Things (2001), and their follow up release, When It Falls (2004), and the numerous international tours that followed, Sia's personal brand became synonymous with the downtempo pigeonhole Zero 7 prominently occupied.
Seeking to capitalize on Sia's credentials in the 90 bpm & under department, record label execs understandably pressurized her to continue in a similar vein with her solo work, despite a personal preference for something a little less languid. It was therefore no surprise when Sia's evocative track "Breathe Me," became her first breakout solo song, thanks to its prominent use at the end of the final episode of Six Feet Under. Indeed the inspired TV license earned Colour The Small One, the album on which the song was originally featured, a long overdue release in the US in 2006 (the CD was released in the UK 2 years earlier). And while her next solo album, Some People Have Real Problems, helped bridge the gap between the music Sia was expected to make and the music she wanted to make, it's her latest offering, We Are Born, that has finally allowed the Australian born (but currently New York based) artist to come into her own.
SuicideGirls caught up with Sia by phone to find out how she got her groove back, and to get the 411 on her aversion to the F-word.
NP: So you've been teasing us, so far we've only heard a handful of tracks off the new album.
SF: I know, I'm sorry. It's really weird. We've been very mysterious about it. I think that's because we don't really know what we're doing. [laughs]
NP: There's an honest answer.
SF: Because we've got this tour scheduled and of course, you know, we'd had our plan to put the record out before the tour, and now we're shooting the video for the first single. The album is definitely finished. It's been finished, it's been mastered, but we've had a bit of a bidding war between a couple of labels to license this album.
NP: Oh nice.
SF: Yeah, which is awesome, but we're just finalizing all of the paperwork so I actually still haven't signed to this major record label, even though we're proceeding as if I have. They're all doing the work that they would be doing if they were my label but I think that everyone's a little bit tentative to really either send the shit out, or to make an announcement about when it's going to be released.
NP: Right.
SF: I feel that's what the label and my management are doing right now, they're just trying to fucking turn it around really. It's already been pushed from March to April [and after this interview back to June]. They want a long lead time to do all of their ass kissing, you know. It's a tricky business.
NP: I thought it might be because they were frightened to give you access to your own album in case you tweeted it out.
SF: [laughs] Well actually, I've been warned. And even before all of these interviews they're like, "Don't talk about the album. Don't tell too much about the album. Just tell 'em a little bit about it." It's like, "Why?" And they're like, "No, this is about the tour." I'm like, "Oh! OK! You sure?" I think basically, I don't really know, but I guess maybe they're trying to create some mystique, considering I'm like the dichotomy of that.
NP: Well it's a nice turn of events because I remember when I last spoke to you, you were talking about how you couldn't even get Colour The Small One released in America until Six Feet Under used the track "Breathe Me" in their final episode.
SF: Yeah. Nobody cared. Errol [Kolosine] from Astralwerks was the only person who cared. He put it out and did exactly what this new label is doing right now. He just proceeded as if we were signed, even though we were still working out all our paperwork and all of the little tiny details.
I mean [We Are Born] is pretty awesome. I know that it's my strongest commercial record yet and I think that's probably why I'm not surprised that now we have a lot of takers. Because Colour The Small One, there was no radio singles on there. I mean, I understand how the machinery works now and it's not surprising to me that this one is more appealing.
NP: And your last album, Some People Have Real Problems, was firmly in the genre of quirky...
SF: [laughs]
NP: ...In a wonderful way. But when you go to a record store, unfortunately there isn't a quirky section.
SF: [laughs] It's weird actually, 'cause my record before Colour The Small One was like R&B, it was called "urban" in England. So you'd find my first record, which was called, Healing Is Difficult, in the urban section. Then you'd find Colour The Small One in the urban section, and like my ten fans, that bothered them immensely. They wrote to me when I had like eighty members on my message board eight years ago and I knew them all by sight and by name. That was the thing that peeved them the most, that Colour The Small One was in the urban section. It's weird.
NP: This album, it's kind of funky. You've gone funky!
SF: Yeah. I mean it's hilarious that you use that word because it was kind of a running joke that nobody is allowed to use the word "funk." [laughs]
NP: Ooops!
SF: For some reason it irks me, but I'm just going to have to accept that maybe I'm funky.
NP: What's wrong with the F-word?
SF: I don't know. I guess probably it irks because when I first started out it was like the early '90s and I was in a band that we called "a jazz / hip-hop / funk fusion explosion." Like I did trip-hop fusion, like every possible genre that was cheesy at the time. I mean I do love old funk, [but] I guess I've never really been into new funk.
I think I'm scared of being new funk. I'm a big fan of The Funk Brothers and Motown and all that sort of shit, so I don't know why it irks me, that word. Maybe it was just growing up in the '90s in Australia. Australia's never really moved on. If you go to a restaurant or a cafe, or you're in an elevator, they're still playing Rebirth Of The Cool and Galliano and all that sort of new funk, so maybe it's just that.
It's way more uptempo this whole record. There's still a few weepies on there, you know. There's some weepies for the peepies. But I wanted to make a fun record. I want to go on tour and have some fun.
A lot of these tracks I wrote like five years ago with Greg Kirsten. At the time everyone said it would be career suicide if I put out this uptempo record. Because I'd just done the Zero 7 stuff and put out Colour The Small One. They were like, "You're known as a downtempo artist and your fans will be confused." I was like, "What fans? What are you talking about?"
I wanted to put it out and I was like, "Beck can do it. Why can't I?" And they were like, "He's an established artist and you're a nobody." So I put out Some People Have Real Problems, kind of like as a band aid to those people in my life, advisors and colleagues and people that said I would be committing career suicide.
I put out that album and then "Buttons" off that one did well so I guess it gave them the feeling that it would be OK for me to make the music that I wanted to make now. It was confusing because my first record was R&B and then I got kind of pigeon-holed after the Zero 7 stuff with my downtempo vibe, so it's nice for me to be able to make the music that I've always wanted to. I think they were albums that I needed to make, but this is one that I wanted to make.
NP: So where and when was this album recorded?
SF: Last July in L.A. in Eagle Rock. I recorded it with my usual band plus Greg Kirsten on keyboards and Nick Valensi from The Strokes on guitar.
NP: Very cool.
SF: Yeah. I love it. I like listening to it. I'm excited. I've never listened to my albums after I've finished making them before, and this one I've listened to three times.
NP: Talk about a couple of the tracks that are close to your heart.
SF: Well "The Fight" is my favorite song on the whole record. The title of the album comes from the opening lyric of that song, We Are Born. I don't know why I love that song so much, but it just feels like a victory song. There's something victorious about it. I guess I'm just really attached to it for that reason.
Then "Clap Your Hands" I just think is a really fun for dancing around. It's a pretty shallow song. It's a romantic comedy movie song. Then I guess my favorite ballad on the album is "I'm In Here." I wrote that with Sam Dixon, who I wrote a bunch of the Christina Aguilera stuff with. Those are probably my favorite songs on the record. Oh yeah, "Big Girl, Little Girl." I like that one too.
NP: You mention Christina Aguilera. You've been working with her?
SF: Yeah. I have. We wrote five songs. Four of them are going on her album and one of them is in her new movie, Burlesque.
NP: Wow. How did that come about?
SF: She's totally awesome. It's a really good collaboration. Many years ago I tried to ask her if she wanted to duet with me on "Death By Chocolate" which is on Some People Have Real Problems. My manger at the time, she wrote her an email. She cc'd me on it and said, "Sia is a big fan of Christine Aguilera." She misspelled Christina's name. I remember thinking, "Well there goes that collaboration."
I never heard back from them and it didn't surprise me at all. Then maybe a year ago, David, my current manager, was like, "Well we've got a call from Christina Aguilera's management and she's interested in writing with you, and they want to set up a call." So we tried to set up a call and it took a while to get us both online at the same time. Then eventually, I think it was on the try number three, she called and I was put through about three different people. First it was David, her manager, then it was her assistant, and then it was her husband and then it was her. It was really funny. Every time I'd be like, "Christina?" Then a male voice would come on the phone. Eventually, she was like, [puts on a high voice] "Yeah!"
She just said, "I'd like to step into your world." I said, "So you don't want me to write with your co-writer, you want me to bring one of my own?" And she said, "Yeah." So I decided who I would want out of my friends to make a million dollars, and I chose Sam Dixon, who is my bass player and who I write a lot of songs with. We've been friends for seventeen years, and I thought I would like him to make a million dollars. So we went to her house and it was really easy. We wrote the four songs there and they flew us back to write the fifth song for the movie.
NP: Over how many days did that all happen?
SF: Four days, four songs.
NP: Wow. A song per day.
SF: Yeah, I like to work fast. I like to do everything fast.
NP: What was it like working with Christina?
SF: I guess I was scared, because when you're someone's songwriter you're their bitch. You're not really in charge. I'm in charge of my job and my work. I'm the leader, I'm the boss, so it was kind of exciting to go in being somebody's employee.
I really enjoyed it. I loved it so much so that that's something that I'd like to do, you know, if I decide that touring really isn't for me. Because I'm not really comfortable with the fame aspect, and I don't like touring at this stage. That's why I'm gonna live on the bus for this tour. We're trying something different. I'm taking the dogs, and we're gonna live on the bus. I don't like hotels, I don't like being in different environments all the time.
NP: So what surprised you about working with Christina?
SF: The surprising part for me was just that she was really nice. It was really easy. The surprising part for me I think is that I liked having a boss. I liked working for somebody
NP: I guess having a set period of time where you've got to come up with songs and you've got a deadline, that can be a helpful discipline
SF: Well that's the only way I work. That's how I work for myself too. We schedule a day or we schedule days, and then I have different people come in and I work with them and write songs. We do a song a day, sometimes two. I don't ever like write unless it's scheduled.
NP: So who might be some of your dream artists to partner up with?
SF: I like pop music so I would like to write for pop artists. I'd like to write for Leona Lewis and Britney Spears. A lot of the artists whose voices I love, like Lauren Hill, I'd love to write for them as well, but they write their own music. She's one of my favorite voices. And Amy Winehouse, she writes her own stuff. So there's a lot of beautiful voices that I love but I know I couldn't write for 'cause they're writers; They don't need a top line writer. So I guess that really the only place for me is in pop music because the majority of independent artists write their own stuff...I sent Nelly Furtado a bunch of songs the other day, like about a hundred. I don't know if she'll use any of those but that'd be nice.
Sia's new album, We Are Born, is scheduled for release on June 8 via Monkey Puzzle/Jive Records. Her North American tour kicks off on April 10 in Vancouver, European dates follow in May. For more info go to SiaMusic.net/.
Having come to the attention of the KCRW-listening, latte-sipping music intelligentsia thanks to her turns with English post-trip-hop outfit Zero 7, for a while Sia was inadvertently defined by what was initially intended as a very limited, no-strings-attached guest spot with the lush lounge combo. Thanks to the success of Zero 7's debut album Simple Things (2001), and their follow up release, When It Falls (2004), and the numerous international tours that followed, Sia's personal brand became synonymous with the downtempo pigeonhole Zero 7 prominently occupied.
Seeking to capitalize on Sia's credentials in the 90 bpm & under department, record label execs understandably pressurized her to continue in a similar vein with her solo work, despite a personal preference for something a little less languid. It was therefore no surprise when Sia's evocative track "Breathe Me," became her first breakout solo song, thanks to its prominent use at the end of the final episode of Six Feet Under. Indeed the inspired TV license earned Colour The Small One, the album on which the song was originally featured, a long overdue release in the US in 2006 (the CD was released in the UK 2 years earlier). And while her next solo album, Some People Have Real Problems, helped bridge the gap between the music Sia was expected to make and the music she wanted to make, it's her latest offering, We Are Born, that has finally allowed the Australian born (but currently New York based) artist to come into her own.
SuicideGirls caught up with Sia by phone to find out how she got her groove back, and to get the 411 on her aversion to the F-word.
NP: So you've been teasing us, so far we've only heard a handful of tracks off the new album.
SF: I know, I'm sorry. It's really weird. We've been very mysterious about it. I think that's because we don't really know what we're doing. [laughs]
NP: There's an honest answer.
SF: Because we've got this tour scheduled and of course, you know, we'd had our plan to put the record out before the tour, and now we're shooting the video for the first single. The album is definitely finished. It's been finished, it's been mastered, but we've had a bit of a bidding war between a couple of labels to license this album.
NP: Oh nice.
SF: Yeah, which is awesome, but we're just finalizing all of the paperwork so I actually still haven't signed to this major record label, even though we're proceeding as if I have. They're all doing the work that they would be doing if they were my label but I think that everyone's a little bit tentative to really either send the shit out, or to make an announcement about when it's going to be released.
NP: Right.
SF: I feel that's what the label and my management are doing right now, they're just trying to fucking turn it around really. It's already been pushed from March to April [and after this interview back to June]. They want a long lead time to do all of their ass kissing, you know. It's a tricky business.
NP: I thought it might be because they were frightened to give you access to your own album in case you tweeted it out.
SF: [laughs] Well actually, I've been warned. And even before all of these interviews they're like, "Don't talk about the album. Don't tell too much about the album. Just tell 'em a little bit about it." It's like, "Why?" And they're like, "No, this is about the tour." I'm like, "Oh! OK! You sure?" I think basically, I don't really know, but I guess maybe they're trying to create some mystique, considering I'm like the dichotomy of that.
NP: Well it's a nice turn of events because I remember when I last spoke to you, you were talking about how you couldn't even get Colour The Small One released in America until Six Feet Under used the track "Breathe Me" in their final episode.
SF: Yeah. Nobody cared. Errol [Kolosine] from Astralwerks was the only person who cared. He put it out and did exactly what this new label is doing right now. He just proceeded as if we were signed, even though we were still working out all our paperwork and all of the little tiny details.
I mean [We Are Born] is pretty awesome. I know that it's my strongest commercial record yet and I think that's probably why I'm not surprised that now we have a lot of takers. Because Colour The Small One, there was no radio singles on there. I mean, I understand how the machinery works now and it's not surprising to me that this one is more appealing.
NP: And your last album, Some People Have Real Problems, was firmly in the genre of quirky...
SF: [laughs]
NP: ...In a wonderful way. But when you go to a record store, unfortunately there isn't a quirky section.
SF: [laughs] It's weird actually, 'cause my record before Colour The Small One was like R&B, it was called "urban" in England. So you'd find my first record, which was called, Healing Is Difficult, in the urban section. Then you'd find Colour The Small One in the urban section, and like my ten fans, that bothered them immensely. They wrote to me when I had like eighty members on my message board eight years ago and I knew them all by sight and by name. That was the thing that peeved them the most, that Colour The Small One was in the urban section. It's weird.
NP: This album, it's kind of funky. You've gone funky!
SF: Yeah. I mean it's hilarious that you use that word because it was kind of a running joke that nobody is allowed to use the word "funk." [laughs]
NP: Ooops!
SF: For some reason it irks me, but I'm just going to have to accept that maybe I'm funky.
NP: What's wrong with the F-word?
SF: I don't know. I guess probably it irks because when I first started out it was like the early '90s and I was in a band that we called "a jazz / hip-hop / funk fusion explosion." Like I did trip-hop fusion, like every possible genre that was cheesy at the time. I mean I do love old funk, [but] I guess I've never really been into new funk.
I think I'm scared of being new funk. I'm a big fan of The Funk Brothers and Motown and all that sort of shit, so I don't know why it irks me, that word. Maybe it was just growing up in the '90s in Australia. Australia's never really moved on. If you go to a restaurant or a cafe, or you're in an elevator, they're still playing Rebirth Of The Cool and Galliano and all that sort of new funk, so maybe it's just that.
It's way more uptempo this whole record. There's still a few weepies on there, you know. There's some weepies for the peepies. But I wanted to make a fun record. I want to go on tour and have some fun.
A lot of these tracks I wrote like five years ago with Greg Kirsten. At the time everyone said it would be career suicide if I put out this uptempo record. Because I'd just done the Zero 7 stuff and put out Colour The Small One. They were like, "You're known as a downtempo artist and your fans will be confused." I was like, "What fans? What are you talking about?"
I wanted to put it out and I was like, "Beck can do it. Why can't I?" And they were like, "He's an established artist and you're a nobody." So I put out Some People Have Real Problems, kind of like as a band aid to those people in my life, advisors and colleagues and people that said I would be committing career suicide.
I put out that album and then "Buttons" off that one did well so I guess it gave them the feeling that it would be OK for me to make the music that I wanted to make now. It was confusing because my first record was R&B and then I got kind of pigeon-holed after the Zero 7 stuff with my downtempo vibe, so it's nice for me to be able to make the music that I've always wanted to. I think they were albums that I needed to make, but this is one that I wanted to make.
NP: So where and when was this album recorded?
SF: Last July in L.A. in Eagle Rock. I recorded it with my usual band plus Greg Kirsten on keyboards and Nick Valensi from The Strokes on guitar.
NP: Very cool.
SF: Yeah. I love it. I like listening to it. I'm excited. I've never listened to my albums after I've finished making them before, and this one I've listened to three times.
NP: Talk about a couple of the tracks that are close to your heart.
SF: Well "The Fight" is my favorite song on the whole record. The title of the album comes from the opening lyric of that song, We Are Born. I don't know why I love that song so much, but it just feels like a victory song. There's something victorious about it. I guess I'm just really attached to it for that reason.
Then "Clap Your Hands" I just think is a really fun for dancing around. It's a pretty shallow song. It's a romantic comedy movie song. Then I guess my favorite ballad on the album is "I'm In Here." I wrote that with Sam Dixon, who I wrote a bunch of the Christina Aguilera stuff with. Those are probably my favorite songs on the record. Oh yeah, "Big Girl, Little Girl." I like that one too.
NP: You mention Christina Aguilera. You've been working with her?
SF: Yeah. I have. We wrote five songs. Four of them are going on her album and one of them is in her new movie, Burlesque.
NP: Wow. How did that come about?
SF: She's totally awesome. It's a really good collaboration. Many years ago I tried to ask her if she wanted to duet with me on "Death By Chocolate" which is on Some People Have Real Problems. My manger at the time, she wrote her an email. She cc'd me on it and said, "Sia is a big fan of Christine Aguilera." She misspelled Christina's name. I remember thinking, "Well there goes that collaboration."
I never heard back from them and it didn't surprise me at all. Then maybe a year ago, David, my current manager, was like, "Well we've got a call from Christina Aguilera's management and she's interested in writing with you, and they want to set up a call." So we tried to set up a call and it took a while to get us both online at the same time. Then eventually, I think it was on the try number three, she called and I was put through about three different people. First it was David, her manager, then it was her assistant, and then it was her husband and then it was her. It was really funny. Every time I'd be like, "Christina?" Then a male voice would come on the phone. Eventually, she was like, [puts on a high voice] "Yeah!"
She just said, "I'd like to step into your world." I said, "So you don't want me to write with your co-writer, you want me to bring one of my own?" And she said, "Yeah." So I decided who I would want out of my friends to make a million dollars, and I chose Sam Dixon, who is my bass player and who I write a lot of songs with. We've been friends for seventeen years, and I thought I would like him to make a million dollars. So we went to her house and it was really easy. We wrote the four songs there and they flew us back to write the fifth song for the movie.
NP: Over how many days did that all happen?
SF: Four days, four songs.
NP: Wow. A song per day.
SF: Yeah, I like to work fast. I like to do everything fast.
NP: What was it like working with Christina?
SF: I guess I was scared, because when you're someone's songwriter you're their bitch. You're not really in charge. I'm in charge of my job and my work. I'm the leader, I'm the boss, so it was kind of exciting to go in being somebody's employee.
I really enjoyed it. I loved it so much so that that's something that I'd like to do, you know, if I decide that touring really isn't for me. Because I'm not really comfortable with the fame aspect, and I don't like touring at this stage. That's why I'm gonna live on the bus for this tour. We're trying something different. I'm taking the dogs, and we're gonna live on the bus. I don't like hotels, I don't like being in different environments all the time.
NP: So what surprised you about working with Christina?
SF: The surprising part for me was just that she was really nice. It was really easy. The surprising part for me I think is that I liked having a boss. I liked working for somebody
NP: I guess having a set period of time where you've got to come up with songs and you've got a deadline, that can be a helpful discipline
SF: Well that's the only way I work. That's how I work for myself too. We schedule a day or we schedule days, and then I have different people come in and I work with them and write songs. We do a song a day, sometimes two. I don't ever like write unless it's scheduled.
NP: So who might be some of your dream artists to partner up with?
SF: I like pop music so I would like to write for pop artists. I'd like to write for Leona Lewis and Britney Spears. A lot of the artists whose voices I love, like Lauren Hill, I'd love to write for them as well, but they write their own music. She's one of my favorite voices. And Amy Winehouse, she writes her own stuff. So there's a lot of beautiful voices that I love but I know I couldn't write for 'cause they're writers; They don't need a top line writer. So I guess that really the only place for me is in pop music because the majority of independent artists write their own stuff...I sent Nelly Furtado a bunch of songs the other day, like about a hundred. I don't know if she'll use any of those but that'd be nice.
Sia's new album, We Are Born, is scheduled for release on June 8 via Monkey Puzzle/Jive Records. Her North American tour kicks off on April 10 in Vancouver, European dates follow in May. For more info go to SiaMusic.net/.